Chinese People - Descendants of the Dragon
written by: www.Everything-Chinese.com
Dragon culture has existed in oriental world for thousands of years. Chinese people consider themselves the descendant of the dragon. They also emphasize the spirit of dragon and horse. Dragon has become a spiritual symbol in the nation----China.
Nobody in the world can tell what the real appearance of dragon is and where it comes from. Dragon was created by combining many animalsâ features (such as a reptile, a snake, deer antler and a lizard) by Chinese ancestors.
China is the cradle land of dragon culture, which has been proved by relics of the Neolithic Age discovered along the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Liaohe River Basin. The first discovery of those relics was in Chifeng (Inner Mangolia) and Yunlong (Liaoning Province) in 1984, whic drew much attention from academia to focus on study of the dragon culture. Dragon relics from Liaohe River Basin have a head of a pig and a body of a snake without horns, which are considered local variant of dragons. Archaeologist predicted that they would probably find the original dragon culture in the Yellow River Basin where primitive culture started and prospered. Three years later, archaeologists discovered three more dragon patterns in central China, Henan Province. One of the dragons was 1.78 meters long with its head to the north and back to the west.
Conches were used to represent body and hair, giving a lifelike three-dimensional image which is very similar to the dragon described in history records. The three dragon patterns dated back to the Neolithic period and have 6,000-year-long history.
In feudal dynasties of China, emperors considered themselves to be the real dragons and the sons of the heaven. There is an idiom describing empirorsâfury as Long2 Yan2 Da4 Nu4 ( éžé˘ĺ¤§ć, é˘ means face in this idiom). The people who lived in capital city were considered living at the foot of sons of heaven. In the imperial palaces, almost everything emperors used were related with the character âdragonâ, such as, their beds were called dragon bed, the throne were called dragon seat and even their sleep was called dragon sleep.
Dragons were considered authority/ruler of the world. There were many beautiful legends in Chinese history. It was said that there were East Sea Dragon King and South Sea Dragon King and their palaces were under deep sea. These dragons could control the rainfall. When it was dry and thus the crops couldnât grow, people would face famine. So, people in feudal times in China used to impetrate the dragon kings for rainfall.
Dragon was also used as one the twelve symbolic animals in China. People born in dragon year are called da4 long2, while people born in snake year are called Xiao3 Long2. Because, Chinese people consider dragon and snake to be of same origins.
(Dragon dance in festivals in China)
Chinese people consider themselves to be the descendants of dragons on the basis of the legendary character, Fuxi, who is generally acknowledged as the earliest ancestor of the nation. Fuxi lived in northwest region (a province presently called Gansu Province). He once led his tribe to migrate down the Yellow River to central China and he invented weaving and musical instruments.
After the death of Fuxi, a magnificent tomb and temple were built in memory of him in todayâs Huaiyang County. Because of this, Huaiyang is also called âdragon cityâ. On Feb 2nd (Chinese lunar calendar) of each year, tens of thousands of people in neighboring districts go to worship Fuxi in Huaiyang with the hope of being helped and guarded by the spirit of the dragon and the god. In festivals, Chinese people have the customs of dragon dance and dragon boating. If you are living in the major cities of United States or some other areas, you may see the dragon dance in the China towns.
Source & Copyrite: www.Everything-Chinese.com