Trolls And Dragons
written by Katali Sorcer Gobblefirn
Book 1 of myth series
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
12
Reads
438
Asia
Chapter 11
Asia
15th-century Persian miniature of Rostam slaying a dragon
South Asia
Head of the dragon-god Pakhangba depicted on a musical instrument from Manipur, India
In the Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, Indra, the Vedic god of storms, battles Vṛtra, a giant serpent who represents drought.[26] Indra kills Vṛtra using his vajra (thunderbolt) and clears the path for rain,[27][28] which is described in the form of cattle: "You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma,/You freed the seven streams to flow" (Rigveda 1.32.12).[29] In another Rigvedic legend, the three-headed serpent Viśvarūpa, the son of Tvaṣṭṛ, guards a wealth of cows and horses.[30] Indra delivers Viśvarūpa to a god named Trita Āptya,[30] who fights and kills him and sets his cattle free.[30] Indra cuts off Viśvarūpa's heads and drives the cattle home for Trita.[30] This same story is alluded to in the Younger Avesta,[30] in which the hero Thraētaona, the son of Āthbya, slays the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka and takes his two beautiful wives as spoils.[30] Thraētaona's name (meaning "third grandson of the waters") indicates that Aži Dahāka, like Vṛtra, was seen as a blocker of waters and cause of drought.[30]
The Druk (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་), also known as 'Thunder Dragon', is one of the National symbols of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo, "Thunder Dragon Kings". The druk was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage, which originated in Tibet and later spread to Bhutan.[31]
East Asia
Chinese dragon
Illustration of the dragon Zhulong from a seventeenth-century edition of the Shanhaijing
Main article: Chinese dragon
Archaeologist Zhōu Chong-Fa believes that the Chinese word for dragon is an onomatopoeia of the sound of thunder[32] or lùhng in Cantonese.[33]
The Chinese dragon (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng) is the highest-ranking creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels."[34] A number of popular stories deal with the rearing of dragons.[35] The Zuo zhuan, which was probably written during the Warring States period, describes a man named Dongfu, a descendant of Yangshu'an, who loved dragons[35] and, because he could understand a dragon's will, he was able to tame them and raise them well.[35] He served Emperor Shun, who gave him the family name Huanlong, meaning "Dragon-Raiser".[35] In another story, Kongjia, the fourteenth emperor of the Xia dynasty, was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven,[35] but could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named Liulei, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong.[35] One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liulei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king,[35] who loved it so much that he demanded Liulei to serve him the same meal again.[35] Since Liulei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace.[35]
One of the most famous dragon stories is about the Lord Ye Gao, who loved dragons obsessively, even though he had never seen one.[36] He decorated his whole house with dragon motifs[36] and, seeing this display of admiration, a real dragon came and visited Ye Gao,[36] but the lord was so terrified at the sight of the creature that he ran away.[36] In Chinese legend, the culture hero Fu Hsi is said to have been crossing the Lo River, when he saw the lung ma, a Chinese horse-dragon with seven dots on its face, six on its back, eight on its left flank, and nine on its right flank.[37] He was so moved by this apparition that, when he arrived home, he drew a picture of it, including the dots.[37] He later used these dots as letters and invented Chinese writing, which he used to write his book I Ching.[37] In another Chinese legend, the physician Ma Shih Huang is said to have healed a sick dragon.[38] Another legend reports that a man once came to the healer Lo Chên-jen, telling him that he was a dragon and that he needed to be healed.[38] After Lo Chên-jen healed the man, a dragon appeared to him and carried him to heaven.[38]
In the Shanhaijing, a classic mythography probably compiled mostly during the Han dynasty, various deities and demigods are associated with dragons.[39] One of the most famous Chinese dragons is Ying Long ("Responding Dragon"), who helped the Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, defeat the tyrant Chiyou.[40] The dragon Zhulong ("Torch Dragon") is a god "who composed the universe with his body."[40] In the Shanhaijing, many mythic heroes are said to have been conceived after their mothers copulated with divine dragons, including Huangdi, Shennong, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun.[40] The god Zhurong and the emperor Qi are both described as being carried by two dragons,[41] as are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Yuqiang, and Roshou in various other texts.[35] According to the Huainanzi, an evil black dragon once caused a destructive deluge,[35] which was ended by the mother goddess Nüwa by slaying the dragon.[35]
Casting for a Chinese belt-plaque showing the lung ma, or "dragon horse", dating to the first or second century AD
A large number of ethnic myths about dragons are told throughout China.[35] The Houhanshu, compiled in the fifth century BC by Fan Ye, reports a story belonging to the Ailaoyi people, which holds that a woman named Shayi who lived in the region around Mount Lao became pregnant with ten sons after being touched by a tree trunk floating in the water while fishing.[40] She gave birth to the sons and the tree trunk turned into a dragon, who asked to see his sons.[40] The woman showed them to him,[40] but all of them ran away except for the youngest, who the dragon licked on the back and named Jiu Long, meaning "Sitting Back".[40] The sons later elected him king and the descendants of the ten sons became the Ailaoyi people, who tattooed dragons on their backs in honor of their ancestor.[40] The Miao people of southwest China have a story that a divine dragon created the first humans by breathing on monkeys that came to play in his cave.[35] The Han people have many stories about Short-Tailed Old Li, a black dragon who was born to a poor family in Shandong.[36] When his mother saw him for the first time, she fainted[36] and, when his father came home from the field and saw him, he hit him with a spade and cut off part of his tail.[36] Li burst through the ceiling and flew away to the Black Dragon River in northeast China, where he became the god of that river.[42] On the anniversary of his mother's death on the Chinese lunar calendar, Old Li returns home, causing it to rain.[43] He is still worshipped as a rain god.[43]
Diagram illustrating the four great Dragon Kings of the Four Seas
In China, dragons are closely associated with rain[44] and drought is thought to be caused by a dragon's laziness.[45] Prayers invoking dragons to bring rain are common in Chinese texts.[44] The Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu, prescribes making clay figurines of dragons during a time of drought and having young men and boys pace and dance among the figurines in order to encourage the dragons to bring rain.[44] Texts from the Qing dynasty advise hurling the bone of a tiger or dirty objects into the pool where the dragon lives;[45] since dragons cannot stand tigers or dirt, the dragon of the pool will cause heavy rain to drive the object out.[45] Rainmaking rituals invoking dragons are still very common in many Chinese villages, where each village has its own god said to bring rain and many of these gods are dragons.[45] Although stories of the Dragon Kings are among the most popular dragon stories in China today, these stories did not begin to emerge until the Eastern Han, when Buddhist stories of the serpent rain-god Nāga became popular.[45] Taoists began to invent their own dragon kings and eventually such stories developed in every major Chinese religion.[45] According to these stories, every body of water is ruled by a dragon king, each with a different power, rank, and ability,[45] so people began establishing temples across the countryside dedicated to these figures.[45]
Head of a dragon from a Chinese dragon dance performed in Helsinki in the year 2000.
Many traditional Chinese customs revolve around dragons.[46] During various holidays, including the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, villagers will construct an approximately sixteen-foot-long dragon from grass, cloth, bamboo strips, and paper, which they will parade through the city as part of a dragon dance.[47] The original purpose of this ritual was to bring good weather and a strong harvest,[47] but now it is done mostly only for entertainment.[47] During the Duanwu festival, several villages, or even a whole province, will hold a dragon boat race, in which people race across a body of water in boats carved to look like dragons, while a large audience watches on the banks.[47] The custom is traditionally said to have originated after the poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River and people raced out in boats hoping to save him,[47] but most historians agree that the custom actually originated much earlier as a ritual to avert ill fortune.[47] Starting during the Han dynasty and continuing until the Qing dynasty, the Chinese emperor gradually became closely identified with dragons,[47] and emperors themselves claimed to be the incarnation of a divine dragon.[47] Eventually, dragons were only allowed to appear on clothing, houses, and articles of everyday use belonging to the emperor[47] and any commoner who possessed everyday items bearing the image of the dragon were ordered to be executed.[47] After the last Chinese emperor was overthrown in 1911, this situation changed and now many ordinary Chinese people identify themselves as descendants of dragons.[48]
Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, dated to 5th–3rd century BC.
Tang dynasty painting of a dragon boat race attributed to Li Zhaodao
Flag of the Qing dynasty from 1889 to 1912, showing a Chinese dragon
Dragon sculpture on top of Lungshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan
Chinese dragon in Fengdu Ghost City, China
Members of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne performing for Chinese New Year, at Crown Casino, demonstrate a basic "corkscrew" routine
Korean dragon
The Blue Dragon mural depiction at the Goguryeo Tombs.
Main article: Korean dragon
The Korean dragon is in many ways similar in appearance to other East Asian dragons such as the Chinese and Japanese dragons. It differs from the Chinese dragon in that it developed a longer beard. Very occasionally a dragon may be depicted as carrying an orb known as the Yeouiju (여의주), the Korean name for the mythical Cintamani, in its claws or its mouth. It was said that whoever could wield the Yeouiju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will, and that only four-toed dragons (who had thumbs with which to hold the orbs) were both wise and powerful enough to wield these orbs, as opposed to the lesser, three-toed dragons. As with China, the number nine is significant and auspicious in Korea, and dragons were said to have 81 (9×9) scales on their backs, representing yang essence. Dragons in Korean mythology are primarily benevolent beings related to water and agriculture, often considered bringers of rain and clouds. Hence, many Korean dragons are said to have resided in rivers, lakes, oceans, or even deep mountain ponds. And human journeys to undersea realms, and especially the undersea palace of the Dragon King (용왕), are common in Korean folklore.[49]
In Korean myths, some kings who founded kingdoms were described as descendants of dragons because the dragon was a symbol of the monarch. Lady Aryeong, who was the first queen of Silla is said to have been born from a cockatrice,[50] while the grandmother of Taejo of Goryeo, founder of Goryeo, was reportedly the daughter of the dragon king of the West Sea.[51] And King Munmu of Silla, who on his deathbed wished to become a dragon of the East Sea in order to protect the kingdom. Dragon patterns were used exclusively by the royal family. The royal robe was also called the dragon robe (용포). In Joseon Dynasty, the royal insignia, featuring embroidered dragons, were attached to the robe's shoulders, the chest, and back. The King wore five-taloned dragon insignia while the Crown Prince wore four-taloned dragon insignia.[52]
Korean folk mythology states that most dragons were originally Imugis (이무기), or lesser dragons, which were said to resemble gigantic serpents. There are a few different versions of Korean folklore that describe both what imugis are and how they aspire to become full-fledged dragons. Koreans thought that an Imugi could become a true dragon, yong or mireu, if it caught a Yeouiju which had fallen from heaven. Another explanation states they are hornless creatures resembling dragons who have been cursed and thus were unable to become dragons. By other accounts, an Imugi is a proto-dragon which must survive one thousand years in order to become a fully fledged dragon. In either case they are said to be large, benevolent, python-like creatures that live in water or caves, and their sighting is associated with good luck.[53]
Japanese dragon
Painting of a Japanese dragon by Hokusai (c. 1730 – 1849)
Main article: Japanese dragon
Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Gould writes (1896:248),[54] the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three claws". A story about the samurai Minamoto no Mitsunaka tells that, while he was hunting in his own territory of Settsu, he fell asleep under a tree and had a dream in which a beautiful woman appeared to him and begged him to save her land from a giant serpent which was defiling it.[38] Mitsunaka agreed to help and the maiden gave him a magnificent horse.[38] When he woke up, the horse was standing before him.[38] He rode it to the Sumiyoshi temple, where he prayed for eight days.[38] Then he confronted the serpent and slew it with an arrow.[38]
It was believed that dragons could be appeased or exorcised with metal.[38] Nitta Yoshisada is said to have hurled a famous sword into the sea at Sagami to appease the dragon-god of the sea[38] and Ki no Tsurayuki threw a metal mirror into the sea at Sumiyoshi for the same purpose.[38] Japanese Buddhism has also adapted dragons by subjecting them to Buddhist law;[38] the Japanese Buddhist deities Benten and Kwannon are often shown sitting or standing on the back of a dragon.[38] Several Japanese sennin ("immortals") have taken dragons as their mounts.[38] Bômô is said to have hurled his staff into a puddle of water, causing a dragon to come forth and let him ride it to heaven.[38] The rakan Handaka is said to have been able to conjure a dragon out of a bowl, which he is often shown playing with on kagamibuta.[38] The shachihoko is a creature with the head of a dragon, a bushy tail, fishlike scales, and sometimes fire emerging from its armpits.[38] The shifun has the head of a dragon, feathered wings, and the tail and claws of a bird.[38] A white dragon was believed to reside in a pool in Yamashiro Province[55] and, every fifty years, it would turn into a bird called the Ogonchô, which had a call like the "howling of a wild dog".[55] This event was believed to herald terrible famine.[55] In the Japanese village of Okumura, near Edo, during times of drought, the villagers would make a dragon effigy out of straw, magnolia leaves, and bamboo and parade it through the village to attract rainfall.[55]
Dragon emerging from the clouds, Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam
Dragon emerging from the clouds, Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam
Vietnamese dragon
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Dragon" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Main article: Vietnamese dragon
According to an ancient origin myth, the Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon and a fairy. To Vietnamese people, the dragon brings rain, essential for agriculture. It represents the emperor, the prosperity and power of the nation. Like the Chinese dragon, the Vietnamese dragon is the symbol of yang, representing the universe, life, existence, and growth.
West Asia
Ancient West Asia
Mesopotamia
The mušḫuššu is a serpentine, draconic monster from ancient Mesopotamian mythology with the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird.[56] Here it is shown as it appears in the Ishtar Gate from the city of Babylon.[56]
Ancient peoples across the Near East believed in creatures similar to what modern people call "dragons".[57] These ancient peoples were unaware of the existence of dinosaurs or similar creatures in the distant past.[57] References to dragons of both benevolent and malevolent characters occur throughout ancient Mesopotamian literature.[57] In Sumerian poetry, great kings are often compared to the ušumgal, a gigantic, serpentine monster.[57] A draconic creature with the foreparts of a lion and the hind-legs, tail, and wings of a bird appears in Mesopotamian artwork from the Akkadian Period (c. 2334 – 2154 BC) until the Neo-Babylonian Period (626 BC–539 BC).[58] The dragon is usually shown with its mouth open.[58] It may have been known as the (ūmu) nā’iru, which means "roaring weather beast",[58] and may have been associated with the god Ishkur (Hadad).[58] A slightly different lion-dragon with two horns and the tail of a scorpion appears in art from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 BC–609 BC).[58] A relief probably commissioned by Sennacherib shows the gods Ashur, Sin, and Adad standing on its back.[58]
Another draconic creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC–31 BC).[56] This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem.[56] It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu,[56] but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak, as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the scribal god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[56]
Scholars disagree regarding the appearance of Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess personifying primeval chaos slain by Marduk in the Babylonian creation epic Enûma Eliš.[59][60] She was traditionally regarded by scholars as having had the form of a giant serpent,[60] but several scholars have pointed out that this shape "cannot be imputed to Tiamat with certainty"[60] and she seems to have at least sometimes been regarded as anthropomorphic.[59][60] Nonetheless, in some texts, she seems to be described with horns, a tail, and a hide that no weapon can penetrate,[59] all features which suggest she was conceived as some form of dragoness.[59]
Levant
The Destruction of Leviathan (1865) by Gustave Doré
In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, the sea-dragon Lōtanu is described as "the twisting serpent/ the powerful one with seven heads."[61] In KTU 1.5 I 2–3, Lōtanu is slain by the storm-god Baal,[61] but, in KTU 1.3 III 41–42, he is instead slain by the virgin warrior goddess Anat.[61] In the Book of Psalms, Psalm 74, Psalm 74:13–14, the sea-dragon Leviathan, whose name is a cognate of Lōtanu,[61][62][63] is slain by Yahweh, the national god of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, as part of the creation of the world.[61][62] In Isaiah 27:1, Yahweh's destruction of Leviathan is foretold as part of Yahweh's impending overhaul of the universal order:[64][65]
Original Hebrew text (Isaiah 27:1) English translation
א בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ
בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם. {ס}
On that day Yahweh shall punish
with his sharp, great, and strong sword,
Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent;
He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.[61]
Job 41:1–34 contains a detailed description of the Leviathan, who is described as being so powerful that only Yahweh can overcome it.[66] Job 41:19–21 states that the Leviathan exhales fire and smoke, making its identification as a mythical dragon clearly apparent.[66] In some parts of the Old Testament, the Leviathan is historicized as a symbol for the nations that stand against Yahweh.[62] Rahab, a synonym for "Leviathan", is used in several Biblical passages in reference to Egypt.[62] Isaiah 30:7 declares: "For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her 'the silenced Rahab'."[62] Similarly, Psalm 87:3 reads: "I reckon Rahab and Babylon as those that know me..."[62] In Ezekiel 29:3–5 and 32:2–8, the pharaoh of Egypt is described as a "dragon" (tannîn).[62] In the story of Bel and the Dragon from the apocryphal additions to Daniel, the prophet Daniel sees a dragon being worshipped by the Babylonians.[67] Daniel makes "cakes of pitch, fat, and hair";[67] the dragon eats them and bursts open (Daniel 14:23–30).[67]
Post-classical West Asia
In Sufi literature, Rumi writes in his Masnavi (III: 976–1066; IV: 120) that the dragon symbolizes the sensual soul, greed and lust, that need to be mortified in a spiritual battle.[68][69]
Rustam kills the dragon, folio from Shahnameh of Shah Ismail II, attrib. Sadegi (Beg), Iran, Tabriz, c. 1576 AD, view 1 – Aga Khan Museum – Toronto, Canada
In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Iranian hero Rostam must slay an 80-meter-long dragon (which renders itself invisible to human sight) with the aid of his legendary horse, Rakhsh. As Rostam is sleeping, the dragon approaches; Rakhsh attempts to wake Rostam, but fails to alert him to the danger until Rostam sees the dragon. Rakhsh bites the serpent, while Rostam decapitates it. This is the third trial of Rostam's Seven Labors.[70][71][72]
Rostam is also credited with the slaughter of other dragons in the Shahnameh and in other Iranian oral traditions, notably in the myth of Babr-e-Bayan. In this tale, Rostam is still an adolescent and kills a dragon in the "Orient" (either India or China depending on the source) by forcing it to swallow either ox hides filled with quicklime and stones or poisoned blades. The dragon swallows these foreign objects and its stomach bursts, after which Rostam flays the dragon and fashions a coat from its hide called the babr-e bayān. In some variants of the story, Rostam then remains unconscious for two days and nights, but is guarded by his steed Rakhsh. On reviving, he washes himself in a spring. In the Mandean tradition of the story, Rostam hides in a box, is swallowed by the dragon and kills it from inside its belly. The king of China then gives Rostam his daughter in marriage as a reward.[73][74]
15th-century Persian miniature of Rostam slaying a dragon
South Asia
Head of the dragon-god Pakhangba depicted on a musical instrument from Manipur, India
In the Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, Indra, the Vedic god of storms, battles Vṛtra, a giant serpent who represents drought.[26] Indra kills Vṛtra using his vajra (thunderbolt) and clears the path for rain,[27][28] which is described in the form of cattle: "You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma,/You freed the seven streams to flow" (Rigveda 1.32.12).[29] In another Rigvedic legend, the three-headed serpent Viśvarūpa, the son of Tvaṣṭṛ, guards a wealth of cows and horses.[30] Indra delivers Viśvarūpa to a god named Trita Āptya,[30] who fights and kills him and sets his cattle free.[30] Indra cuts off Viśvarūpa's heads and drives the cattle home for Trita.[30] This same story is alluded to in the Younger Avesta,[30] in which the hero Thraētaona, the son of Āthbya, slays the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka and takes his two beautiful wives as spoils.[30] Thraētaona's name (meaning "third grandson of the waters") indicates that Aži Dahāka, like Vṛtra, was seen as a blocker of waters and cause of drought.[30]
The Druk (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་), also known as 'Thunder Dragon', is one of the National symbols of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo, "Thunder Dragon Kings". The druk was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage, which originated in Tibet and later spread to Bhutan.[31]
East Asia
Chinese dragon
Illustration of the dragon Zhulong from a seventeenth-century edition of the Shanhaijing
Main article: Chinese dragon
Archaeologist Zhōu Chong-Fa believes that the Chinese word for dragon is an onomatopoeia of the sound of thunder[32] or lùhng in Cantonese.[33]
The Chinese dragon (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng) is the highest-ranking creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels."[34] A number of popular stories deal with the rearing of dragons.[35] The Zuo zhuan, which was probably written during the Warring States period, describes a man named Dongfu, a descendant of Yangshu'an, who loved dragons[35] and, because he could understand a dragon's will, he was able to tame them and raise them well.[35] He served Emperor Shun, who gave him the family name Huanlong, meaning "Dragon-Raiser".[35] In another story, Kongjia, the fourteenth emperor of the Xia dynasty, was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven,[35] but could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named Liulei, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong.[35] One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liulei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king,[35] who loved it so much that he demanded Liulei to serve him the same meal again.[35] Since Liulei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace.[35]
One of the most famous dragon stories is about the Lord Ye Gao, who loved dragons obsessively, even though he had never seen one.[36] He decorated his whole house with dragon motifs[36] and, seeing this display of admiration, a real dragon came and visited Ye Gao,[36] but the lord was so terrified at the sight of the creature that he ran away.[36] In Chinese legend, the culture hero Fu Hsi is said to have been crossing the Lo River, when he saw the lung ma, a Chinese horse-dragon with seven dots on its face, six on its back, eight on its left flank, and nine on its right flank.[37] He was so moved by this apparition that, when he arrived home, he drew a picture of it, including the dots.[37] He later used these dots as letters and invented Chinese writing, which he used to write his book I Ching.[37] In another Chinese legend, the physician Ma Shih Huang is said to have healed a sick dragon.[38] Another legend reports that a man once came to the healer Lo Chên-jen, telling him that he was a dragon and that he needed to be healed.[38] After Lo Chên-jen healed the man, a dragon appeared to him and carried him to heaven.[38]
In the Shanhaijing, a classic mythography probably compiled mostly during the Han dynasty, various deities and demigods are associated with dragons.[39] One of the most famous Chinese dragons is Ying Long ("Responding Dragon"), who helped the Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, defeat the tyrant Chiyou.[40] The dragon Zhulong ("Torch Dragon") is a god "who composed the universe with his body."[40] In the Shanhaijing, many mythic heroes are said to have been conceived after their mothers copulated with divine dragons, including Huangdi, Shennong, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun.[40] The god Zhurong and the emperor Qi are both described as being carried by two dragons,[41] as are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Yuqiang, and Roshou in various other texts.[35] According to the Huainanzi, an evil black dragon once caused a destructive deluge,[35] which was ended by the mother goddess Nüwa by slaying the dragon.[35]
Casting for a Chinese belt-plaque showing the lung ma, or "dragon horse", dating to the first or second century AD
A large number of ethnic myths about dragons are told throughout China.[35] The Houhanshu, compiled in the fifth century BC by Fan Ye, reports a story belonging to the Ailaoyi people, which holds that a woman named Shayi who lived in the region around Mount Lao became pregnant with ten sons after being touched by a tree trunk floating in the water while fishing.[40] She gave birth to the sons and the tree trunk turned into a dragon, who asked to see his sons.[40] The woman showed them to him,[40] but all of them ran away except for the youngest, who the dragon licked on the back and named Jiu Long, meaning "Sitting Back".[40] The sons later elected him king and the descendants of the ten sons became the Ailaoyi people, who tattooed dragons on their backs in honor of their ancestor.[40] The Miao people of southwest China have a story that a divine dragon created the first humans by breathing on monkeys that came to play in his cave.[35] The Han people have many stories about Short-Tailed Old Li, a black dragon who was born to a poor family in Shandong.[36] When his mother saw him for the first time, she fainted[36] and, when his father came home from the field and saw him, he hit him with a spade and cut off part of his tail.[36] Li burst through the ceiling and flew away to the Black Dragon River in northeast China, where he became the god of that river.[42] On the anniversary of his mother's death on the Chinese lunar calendar, Old Li returns home, causing it to rain.[43] He is still worshipped as a rain god.[43]
Diagram illustrating the four great Dragon Kings of the Four Seas
In China, dragons are closely associated with rain[44] and drought is thought to be caused by a dragon's laziness.[45] Prayers invoking dragons to bring rain are common in Chinese texts.[44] The Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu, prescribes making clay figurines of dragons during a time of drought and having young men and boys pace and dance among the figurines in order to encourage the dragons to bring rain.[44] Texts from the Qing dynasty advise hurling the bone of a tiger or dirty objects into the pool where the dragon lives;[45] since dragons cannot stand tigers or dirt, the dragon of the pool will cause heavy rain to drive the object out.[45] Rainmaking rituals invoking dragons are still very common in many Chinese villages, where each village has its own god said to bring rain and many of these gods are dragons.[45] Although stories of the Dragon Kings are among the most popular dragon stories in China today, these stories did not begin to emerge until the Eastern Han, when Buddhist stories of the serpent rain-god Nāga became popular.[45] Taoists began to invent their own dragon kings and eventually such stories developed in every major Chinese religion.[45] According to these stories, every body of water is ruled by a dragon king, each with a different power, rank, and ability,[45] so people began establishing temples across the countryside dedicated to these figures.[45]
Head of a dragon from a Chinese dragon dance performed in Helsinki in the year 2000.
Many traditional Chinese customs revolve around dragons.[46] During various holidays, including the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, villagers will construct an approximately sixteen-foot-long dragon from grass, cloth, bamboo strips, and paper, which they will parade through the city as part of a dragon dance.[47] The original purpose of this ritual was to bring good weather and a strong harvest,[47] but now it is done mostly only for entertainment.[47] During the Duanwu festival, several villages, or even a whole province, will hold a dragon boat race, in which people race across a body of water in boats carved to look like dragons, while a large audience watches on the banks.[47] The custom is traditionally said to have originated after the poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River and people raced out in boats hoping to save him,[47] but most historians agree that the custom actually originated much earlier as a ritual to avert ill fortune.[47] Starting during the Han dynasty and continuing until the Qing dynasty, the Chinese emperor gradually became closely identified with dragons,[47] and emperors themselves claimed to be the incarnation of a divine dragon.[47] Eventually, dragons were only allowed to appear on clothing, houses, and articles of everyday use belonging to the emperor[47] and any commoner who possessed everyday items bearing the image of the dragon were ordered to be executed.[47] After the last Chinese emperor was overthrown in 1911, this situation changed and now many ordinary Chinese people identify themselves as descendants of dragons.[48]
Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, dated to 5th–3rd century BC.
Tang dynasty painting of a dragon boat race attributed to Li Zhaodao
Flag of the Qing dynasty from 1889 to 1912, showing a Chinese dragon
Dragon sculpture on top of Lungshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan
Chinese dragon in Fengdu Ghost City, China
Members of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne performing for Chinese New Year, at Crown Casino, demonstrate a basic "corkscrew" routine
Korean dragon
The Blue Dragon mural depiction at the Goguryeo Tombs.
Main article: Korean dragon
The Korean dragon is in many ways similar in appearance to other East Asian dragons such as the Chinese and Japanese dragons. It differs from the Chinese dragon in that it developed a longer beard. Very occasionally a dragon may be depicted as carrying an orb known as the Yeouiju (여의주), the Korean name for the mythical Cintamani, in its claws or its mouth. It was said that whoever could wield the Yeouiju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will, and that only four-toed dragons (who had thumbs with which to hold the orbs) were both wise and powerful enough to wield these orbs, as opposed to the lesser, three-toed dragons. As with China, the number nine is significant and auspicious in Korea, and dragons were said to have 81 (9×9) scales on their backs, representing yang essence. Dragons in Korean mythology are primarily benevolent beings related to water and agriculture, often considered bringers of rain and clouds. Hence, many Korean dragons are said to have resided in rivers, lakes, oceans, or even deep mountain ponds. And human journeys to undersea realms, and especially the undersea palace of the Dragon King (용왕), are common in Korean folklore.[49]
In Korean myths, some kings who founded kingdoms were described as descendants of dragons because the dragon was a symbol of the monarch. Lady Aryeong, who was the first queen of Silla is said to have been born from a cockatrice,[50] while the grandmother of Taejo of Goryeo, founder of Goryeo, was reportedly the daughter of the dragon king of the West Sea.[51] And King Munmu of Silla, who on his deathbed wished to become a dragon of the East Sea in order to protect the kingdom. Dragon patterns were used exclusively by the royal family. The royal robe was also called the dragon robe (용포). In Joseon Dynasty, the royal insignia, featuring embroidered dragons, were attached to the robe's shoulders, the chest, and back. The King wore five-taloned dragon insignia while the Crown Prince wore four-taloned dragon insignia.[52]
Korean folk mythology states that most dragons were originally Imugis (이무기), or lesser dragons, which were said to resemble gigantic serpents. There are a few different versions of Korean folklore that describe both what imugis are and how they aspire to become full-fledged dragons. Koreans thought that an Imugi could become a true dragon, yong or mireu, if it caught a Yeouiju which had fallen from heaven. Another explanation states they are hornless creatures resembling dragons who have been cursed and thus were unable to become dragons. By other accounts, an Imugi is a proto-dragon which must survive one thousand years in order to become a fully fledged dragon. In either case they are said to be large, benevolent, python-like creatures that live in water or caves, and their sighting is associated with good luck.[53]
Japanese dragon
Painting of a Japanese dragon by Hokusai (c. 1730 – 1849)
Main article: Japanese dragon
Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Gould writes (1896:248),[54] the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three claws". A story about the samurai Minamoto no Mitsunaka tells that, while he was hunting in his own territory of Settsu, he fell asleep under a tree and had a dream in which a beautiful woman appeared to him and begged him to save her land from a giant serpent which was defiling it.[38] Mitsunaka agreed to help and the maiden gave him a magnificent horse.[38] When he woke up, the horse was standing before him.[38] He rode it to the Sumiyoshi temple, where he prayed for eight days.[38] Then he confronted the serpent and slew it with an arrow.[38]
It was believed that dragons could be appeased or exorcised with metal.[38] Nitta Yoshisada is said to have hurled a famous sword into the sea at Sagami to appease the dragon-god of the sea[38] and Ki no Tsurayuki threw a metal mirror into the sea at Sumiyoshi for the same purpose.[38] Japanese Buddhism has also adapted dragons by subjecting them to Buddhist law;[38] the Japanese Buddhist deities Benten and Kwannon are often shown sitting or standing on the back of a dragon.[38] Several Japanese sennin ("immortals") have taken dragons as their mounts.[38] Bômô is said to have hurled his staff into a puddle of water, causing a dragon to come forth and let him ride it to heaven.[38] The rakan Handaka is said to have been able to conjure a dragon out of a bowl, which he is often shown playing with on kagamibuta.[38] The shachihoko is a creature with the head of a dragon, a bushy tail, fishlike scales, and sometimes fire emerging from its armpits.[38] The shifun has the head of a dragon, feathered wings, and the tail and claws of a bird.[38] A white dragon was believed to reside in a pool in Yamashiro Province[55] and, every fifty years, it would turn into a bird called the Ogonchô, which had a call like the "howling of a wild dog".[55] This event was believed to herald terrible famine.[55] In the Japanese village of Okumura, near Edo, during times of drought, the villagers would make a dragon effigy out of straw, magnolia leaves, and bamboo and parade it through the village to attract rainfall.[55]
Dragon emerging from the clouds, Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam
Dragon emerging from the clouds, Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam
Vietnamese dragon
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Dragon" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Main article: Vietnamese dragon
According to an ancient origin myth, the Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon and a fairy. To Vietnamese people, the dragon brings rain, essential for agriculture. It represents the emperor, the prosperity and power of the nation. Like the Chinese dragon, the Vietnamese dragon is the symbol of yang, representing the universe, life, existence, and growth.
West Asia
Ancient West Asia
Mesopotamia
The mušḫuššu is a serpentine, draconic monster from ancient Mesopotamian mythology with the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird.[56] Here it is shown as it appears in the Ishtar Gate from the city of Babylon.[56]
Ancient peoples across the Near East believed in creatures similar to what modern people call "dragons".[57] These ancient peoples were unaware of the existence of dinosaurs or similar creatures in the distant past.[57] References to dragons of both benevolent and malevolent characters occur throughout ancient Mesopotamian literature.[57] In Sumerian poetry, great kings are often compared to the ušumgal, a gigantic, serpentine monster.[57] A draconic creature with the foreparts of a lion and the hind-legs, tail, and wings of a bird appears in Mesopotamian artwork from the Akkadian Period (c. 2334 – 2154 BC) until the Neo-Babylonian Period (626 BC–539 BC).[58] The dragon is usually shown with its mouth open.[58] It may have been known as the (ūmu) nā’iru, which means "roaring weather beast",[58] and may have been associated with the god Ishkur (Hadad).[58] A slightly different lion-dragon with two horns and the tail of a scorpion appears in art from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 BC–609 BC).[58] A relief probably commissioned by Sennacherib shows the gods Ashur, Sin, and Adad standing on its back.[58]
Another draconic creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC–31 BC).[56] This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem.[56] It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu,[56] but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak, as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the scribal god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[56]
Scholars disagree regarding the appearance of Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess personifying primeval chaos slain by Marduk in the Babylonian creation epic Enûma Eliš.[59][60] She was traditionally regarded by scholars as having had the form of a giant serpent,[60] but several scholars have pointed out that this shape "cannot be imputed to Tiamat with certainty"[60] and she seems to have at least sometimes been regarded as anthropomorphic.[59][60] Nonetheless, in some texts, she seems to be described with horns, a tail, and a hide that no weapon can penetrate,[59] all features which suggest she was conceived as some form of dragoness.[59]
Levant
The Destruction of Leviathan (1865) by Gustave Doré
In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, the sea-dragon Lōtanu is described as "the twisting serpent/ the powerful one with seven heads."[61] In KTU 1.5 I 2–3, Lōtanu is slain by the storm-god Baal,[61] but, in KTU 1.3 III 41–42, he is instead slain by the virgin warrior goddess Anat.[61] In the Book of Psalms, Psalm 74, Psalm 74:13–14, the sea-dragon Leviathan, whose name is a cognate of Lōtanu,[61][62][63] is slain by Yahweh, the national god of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, as part of the creation of the world.[61][62] In Isaiah 27:1, Yahweh's destruction of Leviathan is foretold as part of Yahweh's impending overhaul of the universal order:[64][65]
Original Hebrew text (Isaiah 27:1) English translation
א בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ
בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם. {ס}
On that day Yahweh shall punish
with his sharp, great, and strong sword,
Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent;
He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.[61]
Job 41:1–34 contains a detailed description of the Leviathan, who is described as being so powerful that only Yahweh can overcome it.[66] Job 41:19–21 states that the Leviathan exhales fire and smoke, making its identification as a mythical dragon clearly apparent.[66] In some parts of the Old Testament, the Leviathan is historicized as a symbol for the nations that stand against Yahweh.[62] Rahab, a synonym for "Leviathan", is used in several Biblical passages in reference to Egypt.[62] Isaiah 30:7 declares: "For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her 'the silenced Rahab'."[62] Similarly, Psalm 87:3 reads: "I reckon Rahab and Babylon as those that know me..."[62] In Ezekiel 29:3–5 and 32:2–8, the pharaoh of Egypt is described as a "dragon" (tannîn).[62] In the story of Bel and the Dragon from the apocryphal additions to Daniel, the prophet Daniel sees a dragon being worshipped by the Babylonians.[67] Daniel makes "cakes of pitch, fat, and hair";[67] the dragon eats them and bursts open (Daniel 14:23–30).[67]
Post-classical West Asia
In Sufi literature, Rumi writes in his Masnavi (III: 976–1066; IV: 120) that the dragon symbolizes the sensual soul, greed and lust, that need to be mortified in a spiritual battle.[68][69]
Rustam kills the dragon, folio from Shahnameh of Shah Ismail II, attrib. Sadegi (Beg), Iran, Tabriz, c. 1576 AD, view 1 – Aga Khan Museum – Toronto, Canada
In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Iranian hero Rostam must slay an 80-meter-long dragon (which renders itself invisible to human sight) with the aid of his legendary horse, Rakhsh. As Rostam is sleeping, the dragon approaches; Rakhsh attempts to wake Rostam, but fails to alert him to the danger until Rostam sees the dragon. Rakhsh bites the serpent, while Rostam decapitates it. This is the third trial of Rostam's Seven Labors.[70][71][72]
Rostam is also credited with the slaughter of other dragons in the Shahnameh and in other Iranian oral traditions, notably in the myth of Babr-e-Bayan. In this tale, Rostam is still an adolescent and kills a dragon in the "Orient" (either India or China depending on the source) by forcing it to swallow either ox hides filled with quicklime and stones or poisoned blades. The dragon swallows these foreign objects and its stomach bursts, after which Rostam flays the dragon and fashions a coat from its hide called the babr-e bayān. In some variants of the story, Rostam then remains unconscious for two days and nights, but is guarded by his steed Rakhsh. On reviving, he washes himself in a spring. In the Mandean tradition of the story, Rostam hides in a box, is swallowed by the dragon and kills it from inside its belly. The king of China then gives Rostam his daughter in marriage as a reward.[73][74]
