In China, the dragon (long
)
is believed to be a sacred and beneficent animal. Legend
has it that it hibernates in the ocean in the autumn but
it ascends to the sky in the spring, bringing beneficial
rains onto the dry earth. It is considered an auspicious
creature because it brings forth blessings, festivity,
and happiness, benefiting everything on earth. The
importance of the dragon to the Chinese people is
indisputable.
Dragon and Serpent
There
are many Chinese legends and much classical literature
about the origins and shapes of the dragon. Its
appearance in the cosmology dates back to a legend of the
formation of the Universe. The legend describes
Pangu(
),
the Creator of the Universe, who had the head of a dragon
and the body of a serpent. He used a chisel and mallet to
fashion the universe from chaotic masses, creating the
sun, moon, stars, heaven and earth. Four supernatural
creatures were by his side during his labours: the
dragon, phoenix, unicorn and tortoise. Millions of years
later two supernatural beings appeared: Nuwa, (
)
the first female "human being" on earth, who had a human
head and a serpent's body (Fig. 1), and Fuxi, (
)
the first male "human being," who had a human head and a
scaly dragon's body (Fig. 2). After consummation, they
gave birth to human beings on earth. This legend was
engraved on a stone wall during the Eastern Han Dynasty
(AD 24-220) by an artist who carved a picture of the
intercourse of Nuwa and Fuxi, depicting them as a union
of the bodies of a dragon and a snake with human faces
(Fig. 3). To the primitive people in ancient China, the
dragon and serpent were interchangeable. This is shown in
another legend. They story tells of the Emperor of Heaven
who banished the sky dragon from heaven after it
committed an offence. He converted the flying dragon into
a crawling serpent on earth. The offspring of the serpent
might be changed into a fairy or converted into a dragon
again after thousands of years of repenting for its sings
and obtaining the Emperor of Heaven's
forgiveness.
All these legends talk about the dragon and serpent,
but it is not known what images the early people thought
of when they heard the name dragon.
Before any documented history, a theory arose
beginning with the descendants of Nuwa and Fuxi who were
scattered throughout the mainland of China as numerous
tribes or clans. They constantly fought among themselves
and each clan used a serpent, tiger, bear, eagle, leopard
or other fierce animals or birds as their totem (meaning
clan or tribal symbol) on their standard in the battles.
After 
Emperor
Huang, the ancestor of the Hua Xia clan
,
conquered all the other clans in the lower Huang He basin
and established an empire, possibly he combined all the
distinguished marks in other clans' totems, and created a
new animal totem called dragon. Thus, the dragon
symbolizes the initial unification of different ethnic
groups and the formation of the Chinese nation. This is
still the time of legends, and history was not written
down until the discovery of the oracle bone script in the
Shang dynasty (16-11 century BC).
Pictographs show the earliest form of the dragon
perceived by the Shang people. The oracle bone script,
the earliest form of Chinese characters, already has the
character of long (Fig. 4). From this character the
picture of a dragon begins: it has a serpent body and
gaping mouth with teeth. From this earliest form of
writing, the evolution of the present day dragon
character developed. (Fig. 5). Just as the shape of the
written language changed so did the interpreted form the
dragon change over time, as seen in the artifacts.
Dragon and Crocodile
Later in the Shang dynasty an engraving on a musical
instrument shows the shape of the dragon (Fig 5). This
engraving has brought about the theory that the dragon's
image came from the crocodile. Whether the idea came from
North China and travelled to South China or went the
other direction is debatable. According to one
hypothesis, about four thousand years ago, ferocious
reptiles in the North called Crocodilus Porosus (Wan
E
)
which might be over five metres long, lived in the swamps
and river deltas on the eastern coast of China. (Fig 6).
The early people dreaded this huge vicious monster and at
the time admired its great power and ferocity. Hence, the
image of dragon was taken from the crocodile. This type
of crocodile became extinct in China probably around 12th
century A.D. as most of the swampy coastal plains and
deltas were drained, and converted to cultivated land or
human settlements.
Dr.
Richard Irving, a historical geographer at the University
of Hong Kong argues that the form of the dragon actually
came from the South to the North. He studied the carved
dragon boat heads, and discovered about 25 dragon boat
heads in Ping Shan, Tin Shui Wai and other villages in
the New Territories of Hong Kong (Fig. 7). These heads
have several crocodilian features such as long snout,
protruding incisor teeth, nostrils and eyes on top of the
heads. They are very similar to the huge freshwater
Southern crocodiles, Tomistoma schlegelli,
(
which
could grow up to over six metres and lived in the
Zhujiang estuary around a thousand years ago. Dr.
Irving's hypothesizes that the neolithic people in South
China did not come from the north like the Han Chinese
but from the south and areas in South East Asia where
crocodile fear, veneration and worship were very common
in the past. He claims that the southern Chinese
tradition of crocodile worship migrated to the north and
the Han people took over part of the early festivals and
then merged them with their own ideas about
dragons.
Changing Images of Dragon
The
image of dragon during the Qin Dynasty (21-207 B.C.)
shows that the dragon has horns and sharp claws. Similar
to the Shang dragon, the Qin dragon's body still have the
diamond-like pattern of a serpent. After the fall of the
Qin Dynasty, China was disunited for about four years
before it was united by Liu Bang (
).
He claimed that his mother conceived him after having
copulation with a dragon, and thus he was the "Son of
Dragon" ascending to the throne as Han Gaozu (
),
the first emperor of the Han
Dynasty in 206 B.C. Since then the dragon became an
imperial symbol, and the image of dragon began to look
more powerful and vigorous in movement and appearance
(Fig. 8). In course of time, the dragon has taken on nine
features, each for a different part of its body: the
horns of a stag, the head of a camel, the ears of a cow,
the eyes of a rabbit, the neck of a snake, the claws of a
hawk, the paws of a tiger, the scales of a carp, and body
of a serpent with a jagged spine and long tail (Fig.
9).
Epilogue
In Chinese folklore, the dragon is an all-pervading
force, riding on clouds to span great distances, aspiring
to the sun and the moon, striding in heaven's vault,
hibernating in the caverns of inaccessible mountains, and
coiling in unfathomable depths of the ocean. It is a
symbol of majestic power and divinity as well as a sign
for good luck and prosperity. However, it reveals itself
momentarily to people, only to vanish quickly again and
leave them wondering if they have actually seen it at
all.
