The three styles of decoration adorning the tops of the steles reflect the periods in which they were carved. In traditional Confucianism and Taoism, the dragon and moon represent the balance between the yin and yang of the universe and the balance between heaven and earth. Clouds often symbolise knowledge, while the phoenix represents the intellect.
The earliest steles, dating to the fifteenth century, contain a central small circular moon surrounded by a simple cloud and spray of flowers. Sixteenth-century steles contain a more stylised pattern, with a larger central moon out of which emanate clouds that look like flames of fire. A thin, delicately carved flower relief adorns the tops of these steles.
The seventeenth-and-eighteenth century steles contain more elaborately designed dragon and moon motifs. Two fiercely depicted dragons ready to pounce on their prey flank the moon. The dragons' tails merge with the clouds in some instances; in others, the whole body appears. Some steles also contain various stylisations of phoenixes and flowers amidst the clouds or above them in smaller ribbon friezes.