THE JAPANESE DRAGON.
There is but little additional information as to the dragon to be gained
from Japan, the traditions relating to it in that country having been
obviously derived from China. In functions and qualities it is always
represented as identical with the Chinese dragon. In Japan, however, it is
invariably figured as possessing three claws, whereas in China it has four
or five, according as it is an ordinary or an imperial emblem. The
peasantry are still influenced by a belief in its supernatural powers, or
in those of some large or multiple-headed snake, supposed to be a
transformation of it, and to be the tenant of deep lakes or of springs
issuing from mountains.
I give, as examples of dragon stories, two selected from the narratives of
mythical history,[246] and one extracted from a native journal of the
day.
The first states that "Hi-koho-ho-da-mi no mikoto (a god) went out
hunting, and his eldest brother Hono-sa-su-ri no mikoto went out fishing.
They were very successful, and proposed to one another to change
occupations. They did so.
"Hono-sa-su-ri no mikoto went out to the mountain hunting, but got
nothing, therefore he gave back his bow and arrow; but Hi-ko-hoho-da-mi no
mikoto lost his hook in the sea; he therefore tried to return a new one,
but his brother would not receive it, and wanted the old one; and the
mikoto was greatly grieved, and, wandering on the shore, met with an old
man called Si-wo-tsu-chino-gi, and told him what had happened.
"The latter made a cage called mé-na-shi-kogo, enclosed him in it, and
sank it to the bottom of the sea. The mikoto proceeded to the temple
of the sea-god, who gave him a girl, Toyotama, in marriage. He
remained there three years, and recovered the hook which he had
lost, as well as receiving two pieces of precious jade called 'ebb'
and 'flood.' He then returned. After some years he died. His son,
Hi-ko-na-gi-sa-ta-k‘e-ouga-ya-fu-ki-ayā-dzu no mikoto, succeeded to the
crown.
"When his father first proposed to return, his wife told him that she was
_enciente_, and that she would come out to the shore during the rough
weather and heavy sea, saying, 'I hope you will wait until you have
completed a house for my confinement.' After some time Toyotama came there
and begged him never to come to her bed when she was sleeping. He,
however, crept up and peeped at her. He saw a dragon holding a child in
the midst of its coils. It suddenly jumped up and darted into the sea."
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--JAPANESE DRAGON (IN BRONZE).]
The second legend is: "When the So-sa-no-o no mikoto went to the sources
of the river Hi-no-ka-mi at Idzumo, he heard lamentations from a house; he
therefore approached it and inquired the cause. He saw an old man and
woman clasping a young girl. They told him that in that country there was
a very large serpent, which had eight[247] heads and eight tails, and came
annually and swallowed one person. 'We had eight children, and we have
already lost seven, and now have only one left, who will be swallowed;
hence our grief.' The mikoto said, 'If you will give that girl to me, I
will save her.' The old man and woman were rejoiced. The mikoto changed
his form, and assumed that of the young girl. He divided the room into
eight partitions, and in each placed one saki tub and waited its approach.
The serpent arrived, drank the saki, got intoxicated, and fell asleep.
"Then the mikoto drew his sword and cut the serpent into small pieces.
When he was cutting the tail his sword was a little broken; therefore he
split open the tail to find the reason, and found in it a valuable sword,
and offered it to the god O-mi-ka-mi, at Taka-maga-hara.
"He called the sword Ama no mourakoumo no tsurogi,[248] because there was
a cloud up in the heaven where the serpent lies. Finally he married the
girl, and built a house at Suga in Idzumo."
The third story runs as follows:--
_The White Dragon._
"There is a very large pond at the eastern part of Fu-si-mī-shi-ro-yama,
at Yama-shiro (near Kioto); it is called Ukisima. In the fine weather
little waves rise up on account of its size. There are many turtles in it.
In the summertime many boys go to the pond to swim, but never go out into
the middle or far from the shore. No one is aware how deep the centre of
the pond is, and it is said that a white dragon lives in that pond, and
can transform itself into a bird, which the people of the district call
O-gon-cho, _i.e._ golden bird, because, when it becomes a bird, it has a
yellow plumage. The bird flies once in fifty years, and its voice is like
the howling of a wolf. In that year there is famine and pestilence, and
many people die. Just one hundred years ago, when this bird flew and
uttered its cry, there was a famine and drought and disease, and many
people died. Again, at Tempo-go-nen (_i.e._ in the fifth year of Tempo),
fifty years back from the present time, the bird flew as before, and there
was once again disease and famine. Hence the people in that district were
much alarmed, as it is now just fifty years again. They hoped, however,
that the bird would not fly and cry. But at 2 A.M. of the 19th April it is
said that it was seen to do so. The people, therefore, were surprised, and
now are worshipping God in order to avert the famine and disease. The old
farmers say, in the fine weather the white dragon may occasionally be seen
floating on the water, but that if it sees people it sinks down beneath
the surface."[249]
As a pendant to this I now quote a memorial from the _Pekin Gazette_ of
April 3rd, 1884, of which a translation is given in the _North China
Herald_ for May 16th, 1884.
"A Postscript Memorial of P‘an Yü requests that an additional title of
rank, and a tablet written by His Majesty's own hand, may be conferred on
a dragon spirit, who has manifested himself and answered the prayers made
to him.
"In the Ang-shan mountains, a hundred _li_ from the town of Kuei-hai,
there are three wells, of which one is on the mountain top, in a spot
seldom visited. It has long been handed down that a dragon inhabits this
well. If pieces of metal are thrown into the well they float, but light
things, as silk or paper, will sink. If the offerings are accepted, fruits
come floating up in exchange. Anything not perfectly pure and clean is
rejected and sent whirling up again. The spirit dwells in the blackest
depths of the water, in form like a strange fish, with golden scales and
four paws, red eyes and long body. He ordinarily remains deep in the water
without stirring. But in times of great drought, if the local authorities
purify themselves, and sincerely worship him, he rises to the top. He is
then solemnly conveyed to the city, and prayers for rain are offered to
him, which are immediately answered. His temple is in the district city,
on the To‘ang-hai Ling. The provincial and local histories record that
tablets to him have been erected from the times of the Mongol and the Ming
dynasties. During the present dynasty, on several occasions, as, for
instance, in the years 1845 and 1863, he has been carried into the city,
and rain has fallen immediately. Last year a dreadful drought occurred, in
which the ponds and tanks dried up, to the great terror of the people. On
the 15th day of the eighth month, the magistrate conducted the spirit into
the city, and, with the assembled multitude, prayed to him fervently;
thereupon a gentle rain, falling throughout the country, brought plenty in
the place of scarcity, and gladdened the hearts of all. At about the same
time, the people of a district in the vicinity, called Chin-yü, also had
recourse to the spirit, with equally favourable results. These are
well-known events, which have happened quite recently.
"It is the desire of the people of the district that some mark of
distinction should be conferred on the spirit; and the memorialist finds
such a proceeding to be sanctioned both by law and precedent; he therefore
humbly lays the wishes of the people before His Majesty, who, perhaps,
will be pleased to confer a title and an autograph tablet as above
suggested. The Rescript has already been recorded.
"No. 6 of Memorial."
The idea of the transformation of a sea-monster or dragon into a bird is
common both to China and Japan; for instance, in _The Works of Chuang
Tsze_, ch. i. p. 1, by F. H. Balfour, F.R.G.S., we read that--
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--THE HAI RIYO. (_Chi-on-in Monastery, Kioto._)]
"In the Northern Sea there was a fish, whose name was _kw‘ên_. It is not
known how many thousand _li_ this fish was in length. It was afterwards
transformed into a bird called _p‘êng_, the size of whose back is
uncertain by some thousands of _li_. Suddenly it would dart upwards with
rapid flight, its wings overspreading the sky like clouds. When the
waters were agitated [in the sixth moon] the bird moved its abode to the
Southern Sea, the Pool of Heaven. In the book called _Ts‘i Hieh_, which
treats of strange and marvellous things, it is said that when the _p‘êng_
flew south, it first rushed over three thousand _li_ of water, and then
mounted to the height of ninety thousand _li_, riding upon the wind that
blows in the sixth moon. The wild horses, _i.e._ the clouds and dust of
heaven, were driven along by the zephyrs. The colour of the sky was blue;
yet, is that the real colour of the sky, or only the appearance produced
by infinite, illimitable depths? For the bird, as it looked downwards, the
view was just the same as it is to us when we look upwards."
On the screens decorating the Chi-on-in monastery in Kioto, are depicted
several composite creatures, half-dragon, half-bird, which appear to
represent the Japanese rendering of the Chinese Ying Lung or winged
dragon. They have dragons' heads, plumose wings, and birds' claws, and
have been variously designated to me by Japanese as the _Hai Riyo_ (Fig.
62), the _Tobi Tatsu_, and the _Schachi Hoko_.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--JAPANESE DRAGON (BRONZE).]
CONCLUSION OF DRAGON CHAPTERS.
The numerous quotations given in the above pages, or in the Appendix, are
merely a selection, and by no means profess to be so extensive as they
should be were this work a monograph on the dragon alone. Having a special
object in view, I have forborne to diverge into those interesting
speculations which relate to its religious significance; these I leave to
those who deal specially with this portion of its history. I therefore
pass over the many traditions and legends regarding it contained in the
pages of the _Memoirs of Hiouen-Thsang_,[250] of _Foĕ Kouĕ Ki_,[251] and
similar narratives, and omit quoting folk-lore from the pages of Dennys,
Eitel, and others who have written on the subject.
[Illustration: FIG. 64.]
For my purpose it would be profitless to collate legends such as that
given in the Apocrypha, in the story of Bel and the Dragon, and
reappearing in the pages of El Edrisi as an Arab legend, with Alexander
the Great as the hero, and the Canaries as the scene, or to dwell on the
Corean and Japanese versions of dragon stories, which are merely borrowed,
and corrupted in borrowing, from the Chinese. Nor shall I do more than
allude to the fact that dragons are represented in the Brahminical caves
at Ellora, and among the sculptures of Ancoar Wat in Cambodia.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.]
The rude diagrams, Figs. 64, 65, 66, are facsimiles from a manuscript of
folio size in the possession of J. Haas, Esq., Imperial Austro-Hungarian
Vice-Consul for Shanghai, which he kindly placed at my disposal. This
unique volume is at present, unfortunately, unintelligible. It comes from
the western confines of China, and is believed to be an example of the
written Lolo language, that is, of the language of the aboriginal tribes
of China. They suffice to show that the same respect for the dragon is
shown among these people as in China; but no opinion can be offered as to
whether this belief and respect is original or imported, until their
literature has been examined.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.]
I regret that I am unable to give in this volume, as I had wished, an
account of the Persian dragon, which, I am informed, is contained in a
rare Persian work.
In conclusion, I must hope that the reader who has had the patience to
wade through the medley of extracts which I have selected, and to analyse
the suggestive reasoning of the introductory chapters, will agree with me
that there is nothing impossible in the ordinary notion of the traditional
dragon; that such being the case, it is more likely to have once had a
real existence than to be a mere offspring of fancy; and that from the
accident of direct transmission of delineations of it on robes and
standards, we have probably a not very incorrect notion of it in the
depicted dragon of the Chinese.
We may infer that it was a long terrestrial lizard, hibernating, and
carnivorous, with the power of constricting with its snake-like body and
tail; possibly furnished with wing-like expansions of its integument,
after the fashion of _Draco volans_, and capable of occasional progress on
its hind legs alone, when excited in attack. It appears to have been
protected by armour and projecting spikes, like those found in _Moloch
horridus_ and _Megalania prisca_, and was possibly more nearly allied to
this last form than to any other which has yet come to our knowledge.
Probably it preferred sandy, open country to forest land, its habitat was
the highlands of Central Asia, and the time of its disappearance about
that of the Biblical Deluge discussed in a previous chapter.
Although terrestrial, it probably, in common with most reptiles, enjoyed
frequent bathing, and when not so engaged, or basking in the sun, secluded
itself under some overhanging bank or cavern.
The idea of its fondness for swallows, and power of attracting them,
mentioned in some traditions, may not impossibly have been derived from
these birds hawking round and through its open jaws in the pursuit of the
flies attracted by the viscid humours of its mouth. We know that at the
present day a bird, the trochilus of the ancients, freely enters the open
mouth of the crocodile, and rids it of the parasites affecting its teeth
and jaws.