-
Chinese dragon vs Western dragon
The
Chinese
perform
the
dragon
dance
to
celebrate
holidays.
The
dragon
is
an
auspicious
creature
that
symbolizes
strength
and wisdom in Chinese culture.
The
Western
dragon
is
a
far
different
beast
from
its
Chinese
counterpart.
Very
different creatures both noted in ancient folklore
The Chinese dragon is a far different
beast from its Western counterpart. Smaug from
J.R.R.
Tolkien's
The
Hobbit
is
perhaps
the
most
widely
known
dragon
from
recent
Western
fiction,
a
cruel,
avaricious
and
bloodthirsty
creature
whose
lair
under
the
Lonely Mountain
identifies him as a creature of the earth. Tolkien
drew much of his
inspiration
for
Smaug
from
the
dragon
in
the
old
English
epic
of
Beowulf,
penned
more than a thousand
years earlier, which gives some indication of the
depth of the
European tradition of
portraying dragons as bad news.
By
contrast,
the
Chinese
dragon
is
an
auspicious
creature,
symbolizing
strength,
wisdom, good luck
and power over the elements of wind and water. As
such, Chinese
people
proudly
claim
they
are
the
descendants
of
the
dragon,
a
story
that
is
firmly
rooted
in national folklore and history. For example, an
anecdote in the Records of the
Grand
Historian (
《史记》
shǐjì) traces
the birth of Liu Bang, the first emperor of the
Western
Han
Dynasty
(206
BC-
AD
24):
One
day,
his
mother
falls
asleep
at
a
riverside and dreams of a dragon lying
on her body, only to wake up and find herself
pregnant. Traces of the anecdote
survived in the belief that a dragon appearing in
a
pregnant mother's dream was an
auspicious sign indicating she would give birth to
a
future emperor.
Indeed,
China's
feudal
rulers
did
everything
they
could
to
maintain
this
mythic
association, surrounding themselves
with dragon-related ornamentation, ruling from a
dragon throne and waging war under a
dragon flag. Pretty much everything related to
the emperor would be tagged with the
character
龙
龙袍
ngpá
o,
imperial
robes
embroidered
with
curling
dragons),
龙椅
(lóng
yǐ,
the
emperor's
seat),
龙床
< br>
(ló
ngchuá
ng,
the
emperor's
bed)
and
< br>龙颜
(ló
ngyá
n,
the
look
of
an
emperor).
While Smaug and other European dragons
have a solid, serpentine connection to the
earth, Chinese dragons are indisputably
rulers of the sky. The dragon was worshiped
as the God of Rain
(
雨神
, yǔshén), and in times
of drought or flooding, locals would
visit
a
dragon-
king
temple
(
龙王庙
l
ó
ngwá
ngmià
o)
and
burn
incense
to
pray
for
more
favorable
conditions.
It
is
also
said
that
natural
disasters
such
as
floods
or
tornados
(
龙卷风
lóngjuǎnfēng, literally, the dragon
rolls
up the wind) indicate
the
dragon king is in bad temper.
Dragons'
association
with
thunder,
lightening
and
rain
may
have
prompted
the
widespread belief that there are more
likely to be a flurry of natural disasters in the
Year of the Dragon, and Chinese New
Year celebrations the world over will include
ceremonies
and
prayers
dedicated
to
warding
off
the
possibility
of
such
a
calamity
striking people's
homes.
The dragon's power to control
rain and waves is also closely related to its rank
in the
pantheon
of
12
zodiac
animals
(rat,
ox,
tiger,
rabbit,
dragon,
snake,
horse,
sheep,
monkey,
cock, dog
and
pig). Various
tales
describe the race of these 12
animals
to
secure
their place on the list, but the sequence is
determined by the time of day the
animal
is
most
active,
at
least
in
the
eyes
of
the
ancient
Chinese.
The
dragon
corresponds to 7 am
to 9 am, when it is most likely to be foggy,
allowing the dragon
to ride atop clouds
and mist. However, parts of the dragon are usually
hidden in the
heavy
fog,
giving
rise
to
the
phrase
神龙见首不见尾
see
the
head
of
the
mystical
dragon
but
not
its
tail
which
now
refers
to
someone
who
has
no
fixed
whereabouts and is difficult for others
to trace.
In Chinese folk art paper-
cuts,
a typical
pattern
shows the dragon riding on clouds.
Another
depicts
two
dragons
playing
with
a
pearl
(
双龙戏珠
shuānglóngxìzhū),