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As early as the 16th century, some European missionaries and adventurers came to China, and although they did not see real dragons, they always had the opportunity to see dragon patterns.
Because it was a purely imaginary coat of arms, it was difficult for them to find a counterpart in European culture, so they took its shape and generally wrote it "Serpientes."
And they were clearly told from the very beginning of their contact with the dragon pattern that it was the "emperor's coat of arms" (Mendoza's History of the Great Chinese Empire).
1. Dragon and Dragon
These dragon patterns, which are regarded as "serpentine", were introduced to Europe as late as the 16th century, and were often presented as precious gifts to churches for decoration, and the first to introduce the Chinese dragon concept to Europe was the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci.
These introductions are epitomized in the History of the Christian Expedition to China (1615), compiled and published by Kinnikou.
Matteo Ricci generally wrote dragons as Dragoni and sometimes as Dragone in his manuscripts.
In 1616, when Kinnige's nephew Little Jinnige translated the book into French, he always translated dragon as Dragon, which was probably the first complete translation of the Chinese "dragon" and the Western dragon.
After Matteo Ricci, the European missionaries who followed all consciously translated dragon as dragon.
As bystanders, they have a much more sober understanding of Chinese's dragon worship than the Chinese scholars, and Chinese often debate with them about the authenticity of dragons.
Chinese generally believe that dragons are heavenly fetish, Europeans generally have a negative attitude.
Kicher even pointed out unceremoniously in The Illustrated Story of China:
"The emperor's costume was decorated with dragons and phoenixes and many precious pearls and gemstones, a way of dressing designed to evoke a sense of awe among his subjects."
To put it bluntly, this can be directly translated as "the dragon and phoenix are decorative patterns used by Chinese emperors to scare the common people."
The writings of Westerners in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties always devoted a lot of space to introducing Chinese's religious beliefs and folk superstitions, but these introductions rarely involved dragon superstitions, and occasionally involved, mostly related to feng shui beliefs.
Perhaps due to language barriers, their introduction to dragon culture tends to focus on dragon patterns rather than dragon legends.
2. Europe's "dragon fashion"
On the question of the nature of the dragon, pointing almost unanimously at the Chinese emperor, in the words of An Wensi:
"The Chinese emperor's mark is a dragon, with five claws, so his clothes and furniture, whether painted or embroidered, must be decorated with dragons. So, when you say dragon's eye, dragon's clothes, or dragon's clothes, dragon's clothes, Chinese understand that you are talking about the emperor's eyes and the emperor's clothing, and so on. (New History of China)
The idea that the dragon was "a symbol of imperial power in China" was the consensus of almost all missionaries who came to China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Although these missionaries were opponents of idolatry and sometimes ridiculed the dragon, they all objectively reported the status of dragons in China and the use of dragon patterns, and did not deliberately ugly dragons as sea monsters or demons, on the contrary, the dragon patterns written by these missionaries always appeared with royal style.
Such an introduction fascinated the romantic aristocrats who were already fascinated by the mysterious culture of the East, and the dragon and phoenix emblems used by the Chinese emperors were very popular.
In the 17th century, "the manufacturers of Paris, Tours, and Lyon, wishing to cater to the tastes of the Chinese people, imitated Chinese silk clothing with dragon motifs, some of which were extremely delicate" (Richwin, "Contacts between Chinese and European Culture in the Eighteenth Century").
In the 18th century, the European aristocracy set off a dragon whirlwind, and some high-end aristocrats even imitated the Chinese garden style to build private gardens such as "Dragon Residence" and "Dragon Spring", which was addicted to Chinese emperors.
A German prince named Emmmanuel, who "lived in exile in France and returned to Munich, brought with him a fashion for Chinese things" and built a Chinese-style floating tower in his park, which a visitor visited in 1781 said: "Many dragons and snakes carved from stone can be seen on the left and right, forming the 'dragon spring'." ”
Another famous example is that in 1773 Frederick the Great built a villa in Potsdam in accordance with the aesthetic style of the Chinese landscape and named it "Dragon Cottage".
However, the imitation of the Chinese style by the German aristocracy was second-hand after all, probably not very similar, and for this was ridiculed by some "Chinese experts".
Whiteto, considered the first painter to introduce the Chinese style to France, was also criticized by later critics:
"The Chinese in Waitow's painting is really just a European in disguise. For example, a painting named 'Emperor of China' is the culmination of all kinds of grotesques. In the picture, the emperor is holding a flower scepter, sitting on a high altar under a sunflower tree, surrounded by flower branches, next to a Chinese attendant, and two Europeans on the right, who are approaching to pay their respects. ”
Examining the "dragon fashion" that swept Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, it is easy to understand the following inference:
Only when Europeans have a fondness for China and Chinese culture, and understand that the dragon pattern has the power connotation of being the emperor's emblem, can they become interested in this "evil and ugly" looking dragon, stimulate beauty, and see it as a fashion label. Especially for noble ladies who want to show their noble beauty, if they do not understand the meaning of the dragon's "power beauty" in China, it is difficult to imagine that they will use a sea monster dragon or devil dragon as a fashion label and embroider it on their clothes.
Today we can also see many living utensils ordered by the British aristocracy in China in the mid-19th century, and the number or size of dragon patterns coiled on them are more exaggerated than the dragon vessels of the Chinese imperial palace, and these dragon images are very delicate and mature.
Native European dragons are mostly demons such as sea monsters, while dragons from China are the emperor's coat of arms, and two slightly similar animals share the same name Dragon.
In order to distinguish this dragon from Pilong, Europeans often add a qualifier China or Chinese before Dragon, which is probably the earliest source of "Chinese dragon".
The beauty and ugliness variation of the dragon image is just a barometer of the glory and decline of the empire, the country is strong and the dragon is beautiful, and the country is weak and the dragon is ugly, and the dragon is translated as Dragon or Long.
The longing and yearning for a powerful Chinese empire was the Eastern dream of Europeans in the 16th and 18th centuries.
However, the good dreams did not last long, and the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century quickly shocked Europeans with a series of antics that made noise. The Europeans woke up, but the Chinese dragon was coaxed to sleep by the Europeans.
3. The hook between the dragon and autocracy
Westerners look at China, which has the advantage of watching flowers and bystanders, and often can get to the essence without the details, and Jesuit missionaries have long noticed the delicate relationship between "emperor-dragon-sky".
The Chinese emperor is the proud son of heaven and needs to exercise his sacred authority according to the mandate of heaven, so monopolizing the dragon that communicates heaven and earth is also equivalent to monopolizing the divine power of "carrying fortune from heaven", "not only the emperor's clothes are embroidered with dragons, but dragons are painted on gold and silver vessels, roofs, and all the emperor's utensils in the room" ("Chinese Comics")
The dragon is the emperor's heavenly beast, and therefore the symbolic capital of the autocratic imperial power, which has magical power.
Ann Wensi ironically pointed out:
"A shameless thief, feared and hated, if he is allowed to change his clothes, put on a crown, and put on a dragon robe, the same man will be loved and respected by the whole world tomorrow, even if it is known that he is of humble origin, but they will immediately call him the Son of Heaven, the sovereign of the world." (New History of China)
It is precisely for this reason that peasant leaders or great careerists in Chinese history have all dreamed of adding dragon robes.
It is easy for Westerners in China to see and understand the "relationship" between the dragon and the emperor, but for those who have not experienced China firsthand, but like to talk about China, it is a bit troublesome to explain this "relationship", and they will naturally look for a corresponding "relationship" from the existing European schema.
The French priest Duhd is such a famous scholar of sinology, who has never been to China, but asserts in the "Complete History of the Chinese Empire":
"The image of the flying dragon is a complete synthesis of various above-ground creatures, and there are other ancient coins that also bear the image of the dragon, which is undoubtedly the national symbol of Chinese, just as the eagle was to Rome."
It is precisely because Duhd already had the existing schema of "eagle and Rome" in his mind that he arbitrarily compared the relationship between "dragon and China" to "as the eagle is to Rome".
This simple analogy with the help of existing schemas is easily understood and accepted by Europeans. The Complete History of the Chinese Empire is a collection of Chinese knowledge of 18th-century Europeans and a classic work with lasting influence. The idea that the dragon is the Chinese national symbol" has since pervasive.
Considering the coat of arms of an emperor or king as a national symbol is easy to understand for Europeans and Chinese.
Louis XIV's famous saying "Shu is the state" can be translated in the language of the Book of Poetry as "Under the heavens, there is no royal land; Leading the shores of the land, it is not Wang Chen."
Therefore, it is only natural that Europeans regard the dragon as China's national symbol.
4. How are dragons portrayed into ugly images?
Around the end of the 18th century, China's image had begun to fade.
After 1847, the famous "Six Nos Governor", Ye Mingchen, the Governor of Liangguang, who was a religious believer, ruled Guangdong and took a series of incredible "Wuwei" measures to deal with various demands, protests and violations by Westerners, winning a huge reputation for eccentricity in Europe, and in 1860 the London Comic Magazine simply ugly him as a fierce dragon.
Since then, the image of the Chinese dragon in British comics has begun to wander outside the emperor's dragon body, both to represent the entire country and to add to the fat and ugly "Mandarin".
In the Western insulting cartoons after the Second Opium War, no matter how ever-changing the shape of the dragon, the basic characteristics of the "ugly" are the same, and most of them will put a braid on the dragon's head to mark its Chinese characteristics.
After 1862, the Great Qing Dragon Banner was not only widely hoisted on the ships of the navy, but also used by overseas merchants as an advertising symbol for Chinese goods, and widely appeared in various newspapers and magazines in Europe, and the originally honorable dragon pattern was no longer the exclusive coat of arms of the aristocracy, but quietly transformed into an image representative of the Far East, a different culture, and a barbaric society.
The Chinese symbol of the dragon in American comics began around the late 1870s. Due to the low price of Chinese labor in the United States, a large number of American workers lost their employment competitiveness, and Chinese workers were regarded as the most immoral and dirty infidels.
The comic magazine "Wasp", founded in 1876, pointed the spearhead of racial discrimination at the Chinese from the beginning, and regarded the Chinese as accomplices of monopoly capital.
They originally painted the Chinese not as dragons, but as pigs, locusts, mice, frogs, bats, vampires and other ugly things. However, between 1879 and 1882, the magazine published a number of cartoons on the theme of dragons, using ugly dragons to refer to Chinese Americans.
Most of the Chinese dragons in these Western comics use exaggerated ugly techniques and combine a large number of Chinese elements, although they are far from the dragons Chinese imagined, they can be seen as dragons that symbolize China, such as the braid on the dragon's head, the Qing dynasty uniform on the dragon's body, and the opium smoking gun in the dragon's claw.
If the Opium War was lost to well-armed Westerners, then the Sino-Japanese War was lost to Japan, which was far inferior to China's manpower, material resources, financial resources, and military strength, which really disgraced the Qing Dynasty and even surprised many Westerners.
In the pen of European cartoonists, the originally hideous Chinese dragon had degenerated into no fighting spirit by the time of the Sino-Japanese War, and it was pitiful.
In the "Clumsy" comic "Good Dog", a European leads a dog with "ultimatum" written on his body, and is barking at the Chinese dragon, who is wearing Qing Dynasty shoes and shrinks in the corner of the wall in fear, his feet are soft, his eyes are closed, and he sits on his tail with his butt.
European narration on the screen:
"It's a very useful dog, I'll have to use it again."
Viewer narration outside the wall:
"Oh my God. It's unbelievable. ”
At this time, the pigtailed dragon repeatedly retreated to the point that it was not even as good as a dog.
The Chinese dragon of American comics is always associated with concepts such as opium, plague, dirty, and shady, which is disgusting.
In 1900, the Gengzi Incident caused China's image to fall to an unprecedented low, and the corresponding insulting comics also increased to an unprecedented high. The barbaric acts of the Eight-Nation Alliance were portrayed by the Western media as the great war of the civilized West against the ignorant East, and the symbolic meaning of the war aroused the strong creative desire of many cartoonists in the West, who simulated the classic scene of "St. George Slaying the Dragon" and created a series of comic works of the Chinese dragon with the blade of the expeditionary force.
In an American cartoon titled "First Priority," a braided dragon with "Boxer" written on its body is viciously pounced on the "goddess of civilization."
The goddess held a spear in her hand and said to the little Chinese emperor:
"You have to kill this dragon. If you don't do it, it's up to us. ”
It is clear that the Chinese dragon in the comic is not only no longer the emperor's coat of arms, but has become a symbol of the ignorant proletarian.
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