The décor on this jifu, (吉服, literally, 'auspicious' dress), or longpao, (龙袍, [imperial] dragon robe) follows the standard Qing disposition of five-clawed dragons (long, 龙) amid clouds across the entire surface of the garment. The standing water (lishui, 立水) border at the hem features piled wind-swept waves on which float the Eight Buddhist Symbols ( ba jixiang, 八吉祥), symbols for the Eight Precious Things (ba bao, 八宝), the attributes of the Eight Daoist Immortals (ba xian, 八仙), large peony blossoms, and several motifs that function as rebus. The term 'hurricane waves' was coined by Alan Priest in the 1940s to describe this variation of lishui, which first appeared on some jifu robes during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The dragons, as is typical, are depicted with couched gold-wrapped threads while the rest of the embroidered decoration uses colored floss silk. However, what is remarkable is the choice of embroidery stitches for executing these colored silk elements.

The embroidery here also employs a single stitch commonly known in the West as 'pekin', 'peking', or 'pekinese' stitch, (Beijing zhen, 北京針). It is also known as lasuo xiu (拉锁绣, literally 'zipper stitch').1 It is a composite stitch involving two elements: a row of closely spaced back stitches and a second element interlaced in continuous loops moving forward two and back one through the previously laid down back stitches. It is time-consuming and requires consistent, exacting skill to maintain the proper tension and spacing of each parallel row of back stitches and well as rigorous consistency in placing the interlacing elements.

The exclusive use of beijing zhen or lasuo xiu stitching on a court dragon robe remains a puzzle.