Why the Dragon is Central to Chinese Culture | Monstrum
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The Chinese dragon is one of the world’s most globally recognized monsters. Playing a major role throughout Chinese history, they were both creators and destroyers and controlled the elements. They've influenced everything from politics to religion-what is it about the Chinese Dragon that makes it such a central figure in Chinese culture?
The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.
Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor/Animator: P.W. Shelton
Assistant Editor: Jordyn Buckland
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
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/ monstrumpbs
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allan, Sarah. “The Taotie Motif in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: pp. 21-66.
Hodge, Bob, and Kam Louie. The Politics of Chinese Language and Culture the Art of Reading Dragons. Routledge, 1998.
Ho, Judy Chungwa. “Representing the Twelve Calendrical Animals as Beastly, Human, and Hybrid Beings in Medieval China.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: pp. 95-136.
Irwin, J. O’Malley. “Fossils of the Chinese Dragon.” The Far Eastern Review. Dec. 1915, Vol. XII, Issue 7, pg. 247.
Purtle, Jennifer. “The Pictorial Form of a Zoomorphic Ecology: Dragons and Their Painters in Song and Southern China.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: 253-288.
Sax, Boria. Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human. Reaktion Books, Limited, 2013.
Schipper, Mineke., et al. China’s Creation and Origin Myths Cross-Cultural Explorations in Oral and Written Traditions. Brill, 2011.
Sri Ranjan, Dharma Keerthi, and Zhou Chang. “The Chinese Dragon Concept as a Spiritual Force of the Masses.” Sabaramuwa University Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, Dec. 2010, pp. 65-80.
Strassberg, Richard E. Chinese Bestiary. University of California Press, 2002.
Zhang, Qiong. “From ‘Dragonology’ to Meteorology: Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and the Beginning of the Decline of the Dragon in China.” Early Science and Medicine, vol. 14, no. 1-3, BRILL, 2009, pp. 340-68.
For information on the efforts to preserve and share Chinese folklore and cultural heritage, go to the China Folklore Network: www.chinafolklore.org/
You should check out the kappa, kitsune, and the Japanese dragon.
Could you guys do other types of dragons from Asia? Maybe a compilation or long video playlist type thing for dragons?
This video is amazing! It will help me so much when I write my own children's story. Thanks so much, Dr. D.! ✍🏾📕🤩
I was born in the year 2000.22.2 year of the metal dragon last month was my birthday 22.22.22 not a coincedence 😉
Loved this episode. Can you also please make an episode about the following mythological creatures?
The Phoenix / The Fenghuang
The Batibat / Bangungot
The Unicorn
The Hippogryff
The Moon Rabbit
Thanks in advance!
My grandmother was born in Saigon in 1923 (when Vietnam, Laos and Cambodge were a french colony). We had to pass in front of her open door at night to go to the bathroom and were terrified of the dragon we heard growling at night in her room (you know the one she took with her from Vietnam). One day I was old enough to understand that she was just the loudest snorer.
Lmao outta here
when my brother and i were very young our bedroom was down a long hall from my parents' bedroom. one night we heard a loud noise and thought a bear got into the house. so we carefully went down the long hall towards our parents' room to tell them there was a bear in the house. it was dad snoring.
How kind if your grandmother to cover for the dragon by saying she snored.
a friend of mine who's grandma is japanese grew up thinking she was a fox spirit. he and his siblings would spy on her trying to see her tails. They get her fox charms to this day.
😂
Dragon is never described as a ‘monster’ in traditional Chinese culture. It’s always divine.
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
@@yanyanz3011looks like a duck talks like a duck
Non sense. 😂
@@yanyanz3011You can promote the subtle characteristics of the Japanese dragon, Korean dragon, and Vietnamese dragon, but why reject the place name of the dragon's birth? It would get mad😂😂
@@yanyanz3011Read Wikipedia, don't be foolish
My favourite tale of the dragon is a proverb 叶公好龙（Mr Ye loves the Dragon): Mr Ye was obsessed with dragons and his clothes and furnitures etc were full of dragons. The dragons heard about this man and were very interested in him. They decided to show up in front of Mr Ye to give him a surprise. But when the man saw the actual dragon he scared the sh*t out of him. The proverb means someone shows interested in something but not actually having a passion or real interest in it.
Are you a dragon?
It could also mean that what you think never ends up being the same as reality
这是个成语故事
Never meet your heroes 😂
@@user-ju9fv2om6oYes,but probably most 成语 is come from tale
It is so great to hear about Chinese dragon mythologies on this channel. Dragon culture is so imbedded in Chinese people’s life that we rarely think much about it. It’s fascinating to hear the stories told in English, where familiar Chinese terms became a foreign and really got me look at the mythologies in a new way. Some stories are even new for me! I’m going to look those up and learn more about my own culture!
在比那個動物最利害，想不出來就亂編一個上天能飛，入水能游，進地能鑚什麼都能的叫龍吧！🤣
I was told that "dragon" was the name given by the West to the Chinese "Long" ; that the "Long " is a "Long" and not a dragon.
@@limang-yong8673 this is a valid point. It may lose something in the translation. So often things seem to become recategorized in translation. Dragon in medieval times meant a viscous monster very much of the devil, and early translations or categorizations may have reflected that as a way to demonize and subjugate such traditions. I feel in the west these days we look at dragon as an ambiguous category to put all our lizard like beings from the old stories. There are also some wiccan and pagan folks that worship or revere elemental dragons these days. We may have the Long's good reputation to thank for that.
@@limang-yong8673 I completely agree. It's but one of many misnomers, that we have sadly accepted in the vast majority as truth.
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
The depiction of dragons reflects the relationship between ancient Chinese and the environment a lot, especially water. Like ancient Egyptian and the Nile river, China have rivers affected by seasons, which would cause flooding. As a farming-based society, access to water and land is very important, so you can imagine how much impact those major rivers have.
@Adora Tsang it is very much a thing though? Myths involving dragons exist before written history and the Legends of Mountains and Seas were finalized during Han dynasty which is 202 BC-220 AD. There’s also antiques from Shang dynasty depicting dragons which is from 1600 BC-1046 BC not to mention the robes of emperors with dragons from every dynasty. Even if you can change official historical records and folklores from every book you can’t change engravings and embroideries on items buried in tombs
I've read that in some parts of what we now know as China, the dragon's "whiskers" were analogous to the whiskers of river catfish - an example of the reverence for river water to an agrarian society. And perhaps that visual detail spread to and remained in the art of other regions that weren't directly engaged in flood-based farming (?)
@Adora Tsang did you not watch the video? xD dragons were prominent even in the Journey to the West written in the Ming dynasty about the Tang dynasty. most importantly the heirloom seal of the realm that represents the mandate of heaven (the most important/powerful artifact in Chinese history) has dragons carved on it, and that was from the first imperial dynasty of China.
Except the ancestors of the ethnic (Sino-Tibetan) Han Chinese originate from the Huang He river in the far north. They weren't closely associated with water at all. They didn't have paddy technology, instead they planted dry-land millet and built half-sunken houses to protect against winter.
Paddy technology and rice domestication developed among the Yangtze civilizations during the late stone age (Neolithic). And these civilizations were not Chinese. They were the Hmong-Mien of the upper Yangtze and the pre-Austronesians of the Yangtze and Min river deltas (and Taiwan). As well as the Kra-Dai of the Pearl river delta, and the Mon-Khmer of the Mekong river delta.
They were cousins/ancestors of the Taiwanese Indigenous People, Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Malagasy.
The Chinese called these people the "Baiyue" (literally "Hundred Barbarians"), and like modern Southeast Asians, their cultures were built around water. They were expert boatbuilders (Austronesians were the first humans to invent deep water maritime sailing ships, which was how they colonized Oceania and Madagascar), practiced wet (paddy) agriculture, built moats around their villages, practiced aquaculture, had tattoos, built houses raised on stilts, domesticated the water buffalo, duck, and chicken, and most importantly, they believed in supernatural water serpents.
The Chinese didn't conquer the Yangtze civilizations until around 500 BC during the Warring States period (the Yangtze civilzation was called "Yue" in Chinese records back then). They didn't reach the shores of the South China Sea until 200 BC during the southward expansion of the Han Dynasty.
It was only during this period that water/snake-like dragons (as opposed to the chimera dragons of the ancient Chinese) became prominent in Chinese mythology, making it likely they acquired it from the Baiyue.
They assimilated the technology of the Baiyue, including rice and riverine boats. But even then, since they pretty much exterminated the Baiyue, the absorption was incomplete. They didn't learn how to build bluewater ships until the Song Dynasty (~900 AD), and they did it by copying the ship designs of the (Austronesian) Srivijayan Empire of Indonesia.
China was NOT a water-centric civilization.
@@AngryKittens I didn’t say Chinese culture is water-centric, just farming based. I also didn’t mention paddy field, the point is that farming requires being close to water, and the river overflow (which happens to a few major rivers) causes flooding which impacts people’s livelihood. Dragons are associated with rivers, which is why there’s a complex relationship between ancient Chinese and dragons and why they’re both worshipped and feared.
I really liked the dragon in shang chi. I was afried that they will do what they always do when it come to dragons and just give her a fire breath but no, she controlled water like in chinese myths. It was really refreshing.
Water. Refreshing. I see what you did there.
All seriousness, yeah western dragons are often depicted as evil & eastern dragons are often depicted as good, and sometimes us westerners get that mixed up.
Yeah they should use more asian dragons in media
It was a really nice Chinese dragon. The other magical creatures in the movie were great too, very faithful to the folklore/myhology descriptions.
I just happy that they made a lesser know creature into a character, instead of just Dragons, Tigers, Foxes, etc like other films always do.
to be fair Chinese Dragons don't control "water", they control the element not necessarily water. So Chinese Dragon with fire breath doesn't become less Chinese.
The Chinese text "Journey to the West" even shows that dragons live under the sea, build cities, and even imitate human society: rulers, nobles, and peasants. The same tropes are followed by the Korean dragons "ryon" and Japanese dragons, either known as tatsu, ryu, or wani.
龙不只是生活水里还上山里，山洞中
Japanese dragon Kaido
@@sohammondal406 日本龙多？拜托日本有多少东西是我们中国唐朝引进过去的你知道？日本好多妖怪都是我们中国的，只是日本喜欢放在自己的动漫里然后就潜移默化的成他们了的，韩国，日本都喜欢偷我们的文化
Japan had giants snakes before the Chinese dragon entered Japan.
@@ijansksnakes are not dragons tho lol
In ancient China, the dragon symbolized auspiciousness, jubilation, unity, progress and take-off. It is a synonym for imperial power, but also has the meaning of cultural symbol (nobility, honor, luck, success), and also has a lot to do with the incomparable supernatural power of the legendary dragon that can ride in the sky, go down to the sea to chase the waves, and shout the wind and rain in the world. Auspicious clouds and dragons can also be considered as a combination. You can learn about the beautiful auspicious clouds in ancient China. They have a variety of patterns. They also symbolize good luck, joy, and the yearning for a better life. They are very unique
感谢你这么了解中国文化❤❤，其实并不是所以龙都是好的，中国有句话叫【龙生九子各不相同】其中就有一条黑龙是一只作恶的龙
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
@@yanyanz3011 你读书少就别传播假的信息误导别人，你都没读过中国的书籍就说是假的，真的很搞不懂你们这样的人，不知道的是就去看书，别到处乱说，好吗，OK？
@@yanyanz3011walks like a duck talks like a duck
I am still very much invested in the association between Chinese dragon and crocodillians. Both the saltwater crocodile and the now extinct gharial Hanyusuchus were present in southern China, both growing more than 6m long. And one of the characters for dragon in the oracle bone script looks really similar to a crocodile swimming in water when viewed from above (another common one looks like a water monitor with its head held high). The Japanese character for dragon, 竜, is the descendent of this writing, and the resemblance is still very apparent. But as larger crocodilians became extinct in northern China, people forgot about what this animal actually looked like, and the imagery of the creature evolved and became more and more fantastic. Similar things can be seen in other exotic creatures too - look no further than the ancient Chinese depiction of lions. Even the modern character for crocodile is a relatively recent creation. Nonetheless, the much smaller Chinese alligators are called hog dragons till this day.
Gharials are not Extinct yet.
@@himanshukuanr7832
Yes, gharial is still around, but Hanyusuchus, the one OP mentioned, has been extinct for centuries now
Xishuipo archaeological site has the first Chinese dragon ever discovered, it looks more like a crocodilian. Also almost all of the Long's attributes and abilities directly corresponds to what crocodiles can do. There are also records of people rearing "dragons", which turns out to be crocodiles.
Dragons exist in a lot of cultures. There's even traces of a dragon that was said to have been found in the Philippines Myth. Known as the Bakunawa, it is a serpant known to cause eclipses, rains, earthquakes, and winds.
Southern China was not Han Chinese until 2000 years ago. They were Southeast Asian.
I would love for this series to cover the Naga from Hindu and Buddhist traditions in South East Asia. There is a lot of mythology there that gets overlooked because it isn't as mainstream.
That would be awesome! I think Nagas are fascinating.
Naga (နဂါး) basically means dragon in Burmese so yeahhhh
@@Aelxi thanks,I learned something
@@Aelxi Makes sense. I think Nagas are similar to dragons if not the same thing, just different culture. I mean seriously, the nagas have power, I think they have a diamond on their forehead just like a dragon pearl.
And they all reside in the sea / under water just like the dragons.
Plus nagas mean serpent and dragons are also technically serpents. Let's hope Monsturm can confirm or reject our hypothesis guesses.
@@bravomike4734 yeah although the Nagas also live in the caves. some stories even say Nagas can even shape shift into a human and communicate with Buddha himself. There's even a story about two giant Nagas, trying to destroy the Buddhist temples on top of mount Potpa (ပုပွါး) until Buddha arrives at the scene and persuade them to stop and encourage them to be stay peaceful with the way of Buddhism. (The story is far more complicated but I'm afraid my bad English is not enough to cover it fully)
7:03 Huangdi was not belong to the Han dynasty, actually from a long long ago, in mythological period. The story is that thousands of years ago, Huangdi defeated Yandi and became the first king of China in mythology. Because he was claimed to be the direct ancestor of Han ethnic, you might be confused with that.
Yes, the Han dynasty lasted from 202BCE to 220CE, while Huangdi was from a time period earlier than 2070BCE, with a 2000+years time gap
He ruled from 2697-2597 or 2698-2598 BC. The cult of yellow emperor is still going on today.
She made some mistakes indeed. Eg, she failed to identify the dragon’s 9 sons. Anyway, it's not bad for some foreigners to have a basic understanding of traditional Chinese cultures.
@@dongxuzhou4661 Right, at least she shown enough respect to Chinese traditional culture. Unlike some nerds in other channels lol
I know many people relate Chinese mythology with Dragon, but don't forget Phoenix as well! Many terms in Chinese associate Dragon AND Phoenix together as if they were complementary to each other
I love 凤凰 more
Well not a phoenix a fenghuang.
Yes, yin & yang, man & woman 😂
@@astrowolvezfeng 和 huang 不是同一種，雄為鳳，雌為凰
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
Same as Phoenix, there is no Phoenix in Chinese mythology, that similar creature is called Fenghuang.
I always love learning about other cultures and their mythologies 🥰
The word "dragon" also appears in the title of quite a lot of martial arts movies (e.g. Enter the Dragon).
Yeah and also japanese stuff like Dragon Ball
The Chinese still say that we are the "descendants of dragons/ nagas," very different from the West who vilified these magnificent water elementals. It's a symbol of prestige & power, without any negative connotations with "Satan" or any of that fictional bullshiet LOL.
@@Jumpoable seethe atheist
For Bruce Lee movies, yes, because dragon is literally his name. His stage name in Chinese/Cantonese is李小龍(Lee Siu-long), and "long" means dragon.
Also a bonus fact, Jackie Chan also has dragon in his name as his stage name in Chinese/Cantonese is 成龍
sounds like porn.
With dragon myths coming from literally all over the world, I always figured dinosaur fossils played a part in that, so it was cool to see an instance of that playing a role in supporting the legend of dragons.
Dinosaurs were invented to hide the dragon bones. Dragons are real.
Yes, I had heard that ancient cultures interpreted the various dinosaur bones as being ‘ the dragon’ remains.
Dragons. One of the worldwide shared monsters. Every culture, including indigenous, has them. Along with giants, shape shifters, undead, spirits, demons, and "witches" (aka evil sorcerers), they compose the core of our shared monster mythology.
And may I add that waking up to Monstrum makes the day so much better? Always appreciative of the lore.
indigenous to _where_ ? 🤨
What About fairies?
@@wendigohuldra231 Faeries are only indegenous to Europe, or even to Medieval Britain, I think.
I'd say dwarves/imps are more common globally.
Dragons are not monsters in Chinese culture. They're divine entities
Maybe the discovery of dinosaur fossils may have played a part in this phenomenon?
SMASHING THAT LIKE BUTTON SO FAST. Please do more Chinese mythical animals!
YES! Qilin! Qilin!
Phoenix please!
@@TurquoiseInk Yes!
They are not mythical. They are real. The King of the dragons is referred to in the Bible and worshiped all over the world.
@@theNfl_Esq Honestly, I doubt they're actually real. But it's possible, as bascially anything are.
Did anyone else laugh with me when she said that dragon legends come from a LONG time ago? (after she explained that Chinese dragons are called LONG in Chinese mythology) 😂 …just me?
Long in most Chinese languages is actually pronounced like English "loan" but with an [ng] ending, NOT like English word "long" LOL.
@@Jumpoable good to know, thanks for the language lesson! 🙂
A Long have a long body, came with a long of history.
I remember reading somewhere that, at certain geological sites in China, the unique combinations of minerals in the area means that it's sometimes possible to find crystals growing on fossils, which may be an explanation for why Chinese dragons are so often depicted with a pearl in their throat or chin.
其实还有一种说法是，龙的喉咙连接着大海，张开嘴就能看见大海
Dr. Emily, you should explore more into other nationality's experiences with dragons as well. I'm Hmong (an ethnic minority of China) and we strongly believe in the influence of dragons even in modern days--mainly related to illness and death.
Hello! I would love to ask you about that with the view of a YT channel I'm opening on another account! Would you be willing to share more on private messaging or email?
I love everything that you do on this channel. I wish you would do a video on the Romanian Mother of the Forests or on Samca
I would suggested one about Romanian dragons, because they are quite unique in Europe.
I will never not find it funny that there was a race between all of the animals, and the top 12 would become the Zodiac. And in this race, the dragon didn't come in second. It didn't even come in third. Or fourth. And first place went to the rat/mouse. So if you have any relatives who brag about being born the year of the dragon and you're a rat/mouse, you can hold that over them forever.
I was born in a dragon year and I've always been a bit slow (in every sense) so this tracks.
according to the legend, the rat, asked the cow for a ride, promising to let the cow be the first place. The rat rode to the finish line on the cow's head, but when the finish line was near, he jumped off of the cow's head and claimed the number one spot lol.
I'm not sure how the cow feels about that
Dragon came 8th because it was helping animals. The dragon knew it was OP.
what a jolly caucus race
This would be a great video for Fate & Fabled
Thank you for making this video Dr Zarka!💝
I love Chinese mythology! Thanks, Dr. Z! Another great video!
Great video, I love learning about other cultures and beliefs!
Please do a video about a creature from Sami mythology/northen Scandinavian folklore! I would LOVE a video about Stalo/Stallo!
I am so happy this series exists, thank you!!! 🐉
thank you for making this, awesome one!
I love your work and your narrative style. You do a deep dive on a subject and present a lot of factual, historical information. But you deliver it like a story in and of itself.
So fascinating that every culture has their own version of dragons!
I can't tell you how stoked I am to see this topic. I can already tell this video is gonna be amazing!
Love the delivery of the Host(ess) for this episode.
Awesome timing! I happen to be reading the Shan Hai Jing at the moment ... plenty of dragons there! But on top of fossils, there is one particular animal I'd point to (namely because it looks ... well, it pretty much looks like a dragon) is a dragon snakehead fish (AKA Gollum snakehead). Anyway, great video! Totally have a crush on you Dr.Zarka! 😂 Keep on making awesome videos!
Wow, Shan Hai Jing.. something even most Chinese people don't read, cuz it is pretty old and complex book.
Shanhaijing is a fantastic book in ancient China. There are incredible animals and plants in it. No one knows who wrote this book. It's amazing
其实是有这么一条龙的
鱼化龙 是一种龙头鱼身的龙，亦是一种“龙鱼互变”的形式，这种形式我国古代早已有之。《说苑》中就有“昔日白龙下清冷之渊化为鱼”的记载，《长安谣》说的“东海大鱼化为龙”和民间流传的鲤鱼跳过龙门，均讲述了龙鱼互变的关系。这种造型早在商代晚期便在玉雕中出现，并在历代得到发展。
@@ccc-py9ih是的，不过恐怕过不了多久韩国人就会说是他们的😂😂
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
Don't forget Feng shui. A philosophy that says that the whole world is a huge dragon and the fortunes of you and your family is tied to what part of the dragon your house is built on.
The Nod: Your Dragon Pearl Necklace.
Wonderful video and information - as always!
I was so excited to see a new episode. This was awesome. Never disappointed. Fate and Fabled is awesome too.
I believe one of the pilgrims in Journey to the West is a young dragon who takes on the form of a horse for the monk Tripitaka. Speaking of Journey to the West, how about an episode about Sun Wukong, the monkey king!
I would like all these chapters to be in the future season of Monstrum.
*Sea Serpents
*Leviathan
*The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow
*Phantom Vehicles
*The Boogeyman
*Ghosts
*Possessed Dolls
*Shadow People
*Undead
*Goblins
*Bigfoot
*Man-Eating Plants
*Killer Clowns
*Evil Robots
*Swamp Monsters
*The Mummy
*Scarecrows
*The Invisible Man
*Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
*Gargoyles
*Demons
*Werewolves
*Stingy Jack (Jack-o-Lantern)
*Gnomes
*Sea Monsters that attacked Submarines
*Alien Abductions
*Ogres
*Ghouls
We have episodes on gargoyles and werewolves, you can find them in our playlist-*Dr.Z*
There is also a Dullahan (Headless Horseman) episode I believe. I like your list though, mine would be pretty similar 🙂
@@pbsstoried the black dragon is associated with vengeance, vengeance doesn't equate to malevolent. Perhaps aggressive but not necessarily malevolent
Requesting for 凤phoenix and 麒麟kirin
Please also the Female Virgo and Cancerian looks like TILAPIA
storied, compact and informative; thank you.
Thank you for your marvelous information about Dragons.
YEEESSSS DRAGONS 👏 I love China’s deep connection to dragons. Its wonderful and I learned some new things I hadn’t known about Chinese dragons. I wish Africa had a deep connection to dragons like this :( all it has is Ayida (rainbow serpent), sometimes Damballah who was paired with Ayida, and Bida. There’s also Thakane's dragon but she killed it. Anyone know if there’s some hidden dragons in East, West, Central and South African mythology that haven’t been uncovered yet because African culture isn’t as mainstream as everything else?
Would love to know more about African concepts of "dragons". I wonder why that is? I'm sure there are snakes/ crocodiles in Africa.
@Jon Khoo LOL um kay.
Bro/Sis, Africa had hella giants and Anunnaki, aka literal gods. Enlil was the god the old testament is based on, in my opinion. Africa had crazy monsters and Egypt is like the most lit place in the world...also the most looted. Be proud of that. I think Chinese built upon/destroyed all the ancient, crazy sh*t that we'd perceive as supernatural nowadays. South Asia are descendants of the Naga. India...man that place is crazy and full of literal proof of ancient technologies. I actually wish China had more to show in this department of crazy history. Be proud, Africa is litty asf. But yeah Dragons are cool. And I am Chinese btw, envious of African history. Btw I think the legendary Atlantis was in Mauritania, Africa. Which was a hub for peoples of the world, not just Africans.
There is nothing called "Chinese dragon" because dragons do not exist in Chinese mythology. That thing is called Long. Long and dragons are totally different creatures and they have different cultural backgrounds and meaning.
@@supahsmashbro that’s cool and all, but I heavily prefer to learn about dragon lore. I know Africa has cool stuff besides that but it’s severely lacking in the dragon department :(
I’m glad you appreciate the culture though! That’s great!!
I was born year of the dragon, Earth dragon to be precise. I loved watching this and learning from it. Dragons are at the top of my favorite mythical creatures. ❤🐉
I’m also an Earth Dragon (born in Early 1989) and I was wondering who else in the comments is a Dragon too!! 🐉 🌙 ✨😍🥰
I love this episode this was great!!
Very interesting and nicely done. Thank you 😊
There's something about chinese people finding dinosaur bones and taking them to be a physical, hold-in-your-hands remnant of a dragon that somehow gives me goosebumps. How monumental a find was that for them? Man.
China has a LOT of dinosaur fossils (still digging them up today) & the ancient Chinese totally dug up dinosaur (& other prehistoric animal) bones, but a lot of superstitious folk ground them up & consumed them (Hello! Consuming "dragon bones" would obviously give you magical powers, or at least give you a few more years of living LOL)
@@Jumpoable Ah, reminds me of the "let's grind up mummy powder for health and proffit!" era of colonialism. At least the dino bones are... you know... obviously not human? It's a small consolation. (My 7 year-old only knows China as "the place that had LOTS of dinos" because of her fossil atlas, it's hilarious)
@@nekkidnora I wonder what horrible diseases those ppl who put mummy powder in their tea developed...
At least I think dinosaur bones are fossilised enough so it's just mineral... extra calcium I guess.
Some traditional Chinese medicinal shops (on the kookier side) still use "dragon powder" in their concoctions.
Your 7-year-old is wise beyond his years.
dead dragon bones, they probably grinded it into powder and drank it thinking that it would give them everlasting life.
"Eyes of a hare" "eyes of a blood thirsty demon" same difference in my book.
a creature so foul, so cruel
@@oldcowbb LOL bunnies have beautifully eerie red eyes, true.
I love this videos, even though I know about the Dragon, I always learn more with your videos! Thanks Dr. Z!
This video made me think of a thought I had when I was little. I've known for years that Long were associated with rainstorms and thunderstorms and tornados and the like, but before I ever learned that, I envisioned a kind of personification of a hurricane. No prize for guessing the shape it took.
I'm very interested in all the myths and legends you've presented. Is there any way you could look up on the history of the Boogeyman and how it all started.
I feel like a huge part of the origin of dragons is based in real life. China is known to have a significant amount of Dinosaur fossils and early Chinese locals may have seen them a lot back then.
事实与你观念相反，龙与恐龙毫无关系，中国神话中龙有很多种，让人们信仰的只有苍龙，或者称为祖龙，第一龙，与中国创世神有关，他们都是蛇一样的身体，或者说龙就是创世神，虽然不是人类的身体，但龙可以使用人类语言，可以创造世界，因为龙就是创世神
西方龙是一种会喷火的怪物是恶魔，它只有强壮的身体，不一样
Just found you! Awesome channel..
What a wealth of information. It would be quite wonderful to have it shared in a slower paced and celebratory manner instead of being so rushed.
i remember my mom telling me that the gold dragon was banned because it was a symbol of royalty. anyone of royalty can have gold dragon or gold coloured dyes on their clothes and if you wear them without being one, youre essentially impersonating royalty which is a capital offense and pretty much a death penalty back then.
Not golden, but yellow. A specific type of bright yellow.
Yellow(黄) and Emperor (皇) in Chinese are spelled as Huang.
History deserves to be remembered
I'd never heard a specific list of all the animal features.
Very interesting. Thanks.
I thoroughly enjoyed this series.❤
One of the best depictions I got of Dragons was from a cartoon, Avatar - The Last Air Bender. But there have been a lot of other depictions in so many other forms of media and literature. There was also the Disney's American Dragon.
As a kid I thought the serpent was essentially a water dragon, and that their were dragons of each element.
I love those shows
@@ileilanambingaamtheleader1154 I was so happy when I found Avatar on Netflix, my fam get to rewatch the whole series whenever we want to. As for American Dragon, I wish they'd put on Netflix, I really want to rewatch the series.
@@laylasolon5576 i'm pretty sure it's online on certain websites
Please cover Kumārasambhava the origin story that covers how Shiva and Parvati got married, the burning of kama and sati, lastly birth of the anime war God who is similar to nezha
This video is amazing! It will help me so much when I write my own children's story. ✍🏾📕🤩
I always look forward to Monstrum
Question: have you done a video going into specifics of European Dragons and their role in folklore? If not I'd love to learn about what kind of weird legends and stories there are about them
We have! Check it out: czcams.com/video/VsZVKCQHdlo/video.html -*Dr.Z*
Leaning about other cultures and myths in other countries just help us understand & just admitting the fasnation plus I love 🐉 lol
There are children through elderly people all over the world still interacting with all kinds of water or mountain crest dragons, thanks for this simplistic basic introduction to old Chinese customs dragons, and may we all believe.
Great stuff!
I'd love to understand the symbolism behind the dragon dances in Chinese New Year parades.
They are auspicious creatures, with vast psychic abilities, symbolising power & prestige. To dance as a dragon is to ward off evil spirits during CNY.
Dragon boat racing is even more apparent, it's an ancient shamanic rain ritual (& it always rains during Dragon Boat Festival)
The 8- headed "dragon" Susanoo killed was more like a snake. It was called Yamata no orochi. It's name translates to something along the lines of "8 headed giant snake/serpent" and it was more or less the Japanese equivalent to the hydra. Unlike the hydra it couldn't re- grow it's heads once they were severed though.
Are you a dragon?
need the 9th head to get extra after that
其实日本不少妖怪也是从中国传过去的
Japan is just a copycat.
@@Stealingcultureisadisgrace.Yamata no Orochi is native to Japan. It is not a dragon per se but more like a snake. Before the introduction of dragons from China the Japanese already believed in giant snakes.
Wonderful presentation. Thank you for sharing Chinese culture 😊👍
Very fascinating information regarding the Chinese dragons.
is there potential to go more into depth with some of these? I feel like this is barely even scratching the surface of the mythology? perhaps a longer video or a series based on each of them.
Very informative , as Chinese, I have personally studied Chinese dragon for over 20 years . for my understanding , the dragon warship was much older than the current Chinese metholgy about dragon . The dragon appears in the Chinese history over 8000 years , but the oldest record in book is about 3000 years .
The dragon is North Light , where our ancientors used to live in Siberia . They witnessed the North light and made it as dragon metholgy 8000 years ago , the dragon in our metholgy for long time , even after Chinese people moved to South and never had a chance to see north light any more .
That's amazing! Do you have any names for the North Light Dragon? I'd love to learn more about it.
Our ancestors didn’t live in Siberia. Our ancestors are from yellow river and Yangtze River.
@@user-qwertyuiopasdfghj If you dont agree with me , that's fine . Yellow river and Yangtze River history were crowed of gene C and D people 20k years ago . NO gene people came from North Serbia.
我没找到关于北极光龙的信息不过我找到了一个应该差不多的龙叫【烛龙】你应该会感兴趣的
烛龙是中国古代神话中的钟山山神，身长千里，通体赤红，居住于章尾山，烛龙有一子名为“鼓”，被处死于钟山之东。《山海经》中称烛龙能够向天神请求雨水，即所谓“风雨是谒”、“能请致风雨” 。
@@MissyMona实际上烛龙作为四大神龙之一，地位最高也仅仅是等同太阳，见于元初《说郛》“烛龙即日之名”，在这一等同太阳的说法里烛龙还是《山海经》里噎鸣、石夷、鹓等神人的下属，烛龙睁眼闭眼变换昼夜都是身不由己，听命于噎鸣等神，远不及青龙、应龙于古籍创世五亿天地、一怒而灭世。即使呼吸都受控于折丹、因因乎等神。
除却烛龙等同太阳的说法外，烛龙还有执炬、衔烛、衔火精，分别照亮幽都、无日之国的版本。在这些版本里烛龙的能力全部来自于炬、烛、火精，所照明范围也仅限幽都或无日之国，同时烛龙又成了无名神人、应龙的从属，就连烛龙赖以逞威的“炬”也都源于无名神人所赐。据汉代王逸于《楚辞章句》中考证无日之国即“幽都”，唐代王勃也曾称“烛龙避尧日于幽都”。
烛龙除了躲避尧日，还有见星则惧的记载。《景星赋》载“癸丑之秋，有星丽天……烛龙不敢张炬”。
烛龙不仅在《后汉书》：“征烛龙令执炬兮，过钟山而中休” 奉无名神人之令执炬，还有更多职责，南朝王融称：“仙者驾御所至，烛龙为之引导”，甚至还有《使琉球录》记闻曰“仙瀛……长照烛龙膏”，认为仙岛瀛洲用烛龙的脂膏照明。
《山海经》记载：“钟山之神，名曰烛阴，视为昼，瞑为夜，吹为冬，呼为夏，不饮，不食，不 息，息为风。身长千里。在无之东。其为物，人面，蛇身，赤色，居钟山下。”
Lovely video! I like it so much, especially the part about the dragon king and Buddhism!
There is just a little bug that the Yellow Emperor is not the first one of the Han Dynasty which began in 202 BC, but a legend with more than 4000 years of history, maybe a title of an early tribe.
Some I Ching scholars believe that dragon come from the Dragon Constellation in ancient China. It then evolved to represent the sky and celestials (maybe as the pearl) to spin and indicate time change. Therefore it is thought to be flying and shape-shifting, raining and thundering.
The deepwater dragon myth may be connected to the rainbow as a dragon hanging over the water surface.
one of the most iconic creature designs honestly
Came in time, since I'm writing a story including a dragon character inspired by these beauties!
(Her character traits are somewhat similar to theirs: Being a powerful Guardian, Restoring balance, and her being a wise character who stands for peace. She also lives at a sea coast but occasionally returns to her home Realm, where other powerful creatures live too. Her personality is complex and foreign to others, she's in between caring and playful, to serious and aggressive. She also spreads wisdom to her child, who's not really a dragon, and she can turn invisible too)
Where can I read the story?
I love Monstrum! When I see Eastern Dragon's bodies, I always think of the curves in a river.
Awesome! I hope you never run out of "monsters" to cover!🐉
Thanks for the insights on Chinese Dragons. Lots I hadn't heard before !
Are you a dragon?
Jeff Bezos, Bruce Lee, Putin , Leo DiCaprio zelensky ... Born dragons
Dragons (dinosaurs) are impressive creatures, and the proof of their existence from their bones (fossils) have had a significant influence on many societies, cultures, history, literature, mythology, legends, stories, and religions. It is not surprising that the bones were imagined to be from relatively recent living beings. Bones of giants/gods (?) have been found in some ancient Greek temples, and have been identified as dinosaur bones.
As someone who's ethnically Chinese, I'm glad the Chinese dragon 🐉 is being explained here.
Back in 🇹🇼 Taiwan, mythologies weren't really taught to us in school (or at least not the one I went to as I went to private school) so it's good to learn more about it from Storied.
No, Taiwan is Taiwan. China is China. Chinese dragon belongs to China and has absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan. Your totem is a frog.
Ofc DPP is trying to throw away the Chinese identity completely
hmm yeahh.. also the yogad dragon and tilapia face mix..
ahhh
Mythology is fascinating.
It was remarkable to hear about the prehistoric fossils that resemble parts of dragons. Specially the long neck which was actually a tail! Love this video will go to the culture link.
7:00 the first emperor of the Han Dynasty was not the Yellow Emperor. Emperor (皇帝）and the Yellow Emperor (黃帝, 黃=yellow) are pronounced the same in mandarin; however, the former is a general term coined for rulers since the Qin Dynasty (the dynasty before Han Dynasty), while the latter is a person from very, very, very ancient times. Btw, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty was 劉邦, who was said to be born after his mom had a dream about a dragon (or sth like that).
I had two dreams about dragons trough my life and the two of them were very vivid I still remember them. Both of the dragons were totally different and the meaning of the dreams represented separate stages in my life, but since the video is about the Chinese dragons I want to ask what a white, bony, ghost looking, long like snake, swimming in a river dragon may represent? It had a long mustaches, but no wings.
Вы можете встретить хорошего китайца
@@user-xi6tq4ty2c , I don't understand your comment!? What do you mean?
@@ixoraroxi I mean, you may meet a good Chinese in your life. I'm sorry my Russian is not well
@@user-xi6tq4ty2c I am not Russian and I know a few Chinese people. I used to live in Vancouver for 18 years...:) anyway, I do understand Russian too. My point of asking was, what I'm going to do with a good Chinese person!?:)))) good in a what way? If he or she likes to cook, then we are going to have fun 👍 😜
P.S. your English is not good either, are you from Hubei province, or Korea?
They're supposed to appear when person is dying but they can be a guardian spirit for someone powerful
Wild. 117 has always appealed to me and I've had no idea why. It just glows.
My congratulations Dr. Z. The Chinese long is a very rich subject choosing what to keep and what to cut to fit 10 minutes must not have been an easy task. I hope you'll remember the river dragons when you cover river deities. Again, well done on the subject.
The video ended too quick. I wish she'd made it drag-on a little longer.
The Chinese dragon is primarily a mix of totems from different tribes that were absorbed and assimilated during ancient times. The Yellow emperor, before fighting his enemy chi you 蚩尤, for control of the yellow river region, had previously defeated and absorbed the tribe of the fire emperor 炎帝. This is perhaps where the image of the dragon started to take shape and became the symbol for the Chinese.
Also, there is speculation that the tribe defeated by the yellow emperor，chi you 蚩尤 , were quite advanced and they made contact with Sumerians when they travelled East during their exile. The myth of Gilgamesh and enkidu may very well explain the relationship between chi you 蚩尤 and the Sumerian king at the time. But it’s all speculation and there isn’t real evidence from that time period to support this.
Thanks so much
Love your stuff kick on love it
Pretty good summary of Chinese "dragons." In most Chinese languages, 'long' is pronounced like English "loan" but with an [ng] at the end, not English "long" LOL.
The Chinese still say that we are the "descendants of dragons/ nagas," very different from the West who vilified these magnificent water elementals.
that's mostly mandarin, u describe
@@xXxSkyViperxXx I wrote "most Chinese languages" including Mandarin, yes, and Cantonese as well. In Hokkien/ Taiwanese it ranges from Liong to Ling/ Leng.
@@Jumpoable if only those two were most
Now Chinese government announce its English name to be "Loong"
One thing for not confusing with dragon, in asia there are more than one but different species like:
-In my country Cambodia our dragon name naga or other one are superior dragon that shape like serpent and can shapeshifter into human but the historical according is unknown due to war and Thailand who come to steal and burn those away but our dragon doesn’t have leg and only two face for two animals.
- in other countries like buthang China japan Korea Vietnam and other who relate to China most likely these type of dragon that monstrum talking about.
Fun fact: Cambodia dragon very protective and still have aura today even though he/she no longer appear but believe that they hide under the sea, ocean, cave and mountain because of people no longer help each other only fight and devotion to other countries to get what they want.
all of the sudden... I love dragons
Excellent! New sub.
6:50 The Yellow Emperor was from the (mythical) Xia dynasty, and I believe you meant from the Xia dynasty to the Qin dynasty (Han came right after Qin).
It's said that the reason Japanese dragons only have three toes instead of five is because when the dragons flew to Japan from China some toes fell off.
I've also heard that the story flows both ways: when the dragon comes to Japan, it loses some of its toes, thus we have the three-toed Japanese dragon. Then, when it crosses the sea to travel back to China, it regrows them, so when the dragon is in China, it always has five toes.
LAAAAWL that is hilarious. Most probably it was because only the Chinese emperor was allowed to have 5-taloned dragon as his emblem. All of Japan, Korea & Vietnam's royalty as well as temples were only allowed to depict dragons with 4 toes or less.
@@Jumpoable yes, Imperial China forced their "vassal" kingdoms to only use 4 taloned dragons for their kings.
and 3 taloned dragons for crown princes.
However !!! If you visit Korean Palaces, they do have 7 taloned dragons carved above the thrones in the Throne Halls. And even 8 taloned dragon on the ceiling of Temple of Heaven in Seoul.
@@davidjacobs8558 LOL those rebels! Well at certain periods certain salty Korean & Vietnamese rules did call themselves "emperor" within their own realms. Just don't let the Chinese ambassadors find out!
@@Jumpoable well... I would say Envoys, rather than Ambassadors. Ambassadors suggest a premanent station in foreign nation. But, usually, Chinese Envoys did not have a permanent office in vassal kingdoms. Their visit usually lasted no more than a month, and they stayed in guest housings provided by the hosting kingdoms, sometimes quarters in the palace and other tiems outside of palace.
Yey Dr. Z!
Very nice presentation.
1:11 Disney Shang chi dragon is not accurate representation of chinese dragon.
That looks more like a western serpent, Chinese dragon have front facing eyes, long whiskers, huge upright horn, longer body with spikes along its back instead of hair.
This really does make me wonder how/why we call these two separate things dragons in the first place. Other than being powerful, arcane elemental beasts (and even the word beast feels inappropriate for the eastern fashion of dragon) they have nearly nothing in common, they are only both called dragons because we've all agreed that they are despite them having nothing to say they're at all linked. The presence of wings, their role in stories, their ability to control the weather, their ability to breathe a weapon of one element or another. One kind of dragon has these things and the other doesn't. It makes me wonder whatever they might have in common.
From what I remember, a Westerner who came to China called them dragons because to him, that was what they most closely resembled. The name then stuck and they've been called dragons in English ever since.
Literally the only thing linking all creatures westerners call "dragons" is the fact that the main body plan is that of a snake. So basically the formula to create a dragon is "snake + another animal".
it's just different languages work differently. like baozi is considered as dumpling by English speakers, but many Chinese would argue that only jiaozi can be called dumpling, ignore the fact that the concept of "dumpling" is different from jiaozi. the word Long also contains some non-dragon creatures, like dinosaurs or chameleons.
@@hirokokueh3541 Why isn't baozi considered as dumpling and only jiaozi?
In Nepal both baozi and jiaozi are considered as mo:mo:s (dumplings). The only purpose the shapes themselves serve is to notify the customer of the meat content. The baozi will normally only have water buffalo and chicken meat but its generally buffalo. Jiaozi normally only has chicken meat and never buffalo meat but also vegetarian.
@@bravomike4734 because the word "jiaozi" in Chinese can only be referring to this specific kind of food, other dumplings like baozi, dango, and wonton are not considered as jiaozi.
and many Chinese users who learned English only in school were told that dumpling means jiaozi, they have never learned about what dumpling really means.
Amazing content
Amazing!