“Earlier you published a very interesting article about dragons. But for some reason, you do not even mention Chinese dragons in it, and there are a lot of them, and they are funny in their own way. And there are also dragons in Japan and other Asian countries. If possible, please write about them too. Respectfully yours, your regular reader Inna Zavyalova, Novosibirsk."
Chinese ceremonies
Not so long ago on the pages of "Secrets" we talked about European dragons. In this article we will continue the dragon theme, but now the Asian dragons will become our heroes.
If among the inhabitants of medieval Europe, killing a dragon was considered a real feat, then, say, an ordinary Chinese could not even think of such a crime. After all, the Chinese dragon is a friend and assistant, a guard and a judge, moreover, practically omnipotent, and therefore it is much more practical to ask him for advice or help than to fight with him.
The kindest wish of the Chinese was: "For your son to grow up as a dragon." When the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire wanted to flatter the powers that be, they compared them with dragons. The rulers themselves, in order to protect their palaces and treasures from the attacks of enemies. rumors spread that all their valuables were guarded by specially trained dragons.
They tell how in his time Confucius first met Lao Tzu. Confucius, undoubtedly, was himself a man of great mind, but after a conversation with the philosopher he said the following: "Today I saw Lao Tzu and I can say that I saw a dragon." This, perhaps, can be considered the greatest praise of one thinker to another.
In short, dragons in China were (and are still honored) much higher than sacred cows in India or cats in ancient Egypt.
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To each his own
Of course, the Chinese did not love their dragons for their pretty eyes. As we said, dragons were able to do many things that mere mortals simply cannot do. Let's say an entire army of dragons was responsible for storms, thunderstorms, storms, earthquakes, active volcanoes and tsunamis. Each more or less large Chinese river had its own dragon (more precisely, the river belonged to a dragon). Some dragons were engaged in the protection of the underwater world, others - guarded the treasures hidden in the earth. and if it was possible to agree with the guards, they were ready to share their wealth with people.
Many dragons were able to predict the future and. again, they could have opened it to mere mortals they liked.
Along with the "laboring" dragons, there were dragons, whose status was so high that their only occupation was patronage. For example, a huge dragon with a thick golden mane named Tin-Lun ("Heavenly Dragon"), who lived in the high mountains, actually did nothing: he did not cause hurricanes and never got involved in human wars and squabbles. But his image, embroidered in gold on clothes, was allowed to be worn only by emperors. Anyone else who did not possess the "sacred blood" would face the death penalty for such blasphemy.
So it should be with them
By the way, do not think that the Chinese worshiped their dragons so blindly. People respected them, but they could, if necessary, show their character, regardless of the dragon ranks.
For example, there is such a Long-Wan in China - the largest (almost half a kilometer long), the richest and most powerful dragon - the lord of all dragons. His temples are in every village, and there are also separate ones, almost at every puddle - almost everywhere where there is water.
In the event of a drought or flood, people offer prayers to Lun-Wang as the lord of all dragons, including the "water" ones. But if requests do not help, then poor Lun-Wan will be harshly executed.
At the beginning of the 19th century, during a drought, Emperor Jia-Qing put Lun-Wang on trial under the article "sabotage" and ordered to take away the dragon (his image, of course) from the capital to a remote provincial district. Only the prayers of the subjects addressed to the emperor saved the dragon from exile.
And in 1932, during the famous Harbin flood, when it became clear that the "dragon of dragons" was parasitizing again and was not going to react to anything, his wooden brightly painted sculpture was rather unceremoniously taken out of the temple and buried on a half-flooded island so that only one dragon head. The hint was clear: if you don't stop the flood, you drown yourself, and to hell with you.
By the way, the flood after this human demarche stopped, and the water began to subside quickly. That's how it should be with them, with dragons.
Land of the rising sake
But Japanese dragons, unlike Sino-Korean ones, are not friendly.
Once upon a time there lived an eight-headed dragon named Yamata no Orochi on the island of Honshu - a petty (despite its gigantic size) and very unpleasant type. He terrorized the entire population, but he chose one large family as a special object of his persecution, from which he took a girlfriend for himself a year.
When the number of daughters in the family came to an end and the youngest survived, the famous hero Susanono Mikoto descended from heaven to earth and promised people to stop the disgrace on the part of the dragon.
Susanoo-no prepared eight barrels of sake, placed them on the hills, and surrounded the hills with fences, leaving one opening for each of the dragon's heads.
Yamata-no took the bait and, before taking the last daughter from the unfortunate family, decided to celebrate this event. Having poured rice vodka to an insane state, the dragon fell asleep, after which the hero was chopped into small pieces.
The younger daughter, as usual, went to the winner. Although, from our point of view, Susanoo-no did not do very well, cynically waiting for eight years until the other daughters went to the dragon's breakfast and only the youngest remained. I could have saved everyone. True, then he would most likely have to marry the eldest. This, perhaps, was the reason for such a long wait.
It is pertinent to note here that the preliminary soldering of the dragon before the battle was practiced in different centuries not only in Japan, but also in Western and Eastern Europe, and in Russia not a single battle, and even more so with a dragon, did not do without alcohol. And in this case, the fight usually ended in favor of the one who is more sober.
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 24. Konstantin Fedorov