Famous Chinese, Asian Dragons

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[full size]: the Flaming Pearl sought by the Dragon Palace Museum Peking, by Weng and Boda (Abrams 1982)

- The dragon of Kinabalu had a pearl which the emperor wanted. He sent his two sons, Wee Ping and Wee San, to get it for him after his men perished in their efforts. Wee San flew into the dragon's cave by a kite while it was out hunting. There he switched the pearl for a fake. Of course, the dragon knew it wasn't his pearl, and made chase for the brother's ships. Again it was Wee San who came up with the plan.

He ordered his men to shoot a cannon ball at the dragon, and when they did the dragon, thinking it was its pearl, swallowed the cannon. It died immediately. When they returned home, Wee Ping decided to take the credit for everything. Wee San was a good man and decided it wasn't worth losing his family over. He went into self-imposed exile and was prosperous. He was made the ruler of Brunei, living a happy life. His brother, however, was never to know true happiness.

- Yellow dragon or dragon horse was the divine messenger that arose from the River Lo and revealed the 8 trigrams of I Ching. A yellow dragon is said to have presented the Chinese with a scroll inscribed with mystic characters. This is said to be the legendary origin of the Chinese system of writing.

- lung wang was a human-bodied fire dragon, an immortal dragon king living in a palace under the sea.

- the Thunder Dragon could transform into a boy with bright ultramarine skin who rode a scarlet carp.

t'ao t'ieh bronze mask, Shang Dynasty

- t'ao t'ieh has one head and two forelegs, but has two bodies with separate hind legs and tails. It personifies gluttony. It is pictured on dishes to discourage greed and is commonly used by artists because of its symmetry.

yu lung is the fish dragon symbolising success in exams

- Xia Dynasty's dragon totem. Scholar Gao Wei pointed out that the coloured Pottery from Taosi Excavations of Longshan Culture, dated 2400-2500 BC approx, had shown a winding dragon.

[full size]: Winding dragon on coloured pottery

Almost all Taosi excavations in southern Shanxi Prov had produced pottery with a dragon totem. Chinese classics had mentioned two dragon-related clans, i.e., the Huan-long-shi clan during Lord Shun's reign and the Yu-long-shi clan during Xia Dynasty. Xia people, who later moved from Shanxi to Henan Prov and founded the dynasty of Xia, certainly brought with them the important dragon totem, a mark that would also be observed among the Huns of Mongolia and the Tungus of Manchuria for the thousands of years to come.

References:

>http://www.angelfire.com/ri/eastern/tran.html >http://www.uglychinese.org/homepage.htm [site is not racist]

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