Since ancient times, the rulers of our country have been surrounded by many myths and stories that are difficult to distinguish between true and false, and the most exaggerated and mysterious of them must be the name of Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji.
It is said that Liao Taizu was the "son of the sun".
His mother dreamed that the sun fell into her arms, so she became pregnant, and Jeroboam was born as old as a 3-year-old child, crawling on the ground, speaking in a hundred days, and predicting the prophet.
Isn't that amazing?
It is said that after the unification of the Khitan by Yelü Abaoji, he once shot a dragon, and there was a keel as evidence, and later generations once saw the keel and recorded it in the book.
In fact, when hearing this story, many people will think that it is fabricated, but what is surprising is that the "dragon shooting" incident of Yelü Abaoji is recorded in detail in the main history!
That is to say, Jeroboam once really shot a creature similar to a dragon, but whether it was a real dragon or some other creature remains to be examined.
It is recorded in the "Liao Shi Taizu Benji": "Gengchen, there is a dragon seen in the water of the Tula Mountain Yang, shot at it, and hid its bone inner house." ”
This incident occurred in 920 AD, only three or four years after the establishment of the Khitan by Yelü Abaoji, according to records, when Liao Taizu accidentally saw a dragon floating in the mountains and rivers basking in the sun, so he took a bow and arrow to shoot the dragon, and then stored the skeleton in his house.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was an author named Hong Hao, who also told about the "shooting dragon" of Yelü Abaoji, and his account was more detailed.
Hong Hao has a work called "Song Desert Chronicle", which is some chores he recorded after he was exiled to the Jin Dynasty, and this skill was not passed on at that time.
According to Hong Hao's account, when Yelü Abaoji had just gotten up, he saw a black dragon winding on the mountain for dozens of feet, so he immediately took out a bow and arrow and shot.
The black dragon was startled, and then flew out of the sky for fifteen hundred miles, and finally landed on the west side of the Yellow Dragon Mansion, and later the skeleton of the black dragon was hidden in the palace of Yelü Abaoji, and after the Liao was destroyed, it was stored in the Inner Treasury by the Jin people.
This keel was later seen by Hong Hao's eldest son, with a tail and limbs, except for the two horns on the head that were cut off, the rest of the place is similar to the water dragon painted by Dong Yu.
Then from this we can extract some key information:
This black dragon is "tens of feet" long, has a tail and four limbs, and is similar to dong Yu's dragon in other places except for no horns.
First of all, "tens of zhang" is really exaggerated, a zhang is about 3.3 meters, hong hao described dozens of zhang is a full thirty or forty meters, if Yelü Abaoji can really shoot a dragon tens of meters long with an arrow, it is really "immortal in the world".
In addition, let's take a look at what the legendary "Water Dragon Painted by Dong Yu" looks like.
Dong Yu is a painter of the Five Dynasties southern Tang Dynasty, he is very good at painting dragons, but also known as the "absolute brush", Dong Yu's paintings of the water dragon has four limbs and five claws, the body has scales, the forehead has horns, it is indeed the "image of the dragon" in our impression.
So, the dragon described in Hong Hao's book can be said to have a nose and an eye, and it also echoes the history of Zhengshi, did Yelü Abaoji really shoot a dragon in that year? Does dragons really exist?
Before we say whether he actually shot the black dragon, let's take a look at the life of the legend of Jeru Apaoji, and we may find the answer from it.
The birth of Yelü Apaoji was originally full of mythology, and when he landed on the ground, the house was surrounded by a divine light and a strange fragrance, and since he was a child, there were gods and men guarding him around him.
His exports were all prophecies, and he could understand the affairs of the state since he was a child, and even his uncle who was in charge of the government had to ask him.
When Yelü Abaoji grew up, he was like the reincarnation of a god, he was nine feet tall, his eyes were like eagles, and the bow and arrow in his hand were 300 pounds.
Judging from the appearance of The Jeroboam, it is not impossible that the black dragon that can shoot "dozens of zhang" is not impossible.
Yelü Abaoji's whole life was inseparable from the "dragon", which is recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian:
"Smelling of Yue's life, the light of the gods belongs to the heavens, the fragrance of the fragrance is abundant, the dreams are inspired by the gods, the dragon Sikkim Pei... In the past, Yu Yue's uncle Shi Lu tasted: 'I am a snake, and a child is a dragon. 'Heaven and time, almost can not be lost. ”
This passage actually reveals two meanings, first, Yelü Abaoji was taught by the gods in his dream, and the dragon gave him a golden pendant; second, Yelü Abaoji was destined for heaven.
It can be said that Yelü Abaoji made a perfect preparation for his unification of the Khitans.
Of course, there can also be another explanation for this matter, in ancient times, all people with ambitions seemed to be inseparable from the "dragon", in order to be related to the dragon, there must be a mythical and legendary birth, and there are adventures that ordinary people do not have.
Liu Bang is one example.
Yelü Abaoji admired Liu Bang very much, to what extent did he admire it? He gave himself a Han surname as "Liu", his name was Liu Yi, and his eldest son was called Liu Bei.
This is not the end, he also gave his daughter-in-law, empress, mother, grandmother, and even three generations up, down three generations, all given the surname "Xiao".
The reason was that he himself was very envious of Xiao He's allusion to helping Liu Bang win the world.
Coincidentally, Liu Bang also had a legendary experience of "cutting the white snake".
It is said that one day, Liu Bang, because he drank too much wine, when he was walking at night, he encountered a large snake blocking the way, and his men returned to tell him that there was a snake in front of him, but Liu Bang said that "the big husband has nothing to be afraid of."
So he drew his sword and went straight ahead and cut the snake in half.
The people who passed by this in the back actually saw an old woman weeping in sorrow, so they went forward to ask why, and the old woman replied: "Wu'er is the son of the White Emperor, and he came here in the form of a snake, but he was killed by the son of the Red Emperor." ”
Just when everyone thought that the old woman was talking nonsense, they saw a gust of wind blowing, and the old woman actually disappeared, and it was because of this that people regarded Liu Bang as the true dragon heavenly son.
In addition, in the Book of Han, it is also recorded that Liu Bang was born, and Liu Bang's mother also became pregnant with a dragon in a dream, and then gave birth to Gao Zu.
Then after Yelü Abaoji and Liu Bang have this level of relationship, it is not difficult to understand the matter of "shooting dragons", the mothers of the two are pregnant like the same, and they both have the experience of "meeting dragons", which does not rule out that Yelü Abaoji deliberately "sanctified" the mythical story in order to look up to the idols.
At that time, Yelü Abaoji had just ascended the throne for a few years, and it was precisely when he needed to sit on the throne, so in order to make people more convinced of him, he made up many stories of his own "Mandate of Heaven" in order to promote the idea of "divine right of kings".
So since we know that this is a mythical story that Jeroboam himself polished, and the history also records that he did kill a dragon-like creature in the first place, what is this creature?
According to the research of many scholars, the jeru'apaoji shot certainly not a dragon, so it should be some kind of huge reptile.
Then when it comes to snake-like animals, the first thing is a python.
In the "Song Desert Chronicle", Hong Hao said that the black dragon was more than ten zhang, which is obviously a more exaggerated statement, while the "History of Liao" said that this dragon was about 5 feet, that is, about 1 meter 5 in length, which is more reliable.
The ancients originally liked to associate pythons with dragons, and since ancient times, there has been a saying of "pythons and dragons", so if in order to publicize the "destiny of Heaven" of Yelü Abaoji, it is understandable to have exaggerated elements.
After all, since ancient times, the "dragon" represents the emperor, and when Yelü Abaoji needs to sit on the throne, such a story must be with strong political overtones.
Then the problem came again, according to Hong Hao, the skeleton of the black dragon had no horns, but also four legs, and the rest of the parts were similar to the legendary dragons.
So if it weren't for pythons, among other legged reptiles, lizards would also be more in line with the description.
Lizards are a very large "reptile family", they have a wide variety of species, habitat is also distributed around the world, and the living environment is quite different.
Some species of lizards do survive in the mountains, and can even fly briefly in the sky, and the largest surviving lizard in the world is called the Komodo dragon, which can grow up to 3 meters long and weigh hundreds of kilograms.
This lizard is black throughout and has a forked tongue, which despite the exaggerated mythological color, is actually in line with the image described in the record.
In addition to speculating that the so-called "black dragon" was actually just a lizard, there was also speculation that perhaps the keel was forged from beginning to end.
After all, "Son of the Sun" and "Nine Feet Tall" were originally mythological descriptions, so the possibility of Yelü Abaoji "shooting dragons" is not very large.
In order to make people believe in this matter, it is not impossible for him to imitate a dragon skeleton, after all, from ancient times to the present, the idea of "real dragons" is not uncommon.
Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, the possibility of Yelü Abaoji's "shooting dragon" is very small, and the high probability is just a myth that he polished and even made up in order to consolidate his position.
Since ancient times, the dragon has only existed in people's imagination, and what it represents is people's good wishes and is a great national symbol cultivated by Chinese civilization.
We have a reverence for the gods, but we cannot have superstitious psychology, and what we must fear is the spirit contained in them.
In fact, whether there is a dragon in the world has always been a controversial topic, and many people can clearly say what they saw when they saw the dragon, but so far they still can't come up with any strong evidence.
So in your heart, do you believe in the existence of the dragon as a creature? Have you ever heard of the legends of the older generation about dragons? If so, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section.