Although we are dazzled by the variety of Western European dragons, in our country there are not only more varieties of dragons, but also strict hierarchies.
First of all, according to the rank, from the lowest to the highest, the order is "虺, 虬, panroach, Jiao, horned dragon, Ying dragon and fire dragon".
虺 (huǐ): "The Narrative of Differences" contains: "虺 has turned into a dragon in five hundred years, and Jiao has turned into a dragon in a thousand years." "It's the juvenile stage of the dragon.
虬 (qiú): Generally, the small dragon without horns is called a dragon, which is a kind of dragon, so the ancient literature notes: "There are no horns and there are horns called dragons." ”
蟠螭 (pán chī): A serpentine monster of the genus Dragon, a dragon without horns.
Jiao: Generally refers to a scaly dragon that can cause floods. Legend has it that the dragon can make clouds and fog and soar into space when it gets water. In ancient texts, it is often used as a metaphor for talented people to get the opportunity to display themselves.
Regarding the origin and shape of Jiao, there are different statements in classical literature, some say that "the dragon has no horns and is called Jiao", and some say that "there are scales and Jiaolong". The third volume of "The Ink Man Waving the Rhino" is more specific: "The shape of the Jiao is like a snake, its head is like a tiger, the elders are several zhang, and most of them live under the stone caves in the brook, and the sound is like the roar of a cow." ”
People often say "Jiaolong", but in fact, "Jiao" and "Dragon" are the names of legendary deified creatures at different ages: "Jiao" when you are young, and "Dragon" when you are older.
Ceratosaurus: Refers to a dragon with horns. According to the "Narrative of Differences": "Jiao turned into a dragon for a thousand years, and the dragon became a horned dragon for 500 years."
Ying Long: Also known as the Yellow Dragon. The dragon with wings on its back, according to the record of "Shu Yiji": "Jiao turned into a dragon for a thousand years, a dragon for five hundred years as a horned dragon, and a thousand years as a dragon." It is said that Emperor Xuanyuan had a famous general who was Ying Long, and his main achievements were fighting Chi You and dredging the Yellow River waterway.
Fire Dragon: "Qing Historical Manuscript" contains: "There is a dragon flying into the folk building in Fushan, and the smoke must rise, and the building is burned", "On May 27, 26 years, the red dragon of Jiazhou was seen in the siege of Zhangti and Liangchuan. On the seventh day of the first month of June, the Gaoping fire dragon was seen in Shimo Village", "In June of the fifty-sixth year, the red dragon of Juzhou was seen in Longwangyu, first big and then small, several zhang long, and the grass and trees passed were like burning".
In addition, in addition to the above 7 levels, our country's "Dragon Culture" also includes many derivative series. For example, in ancient myths and legends, dragons gave birth to nine sons, but none of the nine sons became dragons, and each had its own advantages. It is a metaphor for siblings with different qualities and hobbies. They are:
The eldest son imprisoned the cow, happy **, squatting on the head of the piano;
The second son, 睚眦 (yá zì), is fond of killing and fighting, engraved on the knife ring and the hilt of the sword;
The third son mocks the wind, resembles a beast, is the third, his life is dangerous and hopeful, and the beast on the corner of the palace is its posthumous image. It has also been believed that it is a phoenix with dragon veins.
The four sons of Pu Prison roared loudly when they were hit, and used as the beast button of the Hong Zhong to help it sound far away;
The five sons of the lion (suān ní), resembling a lion, ranked fifth, like to be quiet and do not like to move, easy to sit, and like fireworks, so the foot decoration on the Buddha's seat and on the incense burner is its posthumous image.
Liuzi Baxia, also known as 赑屃 (bì xì), like a turtle with teeth, likes to bear weight, is a turtle under the stele;
Seven sons 狴犴 (bì àn), resembling a tiger and a lawsuit, have its image on both sides of the prison door or the main hall of the official office;
Bazi negative 屃 (fùxì), with a body like a dragon, elegant and sven, coiled on the top of the stone stele;
Jiuzi 螭kiss (chī wěn), also known as owl tail or owl (chī) kiss, has a moist mouth and a rough throat and is easy to swallow, so it becomes a spine swallowing beast at both ends of the temple ridge, and uses it to extinguish fires and eliminate disasters.
For the birth of the "dragon", there are currently three main explanations provided by the academic community:
1.There was a "true dragon" in history, but it became extinct;
2.Dragons are mythological figures that evolved from various animals such as pythons, lizards, crocodiles, etc.;
3.People's explanations for the paranormal.
Of course, there is also a saying that the "dragon character" is also quite related to the crown on the emperor's head.
However, there are still many controversies in history as to whether the "real dragon" exists or not, and the origin of the "dragon".
Here I have to mention a monograph on whether dragons exist - Ma Xiaoxing and his"Dragon: An Unknown Animal".
This "absurd" book is surprising - the "Chinese dragon", which has always been unfalsifiable by modern science, may be "real"! The author is cautious that the "dragon" repeatedly mentioned in China's voluminous texts may have its own biological prototype. This biological prototype is not the same as snakes, crocodiles, whales and other living creatures that broke into human history, and may come from a kind of fish relict creature that evolved from fish to amphibians in the mild and humid Carboniferous period.
The author has carried out a concentrated and systematic combing of the "Seeing the Dragon" records that go back to the Spring and Autumn Period and down to **, and the principle he adheres to is to eliminate some obviously falsified records. Filtering and searching through these mixed historical sources, we can't avoid the fact that we can't avoid this:A "basic fact" that spans two thousand years in space across different regions of China, but has a strikingly consistent "basic truth" in terms of specific plot and details—a legendary creature that may (once) be real.
The Chinese seem to have a deformed aesthetic of historical records:I don't like to be specific and trivial, but pay more attention to small words, for the drawing, it is only the meaning, not the shape.
The transmutation of the image of the dragon in Chinese painting has an obvious time node, the dragon before the Han Dynasty is the image of a "beast", after the Han Dynasty and before the Tang Dynasty, it is a "fish-like dragon", and the dragon image we see now is stereotyped after the Southern Song Dynasty, and the dragon pictures painted by it are influenced by a Chinese dragon painting master - the Southern Song Dynasty painter Chen Rong.
Earlier than Chen Rong's era is more famous than a dragon painting master, the five dynasties of the Southern Tang Dynasty Dong Yu painted dragons to the "peerless green dragon" famous, the Southern Song Dynasty envoy Hong Hao wrote when he was detained in the Jin court "Song Desert Chronicles" recorded a black dragon remains for the treasure of the Jin Treasury Liao Taizu personally shot, with the words "similar to the dragon in Dong Yu's painting". But what does the dragon look like, and the cruelty of history, has not allowed a dragon painting of Dong Yu to circulate.
The only thing that has been circulated in the world is Dong Yu's "Discussion on Painting the Dragon" about how to draw a dragon A fragment of "three stops and nine likes": "three stops" are from the head to the item, from the item to the abdomen, and from the abdomen to the tail; "Nine likes" means "the head is like a cow, the mouth is like a donkey, the eyes are like a shrimp, the horns are like a deer, the ears are like an elephant, the scales are like a fish, the whiskers are like a human, the belly is like a snake, and the feet are like a phoenix." ”
In addition, there are a vast number of oral records of witnesses to the appearance of the real dragon in history, and there are countless records recorded in the official history. For example, during the period of the Three Kingdoms, in the seventh year of Cao Wei Taihe, that is, in the first month of the first year of Qinglong (233 years), a "green dragon" was found in a well in the southeast of Jiaxian County, Henan Province (also known as Longpi), which attracted Emperor Wei Ming to lead his ministers to watch.
10. Hundreds of people gathered to watch a fish-like creature that fell from the sky, lying on the surface for a long time, with a nose and mouth like a cow, horn-like protrusions on its head, fish scales that can be opened and closed, a stiff whisker under its jaw, a lizard-like body, a lubricated body surface and a strong fishy smell, weak limbs, and a small tail; This creature is extremely dependent on water and highly sensitive to thunderstorms, and once it lands, it is weak and weak, and after a thunderstorm it can take advantage of the momentum to fly away.
The reverence and friendliness of the ancient Chinese for this creature led to the vast majority of falling dragon incidents turning into a humane rescue operation – people built pergolas for the creature and watered it until a thunderstorm arrived. And almost all sightings show that the fish-like creature "looks almost identical to the dragon in the portrait"!
For example, the "green dragon" with a white belly and red palms in the "Supplement to the Tang Dynasty", the "black dragon" with a "naked head and black body" under the "Five Elements Chronicles of the Ming Dynasty", and the dragon with "two horns on its head, resembling a dragon" in "Yijian Ding Zhi", etc., and most of the titles are relayed in the unquestionable tone of eyewitnesses, as if in ancient China, which is far away from our time, people have a set of formed and a certain division method for the "dragon" that is not common but is considered to be a real thing, so that "Jiao, mantis, and Qiu" are retained in today's text circulation"Such a description of a different form of dragon-like creatures? How would this solid accumulation of common sense experience come into being if it was not intensively observed and understood, and after several generations of induction and arrangement?
This should be an existence that we humans cannot understand, and I believe that the future of science and wisdom will find a glimmer of answers!