Thursday, December 3, 2009

Asian Dragon Symbolism

By John Chan

Dragon is one of the most widely accepted mythical creatures which has been an important part of the East Asian way of life. The creation of this beautiful creature comes originally from China. The body of dragon is scaly like any other serpent but it also has four legs with big foot and five claws on each claw.

Like China Europeans too have their dragons but they have different physical qualities and also in their meaning as European dragon has negative implications.

The Chinese dragon on the other hand has assumedadopted both roles of good and evil throughout Chinese history. But more than anything else the symbol of the dragon represents divine power according to ancient folklore and art from China.

Anotherfascinating yet rarely known idea about the Chinese dragon is that it is often taken as the symbol of male which is yang in Chinese. There are a number of other beliefs that the Chinese dragon is meant to symbolize such as the bringer of rain and water in a country that is heavily dependant on agriculture. In general the Chinese had a tendency to ascribing various divine attributes to the dragon.

The Chinese dragon also has a female counterpart who is not featured very often. The female side of the Chinese dragon is known as the phoenix. Many westerners assume the Chinese dragon to be the official symbol for the country of China. However this is untrue to the fact.

However going through Chinese history you will find that Chinese dragon symbol indeed was related to the Chinese monarchy. The Yuan dynasty emperor would not allow any subject to use this symbol in their life. During Qing dynasty the Chinese dragon was brought back into public life by adopting it on the national flag.

From a long time China has been trying very hard to persuade the west that the Dragon has no real implication in modern day China as they feel that the western people believe that the Chinese dragon represents a war like condition. Therefore they have been looking for something less threatening and have come up with giant panda as their official symbol.

The Chinese Dragon remains in the hearts of the Chinese people with deep respect to the extent that many Chinese consider themselves to be the offsprings of the Dragon for their ethnic identity. In fact you will notice that throughout the'70s the nations had a tendency to identify themselves with some animals like Tibetans with monkeys and Mongols thought they descended from wolf.

The Chinese dragon symbol still occupies a special place in modern Chinese society. More than anything else however it is used solely for decorative purposes. From advertisement campaigns to T-shirts, posters and tattoos the symbol of the dragon can be seen throughout the streets of China.

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