![]() ![]() The film title Crouching tiger, Hidden dragon ➚ comes from a place of hidden strength, and a most auspicious Feng Shui location. Ideally this should be to the east of the location as in the case of the city of Nanjing. ➚ Hidden Dragonsįeng shui favors sites with a ‘hidden dragon’, which is found where the form of the surrounding hills look like a huge protecting dragon. Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. ![]() Imperial dragon at the Forbidden City Cracking China book Chinese dragon on a temple roofĪ representation of a 贪 龙 Tān lóng ‘ greedy dragon’ was often put at the entrance to the administrator's house (the yamen) so that the administrator and all the supplicants were encouraged to keep themselves on good behavior by this savage and hungry representation of a dragon. This was the day Lóng tái tóu 龙 抬 头 when the dragons by tradition stirred from their winter slumber. The Blue Dragon festival takes place on the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month each year. Buddhists brought with them into China a rather different view of dragons more akin to the europeans, Buddhist dragons are more cantankerous and prone to malice. The river forming a long stretch of China's north-eastern border is the 黑 龙 江 hēi lóng jiāng ‘Black Dragon River’ which in turn gives its name to the whole province. The blue-green dragon ( ) represents east and spring and is one of the four divisions of the traditional month. Dragons belong to various categories: heaven dragons ( 天 龙 tiān lóng) ruling the sky spirit dragons ( 神 龙 shén lóng) ruling the rain earth dragons ( 地 龙 dì lóng) ruling springs and streams, and treasure dragons ( 伏 藏 龙 fú cáng lóng) which guard buried riches. Dragons are lords of nature, commanding the mountains, sky, sea and land. Dragon shape decorations have been found on Yangzhou pottery dating back 6,000 years and there are hints that the original inspiration for a dragon was the alligator ➚ of Southern China. Its face has whiskers and a beard.ĭragons were well established in the Chinese mind as far back as the Shang dynasty. There are traditionally 81 (9x9) scales running along its spine. It is said to be a composite of nine different creatures: camel’s head, deer’s horns, rabbit’s eyes, cow’s ears, snake’s neck, frog’s belly, carp’s scales, hawk’s claws and tiger’s palm. It has a sinuous body covered in scales, with four legs and two horns. It is second only to humans in the hierarchy of animals. There is an impressive imperial Nine Dragon Wall of glazed tiles at both the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City at Beijing.Īccording to an ancient classification the dragon is considered the chief of all scaled creatures, while birds are represented by the phoenix animals by the unicorn and all shelled creatures by the tortoise. Kowloon, part of Hong Kong means ‘nine dragons’ in Cantonese. As such it associated with the number nine (as 3 is yang, 3x3 is extremely yang) and so Nine Dragons 九 龙 jiǔ lóng are extremely propitious. ![]() It is a strong ‘ yang’ animal (male, sun and active). People need to seek the favor of dragons and keep them on their side. The Chinese dragon is imperious, powerful but good-natured. ![]() Maybe a different word should have been used to distinguish the Chinese version of these mythological creatures. Dragons in China are not the fire-breathing, evil monsters that they are portrayed elsewhere in the world. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |