The origin of the Year of the Dragon

 

Chapter 12 Talking about dragons

 

The origin of the Year of the Dragon

 

The dragon has an important position and rich symbolic meaning in Chinese culture. It is regarded as a powerful and mysterious creature, able to control the wind, rain, and clouds.

There are always different opinions on what animal the dragon is based on. To uncover this mystery, we must go back to the long history of the Chinese nation to find its origin. When primitive humans shifted from gathering wild fruits and fishing and hunting to making a living through planting, grains became the main food, and the quantity harvested determined the quality of people's survival. The ancient people who were still in their childhood and whose wisdom was not yet developed, faced various disasters that were constantly changing and occurring frequently in the natural world. They could neither understand nor control them, nor were they willing to be at the mercy of nature. Therefore, they placed their hopes on the emergence of something that could control the natural forces to help them. Gods who protect against disasters try to seek protection through prayers and offerings to these gods and idols.

In the Yellow River Basin, the birthplace of the Chinese nation, affected by the temperate monsoon climate, flood disasters pose a great threat to people. Therefore, the greatest wish of ancient ancestors was to long for a god who could control the rain and ensure smooth weather and good harvests. Ancient humans in different regions and environments were benefited and harmed by different natural objects around them. Therefore, the objects that represented the essence and aura of natural objects in people's minds were different. Certain animals living around them were the most commonly used objects to create gods. Therefore, our ancestors created an allegorical image of the main water spirit - the dragon, which is based on the alligator, a reptile of the genus Crocodile that is unique to my country.

How did the alligator, a "living fossil" that once lived with dinosaurs for more than 100 million years and still miraculously maintain its original form, be shaped into a dragon? Before the Xia and Shang dynasties, the environment of the Yellow River Basin was like "mixed trees with shade and clouds hanging with smoke" recorded in "Shui Jing Zhu". It was a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters and rich vegetation. Ancient meteorology shows that the climate was still quite warm and humid, so people lived there. Many alligators. Due to the alligator's ferocious appearance, its unique habit of living amphibiously in water and on land, and its mysterious whereabouts that often seem to be invisible during semi-diving, the ancient people had a fear and awe of it, so it is majestic and mysterious in the eyes of everyone. The alligator, a sensitive animal, has become the inevitable choice for the image of the water god.

The transformed image of the dragon has all the basic characteristics of the alligator: 1. A body covered with scales; 2. A long jaw and a large nose on the top of the head; 3. Sharp, tapered fangs; 4. Large, round, protruding eyes. ; 5. Strong long tail; 6. Strong limbs and five-fingered claws; 7. Abdomen with horizontal stripes.

In order to make up for the Alligator's bald head and sharp tail that undermined the image of the god, the ancients used their full imagination to add horns, whiskers, tail fins, and the protruding horny spines arranged longitudinally on the back into serrated dorsal fins, and elongated the body. In order to exaggerate the momentum and enrich the decorative effect, the alligator was shaped into the image of a dragon depicted in the legend, showing its teeth and claws, and being able to soar into the clouds and ride on the mist. Although after artistic exaggeration, there are many differences between the imaginary dragon and the real alligator, but in comparison, the main features of the alligator can still be seen - long jaws, fangs, scales, sharp claws and other main features.

Later, due to man-made ecological destruction, slash-and-burn cultivation, and indiscriminate deforestation in the Yellow River Basin, resulting in soil erosion, environmental deterioration, and a cold climate, the alligator, which is suitable for warm and humid environments, found it difficult to survive and gradually became extinct (now it only exists in southern Anhui Province, my country). Because the alligator no longer exists in real life, the impression in people's memory fades and disappears, leaving only the image of the dragon created by the ancestors and passed down from generation to generation. As a result, the dragon and the alligator have become two different concepts, and the origin of the image of the dragon has begun to change. Got to be confusing.

Early dragons were hornless. In a 6,000-year-old ancient tomb unearthed in Puyang, Henan in 1987, a dragon (alligator) figure made of clam shells was found. The dragon image on the Yangshao Culture painted pottery is also a reptile with a large head and long tail. The image of a horned dragon can be seen on oracle bones and bronzes of the Shang Dynasty. A Shang Dynasty bronze dragon-patterned gong unearthed in Shanxi Province has a curved nose, an open mouth, and sharp teeth. The decorations on both sides of the body are exactly the same as those of an alligator. The Yunlong stone carving sculpture in Dazu Nanshan, Sichuan is a vivid image of an alligator with no horns, no beard, and glaring eyebrows.

Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, and the dragon character in oracle bone inscriptions is an animal image with a large mouth and a curved body. The pronunciation of the word "dragon" is the simulated sound of thunder. The ancients regarded the dragon as the god of thunder and rain. There is a record in the "Shan Hai Jing" that "there is a god in Lei Ze, with a dragon body and a human head." The lightning and thunder whenever a storm is about to come inspired the ancients and believed that thunder and lightning are closely related to the dragon. Therefore, "rumbling" thunder became the pronunciation of the word dragon. To this day, the common names of Chinese alligators in southern my country are "Tulong" and "Zhupolong".

Human understanding is a reflection of objective reality. Throughout the ages, many records, legends, and folk customs about dragons are related to the living habits of the alligator.