Why do dragons and gold and silver treasures often form CP?

"Zhuangzi Lie Yukou" says: A poor man who lived by the river, and his son dived underwater and obtained a jewel worth a thousand gold. The father said, "Break this bead quickly." Such a precious orb must have been obtained from under the jaw of the dragon when it went down to the ninefold abyss. If you can get the orb, you must have fallen asleep when you ran into a dragon. When Lilong wakes up, will you be able to save your life?"

Li's original meaning is a black horse, and Lilong refers to a kind of black dragon.

Zhuangzi tells this story to illustrate that windfalls often mean great danger. But what impressed the public the most was that the dragon had a precious orb. Later, Dragon Ball or Lizhu became a specialized term.

With such a treasure in the body, if the dragon is not strong, then it will inevitably have the safety of the dragon body. There is such a story in Tang Dynasty novels: In the early years of Tang Dezong's construction, there was a scholar named Ren Xu, who lived in seclusion in the mountains. One day an old man came to visit him, claiming to be a dragon, and living in a large pond a mile to the west. The old man said that in two days, a Taoist priest would arrive, drain the water in the pool, and then kill himself.

He asked Ren for help. Ren Wei said: "I am just a person in the world, I only know poetry, books, etiquette and music, and I don't know how to save you?" The old man said, it's very simple, you just need to wait on the side, see that the pool is about to dry, and shout "Heaven has a fate, the one who kills the yellow dragon will die", and that's it.

So Ren Ji waited by the pool early, and sure enough, he saw a Taoist descending from the sky, and threw a few ink talismans into the water, and the pool dried up in a blink of an eye, only to see a yellow dragon, crawling on the sand at the bottom of the pool. Ren Xuan shouted according to the old man's instructions, and the pool immediately overflowed again.

The Taoist priest was angry, and kept throwing talismans into the water, and Ren Ji kept shouting, and this pool also entered the state of the classic application problem of primary school: the drainage pipe and the water inlet pipe were opened at the same time, how long would it take to drain the water? The Taoist priest yelled at Ren Xuan: "I have been practicing hard for ten years before I can use this dragon as food." You're a scholar, why do you care so much about other species?"

Of course, Huang Long was grateful, and gave Ren a jewel with a diameter of one inch. Later, Ren Xuan sold this jewel to a Hu man who knew the goods. Hu Ren said: "This is the real treasure of the dragon, and ordinary people cannot get it." So he bid tens of millions of dollars and bought the Dragon Balls.

In more dragon stories, dragons possess more wealth than orbs. This is related to the cultural exchanges between China and India. The dragon lives in the Dragon Palace, and there are huge treasures in the Dragon Palace, which is often mentioned in Buddhist scriptures. As we all know, the style of Indian literature is often the most extravagant, exaggerated and gorgeous, and the style of Chinese dragons has also changed greatly. One or two beads, even if they are priceless, cannot show the luxury of the dragon at all.

Take the classic work "The Biography of Liu Yi" in the Tang Legend as an example, Liu Yi went to the Dragon Palace, and the gift he received was "unspeakable". You must know that Yangzhou was the richest area in the world at that time, and the rich people in Yangzhou could not compare, so it was almost equal to the first in the world. In various later stories, dragons possessed a wide variety of treasures, which became more and more stereotypes. In "Journey to the West", when Sun Wukong went to the Dragon Palace of the East China Sea to ask for weapons, "The Dragon King of the Sea has no treasure!" has become a folk proverb.

Now, the dragon in Chinese corresponds to the dragon in English. Many scholars are quite dissatisfied with this translation, feeling that the difference between dragon and dragon is very large in terms of image and temperament, and it is not appropriate to confuse it.

In fact, the interesting thing about the two lies in many places, between the similar and the unlike. For example, sitting on a large amount of treasure is a common characteristic of dragons and dragons. Correspondingly, both in China and in the West, there are many stories of wealth gained from the dragon.

However, the dragon-slaying career of Western heroes is often related to national fortunes. The Old English epic "Beowulf" tells that the old hero Beowulf bravely fought the poisonous dragon and finally died together, and his last words were:

For the sake of this treasure, I thank God,

King of glory, eternal God,

Let me win for my people,

Let me see with my own eyes before I die,

Such a gift!

For the sake of this treasure, I handed over the last

One winter, please take care of me

The interests of the kingdom......

A more typical example is the German epic poem "Song of the Nibelungen", in which a country that has the treasure of the dragon is called a Nibelonite. The ownership of the treasure is related to the rise and fall of the Netherlands, Burgundy and even the Huns.

As for the Chinese story, the fortune from the dragon is generally only improved by personal life - there are many stories in Jin Yong's novels about people who want to find treasure and then use it as capital to compete for the world. This is an imported Western tradition, not an authentic domestic product.

The treasure of the dragon can be seen as a symbol of wealth outside of the social order. The era of the European epics mentioned above was the first half of the Middle Ages, when Europe was at its most chaotic and poor. The so-called "kingdom" is mostly smaller than one of China's largest counties. The Roman Empire before this era was probably the peak of human social and economic development before modern times. It is not surprising that the wealth left over from a collapsed empire would suddenly be many times its normal income if it were to be picked up again by any tribe. Therefore, the dream of slaying dragons and becoming a powerful country still has a bit of a shadow of reality in Europe.

By the late Middle Ages, Europe had begun to develop, but it was still more prosperous and luxurious than the East, and after Columbus discovered the New World, there was more wealth to be found and grabbed abroad, and this dream could be carried on all the way.

Unlike China, this "treasure" cannot be said to be insignificant, at least not grandiose. Possession of huge wealth is not decisive in the competition for the world. In the story of the Three Heroes of Wind and Dust, the bearded guest has been saving for many years in order to chase the deer in the Central Plains, and this money is called "the capital of the dragon war", but as soon as the "brilliant and amazing" Li Shimin appeared, the bearded guest died when he saw it, and immediately gave the money to Li Jing without hesitation to assist Li Shimin, and he could only go overseas to start a business.

• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Liu Bo

Editor-in-charge: Chen Bin