Dragons, Qilin, Phoenix and other Mythical beasts
Chinese Dragons
Dragons in China are not the fire-breathing, evil monsters that they are portrayed elsewhere in the world. Maybe a different word should have been used to distinguish the Chinese version of these mythological creatures. The Chinese dragon is imperious, powerful but good-natured. People need to seek the favor of dragons and keep them on their side. It is a strong ‘yang’ animal (male, sun and active); as such it associated with thenumber nine (as 3 is yang, 3x3 is extremely yang) and soNine Dragons九龙jiǔ lóng are extremely propitious. Kowloon, part ofHong Kong means ‘nine dragons’ inCantonese. There is an impressive imperial Nine Dragon Wall of glazed tiles at both theSummer Palace and theForbidden City at Beijing.
According to an ancient classification the dragon is considered the chief of all scaled creatures, while birds are represented by thephoenix; animals by theunicorn and all shelled creatures by thetortoise. It is second only to humans in the hierarchy of animals. It has a sinuous body covered in scales, with four legs and two horns. It is said to be a composite of nine different creatures: camel’s head,deer’s horns,rabbit’s eyes, cow’s ears,snake’s neck,frog’s belly,carp’s scales,hawk’s claws andtiger’s palm. There are traditionally 81 (9x9) scales running along its spine. Its face has whiskers and a beard.
Dragons were well established in the Chinese mind as far back as theShang dynasty. Dragon shape decorations have been found on Yangzhou pottery dating back 6,000 years and there are hints that the original inspiration for a dragon was thealligator➚ of Southern China. Dragons are lords of nature, commanding the mountains, sky, sea and land. Dragons belong to various categories: heaven dragons (天龙 tiān lóng) ruling the sky; spirit dragons (神龙 shén lóng) ruling therain; earth dragons (地龙 dì lóng) ruling springs and streams, and treasure dragons (伏藏龙 fú cáng lóng) which guard buried riches. The blue-green dragon ( ) represents east and spring and is one of the four divisions of thetraditional month. The river forming a long stretch of China's north-eastern border is the黑龙江hēi lóng jiāng ‘Black Dragon River’ which in turn gives its name to the whole province.Buddhists brought with them into China a rather different view of dragons more akin to the europeans, Buddhist dragons are more cantankerous and prone to malice.
The Blue Dragon festival takes place on the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month each year. This was the day Lóng tái tóu龙抬头 when the dragons by tradition stirred from their winter slumber.
A representation of a贪龙 Tān lóng ‘greedy dragon’ was often put at the entrance to the administrator's house (theyamen) so that the administrator and all the supplicants were encouraged to keep themselves on good behavior by this savage and hungry representation of a dragon.
Toad
Frogs and toads are valued in China because they keep down insect pests on crops. In some regions their name is similar to qián 'money, coin' and this has given them an association with good fortune and luck.Read more…Hidden Dragons
Feng shui favors sites with a ‘hidden dragon’, which is found where the form of the surrounding hills look like a huge protecting dragon. Ideally this should be to the east of the location as in the case of the city ofNanjing. The film titleCrouching tiger, Hidden dragon➚ comes from a place of hidden strength, and a most auspiciousFeng Shui location.
Chinese Dragons are mostly associated with water, with the power to bring drought or floods, and so they controlled the lives of all those who cultivate the fields. Legend has it that a son of theEmperor Hongwu chose the site for the city ofBeijing as theMing capital after he had managed to tame two dragons who controlled the city's water supply. The belief in dragons has remained strong, at the start of the 20th century 82% of people believed they existed andYuan Shikai in 1912 sought to legitimize his claim to the Imperial throne by the appearance of a dragon - he sent teams of people to go and look for one.
Dragon Kings
The seas are ruled by dragon kings (龙王 lóng wáng), one for each of the traditional four seas that surround China. If a dragon king takes to the air it brings a great storm and rain - a typhoon (台风 tái fēng in Chinese). The Dragon King, ruler of water, traditionally lies out in the sun to dry his scales on thesixth day of the sixth lunar month. Death by drowning was considered a sacrifice to the dragon king and this is tied to the origin of theDragon Boat festival which at a later date came to commemorate the drowning ofQu Yuan. Originally people pleaded with the dragons to bring rain for a good harvest at this mid-summer festival as a drought was just as ruinous as a flood.
In ancient timeslightning was considered to be ‘dragon fire’. An eclipse of themoon or sun was believed to be caused by a dragon eating the celestial body. TheMoon was said to rise between the horns of the Spring Dragon. As themoon is often represented as apearl, the common depiction of two dragons chasing and holding pearls (as in theDragon Dance) relates tomoon andthunder. Others say the pearl represents knowledge or the sun.
A lower category of dragon are the ‘Hornless dragons➚’螭 chī also known as ‘mountain demons’. They are depicted as small dragons without horns:螭吻 ‘Chī wěn’ considered by some to be the Chinesechimera➚ and sometimes also termed辟邪 bì xié. An early form of the dragon is the夔 Kuí dragon that is shown more like a snake with one leg or no legs typically decoratingShang dynasty bronzes. Thekui is considered an emblem to remind people to refrain from greed.
There are many assorted dragon connections. Fossils of animals were known as ‘dragon's bones and teeth’.Traditional medicines are often named after parts of the dragon to advertise their potency. TheDragon Dance takes place atChinese New Year and also atmarriage ceremonies. Carvings of dragons andchiwen are some of the mythological beasts placed at the ends of theroof ridges of buildings. On the very top of the roof ridge they acted aslightning conductors.
Proverbial Dragons
Dragons are one of the twelve animals of theastrological year, people born in a dragon year are born leaders and very lucky as a dragon year is considered the best astrological year. For more on dragon symbolism please refer to oursymbolism section.
The Dragon Throne
The dragon has been the symbol of theemperor since theHan dynasty. The emperor ruled China from theDragon Throne➚ at the Imperial capital (Beijing,Nanjing and other cities over the centuries). The dragon throne faced south and was considered the very center of the civilized world. The number of claws of the dragon's feet became important, but only later on. They are often portrayed on ceramics, silk and carvings. The five clawed dragon is reserved for the emperor and his sons; anyone else found with a depiction of a five clawed dragon could be executed. Princes of the third and fourth rank were allowed four clawed dragons, three claws or less were reserved for thetop officials at court.
A very influential portrayal of dragons was made by the artistChen Rong in 1244. From then on most dragons conform to this style.
Qilin
Proverb
The Qilin is a mythical creature just like the Dragon and Phoenix. The Chinese name骐麟 Qílín is sometimes written as ‘kilin’ or ‘kylin’. Thecharacter ‘Qi’ is a kind ofhorse and so has the horse radical while the ‘Lin’ character is a complexcharacter made up of 23 individual strokes representing a female unicorn.
Astone qilin often guards a tomb, sometimes as one of the creatures along aSacred Way. The best known example is on the Spirit Way to theMing tombs in Beijing.
Although described as the ‘Chinese Unicorn’ the creature is somewhat different to the western unicorn, it normally has two horns but may have one or three and adeer's body but often the sculptor has gone to town with their imagination and embellished withfish scales and anox's tail. It is usually is given a white color. Aqilin is the representative of all animals bearing fur (horses; cows; goats; deer and so on) and is one of the four sacred animals with thedragon,turtle andphoenix. WhenZheng He's voyages to Africa brought back a giraffe as a gift toEmperor Yongle, it was thought that it must be some sort of Qilin, the Emperor did not agree but inJapan➚ the giraffe is retains the nameqilin to this day.
The similarity to the western unicorn is mainly due to its association with gentleness, virtue and benevolence. One tradition has a qilin bringing a piece ajade to the mother ofConfucius to herald his auspicious birth. Its walk is so gentle that its hooves do not crush the grass and it can walk on water. Evil spirits melt away in its presence. The appearance of a qilin is considered a very auspicious omen and so it is said to have appeared during the reign of theYellow Emperor (Huangdi). They are solitary animals. It became associated with a talented young son. TheQilin is often used as a symbol in paintings and ceramics with the hidden meaning of a wish that a husband will produce sons.
Phoenix - Fenghuang
As with the dragon the Chinese phoenix has little in common with the mythical bird ofEgyptian origin➚. The Europeans chose to give the Chinese phoenix,Feng huang凤凰 the same name as a vaguely similar bird but it does not have the legend of fiery rebirth andimmortality associated with the western phoenix. The history of the ancient Chinese mythological creature goes back at least 4,000 years. Like theQilin it is considered a creature whose appearance signifies the just rule of theEmperor. The Chinese name is made up of fèng (wind) and huáng (a homophone with emperor showing the emperor under a canopy). Thephoenix appears at auspicious times, and is associated withsun, south, justice, obedience and loyalty. It is a peaceful creature accompanied by small birds. It perches on the admired梧桐 wútóng ‘Chinese Parasol’ tree (Firmiana simplex).
All the tea in China
Tea was the most important export that was weighed in the traditional Chinese unit ofmeasurement called a 'catty'. It is known colloquially as the Chinese pound and is about 1.1pounds. In China it is known as the jin斤 the word catty probably came from the Malay word. The modern weight is aligned to the metric system as exactly 500grams. The container for tea, a 'caddy', is believed to have been named after the measure.
Thephoenix represents the class of allbirds. Early (Zhou andShang) representations make it more like a bird of prey with a curved beak; in later centuries it became to look like apheasant which is native to China.
Landmarks named after the phoenix include the mountain ‘Fenghuang Shan’ near Dandong,Liaoning with manyDaoist temples dotted over it. Fenghuangfu inAnhui is credited with its last sighting, where it scratched at the grave ofMing Emperor Hongwu's father, giving him legitimacy to rule.
In later centuries the Empress became associated with the phoenix. As thedragon represents theEmperor, the dragon and phoenix together stand for Emperor and Empress. A picture with a dragon and phoenix together symbolizes a married couple and based on this there has been a long association of the phoenix with marital sex. Famously theQing dynastic tomb near Beijing of the Dowager EmpressCixi has the phoenix dominating the dragon, signifying her pre-eminence at the Imperial court.
Proverbial Phoenixes
Other mythical creatures
Apart from the dragon, phoenix andqilin there are quite a few other mythical beasts that can be seen as ornaments, motifs and statues. The names are often confused as the sculptures varied in form over the centuries.
Bixi赑屃 bì xìPi-hsiWG
This a mix of a dragon and the turtle as it has a dragon-like body within a turtle-like shell. A bixi is most commonly seen as the decorative base of a commemorative tablet to the dead. They are also seen at the bases of bridges and archways. A creation legend has the bixi of one of nine disparate sons of the dragon (龙生九子 Lóng shēng jiǔ zǐ).
Sculptures of the bixi began to be made by the lateHan dynasty and continued to the lastQing dynasty. The early forms were more like turtles and over time became more like dragons.
Pixiu貔貅 pí xiūP'i-hsuiWG
A pixiu is a mix of dragon and lion features so could be classed as a chimaera - a sort of flying lion. The female form usually has two horns/antlers while the male form (天禄 tiān lù) has only one. It is considered a talisman that will bring wealth and so is often seen withjade, silver and gold. The creature is sometimes included as one of the defenders of grand buildings and as a tomb guardian.
Xiezhi獬豸 xiè zhì
The creature is endowed with the ability to separate the guilty from the innocent. A xiezhi is usually portrayed as a one-horned ferocious creature. With its association with justice, statues are often to be seen outside criminal courts. The most well-known example guards theForbidden City in Beijing. It is however often confused with aqilin.
