The previous article talked about the image of the dragon and several academic conjectures about the origin of the dragon, and today we continue to talk about the types and attributes of dragons, as well as the dragon keepers during the Xia Dynasty.
<h1>Species of dragons</h1>
There are several subspecies of dragons mentioned in ancient texts, of which four are more common:
The first is the dragon, the most common of the dragon subspecies. According to Guo Pu's commentary on the Classic of Mountains and Seas, jiao looks like a snake with four legs, a small head and a thin neck, white tumors on its body, and dozens of circumferences, and the eggs it lays are as big as one or two stone urns and can eat people.
Regarding the difference between the dragon and the dragon, there are different opinions and inconclusive conclusions. "Guangya" said: "There are scales and dragons." And Qian Gao and Wang Yi respectively said in the annotation of "Leaving the Sorrow" that "Jiao Yilong genus, hornless" and "Small Jiao, Big Dragon".
The second is the dragon, which is said in the Shuowen: "The dragon, if the dragon is yellow, the northern is called the earth fly, from the insect, the sound, or the hornless mantis." The hornless feature overlapped with the feature of the jiao. Wen Ying and Zhang Yi, in their annotations to the "Biography of Sima Xiangru of the Book of Han", respectively said that "the ant is the dragon" and "the red ant, the female dragon is also".
【Dragon】
In addition, in the "Left Biography", there are "cast to the four races to the imperial charm" and "the charm of the dragon, can not meet it", here the stingray refers not to the dragon, but to the mountain spirit.
The third is the dragon, which Wang Yi said in his note "Leaving sorrow": "There are horned dragons, and hornless dragons." "But there are also other claims that the dragon is a juvenile.
The fourth is Ying Long, one of the gods invited by the Yellow Emperor to help when he fought against Xuan You, and the Classic of Mountains and Seas has the words "Ying You is the yellow emperor of the soldiers, the Yellow Emperor is the wild of Jizhou that Ying Long attacked, and the ying dragon livestock water" "Ying Long has killed Xuan You, and killed the father of Kua". Judging from the records of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Ying Long resembles a single god, but later texts regard Ying Long as a species of dragon. The Guangya records: "There are scaly dragons, winged dragons, horned dragons, and hornless dragons." ”
It can be seen that although the ancients had a rich classification of dragons, in addition to yinglong, the distinction between various dragons was very vague, and the most important thing was to focus on whether to teach this point. In addition, the literature also records the dragons such as flying dragons, xianlong, Tuolong, and panlong, but the introduction is only a few words, and it is really impossible to analyze.
【Han brick painting Ying Long】
<h1>Dragons are water gods</h1>
In Western literature and film and television works, dragons are depicted as creatures that can breathe fire, but dragons in Chinese mythology are water creatures.
The eleventh verse of the Shuowen says: "The dragon, the scales of the insect, can be mysterious, can be thin and huge, can be short and long, the spring equinox and ascend to the sky, the autumn equinox and the abyss." "The Great Dai Li Yi Ben Ming" said: "There are three hundred and sixty scaly insects, and the dragon is long." What is the so-called "scale worm"? Before the Han Dynasty, Chinese referred to animals as "insects", which were divided into five major categories: birds with feathers, so they were called feathers; mammals had hair, so they were called caterpillars; insects, turtles and other animals with hard shells were called beetles or mesembles; animals with scales such as fish and snakes were called scale insects; and animals with a smooth body like humans were called worms or worms. Dragons are representative animals of the lepidial species.
According to ancient Chinese legend, the Dragon King was in charge of the clouds and rain. "Journey to the West" mentions that there are dragon kings not only in the east, south, west and north of the sea, but also in rivers and lakes. The ninth time it talked about the Jinghe Dragon King being beheaded for changing the rainfall point and time. From this, it can be seen that the dragon has the nature of a water god. The proverb "The great water washed away the Dragon King Temple - the family does not recognize the family" also reflects the close relationship between the dragon and the water.
【Dragon King】
The Shuowen says: "(The dragon) ascends to the heavens at the spring equinox, and dives into the abyss at the autumn equinox." "This is because every year after the spring, the weather began to become rainy, from the autumn, the weather became dry again, the ancients explained this change as the reason for the activities of the dragon, the spring dragon flew into the sky, began to rain, the autumn dragon hid in the water, the rain decreased.
Examining the close relatives of dragons, it is also mostly related to fish and water. For example:
The "Unitary Yang Miscellaneous Tricks and One of the Broad Moving Plants" says: "When the fish reaches three hundred and sixty years, it is a dragon and draws water to fly away." "It can be seen that in the eyes of the ancients, dragons and fish are the same kind and can control water. There are similar passages in the Thirteenth of the Sayings.
The Ying Long mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is obviously the god of rain, with the ability to store water, and the rain and dew are abundant everywhere he goes.
There is a divine beast called the Snout, which is one of the nine sons of the "Dragon Birth", also known as the tail of the clam. The "Su Shi Yanyi" volume records: "The clam is a sea beast" and "the tail of the clam, the water spirit is also". Therefore, the tail is often placed on the roof ridge to prevent fire. Clams and mantises are connected, so they are also sea beasts.
【Whip Kiss】
Although jiao and dragons can moisten the earth with clouds and rain, they are often regarded as the culprits of flooding.
According to Sichuan folklore, when Li Bing entered Shu during the Warring States period, he learned that the people of Shudi had been plagued by floods for many years, so he sent his son Erlang to find out the cause of the floods. As a result, Jiro found out that the culprit was a dragon (or dragon), and he caught it and locked it in a deep pool with chains. The flooding in Shudi has since subsided.
According to the legend of Tongbai County, Henan, soon after the founding of Heaven and Earth, there was a lot of water everywhere for some reason. Pangu went to investigate the cause, and it turned out that it was nine dragons who were stirring up trouble. Pangu then tied the dragons with ropes and suppressed them at the foot of the Stone Lion Mountain.
Stories of dragons and dragons like this causing floods are widely circulated throughout the folk, which also proves from the side that dragons and dragons do have the nature of water gods or water demons.
Why did ancient Chinese regard dragons as water gods? This is due to the fact that the prototype of the dragon is a snake, and the snake mainly inhabits the vicinity of the water, plus the snake is particularly easy to cause people to fear, so it is often worshipped as a water god or water demon. And the dragon inherits this attribute of the snake.
[Comic strip "The Book of Chopping Jiao", Jiao and Dragon are on the one hand as water gods, on the other hand, they are also the culprits of flooding]
<h1>Dragon keepers</h1>
The "Twenty-Ninth Year of Zuo Chuan Zhaogong" records that when Emperor Shun was emperor, there was a person named Dong Father who was good at raising dragons, so Emperor Shun gave them a new surname for their family, called The Dragon Clan, which was specifically responsible for raising dragons. After Emperor Shun's death, there were fewer dragons, and the Dragon Clan also declined.
By the time of the Xia Dynasty, the monarch Kong Jia had obtained two dragons, one male and one female, but he could not find anyone from the Dragon Clan, and how to raise these two dragons became a problem. Later, Kong Jia found a man named Liu Lei, who was a descendant of Emperor Yao, who had followed the Dragon Clan to learn to raise dragons, and Kong Jia asked him to take care of the two dragons. Who knew that this Liu Lei was not skilled in learning and raised the female dragon of the two dragons to death. Moreover, he was also very bold, and simply made a dish of the dead female dragon and offered it to Kong Jia to eat. Kong Jia was full of praise after eating, and rewarded Liu Lei heavily. Not long after, Kong Jia ordered Liu Lei to lead the two dragons out to show him on a whim. Liu tired to see that the matter could no longer be hidden, so he ran away overnight. (See Historia Natsumotoji)
After Liu Lei escaped, Kong Jia invited a man named Shi Men to raise dragons. This division has real ability to raise dragons very well. However, he did not know how to offend Kong Jia, and as a result, he was killed by Kong Jia and buried in the suburbs. Not long after Shimen died, there was a great storm in the sky, and after the wind and rain stopped, then there was a fire in the mountains and forests. Kong Jia saw these strange things and thought that the spirit of shimen was doing something wrong, so he took a carriage to the outskirts to sacrifice him, only to die suddenly on the way back. (See Biography of the Immortals)
As for what happened to the remaining dragon, the literature did not explain. However, since the only master who knew how to raise dragons was dead, the fate of that dragon would certainly not be much better.
Part of the reason why Kong Jia could not raise dragons was because he did not know how to use people, and part of the reason was that there was a problem with his own virtue. According to legend, the dragon is a spiritual animal that only echoes the monarch of the Holy Ming. The reason why Emperor Shun raised dragons when he was emperor was because Emperor Shun was diligent and loved the people, and Kong Jia was a dark lord, so even if he got the dragon, he could not raise it.