The Chinese Zodiac Culture 5- Dragon symbol
The Chinese Zodiac not only integrates ordinary creatures into Chinese life, but its natural habits are endowed with many cultural meanings, from animals to gods, and receive respect and worship. Only the combination of natural creatures and cultural gods can form a complete impression of zodiac animals. Let’s go to learn more about Dragon生肖龙(sheng xiao long).
There are many theories about the origin of the dragon. Wen Yiduo infers that the clan with the snake as the totem has successively merged many other totem clans, forming a "dragon totem with the snake as the main body, with the head of the horse, the tail of the hyena, the horn of the deer, the claws of the dog, the scales and whiskers of the fish".
The dragon in ancient mythology is not sacred and inviolable. Nuwa refined stone to mend the sky and "killed the black dragon to help Jizhou". The dragon became a symbol of imperial power after the Han Dynasty. The emperor wore a Dragon Robe, sat on a dragon chair, took a dragon boat and sat on a dragon chariot. When the emperor died, he was called Long Yu Bin Tian. The Dragon Robe of the Qing Dynasty is composed of nine golden dragons and the "Ninth Five Year statue". There are countless dragon patterns in the Forbidden City in Beijing. If people use dragon patterns, they will suffer accidents.
The dragon is the God of clouds and rain. "Huainanzi Lin Xun" said, "drought builds earth dragons", and "Lun Heng chaotic dragons" said, "husband earth tiger can't cause wind, Earth Dragon can cause rain". Since the Song Dynasty, almost every village has a dragon king temple. In case of flood and drought, people have to offer animals to the Dragon King to control the rain and pray for good weather. it is also said that the Dragon cannot decide the rainfall by itself. In journey to the west, the Dragon King of Jinghe River was beheaded for violating the Jade Emperor's rainfall will.
The dragon symbolizes being outstanding and extraordinary. Confucius praised Lao Tzu for "the Dragon riding on the wind and cloud and going to the nine heaven"; Zhuge Liang is called "Mr. Wolong". Cai Yong often lies drunk on the street and is called "drunk dragon". Parents hope their children will become a dragon.