Dragon Scale Gear Creative

Dragon Scale Binding is an outstanding representation of traditional Chinese bookbinding craftsmanship and is praised as a 'living fossil of bookbinding.' It combines the advantages of scroll and codex formats-when rolled up, it forms a neat scroll, but when opened, the pages overlap and lift like scales. When the wind blows, the scales move and flutter, creating a unique aesthetic of 'a dragon swimming in the book while the book rides the dragon,' offering both practicality and artistic appeal.

With the rapid development of information technology, the way people read books has changed dramatically. Dragon Scale Binding now mainly appears in the form of cultural and creative products, and the content is often produced using digital printing techniques. While the core structure remains the same, the outward form of Dragon Scale Binding has undergone many changes from its original state, and layout design based on aesthetic expression has also diversified.

This article explores the development of digital printed Dragon Scale Binding cultural and creative works from the perspectives of form, layout design, and printing production.

Left-hand and Right-hand Twist

Basis for Determining the Form of Dragon Scale Binding

When the scroll is unrolled or stored, if the rotation axis is on the left, it is a left-hand twist; conversely, if on the right, it is a right-hand twist. As a form of long scroll binding, Dragon Scale Binding also requires determining whether it is left- or right-handed, which is the basic starting point for studying its form.

Traditional Chinese bookbinding can generally be divided into three types: scroll, folded, and codex. Dragon Scale Binding is a type of 'scroll.' The earliest form of 'scroll' was bamboo and silk slips, which later evolved into paper scrolls. During development, 'scrolls' were divided into two types: with or without an axis. Bamboo slips were an axis-less form, using the leftmost bamboo (or wooden) strip as the axis and rolling to the right for storage; early silk books were folded, later developing into scrolls. Paper scrolls also experienced an axis-less form, usually used for short texts and simply rolled into a cylinder after writing. For longer or more valuable texts, an axis was added to the left side of the paper, forming a scroll. Given the ancient Chinese habit of holding the scroll in the left hand and writing with the right, all scroll types except Dragon Scale Binding are left-handed; only Dragon Scale Binding is right-handed. The only verifiable existing Dragon Scale Binding in China is the Tang manuscript edition of Wang Renxu's "Corrected and Supplemented Qieyun" (hereafter called "Tang Manuscript Qieyun"), preserved at the Palace Museum in Beijing, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: "Tang Manuscript of Wang Renxu's Qieyun, Corrected and Supplemented"

By looking at literature and historical materials, it's clear that the "Tang Manuscript Qieyun" is the only recognized physical example of dragon-scale binding in China. From Figure 1, you can clearly see that its storage axis is on the right end, while the cover and title strip are on the back of the left end, which is the opposite of how scrolls are usually stored today. According to expert research, the dragon-scale binding of this item is not its original form but was re-bound by court bookbinders during the Northern Song Dynasty under Emperor Xuanhe. Its original state is unknown, and there's still no definitive conclusion.

The right-to-left winding of the "Tang Manuscript Qieyun" is dictated by its function as a book. It was compiled by Wang Renxu in the Tang Dynasty and served as a rhyme dictionary for checking poetic metrics, similar to how we use dictionaries today to check characters' pronunciations. As a reference tool, it had to be easy to flip through and consult. The main drawback of the traditional leftward long scroll was that you had to unroll the entire scroll to see the contents. In the Yuan Dynasty, Wu Yan mentioned in *Xianju Lu*: "Ancient books were all scrolls. Because unrolling and rolling them was difficult, they were folded instead." This shows that scrolls were replaced with folded or codex-style bindings mainly because opening and storing them was cumbersome. When the book was re-bound during the Song Xuanhe period, its leaves were carefully pasted onto long strips of backing paper in a staggered way to make flipping through easier. Since the text on the leaves is written top-to-bottom, right-to-left, the leaves had to be bound from right to left in order, with subsequent leaves pasted under the previous ones. When storing the finished book, starting from the left would conflict with the direction the leaves extend, so the axis had to be placed at the right end. Starting to roll from the right created the right-rotating dragon-scale binding, with its structure shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Dragon Scale Binding Structure Diagram

As shown in Figure 2, a single scale leaf is divided into three parts: the area used for sticking and fixing to the backing paper is called the scale root; the part of the following leaf that extends staggered relative to the previous leaf is called the scale mouth (the topmost leaf has no scale mouth); the middle area used for writing text is called the scale surface. The scale surface can be written on one side or both sides. The Tang manuscript "Qieyun" was written on both sides.

Some TV dramas and films set in the Tang Dynasty also feature dragon scale bound manuscripts. For example, the 2025 film "Lychees of Chang'an" shows this binding twice, in a register of names and an account book. Both are used frequently, like reference books, and objectively reflect the format and use of dragon scale manuscripts at the time.

Historically, the dragon scale binding was right-rotating, but this rotation direction is opposite to the common roll orientation of contemporary scrolls. So, must one use the right-rotating method when developing cultural and creative products?

If making a film prop, the right-rotating method must be used; if developing cultural and creative works, some flexibility is allowed. Originally, dragon scale binding was designed for easy reference and to hold large amounts of text, requiring minimal space when fully opened, so the backing paper should not be too long. The existing Tang manuscript "Qieyun" has 24 leaves, with a backing paper length of 130mm, featuring small size but high capacity. In long scrolls, the leaves still have long portions at the front and back; the author of this article speculates these were added during re-binding in the Northern Song period and were not original. Therefore, for developing shorter dragon scale creative works with a core length under 150mm, the right-rotation method can be fully used to achieve an antique effect. For longer works, if it's not strictly required that the first leaf on the right end be on the top layer, additional elements like the top margin, lead leaf, water gap, and trailing leaf can be added. From a structural innovation perspective, the left-rotation method can be used – this aligns with traditional scroll handling and follows our reading and viewing standards for scrolls.

Scale Mouth and Scale Surface

Design Focus of Dragon Scale Binding Layouts

The scale mouth in a dragon scale long scroll is the part of the lower layer leaf extending beyond the upper layer due to staggered pasted joints; the scale surface is the part between the scale mouth and scale root used for writing. When designing the layout, how to design the content of the scale mouth and scale surface, and their relationship, is key.

From the Tang manuscript "Qieyun," the scale mouth has no special design, mostly left blank, with only the edges reinforced for durability, and all text is focused on the scale surface, reflecting its basic trait as a reference book. Similar dragon scale manuscripts found abroad, like French-held Dunhuang manuscript 2490 (untitled) and British-held Dunhuang manuscript S.6349 "Divination of House Fortune and Misfortune," have binding styles similar to "Qieyun," where the scale mouth positions on the leaves feature special designs. This shows that historically, the scale mouth was not a design focus. In the past decade, with the revival of dragon scale binding as an intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative designers have emphasized the scale mouth in layout design, producing various dragon scale creative works, accompanied by the term "Guochao" (national trend). For example, in the "2026 Intangible Cultural Heritage Gala" jointly produced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and China Central Television, Zhang Yi, a representative inheritor of Hangzhou's intangible cultural heritage dragon scale craft, produced dragon scale works (Figure 3, left). The design is right-rotating, with the full-page image of the first leaf on the right end and the scale mouths of other leaves forming one image. When all leaves are flipped to the right, the reverse full-page image of the last leaf on the left end and the reverse scale mouths of the other leaves form another complete image. Another set of pictures is printed between the front and back scale surfaces of the leaves (Figure 3, right).

Figure 3: Zhang Yilong's Dragon Scale Binding Work

Figure 3 shows a piece that represents the main design style of current dragon scale binding cultural and creative works. The puzzle-like arrangement of the scale edges is the first thing you see when the work is laid out flat, while the content on the scales is the second aspect you notice when flipping through the scale leaves. The puzzle-like scale edges in dragon scale binding works are similar to the book-edge printing that has been popular in recent years, like in Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House's edition of *Wangjiangnan* (Figure 4). This approach innovates on traditional bookbinding formats, greatly enhancing visual appeal and increasing the work's cultural and artistic value.

During the development of cultural and creative dragon scale binding works, some pieces focus solely on the scale-edge puzzle design and neglect the content on the scales (sometimes leaving the scales blank), which goes against the basic attributes of dragon scale binding and amounts to mere showmanship. In creative design, the scale edges and the content on the scales must be given equal importance. The content has to be related to the scale edges but not identical. For example, if the scale-edge puzzle is a painting, the scale content can be poetry by the same author or on the same topic, serving as an interpretation or extension of the puzzle. Or, if the scale-edge puzzle is a full horizontal painting, the scale content could feature page-style paintings with similar or related themes to create the layout. Maintaining both connection and distinction is the core idea behind designing the scale edges and scale content.

Figure 4 Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 'Wang Jiangnan'

The width of the scale openings is another issue worth considering. At present, the scale openings in dragon scale-style cultural and creative works are generally quite narrow, mostly not exceeding 2 cm, which aligns with historical facts; the scale openings in the 'Tang Manuscript Qieyun' are about 1 cm wide. The main advantage of narrow scale openings is that the pages can be arranged densely, allowing for a lot of information to be stored. However, this also leads to many overlapping pages, making the thickness larger in the middle and smaller at the ends, and the top and bottom outer edges might not form a perfect circle once rolled up, which slightly affects the appearance. Based on this, when designing the width of the scale openings, two situations can be considered: if the overall scale opening layout is short, within 1.5 m, set the width of the openings to within 2 cm and use a clockwise (right-handed) design. This allows the entire work to be displayed in a smaller space, and the information capacity of the scales is sufficient. If the overall length of the scale opening layout exceeds 2 m, the width can be set to 4–5 cm. This increases the spacing between scales, reduces the number of pages, lowers the thickness when laid flat, and uses a counterclockwise (left-handed) design. When finished, it can be partially unfolded for display, achieving a good presentation effect.

Digital Printing

Implementation Path for Dragon Scale-Style Cultural Creations

Before woodblock printing became widespread for thread-bound books, most books were handwritten. Dragon scale binding, as a transitional form from scroll to folio, was also handwritten. Today, with rapid technological development, there are many ways to present text and images. For dragon scale-style cultural creations, digital printing is the best way to achieve them.

01

Prepress Processing

Dragon scale-style creations rely on connecting scale openings to form a complete image. The key and challenge of prepress lies in cutting and dividing the images at the scale openings. It's necessary to set an overlap value for adjacent scales (Figure 5). The image within the overlap area 'a' must be exactly the same as the following scale's image from the outer edge inward. During the page pasting process, even if there's a minor positioning error, there won't be any 'white gaps,' similar in principle to bleeds or traps used in printing.

Figure 5 Schematic of Overlapping Scale Edges



In the practical production of dragon scale-bound cultural and creative works, many designers don't set up the scale edge overlap in advance (i.e., a=0), which places very high accuracy demands on the subsequent leaf-pasting process and increases the difficulty of post-production. Even though the scale pattern can be perfectly aligned once all the leaves are pasted, over time, differences in expansion and contraction between the scale paper and the backing paper may cause white gaps to appear. Therefore, setting the scale edge overlap is crucial. Depending on the width of the scale leaves, the value of 'a' can be set between 3 and 5 mm.



02

Pre-press Production



Currently, dragon scale-bound cultural and creative works are mainly produced using inkjet printing on Xuan paper. The paper is usually roll-style fine spray special Xuan paper with an ink-locking coating, and the ink used is mainly weak solvent pigment ink. If a higher color saturation is desired, weak solvent dye ink can be used, but note that dye ink prints will fade over time when exposed to light and are not waterproof. During printing, roll Xuan paper must be wrinkle-free, smudge-free, and continuous, with clean cuts, smooth edges without tearing, and print patterns must not deform. Only under these conditions can high-quality dragon scale-bound cultural and creative works be produced.



03

Post-press Processing



After the scale leaves are printed, they go through folding, pasting, trimming, and edging, as well as backing mounting, edge wrapping, and rolling. Each step requires a high level of practical skill. For folding and pasting the scale leaves and adhering them to the backing paper, heat-activated adhesive sheets used in mounting can be applied, then ironed with a hot iron for bonding, followed by rapid cooling with a cold iron to avoid warping in the final product. After edge wrapping, pasting the cover label, and attaching the scale leaves, the entire work is heat-pressed at 80–90°C, then the bottom and top rods are installed to achieve a high-quality finished product.



This article, based on the style and craft characteristics of dragon scale binding and combined with modern digital printing technology, breaks the traditional fixed mindset of dragon scale binding design and layout. It proposes flexible design principles and standardized production processes suitable for contemporary cultural and creative development. This approach both respects the historical roots of this intangible heritage craft and emphasizes its innovative transformation in the modern era, providing theoretical and practical support for the R&D, production, and live heritage transmission of dragon scale-bound cultural and creative works.