The dragon in China mythology, making love, smoking, soaring above nine days, hiding under nine places ... can summon lightning, storm ... trigger a tsunami, trample on an earthquake ... can change at will ... omnipotent. ....
The original meaning of the word dragon is: a huge monster.
The "dragon" in western fairy tales ... can breathe fire, be invulnerable ... such as luminous objects ... and have a bad temper and great power. Generally, it is the protagonist of the "story name" and the supporting role in the plot ... The brave can kill the "damn" dragon to a certain extent and win fame, treasure and beauty. ...
So it has nothing to do with our eastern dragons.
But the word "dragon" in the east is not found in western languages.
So I'm confused ...
So there is no such thing as a dragon. The reason why it is used is because of the mistakes of eastern and western languages. Dragon is actually the only thing in China! !
Here are the details of the origin of the two kinds of dragons:
Dragon-auspicious totem (part about dragon)
The origin of dragons
The origin of dragons can be traced back to 8000 years ago.
So far, the oldest and largest dragon found in China is located in the ruins of the primitive village of Chahai in Fuxin, Liaoning Province. This "dragon sculpture" is made of reddish-brown stones of equal size, with a total length of nearly 20 meters and a width of nearly two meters. It is magnificent and located in the central square of the original village site. In the long ancient times, it once existed as a tool for ancestors to communicate with God, and it was responsible for the rise and fall of this village.
The records in ancient books are really shocking. Sacrifice in primitive times is always cruel and unreasonable. Zhuzhai, bowing down ... These are just overtures, and the real protagonist is sacrifice. Burning people to worship heaven-God needs his subjects to exchange blood for rain. In the blazing flame, there is a smell of burnt human flesh, but the enthusiastic villagers are repeating monotonous prayers and begging for the mercy of God in heaven. It is said that there were two kinds of people who were burned as sacrifices at that time: witches and raccoons. Witches are messengers of the gods. Burning it with fire can make her soul enter heaven, so that she can complain to the gods about the drought among the people and get rain. Raccoons, on the other hand, are unfortunately disabled. They usually have a short body and their nostrils are always on their backs. God has pity on raccoons and is afraid that rain will flow into their nostrils, so he refuses to rain, resulting in a large-scale drought. Only by burning raccoons with witchcraft can this situation be ended. At this time, the dragon has not been called a god, but a tool used by God to distribute rain.
Until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, this cruel way of sacrifice was finally questioned, and the ancient way of burning people to worship heaven was improved-from killing to abuse. The woodpile has become an exposure field, and burning alive has become a scorching sun exposure for several days ... At the same time, the status of the dragon is increasing day by day, and its image has been widely used in sacrificial vessels, and it has assumed the role of spokesperson for the gods. People also use mud and rocks to make images of dragons in the fields to pray for rain. "Drought is like Ying Long, but it rains cats and dogs" and "Huainanzi? ; ; This phenomenon is described in terrain training. The method of "making dragons for rain" is becoming more and more popular, and the sacrifice method is no longer bloody, which is believed to be inseparable from the progress of civilization and the awakening of humanistic spirit.
Aside from witchcraft and religious factors, we can find that there are many connections between the origin of dragons and primitive totem beliefs. Totem, derived from Indian language, originally means "his relative" or "mark". Primitive clans knew little about the natural phenomena around them. They can see rolling clouds, lightning that pierces the sky and colorful rainbows, but they can't explain what they see with existing experience or common sense. Why do the crops in the field blossom and bear fruit? Why do cattle, sheep and livestock grow and breed? There is no doubt that this has something to do with the rain. The sky thunders and thunders, and it always rains, so they think that the astronomical phenomena are also related to rain. There is too little rainfall and no vegetation; Excessive rainfall flooded people and animals; Only when the rainfall is moderate can the crops be harvested. As for how much rain it rains, it depends on the protection of our ancestors. In this way, they rely on the speculation that there is a species with extraordinary dominance, which is closely related to rainfall and controls the order of the world. They are related to this special species. Therefore, they regard this animal as the symbol and protector of their clan and name it dragon, so they call themselves "descendants of the dragon".
According to ancient documents, there are many clans in China with dragons as their totems, ranging from the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor in ancient times (hehe ~ don't forget that China people also call themselves "descendants of the Yellow Emperor"), to the clans of Yao, Shun and Yu, and even to the clans of wuyue. People of different clans often find some pleasant excuses as the reasons why their clans choose a sacred object to worship. These excuses have been handed down and become myths. Although these myths have been modified and processed by later generations, they still contain the historical background at that time. Here, the author only gives an example for analysis.
In the 26th century BC, the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou fought in Zhuolu. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor sent "Ying Long" to fight. Ying Long is a winged dragon, which can control wind and rain. Guangya? ; ; There is a record in "Fishing": "There is a pterosaur called Ying Long." Unfortunately, this Ying Long got off to a bad start, and was killed by Fengbo and Rain Master Chi You, and the troops of the Yellow Emperor were drowned by the rainstorm called by Fengbo and Rain Master. Later, the Yellow Emperor invited the heavenly daughter Jiamei to bring a drought, which stopped the storm and won.
From this legend, we can infer the following points: 1, the weather has become an important factor affecting the result at that time, and its quality directly determines which side will win. 2. Before the ancient emperors went to war (such as Huangdi and Chiyou), they often performed various religious ceremonies in the hope of influencing the weather. When the Yellow Emperor summoned "Ying Long", he probably held a ceremony of "making dragons to pray for rain", while Fengbo, Rain Master and other figures may be wizards in charge of praying for rain in the Chiyou army. In people's mind at that time, it was not the privilege of dragons to give rain. Fengbo, Rain God and others can also pray for rain. Only later, with the promotion of dragon worship, the names of other rain seekers gradually declined and eventually disappeared.
The image of the dragon
It seems that no one can tell exactly what a dragon looks like. Luo Song is willing to be in eryayi? ; ; The image of the dragon is summarized in "Release the Dragon": "The horn is like a deer, the head is like a camel, the eyes are like a rabbit, the neck is like a snake, the abdomen is like a dragonfly, the scales are like a fish, the claws are like an eagle, the palm is like a tiger, and the ears are like an ox". It seems that even the ancients have to admit that the so-called dragon is a hodgepodge of different animals. However, in a very vulgar phrase, "it comes from life above life." Of course, the reason why a dragon is a dragon is not only because it has the characteristics of different animals, but also because it has unparalleled divine power. It manipulates wind, rain and lightning, and it reflects fog, glow and rainbow. It is deep, remote and mysterious. It is a collection of natural forces, representing the powerful and incredible. People are afraid of nature that they can't understand. The descendants of the Chinese people learned its awakening from the "rumbling" thunder and abstracted its name-dragon.
It is precisely because the dragon is only a fuzzy collection of all kinds of known and unknown things that its image changes greatly and varies with time and space. Candle dragon, Ying Long, Xiaolong, Keelung, Panlong, Keelung, Solanum nigrum ... all kinds of dragons come together, and almost a book on dragon taxonomy can be compiled. The differences and connections between them are sometimes clear and sometimes vague. For example, do dragons have wings? This question is difficult to answer. According to textual research, pterosaurs and pterosaurs coexist in the cultural relics unearthed in the Western Han Dynasty. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, all the dragon wings became one or two streamers. This shows that the image of the dragon is constantly changing. There may be many reasons for this change:
First of all, it has something to do with the change of the role played by dragons.
In Shang dynasty, dragons were often carved on bronzes for sacrifice. In order to show the prestige of the gods, the image of the dragon is solemn and full of shock. In the Spring and Autumn Period, people no longer confined the image of the dragon to ritual vessels, but began to appear on daily necessities, such as mirrors and silks. In order to be closer to life, the image of the dragon has gradually become gentle and more cordial. However, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the image of the dragon was monopolized by the emperor and used for the decoration of royal buildings. When the dragon bared its teeth on the eaves beam, it became arrogant again. In modern times, I'm afraid no one will believe that dragons are gods, and dragon patterns can be used casually, so the image of dragons has become more casual and plastic. I'm afraid my ancestors never dreamed that the dragon would become a silly and lovely image in comics. )
Secondly, this may also be related to the improvement of the painter's painting ability.
In primitive times, the image of the dragon was rather rough. On the one hand, because they are monsters, they just need to look terrible, and the details are avoided. On the other hand, even if painters in the wild wanted to paint dragons in a decent way, they couldn't. So at that time, there was no standard for what the dragon looked like. Later, with the steady development of social culture and economy, the paintings drawn by painters became more and more exquisite. People were no longer satisfied with the shape, but wanted to examine the similarity. This requires standardizing the image of the dragon. However, because different people have different understandings, the theories of drawing dragons are varied and the differences are obvious, so there are all kinds of dragons.
Secondly, I'm afraid it's because of rumors.
If you talk too much, rumors will come true, especially in China. Here, the author only gives an example. According to legend, in ancient times, Emperor Yao had an excellent music official named Kui. Yao once praised him and said, "Kuiyi is enough." It means: one person like Kui is enough. Unfortunately, there were no punctuation marks in ancient Chinese, so people inexplicably took this sentence as "a loss, a foot." It means: hey, only one foot. Later, some self-righteous people linked the legendary Solanum nigrum with this misinformation, saying that Solanum nigrum had a foot. So in the legend of China, a dragon with only one foot ran out.
Dragon-The Apostle of Evil (Part about the Western Dragon)
Definition and origin of dragon
Dragon, what creature is it? The definition in Microsoft Encyclopedia is as follows: "Dragon, a legendary reptile monster simulator, looks like a crocodile and is generally described as having wings, hugging claws and fierce breath." Dragon, a legendary reptile similar to crocodile, is generally described as a monster with wings, huge claws and flames.
How did the dragon come from? I think they are the result of ancestors worshiping nature. At that time, science and technology were underdeveloped, and human beings were awed by various natural phenomena and creatures, so many ghosts and gods were fabricated, and dragons were one of them.
The tragic experience of the dragon
If you look up the English dictionary, you will see this explanation: "Dragon is a closely protected person;" Something terrible or dangerous; Strict female guardian. " It can be seen from here that dragons are unwelcome and even evil creatures. We can find evidence from various legends.
(1) evil dragon:
Evil is not right, just look at what happened to the dragon.
In the Mesopotamian epic Enuma Elish, it is said that before the creation, Marduk defeated Tiamat, the dragon of chaos, and cut her body in half, half into heaven and half into earth, thus creating the world;
In the Bible, the Lord God made the original dragon Leviathan yield at the beginning of creation: "You broke Leviathan's head and used it as food for wild animals." You cut off Leviathan's head and gave it to the beast like food. );
In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus fought against Bailong Tifeng, and of course he won, but it is said that Tifeng fought tenaciously and created the magma of Mount Etna (Mount Etna, an active volcano in eastern Sicily with an altitude of 3325.438+0 meters). According to known data, it first broke out in 475 BC);
In the medieval German legend Song of the Nibelungen, the hero Siegfried killed the dragon guarding the Lord of the Rings and was bathed in dragon blood. After the promotion, he did a lot of heroic deeds.
In the legend of St. George's dragon slaying, a dragon occupied and led a pagan town, and the townspeople sent sheep and even their own compatriots to comfort it. The duke's daughter was chosen as one of the victims. Just as she was waiting for the monster to solve itself, St. George came. Naturally, St. George killed the dragon (if he couldn't kill the dragon, the story wouldn't have been passed down) and saved the people in dire straits. So the townspeople of Xin 'anla changed a letter.
The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is a household name. It is said that Beowulf did many heroic deeds and abdicated as king. At this time, a dragon came to kill his man. The king had a fight with the dragon regardless of his age. As a result, both the old king and the dragon were fatally wounded. People recited the epitaph of the king sadly, and the epic ended in a solemn and stirring song.
(2) the dragon as a security guard
The dragon is definitely not a good security guard, because it is always killed by people, and what it guards is naturally lost. According to the information we found, the ancient Greeks loved to use dragons as security guards.
According to the legend of Cadmus, a legendary hero in ancient Greece, dragons have to protect their teeth. Cadmus is Europa's younger brother, and his father told him not to go home unless he found his sister kidnapped by Zeus. He couldn't find his sister and couldn't go home. He sought God's guidance. As a result, God said that a city could be built in Thebes. There is a sacred small forest next to the city, and a dragon bully occupies it (or guards it? It depends on which side you are on. After a fierce battle, our hero won the victory again. He pulled out the dragon's teeth (also inspired by God), then planted them and got a group of soldiers who could become a new force in building the city.
This is also an ancient Greek legend. In golden fleece's story, the dragon guarding golden fleece is just a walk-on role. Jason killed the poor dragon with the help of GF and a group of pig friends and dogs.
Once again, in ancient Greek legend, the fairy (Hesperides) in the golden apple orchard guarded the golden apples in the apple orchard with the help of a dragon. This time Hercules wanted the treasure, but he asked Atlas, the father of the fairies, for the apple, and the dragon finally escaped.
(3) Commercialized dragons
In this materialistic modern society, dragons cannot avoid commercialization, and movies, literary works and computer games are full of dragons.
① Movie: Dragons and Dungeons (Dragon &; Dungeon), Long Zhixin, the rule of fire and so on. Except Rule of Fire, the other two films are set in the Middle Ages, in which dragons are intelligent creatures who can talk. The dragon in the King of Fire degenerated into the dinosaur in Jurassic Park, with only destructive power and shouting ability.
(2) Literary works: myths and legends have already been talked about, so I won't talk about them here. What I want to talk about is a series of novels of modern The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Dungeons and Dragons.
The Lord of the Rings: Although there is no dragon in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a dragon in The Hobbit, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings, and it is also the protagonist. The story revolves around its treasure. Poor dragons, greedy "people" (because the race is dwarves and hobbits)];
Harry Potter: In the first episode, the newborn baby dragon appeared. In the fourth episode, Harry is also in close contact with the dragon (trying to get the female dragon's egg). Here, the dragon is a protected magical creature, and Ron's brother Charlie went to Romania to study this creature (our poor dragon finally got a good home);
Dragons and Dungeons Series: Dragons here are generally divided into three categories: colorful dragons, gem dragons and metal dragons. The colorful dragons representing the evil camp are: black dragon, blue dragon, green dragon, red dragon and white dragon. The metal dragons representing Shanying are: brass dragon, bronze dragon, bronze dragon, golden dragon and silver dragon. The gem dragons representing the neutral camp are amethyst dragon, crystal dragon, emerald dragon, sapphire dragon and Huanglong. In the series of novels "Dragon Gun", the evil dragon and the good dragon wage war under the leadership of their respective gods; In Forgotten Country, the hero Drizzt gets his beloved machete with ice magic after killing a white dragon, the Death of Ice.
③ Computer game: There are countless dragons in the game. No matter what kind of game, Comrade Long will show his face and even become the protagonist. Let's not talk about games based on Dungeons and Dragons (invincible heroes, magic doors, forgotten country series, etc.). ) (because there are too many), Warcraft (Frost Dragon), dungeon siege warfare (a certain level of big boss), dragon (this is not clear), Stone Age (ugly guy) ..., dragon is a monster (although it is), not a person (because
In the wave of commercialization, the dragon still exudes evil breath, is a good "friend" of heroes (because computer games, heroes are already ordinary players), still guards a large number of property of unknown origin, and still lives a miserable life.
Why are dragons evil?
As can be seen from the above information, the dragon is the embodiment of evil no matter where it is, and it is no different from the mouse crossing the street. Everyone should kill it quickly.
Why is the dragon a symbol of evil in the west? We will explain this truth in detail in the next part. Now I can simply talk nonsense: the appearance of dragons is mainly caused by the characteristics of snakes. It is ugly, and most snakes are poisonous, so it naturally becomes a symbol of evil. In order to fabricate an evil totem, ancient superstitious people borrowed the image of a snake and created a dragon. After one or more tribes used this totem, after the passage of time and the imagination and creation of the people, the dragon gradually became what it is now. Because it has evil seeds, the added elements are all evil: the wings are bat's (to distinguish them from angel's wings, the devil's wings are bat's); Paws are beasts (so that it can kill people faster and more conveniently); Coupled with the fire of hell in your mouth, it is simply a killing machine. If you don't do bad things, why do you need those weapons? So dragons are generally considered evil in the west.