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The Chinese dragon is seen as the royalty among animals. The dragon is a mysterious and powerful creature and indeed, the Chinese rulers associated themselves with the dragon, not only tracing their lineage back to dragon kings, but also emblazoning the image of the dragon on all things Imperial (Note: The imperial dragon has five toes, whereas the more mundane versions, only four). The dragon is said to leave prosperity and good luck in its wake, and this is the reason the Dragon leads the street processions during Chinese New Year. The Dragon brings the Four Benedictions of the East wealth, virtue, harmony, and long life. The T'ien Lung, or Celestial Dragon lives in the sky and guards the gods to keep them from falling out of the clouds. The Fu-tsang guards hidden treasure. The ancient Chinese believed there were five Dragon Kings, one at each quarter
and the chief in the middle. When they change positions, they cause mountains to
tumble; rising to the surface of the sea they cause typhoons and whirlpools;
taking to the air they cause storms. In the springtime, when the constellation
of the Green Dragon rises in the east at the beginning of the rainy season,
Dragons ascend into the skies; in the fall they dive down into the depths of the
sea. The Dragon Kings are immortal, and are said to be the same as the Naga
(serpent) Kings of India.
The Dragon is one of the four ancient Watchers in the Heavens: the Green (later, Azure) Dragon of the East / Spring, represented by the Dragon Heart (Antares) (the horns of the Dragon are Spica), the Unicorn of the West / Fall (later, the White Tiger), represented by the Pleiades, the Phoenix of the South / Summer (later, the Red Bird), represented by Sirius, and the Somber or Hidden Warrior of the North / Winter (later, the black tortoise), represented by the Void (there are no visible large stars in this quarter). These associations are at least 3500 years old, and may be from an even earlier period. The actual positional path of the Sun moves in the opposite direction from the seasonal associations of Spring and Fall. During early dynasties, when the handle of the Big Dipper (the "North Seven Stars") didn't set below the horizon in China, these stars appeared to rotate counterclockwise throughout the year, in the opposite direction to the Sun's movement through the ecliptic; thus, they could have been used as a determination of the seasons. Alternatively, if this anomaly is due to the precession of the earth's axis, these associations would have had to have been created 18,000 years ago. (c) Copyright 2007 by YoungWorks |
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