Why was the emperor of ancient China symbolized by the dragon? Why did the color yellow become the exclusive color for emperors?

Because the Chinese people call themselves "the descendants of the dragon" and the dragon is a Chinese totem. Moreover, the Son of Heaven claimed that he was commanded by heaven, and the dragon was a fictional creature with prestige in the eyes of the common people, so it was natural to associate the emperor with the dragon.

Ancient yellow, yellow is often seen as a symbol of the power of the monarch, which first originated in the ancient agricultural people to respect the idea of the earth. An yin and yang theory, yellow in the five elements of the earth, this earth is in the center of the universe in the "central earth", so in the five elements, "earth is honored.

Since then, this idea has been softened together with the Confucian idea of unification, that the Han Dynasty as the main body of the unification of the empire is such a "central earth" in the empire, and different from the surrounding "four barbarians", so that the "yellow" through the five elements of the earth, the earth is in the center of the universe. The "yellow" through the earth and "orthodox", "respect" associated with the rule of the monarch to provide the "rationality" of the argument. In addition, there is an ancient saying that "the dragon fights in the field, and its blood is yellow", and the monarch is symbolized by the dragon, the yellow color and the monarch will have a more direct connection.

In this way, the yellow color symbolizes the divine right of the monarch, sacrosanct and inviolable. Zhou Dynasty to the yellow battle-axe as a symbol of the rights of the son of heaven, after the Sui Dynasty, the emperor had to wear a yellow dragon robe, yellow became the monarch's exclusive imperial color.

Expanded:

Under the centralized monarchical dictatorship, the emperor has the right to control and manage the land and wealth of the people of the country. Including administrative, military, legislative, judicial, cultural and educational power. In the society at that time, the imperial power was supreme and could not be surpassed in power.

China's authoritarian centralized power system began in the Warring States period and came into being in the Qin and Han dynasties. The aristocratic politics of slavery, which replaced the Western Zhou, continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties and became a feature of Chinese history.

The basic feature was that the state centralized all political power in the hands of the emperor and the various levels of bureaucracy under his command. Its evolution was from the system of three principal officials and nine ministers in the Qin and Han dynasties to the system of three provinces and six ministries after the Tang Dynasty.

The general trend was one of increasing intensification and ossification, which also revealed a cyclical contradiction between imperial power and phlegmatic power and between centralization and decentralization of power at the local level.

The authoritarian centralization system played a role in the development of China's feudal society in promoting the formation and development of a unified multi-ethnic state; it was conducive to the maintenance of the unity of the motherland and its territorial integrity.

The authoritarian centralized power system strengthened the control over the people, and to a certain extent it also affected the free development of politics, economy and culture, etc. The authoritarian centralized power system fettered the development of social productive forces. It hindered the progress of Chinese society.

Reference:

Baidu Encyclopedia - Imperial Power