Differences Between Chinese and Western Dragon Culture
Abstract
The dragon is a spirit symbol of Chinese people.There are some different cultural connotations between Chinese dragon and Western dragon.The Chinese dragon is a symbol of propitious omens and good fortune.And it also stands for the supreme imperial power,while Western dragon is the incarnation of evil and greedy. Because of cultural differences,western people are different from Chinese people in understanding and using dragon images. Therefore, a good grasp of its historical and cultural connotations allows people to truly understand the meaning of another culture in cross-cultural communication.
Key words: dragon, Loong, cultural differences, origin, mythology, symbolic meaning,
Introduction
The dragon is a mascot in Chinese national culture and it is a cultural symbol of Chinese nation.In China, dragon culture has a long history. It is very profound and also a reflection of Chinese identity. Chinese people claim to be the descendent of dragon.In acient China, only empire could wear dragon robe(a kind of cloth with dragon images on it),and if something was named by Loong【1】(In Chinese,it means dragon),that means it is definitely very noble or expensive,such as Dragon Well Tea(Longjing tea), Longyan and so on. In Chinese Zodiac, there is also a dragon and it is the only animal that does not exist in real life. But in the west, the dragon is a symbol of evil, the incarnation of Satan. In western mythology, there are many stories about dragon.In these stories, human warriors always want to defeat a dragon in order to get the treasures in the dragon lair or save the beautiful princess who was grabed by the dragon. Even today, in western movies,the dragon is described as a kind of huge monster which is similar to Godzilla. And in the Role-Playing Games, the dragon is often designed as a boss that is ready to be defeated by the players to help them upgrade. Therefore, understanding the differences between Chinese and Western dragon culture helps us understand the different cultural backgrounds and know more implied meanings of the dragon.
Ⅰ. Origin
The Chinese dragon comes from an ancient totem. In ancient times, our ancestors could not make a reasonable explanation about most natural phenomenons. So with the totem, they hoped they can have the power of lightning and storm, the magnificence of mountains, the flexibility of a fish and the vigorousness of birds. Therefore, the dragon gradually became a nine Unlikeness( a creature which has deer horn, cow's ears, camel’s head, rabbit eyes, snake's neck, fish scales, tiger's sole and eagle claw). This composite structure means the dragon is the king of animals and the Almighty God of the world. In our ancestors’ minds, dragon can change into anything,
can be small or huge, can be short or long, can dive deeply in the water, can fly above all the clouds. In Ci Hai, it says that Loong is a miraculous animal with scals and palpus in the ancient legends that controls the weather and water. It also says that Loong, with horn and claw, can mount the clouds and ride the mist, summon wind and call for rain and change unpredictably. Every part of Loong has special symbolic meanings. And all of the meanings is auspicious.
But in Western people’s concepts, dragon stands for evil. In Encyclopedia, it says dragon, a legendary reptilian monster similar in form to a crocodile and usually represented as having wings, huge claws, and a fiery breath.【2】 It is a magic creature in Western legend which has formidable magic power. And Western people think that there are many kinds of dragons. Dragons can have a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature. In China, we say the Loong has nine sons and each son is different. Yet, in west, they can say the dragon has hundreds of sons and each of them is also different. Some dragons live in the deep sea; some sleep in the volcano; some remains dormant in the swamp and some hide themselves in caves. Nowadays, we often use the word “dragon” when we refer Western dragon. However, in ancient times, people did not use “dragon”. Semitics founded Judaism and at that time, some people believed that Seraphim in the Judaism is the embodiment of the dragon with justice power. In Western culture, Seraphim is closest to Loong for its nature and characteristics. Seraphim is not only similar to Loong in its stature, function and significance, but also close to Chinese local dragon in the origin. Chinese dragon likes a huge snake while Western dragon came from the word “Seraph” in the ancient Hebrew language. From the Holy Bible, we can find that dragon is snake. In Revelation, it refers that the great was hurled down——that ancient serpent called the devil,or Satan,who leads the whole astray. The Old Testament mentions many times that dragon comes from Greece, and it is often described as a huge sea monster or a viper. Since Mesopotamia legend, dragon was treated as symbol of Devil.Therefore, people at that time lived near Mesopotamia Plain accepted this idea and passed it until today. So the Christian and Jews treat dragon as a evil creature.
Ⅱ. Mythologies
In ancient China, there are many mythologies about dragon. For example, in Journey to the West, Tang Seng rides a white horse named white dragon horse. In the book, the white dragon horse is the third son of dragon king in the west sea, but he offended the rules. So Guanyin pulished him by changing him into a horse to protect Tang Seng to west. From the book, we can learn that the ancient Chinese people believes dragon is a god who controls the weather and water. \Chronological Record of Historians,\written by Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, was the world's earliest biographical work of literature, covering a history of 3,000 years. Its contents rang from the legendary Huang Di, or Yellow Emperor, to Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty. 【3】In this book, Sima Qian saied our Chinese nation’s forefather Huang Di is the incarnation of Yellow Dragon, which is the dragon king. It belongs to earth in Five Elements and earth is in the middle of Five Elements, so Yellow Dragon
is the leader of dragons. Because of this, when Huang Di reached the heaven, he became the emperor of heaven. Dragon is also the first of the four Divine Creatures to Chinese-the others being the unicorn, the phoenix and the tortoise. It brings rain to the earth, hasten the crops and cools the toiling framer. If a place do not rain for a long time, people will think that’s because they have made the dragon king angry. So they will present oblations to fawn on the dragon king.
There are also many legends about dragon in the west. In Greek mythology, there is a god who controls business and trading. A dragon with a horn accompanies him. That is why latter people believe dragon likes treasures. In ancient Egyptian mythology, dragon has an image of upper body as the eagle, lower body as the lion. The upper part of the eagle represents the Helios, the lower half stands for fertile godness Hathor. This image stands for water. It is the earliest prototype of Egyptian dragon. In Mesopotamia mythology, the most representative example is Mu??u??u--- the later generations of ocean godness. On the wall of Darwaza D'Ishtar (built in Neo-Babylonian period ), there is a relief of Mu??u??u. It is said the Mu??u??u was created by ocean godness to fight against Jupiter. It has lion foot, eagle claw, ox horn, and scorpion needle. In the Old English poem Beowulf, dragons are said to breathe fire or to be poisonous. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically scaly or feathered bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as having especially large eyes or watching treasure very diligently, a feature that is the origin of the word dragon. In the ancient Greek mythology, the dragon often appeared as ferocious monster and the caretaker of treasures. In Homer's epic, it mentioned twelve Labours of Heracles and the eleventh is to steal a golden apple of Hesperides. The golden apple was guarded by a serpent-like dragon with a hundred heads whose name is Ladon.
In mythologies, Western dragon and Chinese Dragon are very different in the following two points: First, the Western dragon must have wings, whether large or small, it is essential; although Chinese dragon can fly in the sky, it denpends on fabulous ability not wings. Second, the Chinese dragon is incarnation of clouds and rain. In Oriental mythology, the dragon is responsible for rain to moisten the earth. Western dragon is fire-breathing. Its image is evil, and the character is also evil. it hides in the deep forests, but when it appeared, it must cause a disaster for human.
Ⅲ. Symbolic meaning in old times
Existing in both Chinese and western cultures, dragons have very different symbolic meanings. The Chinese dragon is a sacred symbol and the Western dragon is a terrible monster. Because of different national history, different religion, different customs, different lifestyle and different topography, different people have different understanding about dragon. The mythologies of Huang Di and Yan di, the legend of Journey to the West, etc, show us that Chinese dragons are good, favorable, powerful and humane while the mythologies of Satan and Cadmus, the stories of the dragon-slayers, etc, reflect that western dragons are bad, hateful, destructive and monstrous.
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