What does the Chinese Dragon Look Like?
Descriptions of these magical beasts vary widely, but many characteristics are commonly accepted. For instance, many dragons are depicted with whiskers on either side of the mouth, scales that cover the entire length of the body (there are precisely 81 ridge like scales covering the back, this number being a multiple of 9 which is China's lucky number and is closely associated with this beloved creature), a bearded chin under which a dazzling pearl can be found, breath that can come out of its mouth as either a cloud which turns into water or the more commonly thought of breath of fire, and the amazing ability to change size at will. Chinese storytellers dating back to 1100 BC claim that the dragon has the ability to shrink into the size of a silk worm or to swell to fill the space between heaven and earth. They are commonly depicted as flying among the heavens, though the Eastern dragons typically do not have wings, and this ability to fly is directly linked to the magical pearl they covet below their bushy beards. (More on the magic pearl will be given below) They differ greatly in terms of color, though red, green, black, and gold are the most prominent. Gold and yellow are reserved for the Imperial family. The Imperial Dragon is noted to have five toes on each foot and will be mentioned in further detail below.
Many Chinese dragons bare close resemblance to the snake. Their bodies are often times more slender than the Western dragon and very few times does one see wings. Here is an example of a Chinese dragon found at the Summer Palace in Beijing.
http://beifan.com/034dragon/cd02h.html
Here is another example of a serpentine dragon at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
http://beifan.com/034dragon/cd04h.html.
Here also is the famed Nine Dragon Wall, which tells the story of the Dragon and his nine sons, explained in further detail below.
http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/cn/beijing/gugong/jiuLongBi.html
Sometimes Chinese artists and storytellers also describe the dragon as dog like. There is a saying in ancient China that says, 'a brown dog sprouts horns and becomes a yellow dragon'.
The Cang dragon, first seen on the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty's Emperor Wudi, is almost the spitting image of a grey hound, but for its tiger like tail. It has four long legs that extend from its slender and slick body. Another example of a dog-like dragon, is the Good Luck dragon, Falkor, featured in the popular 1984 children's film, The Never Ending Story* .
In this film Falkor has the head of a dog with an elongated body that is covered in white puffy scales from top to bottom. Falkor is an excellent representation of an eastern dragon. He performed saintly tasks throughout this movie, saving the protagonist Atreu on more than one occasion. A third example of a doglike dragon was the Aso, or dog-dragon, and is found in the artwork of Borneo. The Aso's image was influenced by the renderings found on ceramics that were brought directly from China. Although the name literally means "dog," the aso is actually a supernatural creature that incorporates aspects of the dog, the dragon, and the climbing tendrils of forest vines.
It was not uncommon for a Chinese Dragon to be resemble a human. The Candle Dragon, found among the pages of The Mountain Water Classic, is depicted as having "a serpent's body and a human face couching two very striking red eyes." It was thought that these half human/half dragons were, perhaps, the result of humans directly mating with these magical creatures. This idea was widely accepted at the time. Several Emperors of the time claimed ancestry with the Dragon. Emperor Hiro Hito of Japan claims to have been the direct descendant of Princess Fruitful Jewel, the daughter of a dragon king of the sea. Liubang, the first emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (206-195 BC), claimed to have been the seed of a dragon for it was said his mother had given birth to him following a dream in which she was impregnated by a beastly dragon like creature.
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