| Hey guys!
Recently, I got a NEWS letter from linese.com which discusses the most popular Chinese "god" (witha little "g") of all which is what most people tend to refer to in English as a "Dragon".
There's so much disagreament still about these creatures.
However, Most Chinese Persons today would argue that their creature isn't actually a "dragon" eeven tho' we often translate it as sucha word. They would argue that Western Dragons have wings and that is why...
However, I would like to counter this arguemnet, because in actuality, if one were actually to study a history of Dragon Mythology throughout history, Dragons themselves don't always have wings.
There are many types of Dragons. The most popular design for Pop Culture is the 4 legged dragons with wings.
Hoever, their are also the Wyverns (Wivern, wivirn, wyvyrn, wivyrn) which have a more bird-like body which are bi-pedal (that means 2 legs) and wings... sometimes depicted with very long serpentine legs.
Then, there are such dragons from the Ancient book "Beowulf" which has currently become a film. This dragon is wingless.
Dragons throughout antiquity were also referred to as Orms, Ourms, Yrms, Worms, Wourms, Wyrms, etc...
There their are such things a Sea Serpents, whcih are dragons, and Greek Mythology is loaded with those. And, the Hydra.
Most Dragon Slaying stories of the middel ages were based on the story of Saint george whom saved a princess from being scrificed to a dragon which was terrorzing a town/kingdom.
Typically, these dragon stories were wingless...
Also, many taxidermy dragons which were slayed and preserved were proven to be crocodiles....
back to the "Chinese Dragon"
the word "dragon" tends to a descr i ption for a variety on looks... generally... a "dragon" as we would think of it tends to be a scalely reptilian like creatures, with sharp teeth, and typically some kind of horns... possibly spikes on it's body (much like crocodiles) and usually having some kind of cunning intellegence of some degree or another...
So, the Chinese creature whcih we would tend to translate as "dragon" does fit this descr i ption in may ways...
however, there are VERY obvious differnces.
The Chinese Dragon is actually called a "Long" and it's a kind of god.
However, there (just like in our own cultures) various spellings of this word: Lung, loong, etc...
There are also many discrepencies amoung available litteratures of these creatures...
It is known that the Dragon had 9 sons, and each one was different.
My father-in-law whom is a very succinctly learned man of Chinese culture, being that he's from a prominent Chinese background did some research for me, and from his findings, he produced a letter for me (in chinese).
In the letter, he wrote that the "Bixi" which is the Dragon Headed Turtle god was the 9th son of the dragon...
He went to a special library, and found special books to find this information, plus, he had to find a special dictionary to figure out how to pronounce the charecters for these gods, including the Bixi.
However, when I'd recieved the recent NEWS letter about "Chinese Dragon" I read through it and found they had information different than my father-in-law.
The spoke about a "Jiaotu" whcih they claim is the 3rd son of the dragon, and a "Chiwen" whcih they claim is the 9th son of the dragon..
They also mensioned the "Bixi" but as the 1st son....
this is often a problem I find when things get translated to English...
So, I question the sources.
They also don't list their sources.... No bibliography was given... not that it would matter...
They do, however, have some interesting articles about the theme of the chinese dragon. For some reason they write the dragon as 'Loong" even tho' in Standard mandarin Chinese, it's written as "Long" which is odd because it's a website whcih is created to teach Standard (mandarin) Chinese.
You can find interesting information about the Long (as they wrote "Loong") here:
http://www.linese.com/cc/21715000000000000.html
**********************
NOW, JUST WATCH! I'M GONNA GET A BUNCH OF COMMENTS FROM PEOPLE WHOM DIDN'T EVEN READ WHAT i WROTE, AND GO BY THE STUFF IN THE ARTICLES!!!!!!
IF YOU DO, ( AND SOME ONE ALWAYS DOES) I'M GOING TO MAKE FUN OF YOU AND TEASE YOU FOR BEING SO DUMB!!!!!!!!
***************************
|
|
