Author(s)
We think we know all about Chinese dragons, with their majestic appeal and such a strikingly different personality from their Western counterparts (who are oft portrayed as villains meant to be slain 😣). But, have you ever thought about how this uncanny creature came to be? To do that, we must dive headfirst into the long gone past and examine… the origin of the dragon!
Behind-the-Scenes
I chose to write about dragons because they have been so representative of China since time
immemorial.
At some point of time in my childhood, I came across é¾™çš„ä¼ äºº (Descendants of the Dragon), a song
commonly regarded as a patriotic song that expresses sentiments of Chinese nationalism. Watching
historical Chinese drama brought to my attention just how prevalent the dragon symbol was.
Embroidered on clothing of emperors, carved into roofs of various buildings, and even raced on rivers
during the Dragon Boat Festival, dragons were everywhere. When I looked at the dragon carvings
from Han-dynasty films and compared to Qing dynasty ones, I realised that despite the interceding
years, their form remained recognisable and relatively constant. I was intrigued. How did such a
peculiar creature with a smorgasbord of body parts came to be? And why these specific animals?
With their peculiar unique looks and with such a vastly different personality from Western dragons
(who are oft portrayed as villains meant to be slain), I was inspired to attempt to trace back their
history to their very first origins, examine how their form and significance have evolved over the
centuries and observe their contemporary importance today. However, I realised that such an
endeavour would take me a ‘long’ time and that there might be too much of an information overload
for my audience.
Hence, I chose to focus on the birth story of the dragon as I felt it was the most intriguing and
mysterious. When I decided ‘Aha! This is the very first dragon depiction!’, other sources claimed to
have found even earlier evidence. This made me incredibly confused and realise I needed to dig
further back in time. However, the further backwards I went, the fewer sources I could find.
Carrying out research was quite intense and difficult, having to scour through different sources and
establish their reliability. It was also rather subjective because early forms of the dragon were
considerably un-dragon-like. For instance, pig dragons looked more like snakes with pig faces rather
than an early dragon prototype. It was only through association with other unearthed objects that
guesses on their significance to the people could be hazarded. Especially in the pre-Shang times, in
the absence of any written script, it was impossible to know exactly what the ‘dragon’ meant to them.
What made a dragon a dragon?
I was particularly awed by the story of how the different totems of disparate tribes were combined
when a united territory was formed and how it seemed to coincide with Yu’s calling for the meeting
of the dukes of the 9 kingdoms. Could this be a pure coincidence or was there a semblance of truth to
the story?
The research process was a humbling one. By acknowledging that we can never pinpoint an exact
point of time during which someone or some event sparked the creation of this hybrid creature, we are
forced to concede that there is a limit on the frontiers of our knowledge. This project does not claim to
cover all aspects on the dragon’s origin. With so much of pre-Shang dynastic times shrouded in
mythology, nothing is conclusive. Nonetheless, it has been exciting to attempt to unravel this mystery.