I did a little study on Qing Dynasty Dragon on the web today. Dwight was right -- dragon could be used by lesser officials. Arch Duke type of position (sons, brothers or uncles of Emperor) could use five-toe dragon with "swiming-down" pose. Strictly speaking, if the number of toes are less than five, the creature is not called dragon anymore, it's named as "Python" (that's news to me), used by positions like Duke. Positions like governors, generals could not even use Python, they could only use crest like crane, peacock, lion, etc according to the hierarchy.
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