The most basic feature of the dragon image is "nine similarities", and these nine animals are still controversial. Legend has it that it can be hidden, detailed and huge, short and long. The vernal equinox ascends to the sky, the autumnal equinox dives into the deep, and it calls for rain, and these are the images of dragons developed in the later period, which are more complicated than the original dragons.
In the addendum to Er Ya Yi written by Luo Yuan in Song Dynasty, there is a "dragon interpretation": "horns are like deer, heads are like camels, eyes are like rabbits, necks are like snakes, bellies are like flies, scales are like fish, claws are like eagles, palms are like tigers, ears are like cows". Guo, who is also an appraiser of calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty, also expressed similar views in his paintings.
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Dragon background:
The productivity of early society was low, and people lived in a harsh natural environment, unable to control the natural forces independently and unable to explain their own sources. They are full of illusions, longings and even fears about nature, and worship all kinds of natural or supernatural forces that are more powerful than human beings. This is the social foundation of totem and ghosts and gods.
The reason for the formation of dragon totem is the Busan symbol originated from the Yellow Emperor. According to Records of the Five Emperors, after defeating Emperor Yan and Chiyou, the Yellow Emperor visited all directions and "joined forces with Busan". This "symbol combination" not only unified the military symbols of various ministries and established a political alliance, but also combined some elements from the totem of primitive tribes to create a new animal image-dragon.
Since then, all tribes in the Central Plains have the same dragon totem, thus opening the history of unifying Chinese civilization. China people are all "descendants of dragons". Although this story perfectly explains how the unnatural dragon became the ancestor of the Chinese nation, the discovery of the dragon image in prehistoric cultural sites made it self-defeating.
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