We can often see the dark and powerful dragon in "The Lord of the Rings" in Western film and television dramas and books, the cute and intelligent night fire in "How to Train Your Dragon", and the fire dragon who is good at breathing fire and fighting in Harry Potter, and these classic dragon images have left a deep impression on us.
Compared with the dragons in our culture, we can obviously perceive that the dragons in China and the West are very different, and they look unrelated, but why are they called dragons?
The Western dragon we remember, usually with huge wings shaped like bat wings, has a huge body, four claws are very thick, scales are all over the body, dark, good at breathing fire, mostly the embodiment of evil, with powerful mana.
The Chinese dragon is a horse-headed and snake-tailed dragon with antlers on its head, lion-like hair on its head, four claws, a snaking body, and a full body covered with fish-like scales. Good at water use, the classic image is the Dragon King, calling the wind and rain, keeping the wind and rain smooth.
The shape and meaning of Chinese and Western dragons
Although in appearance, Chinese and Western dragons are not the same species, they have the same characteristics. They all flew, flying extremely fast, the western dragon had wings, and the Chinese dragon Ying dragon also had wings. They were all huge and strong.
They all have sharp claws that can catch prey in the air like eagles. His whole body is covered with scales and his mana is strong. Whether in China or the West, the dragon is a symbol of strength, with great power, but also a mysterious and dangerous creature.
Moreover, in China and the West, dragons are divided into good and bad, good and evil, and under the image of the general evil of the dragon in the West, there are also dragons who are resolute and loyal to protect the country, and there are dragons with positive images in China, and there are also evil dragons that do evil and endanger the people.
The image of the Chinese dragon has a long history
The Chinese dragon was first produced as a totem, which was formed by a collection of various animals. According to legend, after the Yellow Emperor's tribe destroyed and annexed many clans, he added the snake totem of his tribe to the horn or antlers of the snake on the head of the snake, and later added the head of the horse, the claw of the eagle, the scale of the fish, etc. After a long period of evolution, the image of the dragon we are familiar with was formed.
By the time of the Shang Dynasty, the dragon had officially become a symbol of power and status. The "Son of Heaven" printed dragon patterns on flags and clothes, and dragon patterns also appeared on bronzes, and the dragon, with his great power, had become the object of pursuit by rulers.
As we all know, Chinese civilization is an ancient agricultural civilization, in fact, the image of the dragon is always adapted to civilization. The tribe where the dragon totem is located is the most powerful tribe when hunting.
With the development of agriculture, the dragon gradually showed the image of the dragon king, able to call the wind and rain. For agricultural civilization, the wind and rain are the most desired by the peasants, based on such appeals, whether it is up to the rulers, down to the common people, or large-scale sacrifices to pray for rain, or to build and worship the Dragon King Temple, it is spontaneous and came into being, even in modern times, there are still places where such activities will be held.
Historical translations continue to be used
Chinese dragons are called dragons as early as 1299 in the "Travels of Marco Polo", during the Qing Dynasty, Bai Jin, Zeng Dezhao and other missionaries translated the dragons in the I Ching into Drago, which is the Latin dragon.
Foreigners who came to China saw the image of the Chinese dragon and had similarities with their dragon, so they made such a translation, and later people recognized or used this translation for various reasons, so it has been passed down to this day.
When foreigners come to China, they not only need to overcome the problem of language, but also have a certain understanding of traditional culture in order to translate the translation into Xindaya.
If you want to make an accurate translation of the Chinese dragon, you must not only know the myths, but also contact the folklore, not only to appreciate the white snow of Yangchun, but also to see the people of Xia Riba.
Of course, foreigners like Marco Polo, who have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and have an important influence on cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, will also have ambiguity when translating, so it is understandable that later people continue to use the controversial dragon.
Inaccurate translation
In fact, we know that there are very big differences between Chinese and English, not only in terms of logic, image, etc., but also in terms of inclusiveness. Chinese dragon can remind us of many images of dragons, and the word dragon in the West refers to the image of a particular dragon.
In China, the dragon has a lot of meanings, beasts, symbols of power, sacrifice of dragons for rain, true dragon tianzi, etc., if you want to accurately express these different meanings, it is a bit too difficult for English. So you can only choose the word dragon as a generalization.
The original translation can no longer be examined, but we can trace it back to the creation of the dragon in Marco Polo's Travels in 1299. Marco Polo, who traveled to Asia and China for 17 years, wrote this travelogue, showing Europeans a mysterious and beautiful oriental continent.
The word dragon appears in travelogues to say that the imperial palace of the Yuan Dynasty was very ornate, and the palace and rooms were decorated with decorations of dragons that were either carved or gilded, which was very golden and brilliant.
It can be seen that at that time, the dragon, as a symbol of status, has been integrated into the royal life as an ornament. It is not like the West, after the rendering of religion, belief, etc., the dragon is evil, and people are afraid to avoid it.
Lack of English vocabulary
In fact, the fact that the word dragon cannot fully summarize the image of the Chinese dragon, and even that such an expression is wrong, has long been discovered and discussed by Chinese.
As early as 2006, there was a cultural controversy about the "dragon", when the translation and academic circles quarreled over what the correct translation of the "dragon" was.
There are many people who support loong as an English translation of dragons, but the word does not conform to the rules of spelling. But Loong's apologists argue that the Chinese dragon was originally a linguistic outsider to the West and did not need to conform to the rules of language. These discussions and exchanges are actually the embodiment of China's comprehensive national strength, and the West is constantly increasing its emphasis on mainland culture.
However, there are too many dragons in the Chinese, qinglong, Yinglong, 虺, 虬, 虬, 螭, Jiao and other more than a dozen dragons and dragon derivatives, even Chinese understanding needs a wide range of vocabulary and knowledge to support, not to mention English.
Ying Long Ancient Painting
The English translation of the dragon reflects the lack of vocabulary in this language, and English not only cannot accurately translate the creature of the dragon, but also makes it difficult to reflect all the types of dragons and the meaning behind them. For such a rich vocabulary, it takes Chinese this imaginative language to express it perfectly.
Not only dragons, but also many Chinese vocabulary, culture and other proper nouns in the English translation is biased, even full of errors, the lack of English vocabulary is an objective problem, although it is difficult for us to transform English.
But by strengthening our own influence, we can enrich the meaning of the original vocabulary into Chinese meaning, so that Westerners can also accept it.
It is also possible to convey the meaning of Chinese words through pinyin, English translation, etc., just as the ice pier is translated as Bing Dwen Dwen, foreigners can read it according to their own English rules, so that they can easily get our meaning.