神话论文

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Loong

The loong or Chinese dragon is a mythical creature in East Asian culture with a Chinese origin. It is visualized these days as a long, scaled, snake-like creature. In Yin and Yang terminology, a dragon is yang (male) and complements a yin (female) Chinese phoenix, which provides the rationality of patriarchal society in ancient China.

The origin of Chinese Loong can date back to 8,000 years ago. Loong is a fictional animal but has the most influence and impact on the Chinese. Loong, its antenna just like antler’s, head likes camel’s, eyes like rabbit’s, neck likes snake’s, abdomen likes hibernate’s, squamae like fish’s, unguises like eagle’s, paws like tiger’s, ears like cattle’s. Futhermore, there is a fin on its head, without which loong can not fly into sky. At the remote ages, Loong was the totem that people worshipped. In their eyes, Loong was the god, holy and sacred, who was able to the rain and wind.

Loong had been considered as the ancestor of the Chinese Nationality. There are three visions of tales which offer us more details of loong.

The first vision was about Emperor Yan (Yandi) who was a clan leader in ancient times in China, together with Emperor Huang, was the forefather of the Chinese nation. \ According to the Diwang shiji，Yandi’s mother was Baosi，which was the wife of Xiadu. Yandi was conceived when his mother dreamed about having sex with the loong as her husband went outside for hunting. Thus Yandi was born with a human body and an ox head，living in the ginger water before he was able to walk in the ground. He was considered as the son of loong who is the embodiment of the collective wisdom of remote ancient people overcoming the nature. Emperor Yan's virtues of dedication, creation, unyieldingness and constant struggle had been a symbol of national spirit of Chinese nation.

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In the second vision, it was recorded in a historical book named Shiji that Loong lived under the sea and was able to exercise magic powers to summon wind and rain, people usually prayed him for rain and water when weather would for long be dry. When a flood occurd, people would also pray him to stop the disaster.

Quite similarly, in the third vision, it said thoroughly that long time ago, rain stopped falling in China for over a year. People suffered a lot from the drought. Some people and animals were even died of thirty and dysentery was spread which worsened the situation. They prayed sincerely for rain to the Rain God. No matter how much they prayed, rain still did not fall. People struggled for surviving and gradually they felt desperate. In fact, the Rain King was irritated by the people for their water-wasting behavior.

There were two loongs living in sea who were the two sons of the Sea King. One was named Huang, the other was named Chang. Witnessing the miserable situation of human beings, they determined to fight for the pitiful people. Without considering the outcome, they suddenly thought of an improper way to help. They stole the magic powders which can transform into water, when the God was napping. They dusted the powders all over their bodies and shook. All at once, the rain fell down. When the God saw the scene that two loongs with the magic powders left on the surface of their bodies fling in the sky, he was furious. He summoned the Mountain God to punishe the brothers.

The Mountain God sent two mountains running after the brothers. The moment when the brothers landed, two mountains landed on the top of them, crushing them. The Sea King heard about what happened to his two sons, begging the Rain God to set his sons free. Unfortunately, it was too late. The brothers were forced to stay under the two mountains in their rest of life. Surprisingly, the two loongs transformed into two rivers gradually which provided more available water to people. Thus it is easily noticed that there are two main rivers in the mainland of China. One

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called Yellow River and the other called Changjiang River.

The Yellow River is called the \the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and is the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Thousands of year ago, the Yellow River gave birth to Emperor Yan (Yandi) and Emperor Huang. They are the two greatest heroes of Chinese antiquity, and with their appearance the people of this land started to call themselves “Chinese”.

The classic folk song named Lineage of the Dragon, contains a solemn homage to long, which states that loong is a mascot, no loong no peace. (802)

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