. The mythology of all races. rable meaning is similar to the usein Western countries of the name of the Deity in swearing. Inthe account of the rites of divination there is a further discussionof the tortoise. The last of the four spiritual animals is the dragon, thoughfrom the viewpoint of antiquity of origin it should be first inthis class. It was a dragon-horse which brought the EightDiagrams to Fu Hsi in 2852 , and a pair of dragons wereseen in the river by the Yellow Emperor. Dragons appearedat opportune times when prosperity was foretold. The dragon vm—8 102 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY can ren
. The mythology of all races. rable meaning is similar to the usein Western countries of the name of the Deity in swearing. Inthe account of the rites of divination there is a further discussionof the tortoise. The last of the four spiritual animals is the dragon, thoughfrom the viewpoint of antiquity of origin it should be first inthis class. It was a dragon-horse which brought the EightDiagrams to Fu Hsi in 2852 , and a pair of dragons wereseen in the river by the Yellow Emperor. Dragons appearedat opportune times when prosperity was foretold. The dragon vm—8 102 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY can render itself visible or invisible at pleasure, and it can alsochange its appearance in colour and in size. In the spring itmounts to the heavens, and in the autumn it seeks refuge in thewater. It is the sign and symbol of Imperial authority. Dur-ing the late Manchu dynasty it was held in especial honour, andthe five-clawed dragon was adopted as a royal patent. Every-thing used by the Emperor was described in terms of a dragon. Fig. 35. The Dragon, Lung — dragon-throne, dragon-clothes, dragon-bed, descriptions and pictorial representations of the dragonvary in details. When Mr. Hatch was hunting for a designfor the coins to be issued by the national mints, he found nearlyone hundred different patterns of the dragon. There are, how-ever, certain characteristics common to all — a bearded headwith horns, a scaly body, and claws on the feet. The dragoncontrols the clouds and rain. It appears in the black clouds THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE WORLDS 103 which precede a thunder storm, and from the diflFerent shapeswhich these clouds assume have arisen the various forms of thedragon. A large horse or a very fast one is called a dragonor sometimes a dragon-in-flight {lung fei). This term is infrequent use on the signboards of livery stables, and, in recentyears, of public garages. The dragon is always, in short, anomen of good fortune. In addition to these four animals, th
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