: The Chinese Dragon by Hayes L Newton Fong Foo Sec Author Of Introduction Etc - Mythology Chinese; Dragons

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Bronze Dragon, Kang Hsi Period Dragon Colonnade at Chufu Frontispieces Page Emperor Kang Hsi in Dragon Robes 1 The Dragon Throne of the Recent Emperors 2 The Han Dynasty Dragons 7 The Porcelain Dragon Screen 8 The Dragon Staircase 13 An Imperial Dragon 14 Tablet to Confucius 17 Dragon Gateway 18 The Dragon Stone 21 Dragon Eaves-Tile 22 Dragon-Guarded Astrolabe 25 Surrounded by Dragons 26 A Dragon-Mounted Bell 29 A Cloud Dragon 30 Circular Dragon Eaves-Tile 35 Chien Lung Vases 36 A Living Dragon 43 Two Porcelain Dragons 44 The "Dragon Square" 49 The "Dragon Disk" 50 Emperor Kang Hsi on the Dragon Throne 55 A Dragon Lantern 56 A Dragon Column 59 The Gateway to the Dragon Well 60 The Dragon Tablet 63 A Dragon Boat Race in Foochow 64

THE PLACE OF THE DRAGON IN CHINESE LIFE

There are real dragons living in China to-day. These are not the horrible monsters that some have imagined them to be. They are friendly creatures highly revered by all the people. They possess marvelous powers and they occasionally permit themselves to be seen by mortal eyes. Such is the belief of at least seven out of every ten Chinese.

The popular belief in the dragon is so deeply rooted and so widespread that it is advisable for one to secure an accurate knowledge of the Chinese idea of the venerated saurian if he desires to gain a truly sympathetic understanding of this remarkable people. Nearly every phase of Chinese life bears evidence of the influence of this unique member of the animal kingdom. Particularly is this true in the realms of their art, literature, folklore, zo?logy, history, and religion.

Chinese art employs dragon designs in endless variety. The graceful lines of its symmetrically proportioned body are found in every part of the country painted upon silks and porcelain, woven into brocades, carved on wood, embroidered upon satin, cast in bronze, and chiseled upon marble. It is the most characteristically Chinese of the many Oriental designs which are so attractive to Western students of art.

The literature of the country abounds in references to this marvelous creature as one may readily discover by even a cursory study of its books of history, poetry, letters, medicine, and fiction.

Chinese folklore is replete with countless entertaining stories of the wonderful feats of this great animal, while an infinite number of proverbs and old folks' sayings bear their testimony to the almost universal belief in its existence.

Popular zo?logy places the dragon next to man, at the head of the list of all living creatures, thus occupying the position of the lion or tiger in our Western classification. Strictly speaking, Chinese natural history gives the dragon the rank of king only of scale-covered animals or creatures which live in the sea; the two fabulous creatures, the Chi Ling and the Phoenix respectively, have first place above all beasts and other animals which live upon the earth, and all birds and other creatures which fly in the air. But because the dragon is equally at home in the air and on the earth, as well as in the sea, it has been ranked as the ruler of all created life below man.

Chinese geomancy for ages has looked to the dragon as a means of determining the fates and fortunes of the "Sons of Han." Until very recently comparatively few Chinese would build a house or bury a corpse without first consulting a geomancer, who would, in one way or another, refer to its probable influence upon his action. It is, moreover, a generally accepted belief that every twelfth hour, day, month, and year of the lunar calendar are under the dragon's dominating control.

Chinese history records scores of appearances of the king of beasts through the four thousand or more years since the age of the three mythical rulers. Appearances of the dragon are connected with the stories of many prominent characters of China's past. Perhaps the most noteworthy reference is one which states that two dragons as guards of honor visited the home of Confucius on the day that great sage was born. These frequent references to the dragon are considered, for the most part, by the majority of Chinese scholars quite as authentic as the statements about the famous worthies themselves.

Chinese religion places the dragon in the calendar of its deities as the God of Rain and the Ruler of Rivers, Lakes, and Seas. As such it has been worshiped for centuries. There are probably very few cities of any size in the whole country which, at least until the recent revolution, were without a temple or shrine to the dragon king. This deity was worshiped on the first and fifteenth of every month.

In the opinion of the writek dwellers in other lands commonly think of the dragon in much the same light as they think of the centaurs, of Geryon or the Minotaur of Grecian fables: a strange mythical creature merely the product of human fancy. It is also probable that most of them think that the majority of Chinese consider it in the same way, but this is a mistaken conception. It may be considered a very conservative estimate to state that at least three hundred and sixty million Chinese believe in the actual existence of dragons as firmly as other peoples believe that there are such animals as tigers roaming in the jungles of Bengal and such monsters as walruses wandering over the icy stretches which border the arctic circle, though they themselves may never have set foot upon the shores of India nor have crossed the Arctic Sea.

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