Chinese Dragon, as a Symbol of Chinese by Mark Wong

Chinese dragon, which is pronounced “Long” in Chinese modern language, is a symbol of Chinese. It has been worshiped for more than 7,000-8,000 years long. What the theories of Chinese dragons are, what the original images of the dragons are, how many categories of dragons Chinese have, what roles the Chinese dragons play, how imperiality reflected by dragon and how dragon influence on Chinese culture are the purposes that I am going to figure here.

Theories of Chinese dragons

First of all, according to Chinese traditional documents, there are six major principles of Chinese dragon.

1. It is a god. It is one of the “Four Spirits” (四靈)“LiJi-LiYun”: Unicom, Phoenix, Turtle, Dragon are the “Four Spirits.” (“Li Ji”, chapter of “Li yun”, written by Cong Zi. 《禮記.禮運》："麟、鳳、龜、龍，謂之四靈。")

2. Dragon, which is considered as the king of the species with scale, is an animal that can change in an unpredictable way. (“ShuoWen,” charter 11^th second part 《說文》卷十一下："龍，鱗蟲之長。能幽能明，能細能巨，能短能長。春分而登天，秋分而潛淵。")

3. Dragon is the mysterious beast of God WuFangDi “五方帝”. (“Huai Nan Zi”, chapter of”Tian Wen Xun” 淮南子。天文訓："其神爲歲星，其獸蒼龍，其音角，其日甲乙")

4. Dragon is a totem. (“Fu Xi Kao”, written by Wen Yi-duo, 聞一多在〈伏羲考〉一文中說："龍究竟是什麽東西呢？我們的答案是：它是一種圖騰，並且只存在於圖騰中而不存在於生物界中一種虛擬的生物，因爲它是由許多不同的圖騰糅合的一種綜合體)

5. Dragon is god of weather. (“Zuo Zhuang”, written by Zhuo Quo-ming, 。〈左傳〉桓公五年：'凡祀，啓蟄而郊，龍見而雩。)

6. Dragon is the representative of Chinese culture. “The trace of dragon can be found wherever Chinese have travaled.”

Second, dragon is a god, which is from totem belief.

1. Dragon has the basic characteristics of totemism such as ancient social groups that were named by dragon.

2. Dragon is god because it can fly into the sky, dive into the ocean, and it can change into other life forms; it is in charged of rain and fire; dragon is the image different from other species which exist in nature.

The original images of the dragon

Even though Chinese dragons have existed in the society for more than 7,000 years, its original image is a puzzle. Which kind of animal is the original form? There are six different explanations.

First of all, some researchers believe that Dragon is developed from snake. Therefore, most of the researches support this kind of saying. People can tell that the dragons might from snakes, from the early dragons. The four earliest images, which are “Xinchahai Dragon” in Liao-Nin province, “Xishuipo clam shell Dragon” of Pu-Yang city in He-Nan province, the “Pebble Dragon” of Jiao-Dun in Hu-Bie province and “Sanxintala Jade Dragon” of Inner Mongolia, shows that people in many parts of ancient China believed in dragons 7,000 years ago in New Stone Age. According to the historical records, there was a phratry called TaiGao(太皋) who believed in dragons 4,000 years ago, in the great Valley of ChangJian River and HuaiHe River. The phratry named their governors by names of dragons. Historians believe that the family totem of FuXi who was the first leader of the TaiGao was python.

The original pronunciation of Dragon is “MANG” (蟒) which is the same as that of phratry. The reason that people do not call the dragon Mang is that they want to show their respect to the totem. All the early Dragon images are with wide opening mouths, which is the specific behavior of python.

Second, some researchers think that the original Dragon should be crocodile. The opinion was mentioned first time by a Chinese anthropologist, Wei Ju-xian (1934, Dragon is Crocodile, 中國古史專家衛聚賢。他在１９３４年出版的著作中便說"龍即鱷魚"。). L. Holders said, “Dragon is a apotheosized animal which look like crocs.” In Chinese characters, Dragon and Snake are different. If Dragon were snake, they would have similar orthographic forms. “They have similar snouts which are different from snakes.”(Xu Jin-xong, “Relationship between Dragon and Crocodile” 1980s. 龍的特徵，臉部粗糙不平，嘴窄而扁長，且有利齒，是鱷魚之外，他種動物所無的異征)

Third, some people believe that Dragon is lighting (Zhu Tian-shun, “sometimes, lighting looks like beast. 幻想龍這一動物神的契機或起點，可能不是因爲古人看到了與龍相類似的動物，而是看到天空中閃電的現象引起的)

Forth of all, Dragon is pine tree (Yin Rong-fang, “Dragon is the spirit of pine tree because they have the same shape of body and the same function” 龍是樹神，是植物之神。龍的原形是四季表"松"、"柏"一類喬木)

Fifth, Dragon is rainbow, since they have similar shape, “C” and they both changeable.

Sixth, Dragon is pig because their head look similar. Also, based on the agricultural development, pig was the earliest and the most important meat resource at the time.

In sum, all the researches on the original form of Dragon are based on the tetemism of Dragon the appearance and the agriculture development. Personally, I agree with the first version that Dragon was from python. One thing is curtain that Chinese Dragon has all the characteristic of reptile, such as scales, shape, oviparous and claw. Horns, mane, teeth and ears came into being as a result of the melting of phratries. Mating-Dragon loves to coil with each other, which is the special hobby of python.

Classifications of Dragon

In seven millenniums, Chinese created five kinds of Dragons, Five-color Dragon (五色龍), horn Dragon and horn-less Dragon, Dragon with feet and feet-less Dragon, wing Dragon and Wing-less Dragon, twin-head Dragon and twin-body Dragon.

First, the Five-color Dragons (五色龍), each having a different color, are yellow dragon, blue dragon, black dragon, white dragon and red dragon. Base on Taoism, the world was created by five basic elements, Wu Hang (五行), are earth, wood, water, iron and fire. The Five-color represents the Five-element(五行).Yellow is the color of earth; blue is the color of wood; black is the color of water; white is the color of iron and red is the color of fire. Since the most important element is earth. Therefore, the yellow dragon is considered as the lord of all dragons and “real dragon”, which lives in the center of the world. The blue dragon lives in the east. The white dragon lives in the west. The red dragon lives in the south. The black dragon lives in the north. However, 5,000 years ago the Five-color Dragons was killable (the “Gui-Yi” 貴義chapter of “Mo-Zi” 墨子, Mo Qu “墨瞿”, the king killed black dragon in the eastern at the day of Jia-Yi end killed red dragon in the southern at the day of Bin-Din. 《墨子。貴義》："帝以甲乙殺青龍於東方，以丙丁殺赤龍於南方). The shamanism ceremony of Dragon Killing was to drive the dragon of water mad and to frighten away the dragon of fire. As a result, the black dragon will make the weather become rainy and drought will not come again.

Second, Horn Dragon and Horn-less dragon are the result of Horn Worship and the result of Genital Worship. The horn of Dragon called “Chi-Mu”(尺木)which gives the ability of fling to Dragons. As I mentioned, the original image of dragon was snake, which do not have horn. The dragons without horn such as Zhu-Long (燭龍) ,Li-Long (螭龍), Qou (虬) and Kui (夔) cannot fly. The idea of horn is to emphasize the great power of the Dragon. Some of the dragons have single horn (“Yi Wen Lei Ju” chapter 96^th, Guo Bu郭璞, “the dragon with single horn lives into deep creek” 《藝文類聚》卷九六引郭璞《山海經圖贊》有記："龍魚一角，似鯉陵居。候時而出，神對攸乘。飛騖九域，乘雲上升). Others have twin horns. Before late West Han Dynasty (西漢206BC-8AD), the dragon was with horn of cattle. In Tang Dynasty (唐618AD-907AD), the horn developed into twin antlers. Some of researchers think that the original meaning of horn came from Genital Worship because the appearance of horn looks like a sex symbol of a human penis, which means the power of controlling lives. Many discoveries, such as the dragon from Erlitou Heritage of early Shang Dynasty (商1751BC-1112BC), supports this hypothesis. The horn looks the same as the Oracle-Bone scripture word “penis”(且). As mentioned above, we can see Chinese Dragon is a symbol of male power. On the other hand, the horn-less dragon such as Zhu-Long(燭龍), Li(螭), Qiou(虬) and Kui (夔), intersexually exist. Personally, perhaps horn-less dragons are female because they do not have the symbol of penis. I know that dragon has two forms of sexes, which are male and female. Furthermore, ancient Chinese believed that male, which was also called “Yang” (陽), belongs to sky; and female, which was also called “Yin” (陰) belongs to land. Therefore, we can consider the dragons that can fly male; and the ones cannot fly female.

Third, the dragon with feet and feet-less dragon are often seen in ancient artifacts. So far, I do not have any information about the meaning of dragon’s feet. I can only figure out the differences between these two dragons from documents and discoveries. Zhu-long (燭龍), which is also called Zhu-ying (燭陰), is feetless (“Huai Nan Zi” chapter of “Di Xin Xun”, “Zhu-Long, which hates sun light lives in North side of Yan-men. It has a human head with dragon body and feet-less” 淮南子。地形訓 中有記："燭龍，在雁門北，蔽於委羽之山，不見日。其神人面龍身，而無足). Dragons with feet are classified into single-foot dragon, two-foot dragon, three-foot dragon and regular four-foot dragon. In some legends there is single foot dragon (“Shuo Wen”, the chapter of “Kui” 夔, Kui, which is a dragon, has only one foot” 《說文》稱：夔，如龍一足.) The earliest discovered image of dragon was two feet. In 1942, a three-leg dragon was discovered in where found to Zidanku East Zhou Dynasty (東周770BC-256BC) Heritage of ChangSha City. But, no documents mentioned about the “three-foot dragons” so far. Lots of Four-foot dragons were discovered after East Han Dynasty (東漢206BC-8AD). Before Sui Dynasty (隋581AD-618AD), the dragons paws with long and heavy hair. The dragon in Tang (唐) Dynasty has three-toe claws. This shows that a change has occoured in the shape of their feet. During Song Dynasty (宋960AD-1279AD), four-foot dragon with four toes appeared. Finally, the four-foot dragon with five toes appeared in Ming Dynasty (明1368AD-1644AD). The changes of toes are acceptable because flying dragon suppose have toes similar to birds.

Forth, wings is another identification of flying dragon. All the dragons before Qing Dynasty (清221BC-206BC) have no wings. The earliest flying dragon was called “Ying-long” 應龍 (“Guang Ya” chapter of “Shi Yu”, “the dragon with wings call Ying-long” 廣雅。釋魚中記載："有翼龍曰應龍.) According the printing of tombs in West Han Dynasty (西漢206BC-8AD), both wing dragon and wing-less dragon exists. In the tomb printings of East Han東漢Dynasty are mostly dragons with big wings.

Fifth, twin-head Dragon and twin-body Dragon are the special images of “DNA MUTATION”. Twin-head dragon is a dragon body, which is shared by two heads (http://zypds.home.chinaren.com/come/6.htm). This kind of dragon developed from the twin-head snakes, which are seen often in nature (“Er Ya”, the chapter of “Shi Di”, “twin-head snake once found in northern”. 《爾雅。釋地》所記之兩頭蛇："北方有枳首蛇焉 The second part of “Ling Biao Lu Yi”, written by Liu Xong, in Tang Dynasty. “ Many twin-head snakes can be seen in outer Qingling mountain” 唐劉洵《嶺表錄異》卷下所記的兩頭蛇："兩頭蛇，嶺外多此類。"). Many pictures of twin-body snakes were discovered in the late New Stone Age. Yet, no twin-body snakes have been reported in documents. So, twin-body dragon maybe developed from twin-head dragon (“Shan Hai Jin” the chapter of “Bei Shan Jin”, there is a kind of snake named “Fei-wei” that has two bodies. Once appeared, drought comes right away.” 《山海經。北山經》記有一首兩身的肥遺蛇："渾夕之山，囂水出焉，而西北流注於海。有蛇，一首兩身，名曰肥遺，見則其國大旱。").

Roles of the Chinese dragons

The Lord-dragons have been worshiped China, a big agricultural country for thousands of years, since they “control” all the resources of production, such as earth, water and wind. .

First of all, dragons were originated from a family totem. This change resulted from development of production and development of thought of the Chinese people. These made Chinese Dragon have both basic features of totem and power of god. The change started in the middle of New Stone Ago, which was 2,500 years age. Before Huang Di (黃帝2591BC2-2491BC), dragon was simply a family totem. At the time of Huang Di, the traditional agriculture became mature. The belief in God started, and dragon became one of the spiritual protectors of farmers. Development of productivity devolvement made dragons gods. On the other hand, during the period that simple society (gathering and hunting) becomes organic society, people’s way of thinking has a great jump. The jump has great influence on socialization and religion, because people think differently and complexly. Instead of observing the relationship between human and food, mankind noticed that environment is the major influence of their gain.

Second, Chinese respect dragon as the God of rainbow, thunder, lighting and cloud and named him “Chi Song Zi” (赤松了)

(“Shan Hai Jin”, the chapter of “Hai Nei Dong Jin”, “the God of thunder, whom has a drum in its stomach, lives in the thunder lake, which located in the west of Wu”. 《山海經。海內東經》："雷澤中有雷神，龍身而人關，鼓其腹，在吳西。") In spring, rain comes, and snake wakes up. Our ancestors believed that there must be some kind of relationship existing between rain, snake and getter. Therefore, the totem of snake, which is dragon, becomes the god in charge of weather. (“Bao Bu Zi”, the chapter of “Den She”, written by Ge Hong, “the God of rain is Dragon who named Chen and Chisongzi.” 葛洪所撰〈抱樸子。登涉〉：'辰日稱雨師者，龍也。' “Li Dei Shen Xian Tong Jian”, first part, written by Xu Dao, “In Shen Nong Period, Chisongzi appeared.” 徐道〈歷代神仙通鑒〉卷一稱：神農時，赤松了"形容古怪，言語癲狂，上披草領，下第系皮裙，蓬頭跣足，甲長如利爪，遍身黃色複蓋。”) Ancient Chinese also believed that the rainbow is the dragon that is drinking water from rivers. (“Lun Heng”, chapter of “ Dao Xu Pian”, “Dragons fly into the sky to rain. They go back to lakes and rivers, where they are living to drink.” 〈論衡。道虛篇〉中就有此記載："龍起雲雨，因乘而行。雲散雨止，降複入淵。”) In addition, snakes love to live near lakes and rivers. Doubtlessly, their totems became a god.

Third, dragon is also god of stars. The two asterisms, “Xuan Yuan” (軒轅)and “Long”(龍), were the indications of spring and autumn. This is the result of productivity development. The star movement observations started in agricultural society because our ancestors found the relationship between stars moving and seasons changing.

The dragons are respected as Gods in Taoism and Buddhism. Taoism is a local religion of China, in which includes Voodoo, Shamanism, worship of nature, worship of animal and basic chemical knowledge. Taoism priests believed that dragon, tiger and deer are the three messengers that help them to communicate with nature and spirits. They also believed that dragon is from snake. (“Huang Bai Pian”, “Snakes change into Dragons is as same as human because they have the power from their birth.”〈黃白篇〉有："蛇之成龍，亦與自生者無異也。然其根源之緣由，皆自然之感致。) On the other hand, the belief of Sea God is from Buddhism. The difference between Sea God and dragon is that the Dragon Ball, which is also called “Muni”(摩尼珠).

Imperiality and Dragon

Emperors are Dragon because they are the sons of Dragon. In the above picture, (Sui Wen Di (隋文帝581AD-AD) is on the left. Ming Cheng Zu(明成祖1403AD-1424AD) is in the middle. Song Tai Zu (宋太祖960AD-975AD) is on the right.)

We can tell the changes of dragons. The color of yellow and the image of Dragon were used only by Royal family. (“Qin History”, the second chapter of “Yu Fu Zhi”, “Formal color of emperor’s dress is in yellow”)

The picture above is Emperor Qian-Long (乾隆1736AD-1795AD) Qing Dynasty (清1644AD-1911AD) in war uniform.

The reason that the supreme rulers use yellow dragon is that the dragon is the “real dragon” that represents land and power. This is the pate used by royal family of

Qing

In the history of China, there were fourteen Emperor Periods named by dragon. They are Huang-Long (yellow dragon), Qin-Long (blue dragon), Bei-Long (white dragon), Sheng-Long (holy dragon), Jin-Long (, Xian-Long (Dragon Appeared), Long-Xing (Dragon Grown), Long-Fei (fling dragon), Long-Shen (raising dragon), Long-Feng (Dragon and Phoenix), Long-Ji (dragon mark) Long-Qi (dragon start), Long-Shuo (seeing dragon) and Long-De (dragon spirit) (黃龍、青龍、白龍、神龍、景龍、見龍、龍興、龍飛、龍升、龍鳳、龍紀、龍啓、龍朔、龍德). (http://zypds.home.chinaren.com/come/10.htm) All the names sending a massage to people that the Emperor have the greatest power.

Influence on Chinese culture

The belief in Dragon exerts influence on Chinese culture that is reflected by festivals, architectures and oral expressions. There are eleven traditional festivals relating to Dragon, such as Spring Dragon Festival of Han, Dragon-come-back Day of Han, Duan-Wu (Dragon boat festival) of Han, Watch Dragon Festival of Tujia, Dragon Boat Festival of Miao, Dragon Day of Yao, Dragon-Queen-Go-To-Heaven Day of Yao, Dragon-King-Go-To-Heaven Day of Yao, Dragon Sacrifice Ceremony of Hani, Zhuang and Yao, Sea God Temple Market of Naxi and Dragon Lantern Festival of Han. (http://zypds.home.chinaren.com/come/12.htm)

Beijing City is also called the city of dragon. There are not only various dragon images inside the city, but also the city itself was designed as in form of two dragons which are the Dragon of waterways and Dragon of architectures. The Dragon Wall of Shanghai City is well known as the large number of different dragons for hundreds of years. The one thousand years old, Yong-Le Temple, in Tianjing City, has attracted lots of believers because the architecture is being protected by one of the sons of Sea God and suffered several fierce earthquakes.

Above left: traditional Dragon Poles. Above right: the black dragon of Nine Dragon

Screen in Forbidden City.

Right: Bronze Dragon in Forbidden City.

Because of the spirit of Dragon(辰), people always believe that there is something important happens in the years of dragon. In the year of 221BC (庚辰年Geng-Chen Nian), the state of Qing First united China and built the first feudal dynasty. In the year of 68AD (戊辰年Wu-Chen Nian), Buddhism started being preached in China and became one of the three major religions in China. In 1976 (丙辰年Bin-Chen Nian), three crushes to the Chinese people, Mao-Zedong, Zhou-Enlei and Zu-De died, the end of Culture Revolution, the 8.6-degree earthquake in Tang Shan City that caused 240,000 people died.

Chinese always call their motherland “A giant dragon” and call themselves “descendant of dragon”. (http://www.chinavista.com/experience/dragon/dragon.html)

In a word, Chinese Dragon is a God that rules the resources in the world. It is originates from totem of a python phratry, and used as a repersentive of the feudal governments China for 5,000 years.