Although the images of dragons recorded in historical books are slightly different from time to time, the basic figure has not changed through the ages, that is, the dragon has long feet and four claws, with stripes, scales, horns, long tentacles, long tail, big head, big nose and thin neck.
According to these characteristics, historians and biologists conclude that dragons can't exist on the earth. Because of the dragon's nose, it means that it breathes with its lungs and cannot dive in the water for a long time, which is not consistent with the legendary "Dragon King"; Moreover, the dragon's head and horns are too big to be proportional to its thin neck, and it is unlikely to be like the one described in the book.
In recent years, some historians believe that dragons may have really existed. The earliest record of dragons is in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and it has been recorded in many historical materials since then. In the nineteenth and twenty-ninth years of Zhao Gong, Zuo Zhuan mentioned the appearance of dragons twice, and pointed out that there was a family that specialized in raising dragons in society at that time. Did the ancient inhabitants really see dragons?
After getting rid of intentional falsification and misunderstanding of some natural phenomena, it is found that the records of dragons are still endless in books. It is particularly noteworthy that the historical books after the Qin and Han Dynasties recorded many times the events of people watching a rare animal. This makes it impossible to simply regard the dragon as a totem symbol. For example, in the 24th year of Jian 'an, Huanglong appeared in Chishui, Wuyang, stayed for 9 days and left. At that time, a temple was built for this purpose. Another example is that in the first month of the seventh year of Taihe, Qinglong was found in a big well in Mobei. Wei Mingdi Cao Rui personally led his ministers to watch. Therefore, Cao Rui ordered to change the title to Qinglong and to change Mobei to Longbei.
in April of the first year of Yonghe, two dragons, one black and one white, appeared in Longshan. Murong, the prince of Yan, was also a courtier, and held a sacrificial ceremony more than 2 steps away from Longshan.
Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, dragons were found from time to time in local chronicles. According to the Records of Lin 'an Prefecture, in the fourth year of Chongzhen, a dragon was found in the Yilong Lake in the south of Shiping County, Yunnan Province, with its claws and scales exposed, surrounded by a large number and dozens of feet long. How can such a well-documented animal be completely out of fantasy?
For a long time, there have been two speculations about dragons in academic circles: one is the extension of the mascot Kirin, and the other is that its prototype is probably a snake or crocodile. However, according to the description of the shape and characteristics of the dragon in historical books, the above two speculations are difficult to establish.
Jia Wei's Supplementary Records of the Year of the Tang Dynasty records that one day in the last years of Xian Tong, a Qinglong fell in Tongcheng County and died on the spot because of throat injuries. The total length of the dragon is more than 1 feet, with half of the body and half of the tail, and the tail is flat. Its scales are similar to those of fish, with double horns on its head, a mouth that must be as long as 2 feet, feet under its abdomen and red membranes on its feet.
Lang Ying's Seven Revision Manuscripts records that Chenghua (1465-1487) fell to Yi Long on the beach in Xinhui County, Guangdong Province. This dragon is about one person tall and dozens of feet long, which looks like the dragon in the painting, only the abdomen is red. Lang Ying said that this was what his friend Jin Maozhi's father saw with his own eyes when he visited Guangdong.
In the 31st year of Shaoxing (1161), a dragon was found on the shore of Taibai Lake, with huge scales and beards, a white belly and a blue back, fins on its back, and high horns on its head, which could smell fishy for miles away. The local people covered its body with mats, and the government sent people to worship it in person. After a night of thunderstorm, the dragon disappeared, leaving a deep ditch where it lay.
Annals of Yongping: In the summer of the 19th year of Daoguang (1839), a dragon landed in Dongting County in the lower reaches of Luanhe River, and the local people built a reed shed for it to shield it from the sun, constantly splashing its body with water. Three days later, in a thunderstorm, the dragon left its place.
ancient records are like this, but what about modern times? The closer the age is, the more witnesses are alive, and the closer the facts are to credibility. One day in August of the lunar calendar in 1894, hundreds of people watched a black dragon lying on the beach behind Chenjiayuanzi Village in Fuyu County along the southern edge of Songhua River. According to Ren Dianyuan, a witness who is still alive, the dragon is about 2 meters long.
This animal looks like a four-legged snake, and its face is similar to the dragon in the painting. It has seven or eight thick and hard beards, and the diameter of the first half of its body is about one meter. Four claws are deeply inserted into the beach. It is covered with scales and shaped like crocodile scales. Ren Dianyuan, an old man, is still full of doubts. Why does that giant animal look so like a dragon in a painting?
From the above records, it can be seen that there may be great errors in the previous academic understanding of dragons. According to ancient books and modern people's accounts of witnessing dragons, dragons are covered with scales like fish scales, unlike those on crocodiles or other animals. Only in ancient amphibians that landed not long after water did they have scales like dragons.
In addition to descaling, ancient books record that the dragon "spits all over the ground", which shows that its body surface is rich in mucus glands. The ancient amphibians, who have not completely got rid of the skin respiratory function, just have this feature. The reptiles that landed successfully should have developed vision and degraded mouth whiskers. The long beard of the dragon shows that it not only never leaves the water, but also lives in a dark place.
If the real dragon may have existed, what is the relationship between the real dragon and the dragon totem worship of the Chinese people? In fact, the dragon evolved from a totem into a miraculous animal, which is also based on its biological species. For example, the legendary black dragon, the prototype of the dragon, is considered as the Chinese alligator.
the ancestor of a dragon is a snake. Shuowen: "In ancient times, the grass lived and rested on it, so there was no such thing as asking each other?" Fly on grass and trees without wings, swim in water without fins, and fear and respect them as gods. In the zodiac, black dragon is called the Dragon, and the beetle is called the Little Dragon. The shape of the beetle has always been different from that of black dragon. black dragon has bipedal feet, but the beetle has no horns and no feet.
Some people have studied that the evolution of dragons can be divided into three periods: the dragon period, when the dragons in history books were based on crocodiles, but they had horns, snake bodies and four claws; Ying Long period: At this time, the dragon had a big and long head, huge eyes, towering eyebrows and horns; Huanglong period: at this time, the dragon has a longer body and fine scales.
It is not difficult to see that in the later period, the dragon is the real dragon recorded in the above-mentioned historical books, rather than the ancestor Chinese alligator and snake of the earliest dragon. The prototype of totem worship is generally some kind of animal and plant, and it is impossible to imagine it out of thin air, which raises the next question. Is it possible that the ancestor of the dragon is not an alligator and a snake, but an ancient amphibian, but people don't know it yet?
In the past, the most representative speculation in academic circles was that the dragon was a four-legged snake or a crocodile. But this is impossible. If this is the case, the dragon is a reptile. Then why is the dragon powerless as long as it is on land? Only when the heavy rain falls, does it perk up again? Moreover, there are examples of mammals living in water, such as whales.
Can it be inferred that this kind of animal, which is looming in the long river of history, is both real and full of mystery, and is a variant preserved and continued in the special environment of ancient amphibians? I hope there will be more materials to prove this point.