Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images: Chinese Dragon Facts Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Monday 7 April 2014

Chinese Dragon Facts Chinese Dragon Tattoo Head Dance Symbol Drawing Pictures Parade Costume Mask Images

Chinese Dragon Facts Biography

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The Chinese dragon is easily recognizable for its long serpentine body that is generally wingless, and its anthropomorphic face, complete with beard. In some eastern cultures, the dragon plays an integral part in creation mythology. Generally, the oriental dragon is benevolent and powerful, bringer of good fortune. Its image was often adopted by emperors as a sacred symbol of power. Thus, the oriental dragon is generally considered a supernatural or spiritual symbol of heavenly power.

The first depictions of the dragon in Eastern culture come in the form of totems, stylized depiction of natural creatures. One such early form was the "pig dragon." It is a coiled, elongated creature with a head resembling a boar.[1] The character for "dragon" in the earliest Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period. Often they appeared as conglomerates of other animals, combinations that over time may have contributed to the creation of the dragon as a single, unified creature.

The general appearance of the dragon can actually be seen as a composite of real animals: The trunk of a snake, scales of a carp, tail of a whale, antlers of a stag, face of a camel, talons of eagles, ears of a bull, feet of a tiger, and the eyes of a (dragon) lobster. Sometimes it has a flaming pearl under its chin. Chinese dragons are occasionally depicted with bat-like wings growing out of the front limbs. Even though most do not have wings, they are still capable of taking flight. This description accords with the artistic depictions of the dragon down to the present day. The dragon has also acquired an almost unlimited range of supernatural powers. It is said to be able to disguise itself as a silkworm, or become as large as the entire universe. It can fly among the clouds, hide in or turn into water or fire, can become invisible, or glow in the dark.

There is no consensus on the origin of the Chinese dragon. As with the dragons of Europe, there is the possibility that large dinosaur fossils helped fuel the belief that there existed giant, reptilian creatures. There is no apparent connection to the western dragon. However, Marco Polo's alleged sighting of a dragon while traveling through the East may have influenced the European view of the dragon.

Some have suggested that the Chinese dragon came from totems of different tribes in China, its shape the combination of totems as the result of the merging of tribes. Scholars report that the first legendary Emperor of China Huang Di (Yellow Emperor) used a snake for his coat of arms. Every time he conquered another tribe, he incorporated his defeated enemy's emblem into his own, which may explain why the dragon appears to have

It has also been suggested that it comes from a stylized depiction of existing animals, such as snakes, fish, or crocodiles. The association with the crocodile is also supported by the view in ancient times that large crocodiles are a variety of dragon. For example, in the Story of Zhou Chu, about the life of a Jin Dynasty warrior, he is said to have killed a "dragon" that infested the waters of his home village. The dragon appears to have been a crocodile.

Archaeologist Zhou Chongfa has suggested that the initial inspiration for the dragon was lightening, and the Chinese pronunciation of dragon—long—resembles the natural sound of thunder. Thus, the dragon represented the coming of rain that early farmers depended on. Zhou argues that "As farming and animal husbandry began to take the place of hunting and fishing to be the main source of food, human beings prayed for good weather for crops, and the imaginative figure of dragon has been gradually created as an agriculture numen.

In Chinese mythology, the dragon was revered in several different ways. Tigers were seen as the eternal rival to dragons; thus various artworks depict a dragon and tiger fighting an epic battle. Although the Imperial dragon is infinitely more powerful than the tiger in myth, a well used Chinese idiom to describe equal rivals (often in modern sports) is "Dragon versus Tiger." In Chinese martial arts, "Dragon style" is used to describe styles of fighting based more on understanding movement, while "Tiger style" is based on brute strength and memorization of techniques.