K, so if you’re not from Asia, you’d be familiar with numerous dragon slaying tales. Hell, even Asians like me are all too familiar with dragon slaying tales, too. I guess in Western culture, these creatures are seen as a source of evil, but in Asia, especially in Chinese culture, they aren’t. They’re normally benevolent and kind, and made of awesome. Funny, huh? There are like, dragons dreamed up in many various cultures, but we choose to think different things about them.

Anyways, this came about in the Xia dynasty, which was like, the first dynasty of China, ever, when people still formed clans and stuff like that. So they had an animal to represent a clan, like a pig or a snake or whatever, to show how bad-ass or not they were. So, over time, since some animals looked wussy, they adopted the fearsome traits of other animals, like joining the claws of an eagle, the body of a serpent, and the face of a lion together and what do you know - they formed the dragon! And shortly after, the dragon clan annexed all the others and came out tops, and became a symbol for the Chinese people. So then the Chinese people thought, “Wow, like, some gods must be at work to make the dragon clan people rulers, and maybe the god was a dragon himself!” So, they gave him the power to rule.” So people actually began to think that the mandate from heaven came from the dragon gods themselves.

Oh yeah - before I forget, we have this saying called 龙的传人, (long de chuan ren,) which means descendants of the Dragon, a saying which has lasted from Ancient times till today. Back then, the Chinese really did believe that they were descendants of the dragon, which is really cool if you ask me. I mean, come on. Who wouldn’t want to be the descendant of this really kick-ass creature?

Anyway, there were like, a wide variety of dragons. They come in all shapes and sizes, can be invisible - or not. They can fly and they can swim, and some even guard the palaces of the gods or support them like pillars, and some make rain and wind to blow to help the crops grow, and some watch their treasure, stuff like that.

The Buddhists also think there are as many dragons as fish in the sea, which is like, a lot, and they think the number of dragons is equal to a sacred number which is cooler than like, infinity or something. 

Anyway, there are five dragon kings according to legend, one for each direction, so you have the Dragon King of the North, East, South and West, and the one in the centre, who is like the chief. They eat pearls and opals, and have five legs - with one in the centre of the body, don’t ask me why. Their breath can boil fish, or set fire to them, whichever method you prefer. Oh yeah. They can also cause mountains to move and tidal waves, so don’t mess with them. Basically, they’re freaking epic. And the best part? They can communicate with each other telepathically, and they report to the Jade Emperor at the end of every year. 

And if you look closely enough into the waters, you might just see their palace of transparent stones and crystal doors. How awesome is that?

If you want more dragon awesomeness, come back next week for a dragon story!