THE CHINESE DRAGON.
We now approach the consideration of a country in which the belief in the
existence of the dragon is thoroughly woven into the life of the whole
nation. Yet at the same time it has developed into such a medley of
mythology and superstition as to materially strengthen our conviction of
the reality of the basis upon which the belief has been founded, though it
involves us in a mass of intricate perplexities in connection with the
determination of its actual period of existence.
There is no country so conservative as China, no nation which can boast of
such high antiquity, as a collective people permanently occupying the same
regions, and preserving records of their polity, manners, and surroundings
from the earliest date of their occupation of the territory which still
remains the centre of their civilization; and there is none in which
dragon culture has been more persistently maintained down to the present
day.
Its mythologies, histories, religions, popular stories, and proverbs, all
teem with references to a mysterious being who has a physical nature and
spiritual attributes. Gifted with an accepted form, which he has the
supernatural power of casting off for the assumption of others, he has the
power of influencing the weather, producing droughts or fertilizing rains
at pleasure, of raising tempests and allaying them. Volumes could be
compiled from the scattered legends which everywhere abound relating to
this subject; but as they are, for the most part, like our mediæval
legends, echoes of each other, no useful purpose would be served by doing
so, and I therefore content myself with drawing, somewhat copiously, from
one or two of the chief sources of information.
As, however, Chinese literature is but little known or valued in England,
it is desirable that I should devote some space to the consideration of
the authority which may be fairly claimed for the several works from which
I shall make quotations, bearing on the Chinese testimony of the past
existence, and date of existence, of the dragon and other so-called
mythical animals.
Incidental comments on natural history form a usual part of every Chinese
geographical work, but collective descriptions of animals are rare in the
literature of the present, and almost unique in that of the past. We are,
therefore, forced to rely on the side-lights occasionally afforded by the
older classics, and on one or two works of more than doubtful authenticity
which claim, equally with them, to be of high antiquity. The works to
which I propose to refer more immediately are the _Yih King_, the _Bamboo
Books_, the _Shu King_, the _'Rh Ya_, the _Shan Hai King_, the _Păn Ts'ao
Kang Muh_, and the _Yuen Kien Léi Han_.
As it is well known that all the ancient books, with the exception of
those on medicine, divination, and husbandry, were ordered to be destroyed
in the year B.C. 212 by the Emperor Tsin Shi Hwang Ti, under the
threatened penalty for non-compliance of branding and labour on the walls
for four years, and that a persecution of the _literati_ was commenced by
him in the succeeding year, which resulted in the burying alive in pits of
four hundred and sixty of their number, it may be reasonably objected that
the claims to high antiquity which some of the Chinese classics put
forth, are, to say the least, doubtful, and, in some instances, highly
improbable.
This question has been well considered by Mr. Legge in his valuable
translation of the Chinese Classics. He points out that the tyrant died
within three years after the burning of the books, and that the Han
dynasty was founded only eleven years after that date, in B.C. 201,
shortly after which attempts were commenced to recover the ancient
literature. He concludes that vigorous efforts to carry out the edict
would not be continued longer than the life of its author--that is, not
for more than three years--and that the materials from which the classics,
as they come down to us, were compiled and edited in the two centuries
preceding the Christian era, were genuine remains, going back to a still
more remote period.
THE "YIH KING" OR "YH KING."
The _Yih King_ is one of those books specially excepted from the general
destruction of the books. References in it to the dragon are not numerous,
and will be found as quotations in the extracts from the large
encyclopædia _Yuen Kien Léi Han_, given hereafter. This work has hitherto
been very imperfectly understood even by the Chinese themselves, but the
recent researches of M. Terrien de la Couperie lead us to suppose that our
translations have been imperfect, from the fact that many symbols have
different significations in the present day to those which they had in
very ancient times, and that a special dictionary of archaic meanings must
be prepared before an accurate translation can be arrived at, a
consummation which may shortly be expected from his labours. I find in my
notes, taken from the manuscript of a lecture given before the Ningpo Book
Club in 1870, by the Rev. J. Butler, of the Presbyterian Mission, that
"the way in which the dragon came to represent the Emperor and the Throne
of China[229] is accounted for in the _Yih King_ as follows:--The chief
dragon has his abode in the sky, and all clouds and vapours, winds and
rains are under his control. He can send rain or withhold it at his
pleasure, and hence all vegetable life is dependent on him. So the
Emperor, from his exalted throne, watches over the interests of his
people, and confers on them those temporal and spiritual blessings without
which they would perish." I abstain from dwelling on this or any other
passages in the _Yih King_, pending the translation promised by M. De la
Couperie, the nature of whose views on it are condensed in the note[230]
attached, being extracts from his papers on the subject.
THE ANNALS OF THE BAMBOO BOOKS.
These are annals from which a great part of Chinese chronology is derived.
Mr. Legge gives the history of their discovery, as related in the history
of the Emperor Woo, the first of the sovereigns of Tsin, as follows:
"In the fifth year of his reign, under title of Hëen-ning[231] [= A.D.
279], some lawless parties, in the department of Keih, dug open the grave
of King Sëang of Wei [died B.C. 295] and found a number of bamboo tablets,
written over, in the small seal character, with more than one hundred
thousand words, which were deposited in the imperial library."
Mr. Legge adds, "The Emperor referred them to the principal scholars in
the service of the Government, to adjust the tables in order, having first
transcribed them in modern characters. Among them were a copy of the _Yih
King_, in two books, agreeing with that generally received, and a book of
annals, in twelve or thirteen chapters, beginning with the reign of
Hwang-te, and coming down to the sixteenth year of the last emperor of the
Chow dynasty, B.C. 298."
"The reader will be conscious of a disposition to reject at once the
account of the discovery of the Bamboo Books. He has read so much of the
recovery of portions of the Shoo from the walls of houses that he must be
tired of this mode of finding lost treasures, and smiles when he is now
called on to believe that an old tomb opened and yielded its literary
stores long after the human remains that had been laid in it had mingled
with the dust. From the death of King Sëang to A.D. 279 were 574 years."
Against this, however, which is not a very weighty objection, if we
consider the length of time that Egyptian papyri have been entombed before
their restoration to the light, Mr. Legge ranges preponderating evidence
in favour of their authenticity, and concludes that "they had, no doubt,
been lying for nearly six centuries in the tomb in which they had been
first deposited when they were then brought anew to light."
The annals consist of two portions, one forming what is undoubtedly the
original text, and consisting of short notices of occurrences, such as,
"In his fiftieth year, in the autumn, in the seventh month, on the day
Kang shin [fifty-seventh of cycle] phœnixes, male and female, arrived,"
&c. &c. It also records earthquakes, obituaries, accessions, and
remarkable natural phenomena. The other portion is interspersed between
these, in the form of rather diffuse, though not very numerous, notes,
which by some are supposed to be a portion of the original text, by
others, to have been added by the commentator Shin Yo [A.D. 502-557].
In the latter, frequent references are made to the appearance of phœnixes
(the _fung wang_), _ki-lins_ (unicorns), and dragons.
In the former we find only incidental references to either of these, such
as, "XIV. The Emperor K‘ung-kea. In his first year (B.C. 1611), when he
came to the throne, he dwelt on the west of the Ho. He displaced the chief
of Ch‘e-wei,[232] and appointed Lew-luy[233] to feed the dragons."
According to the latter, Hwang Ti (B.C. 2697) had a dragon-like
countenance; while the mother of Yaou (B.C. 2356) conceived him by a
dragon. The legend is: "After she was grown up, whenever she looked into
any of the three Ho, there was a dragon following her. One morning the
dragon came with a picture and writing. The substance of the writing
was--the Red one has received the favour of Heaven.... The red dragon made
K‘ing-teo pregnant."
Again, when Yaou had been on the throne seventy years, a dragon-horse
appeared bearing a scheme, which he laid on the table and went away.
The Emperor Shun (B.C. 2255) is said to have had a dragon countenance.
It is also said of Yu (the first emperor of the Hia dynasty) that when the
fortunes of Hia were about to rise, all vegetation was luxuriant, and
green dragons lay in the borders; and that "on his way to the south, when
crossing the Kiang, in the middle of the stream, two yellow dragons took
the boat on their backs. The people were all afraid; but Yu laughed, and
said, 'I received my appointment from Heaven, and labour with all my
strength to nourish men. To be born is the course of nature; to die is by
_Heaven's_ decree. Why be troubled by the dragons?' On this the dragons
went away, dragging their tails."
From these extracts it will be seen that the dragon, although universally
believed in, was already mythical and legendary, so far as the Chinese
were concerned.
THE "SHU KING"[234] OR "SHOO KING"
is, according to Dr. Legge, simply a collection of historic memorials,
extending over a space of one thousand seven hundred years, but on no
connected method, and with great gaps between them.
It opens with the reign of Yaou (B.C. 2357), and contains interesting
details of the polity of those remote ages.
It contains a record of the great inundation occurring during his reign,
which Mr. Legge does not identify with the Deluge of Genesis, but which
Dr. Gutzlaff and other missionary Sinologues consider to be the same.
It is interesting to find in this work, claiming so high an antiquity,
references to an antiquity which had preceded it--a bygone civilization,
perhaps--as follows, in the book called _Yih and Ts‘ih_.[235] The emperor
(Shun, B.C. 2255 to 2205) says, "I wish to see the emblematic figures of
the ancients--the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountain, the dragon, and
the flowery fowl, which are depicted _on the upper garment_; the temple
cup, the aquatic grass, the flames, the grains of rice, the hatchet, and
the symbol of distinction, which are embroidered _on the lower garment_.
_I wish to see_ all these displayed with the five colours, so as to form
the official robes; it is yours to adjust them clearly." Here the dragon
is chosen as an emblematic figure, in association with eleven others,
which are objects of every-day knowledge, and this, I think, establishes a
presumption that it itself was not at that date considered an object of
doubtful credibility.
Similarly, we find the twelve symbolical animals, representing the twelve
branches of the Horary characters (dating, see Williams' Dictionary, from
B.C. 2637), to be the rat, the ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse,
sheep, monkey, cock, dog, boar, where the dragon is the only one about
whose existence a question can be raised. _From this latter we learn that
there was no confusion of meaning then between dragons and serpents_; the
distinction of the two creatures was clearly recognized, just as it was
many centuries afterwards by Mencius (4th century B.C.), who, in writing
of these early periods, says, "In the time of Yaou, the waters, flowing
out of their channels, inundated the Middle Kingdom. Snakes and dragons
occupied it, and the people had no place where they could settle
themselves"; and again, "Yu dug open their obstructed channels, and
conducted them to the sea. He drove away the snakes and dragons,[236] and
forced them into the grassy marshes."
THE "'RH YA."
The _'Rh Ya_ or _Urh Ya_,[237] also transliterated _Eul Ya_ and _Œl Ya_, a
dictionary of terms used in the Chinese classics, but more especially of
those in the _Shi King_, or "Book of Odes," a collection of ancient
ballads compiled and arranged by Confucius.
There is a tradition that it was commenced by the Duke of Chow 1100 B.C.,
and completed or enlarged by Tsz Hia, a disciple of Confucius.
Dr. Bretschneider suggests that each heading or phrase in the original
book merely represents the book names and the popular names of the plants
and animals.
The bulk of the work at present extant consists of the commentary by Kwoh
P‘oh (about A.D. 300) and, in some editions, of additional commentaries by
other authors.
The illustrations selected from it for the present volume are reduced from
those in a very fine folio copy, for the loan of which I am indebted to
Mr. Thomas Kingsmill, of Shanghai.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--THE BANNER CALLED TSING K'I. (_From the 'Rh
Ya._)]
These profess to date back so far as the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960 to A.D.
1127), and it is interesting to observe that the representations of tools
of husbandry then in use (Fig. 50, p. 232), and of the methods of hawking
(Fig. 46, p. 225), fishing (Fig. 47, p. 227), and the like, are such as
might be taken without alteration from those of the present day.
The drawings made by Kwoh P‘oh appear to have been lost in the sixth
century A.D.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--THE K'I WITH BELLS. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
Notices of the dragon only appear incidentally in the _'Rh Ya_ as forming
part of the decoration of banners, &c.; but descriptions and figures of
the Chinese unicorn are given, and of other remarkable animals, of which I
shall eventually take notice.
These figures of dragons in the drawings of banners (Figs. 41-44) are
especially interesting; as there is fair reason to suppose that they at
least have been reproduced time after time from pre-existing ones with
tolerable accuracy; and that they give us a good notion of the general
character of the animal they purport to represent.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--THE CHAO BANNER. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--THE K'I OR KIAO LUNG STANDARD. (_From the San Li
Tu._)]
I have appended a few _fac-similes_ of wood engravings from the _'Rh Ya_
on general subjects, in anticipation of others dealing with specialities,
which will be found in their appropriate positions; they will serve to
correct the notion that the Chinese are entirely devoid of artistic power
and imagination (Figs. 46-49).
THE "SHAN HAI KING" OR CLASSIC OF MOUNTAIN AND SEAS.
Short notices of this remarkable work are given by Mr. Alexander
Wylie[238] and Dr. Bretschneider,[239] and a more exhaustive one by M.
Bazin.[240]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--ONE OF THE EAVE TILES FROM THE OLD IMPERIAL
PALACE OF NANKIN, showing the Five-clawed or Imperial Dragon, an emblem
which cannot be borne by any outside of the Imperial service, under the
penalty of death. Commoners have to be satisfied with a four-clawed
dragon.]
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--RETURN FROM THE CHASE. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
It is also largely quoted by Williams in his valuable Chinese dictionary.
Otherwise Sinologues appear to have entirely ignored it.
Mr. Wylie remarks that "it has long been looked upon with distrust; but
some scholars of great ability have recently investigated its contents,
and come to the conclusion that it is at least as old as the Chow dynasty,
and probably of a date even anterior to that period."
M. Bazin speaks of it as a fabulous description of the world, and
attributes it to Taouist writers in the fourth century of our era, who
forged the authority of the great Yü and Peh Yi. He thinks it would be
useless to attempt the identification of the localities given in it, and
offers a translation of a portion of the first chapter in support of his
views.
The value of his translation is impaired by his making no distinction
between the text and the commentary, and he appears to have possessed an
inferior and incomplete version.
In an editorial article in the _North China Herald_ of May 9, 1884
(presumably by Mr. Balfour, an excellent Sinologue), it is referred to the
date of Ch'in Shih Huang, who connected the Heptarchy into a single
kingdom, and conquered Cochin China about B.C. 222.
Kwoh Po‘h[241] (A.D. 276-324), who prepared an edition which has descended
to us, ascribes a date to it 3,000 years anterior to his time.
Liu Hsiu,[241] of the Han dynasty (B.C. 206 to A.D. 25), states that the
Emperor Yü, the founder of the Hia dynasty (B.C. 2205), employed Yih and
Peh Yi as geographers and natural historians, who produced the "Book of
Wonders by Land and Sea." While Yang Sun,[241] of the Ming dynasty
(commencing A.D. 1368), states in his after-preface that the Emperor Yü
had nine metal vases cast, on which all wonderful or rare animals were
engraved, the commoner ones being recorded in the annals of Yü; and that
K‘ung Kiah (of the Hia dynasty, B.C. 1879), included this varied
information in the present work.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--ONE MODE OF CAPTURING FISH. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--SUMMER. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
It is to be hoped that at no distant date some competent Sinologue will be
induced to furnish a full translation of this remarkable work, with an
adequate commentary.
There is no doubt that many would be deterred from doing so by an
impression that a collection of fabulous stories, treating of supernatural
beings and apparently impossible monsters, is unworthy the consideration
of mature intellect, and only fit to be relegated to the domain of Jack
the Giant Killer and other childish stories. After a close examination of
the book, I apprehend that this view of it can hardly be maintained. That
such stories or descriptions are interspersed throughout the work is not
to be disputed; but a large proportion of it consists of apparently
authentic geographical records, including, as is customary with all works
of a similar nature in China, descriptions of the most remarkable objects
of natural history occurring in the different regions. I think it will be
found possible to identify many of these at the present day, some may be
conjectured at, and the residue are not more numerous in proportion than
the similar fables or perverted accounts which figure in the western
classic volumes of Ctesias, Aristotle, Pliny, and even much later writers.
So far as the supernatural portions are concerned, it must be remembered
that, even so late as the days of the childhood of Sir Humphrey Davy,
pixies were still supposed by the lower classes to trace the fairy rings
in Cornwall; that quite lately, and perhaps among certain classes to the
present day, the existence of the banshee in Ireland, of the kelpie in
Scotland, and of persons gifted with the mysterious and awe-inspiring
power of second sight, was religiously believed in. There are few
important houses in England whose ancestral walls have not concealed an
apparition connected with the destinies of the family, appearing only on
fatal or eventful occasions; and in the days of the sapient James I. in
England, and among the Pilgrim Fathers in the American States, the
existence of wizards and witches was universally accepted as an undeniable
fact, proved by hundreds of instances of extorted or voluntary confession,
and supplemented by the concurrent testimony of a still greater number of
witnesses who genuinely believed themselves to have been the spectators or
victims of the supernatural powers of the accused.
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--MANTIS (A VERY CHARACTERISTIC FIGURE). (_From the
'Rh Ya._)]
An historian of these later times might well have described such things as
realities, and we should not be disposed, on account of his having done
so, to question the validity of his description of other objects or
creatures existing at the period, presuming them to be more consistent
with our present notions of possibility.
No one, now-a-days, would discredit the veracity of Marco Polo because he
speaks of enormous serpents in Carajan, possessing two feet, each armed
with a single claw. That there was a solid foundation for his story is
admitted, and commentators are only at variance as to whether the basis
was a large species of python, such as still exists in Southern China, or
a gigantic alligator, of which he might have seen a mutilated specimen.
It must also be borne in mind that the existence of some gigantic saurian,
now extinct, possessing two limbs only, in place of four, is not an
impossibility; as the small lizard, Chirotes, is in that condition, and
also the North American genus _Siren_, belonging to the Newts.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--TOOLS OF HUSBANDRY. (_From the 'Rh Ya._)]
I notice that Retzoch, in his designs to illustrate Schiller's poem, "The
Fight with the Dragon," makes the monster have only two fore-legs, and
this appears to have been a common mediæval conception of it. Aldrovandus
and Gesner both give figures of biped dragons. There is also a curious
drawing in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1749--which is transferred into
the pages of the _Encyclopædia of Philadelphia_, apparently a piracy of an
English Cyclopædia, of what is styled a sea-dragon, four feet long, which
stands bolt upright on two legs, and, like Barnum's mermaid, was probably
a triumph of art.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--DRACO BIPES APTEROS CAPTUS IN AGRO BONONIENSI.
(_Aldrovandus._)]
Aldrovandus was probably imposed on by some waggish friend, in reference
to the biped dragon without wings, two cubits long, which was said to have
been killed by a countryman near Bonn in 1572 A.D., and which he first
figured and then placed in his museum; and he evidently fully believed in
the Ethiopian winged biped dragon, of which he gives two figures, but
without quoting his authority.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--DRACO ÆTHIOPICUS. (_Aldrovandus._)]
Gesner gives a similar figure, after Belon, of the winged dragon of Mount
Sinai; but Athanasius Kircher is more liberal, and gives his dragon not
only wings but four legs.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--THE FOUR-FOOTED WINGED DRAGON. (_Kircher._)]
In poetry we find Ashtaroth described as appearing to Faust in the form of
a serpent with two little feet.
As to the mysterious powers imputed throughout the _Shan Hai King_ to
different creatures, of controlling drought, rain, and fire, or acting,
when partaken of, as remedies for sundry ills and ailments, it may be
asked whether we ourselves are free from analogous superstitious beliefs?
Will a sailor view without uneasiness the destruction of a Mother Carey's
chicken, or a Dutchman, of a stork? Or is the Chinese pharmacopœia of the
present day much more trustworthy as to many of its items?
As to the human-visaged creatures, both snakes and four-footed beasts, may
we not perhaps put them on a par with other fancied resemblances, which
hold to the present day, of (for example) the hippopotamus, to a
river-horse, of the pipe-fish, known as the hippocampus, to a sea-horse;
of the manatee to a merman, and the like?
And, lastly, are the composite creatures, partly bird and partly
reptilian, occasionally referred to, so entirely incredible? Is it not
barely possible that some of those intervening types which we know from
the teaching of Darwin, must have existed; which we know, from the
researches of palæontology have existed; types intermediate to the
_Struthionidæ_, the most reptilian of birds, and the _Chlamydæ_, the most
avian of reptiles--is it not possible that some of these may have
continued their existence down to a late date, and that the tradition of
these existing as the descendants or the analogues of the Archæopteryx,
and the toothed birds of America, may be embalmed in the pages in
question? Is it impossible? Do not the Trigonias, the Terebratulas, the
Marsupials, and, in part, the vegetation of Australia, form the spare
surviving descendants of the forms which characterised the oolitic period
on our own shores? Why, then, may not a few cretaceous and early tertiary
forms have struggled on, through a happy combination of circumstances, to
an aged and late existence in other lands.
After long, repeated, and careful examination of the _Shan Hai King_, I
arrive at a very different conclusion from M. Bazin. I hold it to be an
authentic and precious memorial which has been handed down to us from
remote antiquity, the value of which has been unrecognised owing to the
book being unfortunately a fusion of two and perhaps three distinct works.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--THE PA SNAKE. (_From the Shan Hai King._)]
The oldest was the _Shan King_, and consists of five volumes, devoted
respectively to the northern, southern, eastern, western, and central
mountain ranges. This is devoid of all reference to persons and habited
places. It is simply an abstract of the results of a topographical survey
which may not impossibly have been, as it claims, the one conducted by Yü.
It contains lists of mountains and rivers, with valuable notes on their
mineral productions, fauna and flora. It also gives lists of the
divinities controlling or belonging to each mountain range, and the
sacrifices suitable to them. There are few extravagances in this portion
of the work.
The remainder is devoted to a history of the regions without and within
the four _hai_ or seas bounding the empire, and those constituting what is
called the Great Desert. Here extravagant stories, myths, accounts of
wonderful people, references to states, cities, and tribes are mingled
with geographical notices which, from their repetition, show that this
portion is itself resolvable into two distinct works of more modern date,
whose origin was probably posterior to the wave of Taouist superstition
which swept over China in the first six centuries of our era. I must add
that the term, "within the four seas" does not imply the arrogant belief,
as is generally supposed, that this Empire extended to the ocean on every
side, the archaic meaning being the very different one of frontier or
boundary region; while the word "desert" has a similar signification.
In that more credible portion of the work which I believe to have been the
original _Shan King_, references to dragons are infrequent. In some
instances the _kiao_ (which I interpret as the gavial) is specifically
referred to; in others the word _lung_ is used; thus, it speaks of dragons
and turtles abounding in the Ti River, flowing from one of the northern
mountains east of the Ho. From the context, however, an aquatic creature,
and probably an alligator, is indicated. From the entire text I gather
that the true terrestrial dragon was not an inmate of China, at all events
after the period of Yü. I further infer that it was a feared and much
respected denizen of the more or less arid highlands, whence the early
Chinese either migrated or were driven, and from which point the dragon
traditions flowed pretty evenly east and west, beat against the Himalayan
chain on the south, and only penetrated India in a later and modified
form.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--FLYING SNAKES FROM THE SIEN MOUNTAINS (CENTRAL
MOUNTAINS). (_Shan Hai King._)]
There is a short reference to the Ying Lung or winged dragon; it is as
follows:--
"In the north-east corner of the Great Desert are mountains called
Hiung-li and T'u K'iu. The Ying Lung lives at the south extremity.
"[Commentary.--The Ying Lung is a dragon with wings.]
"He killed Tsz Yiu and Kwa Fu.
"[Commentary.--Tsz Yiu was a soldier.]
"He could not ascend to heaven.
"[Commentary.--The Ying Lung dwells beneath the earth.]
"So there is often drought.
"[Commentary.--Because no rain was made above.]
"When there is a drought, the form of the Ying dragon is made, and then
there is much rain.
"[Commentary.--Now the false dragon is for this purpose, to influence
(the heaven); men are not able to do it.]"
The better printed copies of this work are illustrated with a very
truculent-looking dragon with outspread wings. A stone delineation of a
dragon with wings forms the ornamentation of the bridge at Nincheang Foo.
In the interior of China, it was observed by Mr. Cooper, and is given in
his _Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce_. These are the only cases in China
in which I have come across illustrations of dragons with genuine wings.
As a rule, the dragon appears to be represented as having the power of
translating itself without mechanical agency, sailing among the clouds, or
rising from the sea at pleasure.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--PING I (ICY EXTERMINATOR), A RIVER DIVINITY (?).
From within the Sea and North. (_Shan Hai King._)]
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--THE EMPEROR K'I, OF THE HIA DYNASTY. From without
the Sea and West. (_Shan Hai King._)]
The _Shan Hai King_ contains valuable notices of winged snakes and
gigantic serpents, as, for example, the so-called singing snakes. Speaking
of the Sien mountain (one of the Central Mountains), it says: "Gold and
jade abound. It is barren. The Sien river issues and flows north into the
I river. On it are many singing snakes. They look like snakes, but have
four wings. Their voice is like the beating of stones. When they appear
there will be great drought in the city."
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--YÜ KIANG (A GOD). Without the Sea and North.
(_Shan Hai King._)]
The Pa snake, already spoken of, is described as capable of gorging an
elephant. The Ta Hien mountains were reputed uninhabitable on account of
the presence of gigantic serpents (pythons?), which were said to have been
of the colour of mugwort, to have possessed hairs like pig's bristles
projecting between the lines of their riband-like markings. Rumour had
magnified their length to one hundred fathoms, and they made a noise like
the beating of a drum or the striking of a watchman's wooden clapper. The
Siong Jan mountains were infested by serpents, also gigantic, but of a
different species.
The annexed wood-cuts (Figs. 56, 57) of Ping I (Icy exterminator), and the
Emperor K'i (B.C. 2197), each in cars, driving two dragons, are
interesting in connection with the later fable of Medea and Triptolemus.
The two stories were probably derived from a common source; the Chinese
version, however, being much the older of the two.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--THE TYPHOON DRAGON. (_From a Chinese Painting._)]
The text as to K'i is:--"K'i of the Hia dynasty danced with Kiutai at the
Tayoh common. He drove two dragons. The clouds overhung in three layers.
In his left hand he grasped a screen; in his right hand he held ear
ornaments; at his girdle dangled jade crescents. It is north of Tayun
mount; one author calls it Tai common." The commentator says Kiutai is the
name of a horse, and "dance" means to dance in a circle. [Probably this is
the earliest reference extant to a circus performance.]
Ping I is supposed to dwell in Tsung Ki pool near the fairy region of
Kwa-Sun, to have a human face, and to drive two dragons.
Cursorily examined, the _Shan Hai King_ is a farrago of falsehood; read
with intelligence, it is a mine of historical wealth.
THE PAN TSAO KANG MU.[242]
Descending to late times, we have the great Chinese Materia Medica, in
fifty-two volumes, entitled _Păn Tsao Kang Mu_, made up of extracts from
upwards of eight hundred preceding authors, and including three volumes of
illustrations by Li Shechin, of the Ming dynasty (probably born early in
the sixteenth century A.D.). It was first printed in the Wăn-leih period
(1573 to 1620). I give its article upon the dragon _in extenso_.
"According to the dictionary of Hü Shăn, the character lung in the antique
form of writing represents the shape of the animal. According to the
_Shang Siao Lun_, the dragon is deaf, hence its name of _lung_ (deaf). In
Western books the dragon is called _nake_ (_naga_). Shi-Chăn says that in
the _'Rh Ya Yih_ of Lo-Yuen the dragon is described as the largest of
scaled animals (literally, insects). Wang Fu says that the dragon has nine
(characteristics) resemblances. Its head is like a camel's, its horns like
a deer's, its eyes like a hare's,[243] its ears like a bull's, its neck
like a snake's, its belly like an iguanodon's (?), its scales like a
carp's, its claws like an eagle's, and its paws like a tiger's. Its scales
number eighty-one, being nine by nine, the extreme (odd or) lucky number.
Its voice resembles the beating of a gong. On each side of its mouth are
whiskers, under its chin is a bright pearl, under its throat the scales
are reversed, on the top of its head is the _poh shan_, which others call
the wooden foot-rule. A dragon without a foot-rule cannot ascend the
skies. When its breath escapes it forms clouds, sometimes changing into
rain, at other times into fire. Luh Tien in the _P'i Ya_ remarks, when
dragon-breath meets with damp it becomes bright, when it gets wet it goes
on fire. It is extinguished by ordinary fire.
"The dragon comes from an egg, it being desirable to keep it folded up.
When the male calls out there is a breeze above, when the female calls out
there is a breeze below, in consequence of which there is conception. The
_Shih Tien_ states, when the dragons come together they are changed into
two small serpents. In the _Siao Shwoh_ it is said that the disposition of
the dragon is very fierce, and it is fond of beautiful gems and jade (?).
It is extremely fond of swallow's flesh; it dreads iron, the _mong_ plant,
the centipede, the leaves of the Pride of India, and silk dyed of
different (five) colours. A man, therefore, who eats swallow's flesh
should fear to cross the water. When rain is wanted a swallow should be
offered (used); when floods are to be restrained, then iron; to stir up
the dragon, the _mong_ plant should be employed; to sacrifice to _Küh
Yuen_, the leaves of the Pride of India bound with coloured silk should be
used (see Mayers, p. 107, § 326) and thrown into the river. Physicians who
use dragons' bones ought to know the likes and dislikes of dragons as
given above."
"_Dragons' Bones._[244]--In the _Pieh luh_ it is said that these are found
in the watercourses in Tsin (Southern Shansi) and in the earth-holes which
exist along the banks of the streams running in the caves of the T'ai Shan
(Great Hill), Shantung. For seeking dead dragons' graves there is no fixed
time. Hung King says that now they are largely found in Leung-yih (in
Shansi?) and Pa-chung (in Szchuen). Of all the bones, dragon's spine is
the best; the brains make the white earth _striæ_, which when applied to
the tongue is of great virtue. The small teeth are hard, and of the usual
appearance of teeth. The horns are hard and solid. All the dragons cast
off their bodies without really dying. Han says the dragon-bones from
Yea-cheu, Ts‘ang-cheu and T'ai-yuen (all in Shansi) are the best. The
smaller bones marked with wider lines are the female dragon's; the rougher
bones with narrower lines are those of the male dragon; those which are
marked with variegated colours are esteemed the best. Those that are
either yellow or white are of medium value; the black are inferior. If any
of the bones are impure, or are gathered by women, they should not be
used.
"P'u says dragons' bones of a light white colour possess great virtue.
Kung says the bones found in Tsin (South Shansi) that are hard are not
good; the variegated ones possess virtue. The light, the yellow, the
flesh-coloured, the white, and the black, are efficacious in curing
diseases in the internal organs having their respective colours, just as
the five varieties of the _chi_[245] plant, the five kinds of limestone,
and the five kinds of mineral oil (literally, fat), which remain still for
discussion in this work.
"Su-chung states: 'In the prefecture of Cheu kiün, to the "East of the
River" (Shansi), dragons' bones are still found in large quantities.'
"Li-chao, in the _Kwoh-shi-pu_, says: 'In the spring floods the fish leap
into the Dragon's Gate, and the number of cast-off bones there is very
numerous. These men seek for medicinal purposes. They are of the five
colours. This Dragon's Gate is in Tsin (Shansi), where this work
(_Kwoh-shi-pu_) is published. Are not, then, these so-called dragons'
bones the bones of fish?'
"Again, quoting from Sun Kwang-hien in the _Poh-mung Legends_: 'In the
time of the five dynasties there was a contest between two dragons; when
one was slain, a village hero, Kw'an, got both its horns. In the front of
the horns was an object of a bluish colour, marked with confused lines,
which no one knew anything about, as the dragon was completely dead.'
"Tsung Shih says: 'All statements [concerning dragons' bones] disagree;
they are merely speculations, for when a mountain cavern has disclosed to
view a skeleton head, horns and all, who is to know whether they are
_exuviæ_ or that the dragon has been killed? Those who say they are
_exuviæ_, or that the dragon is dead, then have the form of the animal,
but have never seen it alive. Now, how can one see the thing (as it really
is) when it is dead? Some also say that it is a transformation, but how is
it only in its appearance that it cannot be transformed?'
"Ki, in the present work, says that they are really dead dragons' bones;
for one to say that they are _exuviæ_ is a mere speculation.
"Shi Chăn says: 'The present work considers that these are really dead
dragons' bones, but To Shi thinks they are _exuviæ_. Su and Kan doubt both
these statements. They submit that dragons are divine beings, and resemble
the principle of immortality (never-in-themselves-dying principle); but
there is the statement of the dragon fighting and getting killed; and
further, in the _Tso-chw‘en_, in which it is stated that there was a
certain rearer of dragons who pickled dragons for food [for the imperial
table?].'
"The _I-ki_ says: 'In the time of the Emperor Hwo, of the Han dynasty,
during a heavy shower a dragon fell in the palace grounds, which the
Emperor ordered to be made into soup and given to his Ministers.'
"The _Poh-wuh-chi_ states that a certain Chang Hwa 'got dragon's flesh to
dry, for it is said that when seasoning was applied the five colours
appeared, &c. These facts prove that the dragon does die, an opinion which
is considered correct by [the writers of] the present work.'"
THE YUEN KIEN LEI HAN.
This is an encyclopædia in four hundred and fifty books or volumes,
completed in 1710. More than eighty pages are devoted to the dragon.
These, with all similar publications in China, consist entirely of
extracts from old works, many of which have perished, and of which
fragments alone remain preserved as above.
I have had the whole of this carefully translated, but think it
unnecessary to trouble the reader, in the present volume, with more than
the first chapter, which I give in the Appendix. There is also a
description of the Kiao, of which I give extracts in the Appendix,
together with others relating to the same creature, and to the T‘o lung,
from the _Păn Tsao Kang Mu_.
[Illustration: FIG. 60--VIGNETTE. (_After Hokŭsai._)]