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ryin-silverfish · 26 days

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Headcanon: Dragons of the Four Seas

(inspired by a recent discussion with @the-monkey-ruler)

-Although Chinese dragons are water deities, there are dragons who control stuff other than water: Cold Dragons under the Dragon King of the North can freeze stuff, and Bailong Ma used to be a Fire Dragon in pre-novel variants of JTTW.

"Wouldn't it be interesting if the four major lineage of dragons all have their unique side-power, apart from water and weather manipulation?"

-It starts off as this, then spins out of control and becomes one giant worldbuilding exercise.

East Sea:

-The eastern direction is traditionally associated with the Wood element. However, I feel like plant manipulation will be too obvious.

-So instead, they are the master of Thunder and Wind——the trigrams that represent these two things, Zhen and Xun, are both Wood-aligned.

-Their lightning has a notable azure hue, and have adapted the force of Thunder specifically for underwater usage, creating highly potent sonic blasts as well as what basically amount to a sonar spell.

-They kinda consider themselves the archetypal dragon, representative of their kind, and certainly have the attitude to match.

-Like, they claim to be descended from the Azure Dragon of the East, even though the idea that a Divine Beast of the Four Directions, stellar guardian of the entire eastern section of the sky, can reproduce is...dubious at best.

-Don't you mention the time Ao Guang got bullied by Wukong. Or Nezha. Or Huaguang. Or the Eight Immortals. They are very touchy about that. Violently touchy.

-They also have close relations with water-dwelling Yakshas, who act as a sort of elite mercenaries in their military campaigns against other seaborn demons and rogue flood dragons.

-Basically, the proud generals of dragonkind, with a vast weapon collection to match. The dragon king's family also name their kids after Celestial Stems and Earthly Branches, much like the ancient Shang dynasty rulers.

-The East Sea dragons are the only lineage who has an official representative of the Celestial Host stationed in their territory, who's only known by his title, the "Water-dividing General of the East Sea".

-He seems to be an older sort of god, the half-man, half-beast ones who look like they walk out of an illustration of the Book of Mountains and Seas.

-Most of the time, he takes the form of a seal, lounging around on rocks and watching sunrises, and has the personality of a sarcastic old man.

-Whether he's here to keep an eye on them, or they are supposed to keep an eye on him, no one can say. Ao Guang certainly treats him like an old acquaintance, though.

West Sea:

-They are a bit tricky. West is associated with Metal, and the two Metal-aligned trigrams, Qian and Dui, represent Heaven and Marsh...which don't neatly map onto weather and natural phenomena.

-Then I had an idea. What if they have a natural affinity for heavenly bodies? In ancient times, the movements of stars are believed to affect weather, after all, not to mention the sun and the moon.

-This affinity can be figurative——their lineage has a strong relationship with the stellar deities of the 28 Lunar Mansion and Dipper Mansion——or literal.

-Like a natural talent for divination and astrology, predicting the future from the patterns of stars. They are no governors of fate, unlike the actual Star Lords, they are just fate's weather forecast guy.

-This puts them in an awkward position, though: the stellar gods act according to the Jade Emperor's orders, some of which are very much secret and beyond their clearance levels, but the best scions of the West Sea can just infer it from the movement of stars alone.

-Which makes them obsessed with proving their loyalty, as well as enforcing a draconian standard of secrecy, just so they wouldn't get into trouble for knowing something they weren't supposed to know.

-Even more rarely, they can harness the power of astral light. Most of the time, such light is of lunar nature——Star Lord Taiyin also holds sway over the ocean's tides, though it is an easily forgotten power.

-But sometimes, that light comes from a fiery, lively, or ominous star, and the power that results is just as temperamental as their stellar origins.

-Enters Ao Lie, Third Prince of the West Sea, who has highly potent fire powers despite not being a South Sea dragon, and became the subject of some rather tasteless gossips about his parentage the moment it awakened.

-All dragons love their pearls: it's kinda like an ordinary yaoguai's "inner core", an orb of solidified Qi that can be spit out and store separately from the body, but much more powerful and culturally significant.

-Well, the West Sea dragons use their pearls in the same way a Feng Shui master uses their geomantic compass, or a Zhou Yi diviner, their turtle shell and copper coins. The ones left behind by venerable ancestors are especially treasured, believed to lead to clearer insights and more reliable readings.

-Through that lens, Ao Lie's burning of one such pearl is the equivalent of descrating the dead + destroying a priceless, irreplacable supercomputer.

-Intentional or not, to a lineage that is so serious about their discipline, taboos, and absolute loyalty to the Celestial Host, it is enough to warrant death.

-To no one's surprise, they are the diplomats, the inter-department coordinators when it comes to weatherly business. Not just between relevant celestial bureaus like the Thunder and Water Bureaus, but also between local dragon kings of rivers and lakes.

-As a result, the West Sea lineage is the most open to marrying non-oceanic dragons, even though these are often out of practical and political needs.

-That's my explanation for why, in JTTW, Ao Run's nine nephews either guard rivers or work for JE/the Buddha. The West Sea lineage has really turned nepotism into an art form.

North Sea:

-In JTTW, we know that they have Cold Dragons that can chill stuff. It is certainly not too much of a stretch to imagine them as the ice-and-snow specialists, the ones you summon when you are sick of the heat or need to insta-freeze something.

-Historically, the "North Sea" in Chinese texts refer to Lake Baikal. However, I think it is cooler if their palace is literally in the arctic zone, under the ice caps.

-Instead of garden-variety shrimp and crab soldiers, they have lots of cultivated marine mammals. And elite legions of belugas and narwhals and bowhead whales.

-The smallest and most isolationist lineage also carries the grimest duty, as border patrols and prison wardens. Not only is the North Sea a hotspot of rifts that lead to the Underworld, it also conceals the portal to the Evil-Vanquishing Mansion of the North Pole——realm of Emperor Zhenwu, Lord of the North.

-Kind of like the Lord Father of the East and Queen Mother of the West, he is the sovereign of the northern direction and the Water element, as well as the direct superior of Xuanwu, one of the Four Divine Beasts.

-And his job? Subduing demons. The Evil-Vanquishing Mansion is basically a fleet of giant, hollowed-out icebergs, packed to the brim with powerful demons, ghosts, and rogue immortals.

-Any prisoners that make an unlikely escape will emerge into the North Sea, where the vigilant army of the dragon king awaits. However, that is not their main duty; it is the Eye of the North Sea that they swear to eternally guard.

-And the prisoner of the Eye is none other than Shen Gongbao, the infamous traitor of the Chan Sect who was behind most major conflicts in the War of Investiture.

-It was said that, though his body was stuffed into the Eye of the North Sea as punishment, in the end, his soul still gets deified as a minor water god.

-However, if there is only a mindless body left in there, why the need for such heavy security? Only the most experienced elders and veterans are allowed to go into the Eye's vicinity to check on Yuanshi Tianzun's seals, and repeated visit by the same people is strictly prohibited.

-Perhaps, instead of a split of soul and body, deification has split the soul itself: one half is exorcised of all the undesirable qualities, the other left to stew and simmer in them until it mutates into something unrecognizable.

-Such is the rumor among the North Sea's younger scions. But folks will make up anything to pass the time in those long, cold arctic nights, and whatever the truth is, it doesn't matter, as long as the seal still holds.

South Sea:

-Their element, Fire, is directly opposite to the North Sea's; much like the Cold Dragons, the Fire Dragons of the South Sea are heat specialists, creators of droughts and wildfires as well as bringers of warm winds.

-And their fire is a peculiar variant of Earthly Fire. Unlike Heavenly Fires, which draw from the blaze of the Three-legged Sun Crow, or the True Fires immortals used in internal alchemy, Fire Dragons channel the power of earth's flaming veins: that is, undersea volcanos and thermal vents.

-Though they usually display their power in less flashy ways——steam clouds, a playful whiff of sulfur, a blast of warm wind on a winter night, a Fire Dragon fully on the offensive is just like a mini live volcano, unleashing streams of magma and scalding smoke clouds.

-When dragons are mentioned as one of the Eight Classes of Demigods in Buddhism, more often than not, they are from the South Sea lineage.

-Like, the most popular Bodhisattva in Asia, Guanyin, resides in the South Sea. It's all but granted that the local dragons would also be heavily influenced by Buddhist teachings, in the same way their northern kins are drawn to the entourage of Zhenwu.

-Fun fact: the imagery of dragons has appeared in Chinese art since the Neolithic period, but the specific worship of dragons as gods of the Four Seas is a result of Buddhist influence.

-Prior to that, the gods of the Four Seas in the Book of Mountains and Seas are all beasts with human faces, wearing snakes as earrings or standing on a snake.

-And in Sui-Tang era works, some variants merged the Four Seas gods with the Four Directions gods of ancient times, and said that the god of the South Sea was Zhurong.

-A.k.a. the fire god that defeated Gonggong (in the most well-known version of the tale), who, being the sore loser he is, went and knocked over the sky support pillar with his head. Thus, Nvwa's patching of the sky.

-Legends of the South Sea lineage claim that the Fire Dragons draw their power from Zhurong's embers, and their king is descended from the two dragon mounts of the primodial fire god.

-To the outrage of more traditionalist dragons, they often intermarry with Nagas, the serpentine water gods of the Western Lands. Guanyin's dragon girl attendant is born of one such union, between the Naga lord Sagara and a princess of the South Sea.

-Their palace is located inside an underwater volcano, said to be the remnant of Zhurong's great forge. Giant tube worm gardening is a popular hobby among the South Sea nobility; however peculiar it may appear to outsiders, these colorful creatures thrive in the union of Fire and Water, much like the lineage itself.

(Pictures of the Four Dragon Kings come from Nezha 1979.)

(The animated film makes the dragon king of the West a black dragon, and the North, a white one, a reversal of the colors traditionally associated with the two directions——West = White, North = Black.）

#journey to the west #investiture of the gods #chinese dragons #worldbuilding #chinese mythology #headcanon

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the-monkey-ruler · 28 days

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How do you differentiate between dragons that have the water element and those that have the fire element? I assume that Ao Guang's family would technically be dragons that can use only water. And according to jttw, dragons can control the weather (clouds, water, etc.). However, how do you know which dragons can control fire? Or can be assumed that all dragons can handle these two elements? Or a sea dragon that controls water couldn't control fire?

I guess I would ask you what makes you think dragons can control fire? I know that European dragons that it’s a common connection to their folklore, but Chinese dragons are connected to water such as rivers, oceans, and rain. I don’t think I’ve seen Chinese dragons that control fire if it wasn’t connected to the weather in some way.

Like I'm sure there are but I guess I don't understand what makes you think that dragons would have a fire element instead of a water element. Can you give an example from maybe like a story or something? I've read a lot of chinese tales but certainly not ALL so it would be cool to see how other tales could show dragons in a different light.

#anon ask #anonymous #anon #jttw #ask #xiyouji #Chinese dragons #dragons #I'm a little confused by the ask but I really do want to know where this is coming from #the whole family of the dragons kings control water #it not just ao guang #they all control a sea and their father controls the yellow river #they are all connected to water #other dragons all connected to rivers and streams hence why they all live underwater and in the sea

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theartisticendeavor · 5 months

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Vintage Travel Poster - Fly TWA: San Francisco

Art by David Klein

Trans World Airlines (c.1960's)

#Posters #Travel #San Francisco #David Klein #TWA #Aviation #Fly TWA #Vintage #Art #Trans World Airlines #Russian Hill #Streetcars #Market Street #Chinese Dragons #1960s #60s

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dorothygale123 · 5 months

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Since I've made a lot of mythology sh*tposts, I decided to make a masterlist for anyone who wants to skip around quickly.

The 5 Emperors

Red Son and the Red Emperor

Xing Tian, the headless giant

Red Emperor 2, the Reddening

Chiyou causes problems

Yellow Emperor makes a corpse drum (yes, really)

My fellow nerd and I have a lot to say about weeds

Dragons

The dragon princess and the dumbest in laws ever

The Dragon Kings who don't do anything

Ao Qin shows us why we shouldn't give in to peer pressure

Moving branches on the dragon family tree

China has a dragon problem

The Sun and Moon

The very similar stories of Hou Yi and Shen I

Erlang Shen killed the suns too

Why the 10 Suns were being jerks

The 12 Moons

Ancient Chinese Alice in Wonderland

More fun stuff about the 10 suns

Does Hou Yi have a backstory?

A dramatic retelling of the 10 suns myth

Earth and Sky

Eggs come up a lot, actually

Nuwa cleans up a big mess-

-But there was still more for Yu to clean later

Why is the sky all the way up there?

Sun Wukong

The 4 Spiritual Primates + 4 Elements

The Old Mother of Waters gets some bad takeout

Sun Wukong's first crime (they grow up so fast)

A more dramatic telling of how Monkey became Monkey King

The Underworld

The Chinese underworld is very judgy

But it also has a wholesome grandma who feeds you

Kuan Yin

Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

Kuan Yin 2, Electric Boogaloo

Kuan Yin 3, This Time It's Personal

Rulers of the Cosmos

Xiwangmu, the Jade Emperor, and Nuwa

The Jade Emperor is someone's OC

Possible line of succession for the rulers of the cosmos

Was the Jade Emperor in charge for Wukong's entire life?

Shangdi and the void where his characterization used to be

How the Jade Emperor got his badass wife

Miscellaneous

Si-Men Bau is a genius

The very heterosexual fox and his 'drinking buddy'

This fox had one job and he decided to create footbinding instead

Seriously, what are the 8 trigrams?

Erlang Shen plays Sidekick while th 4 kings get their asses whooped

The 5 members of the 4 Guardian Beasts

The 5th Element isn't just an old movie

The cow can jump over the moon, but not the Milky Way

Cute figures I don't need got my research blood pumping

Dragon Ball Parallels

And I needed 2 posts to geek out appropriately

More info on some cool critters that happen to have adorable minis

Bulma Briefs, Great Tang Monk

Tien Shinhan, Lord of Sichuan

Yamcha, River Spirit of the Desert and Puar the Dragon Horse

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adastra-sf · 2 months

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Paleontologists Discover Chinese Dragon

Dinocephalosaurus orientalis lived 240 million years ago in China's Middle Triassic period. This snake-like, 6-meter-long marine reptile's extremely long neck, tail, and trunk are unique among similar creatures, which (in addition to where it was discovered) is why it's being described as a "dragon" from Chinese mythology.

Rather than laying eggs, Dinocephalosaurus gave birth to live young. It was well-adapted to marine life, as evidenced by the finned limbs and excellently preserved fish in its stomach.

The findings on Dinocephalosaurus orientalis are published in the journal Earth and Environmental Science: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh just in time for the start of the Chinese calendar's Year of the Dragon.

#dragons #Dinocephalosaurus orientalis #paleontology #sea creatures #chinese dragons

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lovelytayforce · 2 months

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Gentlemen~ Ya boy was right we got a DRAGON!

Music lyric refs and gloating aside, HOLY SHIT I did not expect them to reveal this in a trailer, we got so much to talk about baby so sit tight, get you some water and a snack and lemme buy you drink~ Anyways, spoilers below OBVIOUSLY;

Bruh she got it ALL, she got the horns, the three claws just like I was talking about in my post, peep it here if you don't know; https://www.tumblr.com/lovelytayforce/742169202001117184/dragons-among-us-part-2-o-o?source=share Side note: This is obviously one of her forms due to the fact her scales aren't ever shifting to contort to another color/mimic fur and the symbols on her side match, the one's upon her head so GOOD JOB ANIMATORS!! Now, you probably noticed I hesitated to mention her wings and if so, good job you are so observant!! It's because I only know of a select few Chinese dragons who have wings, one of them being a Rain dragon. And funnily enough I was going to make a theory post she was some sort of Guardian, usually one of the Lion Dragons you see protecting Shrines and such in the mainland but this changes everything, Now, onto the Wing Dragon cause I didn't wanna throw information down your throat! Yinglong is the rain diety with wings I was mentioning earlier since most Chinese Dragons are wingless, again my favorite being The Carp who become a Dragon (It's what Magikarp is based on, is it obvious I'm a water type Pokemon lover yet?) I want to believe with the focus on the moon, and her yearning for wanting to uncover all of it's secrets of such an unknown realm, this might be a mix of the two legends. A small Dragon wanting to reach higher heights after being stopped from seeing it time and time again. And Dw I'll link a site with a neat video explaining these concepts for ya below. You know I got you!

Back to my point, since in most legends it was believed Earth was once populated by animals and Dragons despite being mythical entities can be considered higher animals connected to nature. So, let's piece this together with the carp story; The Chameleon lives upon this land for many, many years but then caught a glimpse of a beautiful new world, told the other dragons (Her Army) about this new world but then were stopped time and time again to getting to that new land, so she tries everything to get there. See what I mean? She is about to make a large leap through all of her efforts despite those trying to stop her. I could go on and on about the connection to the moon but this is a post about Dragons. So, I believe this movie's concept will fall onto another Chinese method of reaching spiritual acceptance which is called Xian especially considering a bunch of bandits are going to be fighting and working hard against, a Master of many styles along with her army. And I believe both sides will explore this concept of Xian; which basically is devoting themselves to one task and mastering it to the point of becoming powerful. Obviously, I am simplifying that a lot. Since they tend to use the word Cultivate in the definition I found personally but I wanted to make it easier to understand. otherwise. I think that's all. I'll link the stuff now but we really in The year of the Dragon baby~ Dragon info: https://www.reptileknowledge.com/reptile-pedia/do-any-chinese-dragons-have-wings#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20winged%20dragon,deity%20in%20ancient%20Chinese%20mythology. Link to Trailer: https://x.com/AvgKFPEnjoyer/status/1761396436724285948?s=20 Link to Xian video, yes its a genshin video but omg is it educational!: https://youtu.be/OUpeSCk2XWQ?si=LMB6S6XAghkWrVoc PEACE!!!!!

#kung fu panda #chinese dragons #educational #the chameleon #taylor talks #god i talk so much #long post #viola davis #i am so excited to see her performance #god i really did learn too much from my obsession with water type pokemon

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virovac · 2 months

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What the heck is meant by Chinese dragons having "a belly like a clam"

This haunts me since my childhood.

#chinese dragons

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antiqueanimals · 2 years

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The Magic of Mythical Creatures. Written by Colleayn Mastin. Illustrated by Jan Sovak. 1997.

#fantasy #dragons #chinese dragons #Jan Sovak

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chiyamadas · 3 months

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https://x.com/naito_design/status/1752587521848926695?s=46

#plushy #plushie #plushies #plush #stuffed animal #stuffed animals #stuffy #dragon #dragons #chinese dragon #chinese dragons #kawaii #toy #toys

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insomnium-comic · 8 months

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COVER | FIRST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Prologue pg. v

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makairodonx · 3 months

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Gong xi fa cai! The Year of the Dragon is here! With sketches of the Long, the most feared and powerful creature of the Chinese Zodiac!

#chinese dragons #dragon #dragons #chinese dragon #chinese new year #lunar new year #year of the dragon #eastern dragon #eastern dragons #gong xi fa cai #artistis on tumblr #artists on tumblr

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ryin-silverfish · 14 days

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If let's say it is more characteristic that chinese dragons have the element of water? The fox spirits would be the fire? (once again, looking for Chinese fox spirits is difficult because sometimes I fear that the info will become more mixed with that of the Kitsune) What about tigers?

Yes, Chinese dragons are mainly associated with the Water element, and are weather deities, though Cold Dragons (freeze/chill) and Fire Dragons also exist, they are just a lot more rare.

Foxes do have association with Fire——not as strong as dragons and Water, but there are neat tidbits here and there. For example, in You Yang Za Zu, the same passage that mentioned foxes wearing human skulls on their heads in order to transform also said that, when foxes swung their tails around at night, fire comes out (夜击尾火出).

Vol. 448 of Taiping Guangji also mentioned a fox demon who had flames on its tail, "like a shooting star". In FSYY Pinghua, when Bi Gan shot an arrow at what appeared to be Daji in fox form, fire also came out when it connected.

The fox lady in the Qing dynasty 狐狸缘, while she was battling with Lv Dongbin, also spat out her "golden core" together with a stream of Samadhi Fire in an attempt to hurt him. Which is reminiscent of the more fire-like depiction of a fox's inner core.

However, there are other more obscure sources that associate foxes with the Earth element ('cause they dig holes and are yellow/orange colored?), and because Fire births Earth, you can light 1000 years old dead wood on fire, and the fire would lure the fox out and reveal its true form.

Also, one of the spells that's commonly used to subdue foxes and demons in general is the Five Thunder Arts (五雷法), where Daoists called upon the Thunder Bureau to strike their targets with fire and lightning.

I'm not as familiar with tiger yaoguais, but element-wise, the White Tiger of the West is associated with Metal, and in the Book of Mountains and Seas, Queen Mother of the West was said to have a leopard's tail + tiger's teeths, before she evolved into a more human form in later sources.

Tigers in folklore are more well-known for their ability to command ghosts, though. Specifically, ghosts of people they ate, who help lure in more preys for them, called 伥鬼.

#chinese mythology #chinese folklore #huli jing #chinese dragons #yao guai #fox spirit

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bonegrove · 10 months

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Out of all the world's legends and myths involving dragons, I love that one time a guy from China who loves dragons so much he adorned all of his things in his house with dragons, dragon paintings, clothings with dragons on them you name it. A dragon was impressed by the guy's fascination with dragons it decided it wanted to visit him but when it did, that dragon fanboy pisses his pants on the spot out of fear then skedaddled.

Couldn't be me, outta my way gay boy I'm about to pet it

#guess what op was obsessed with in their childhood #bonegrove #dragons are so rad #cool moral or methaporical story about sincere love too to love both inwards and outwards #chinese dragons #dragons #dragons legends #worlds myths #myths #*imagining a huge sky buppy in the cradle of my hands then softly petting them*#i would be so stoked to meet a dragon

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blazescompendium · 1 year

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WANTED for the Blaze's Compendium: Haoxian, elusive (supposedely) Legendary Chinese Dragon. You can help!

This is not a Compendium entry, it's just about a interesting story i came across while researching, and i decided to take the request to help.

While i was working in my research about the Chinese Demon Zhu Tun She, i ended up crossing paths with another person looking into the Chinese Mythology. Specifically, into the Legend of the 9 Dragons. They requested some help, so i dig up the rabbit hole of chinese Dragons.

Also known as the 9 Dragon Children, this creatures have their own personality traits and were associated to those. Their order and names can vary, and there's a lot of variations in their names. But, an user by the name of DennysFFD caught my attention with his research.

Their oldest records go from the 13th century to the 15th century. There's a scroll painting with lots of details from that time, as well written records. As we noted together, Chinese legendary beast groups comes with a deep rabbit hole, and this one is no different. I suggest you to read more about them if you get interested!

The most accepted list of the 9 Dragons is the follow and it comes from Xie Zhaozhe's (謝肇淛, 1567–1624) in his work Wuzazu (五雜俎, c. 1592). I am quoting direct from translations in western sources, as well from the U.S Wikipedia article, all of them comes from this book here. Someone was kind enough to translate it, but this list is also recognized by the Chinese government, being published by the Beijing government, and also present in a coin collection from the last Year of the Dragon. Sure there are some differences, but its mainly on how you spell the names.

The qiúniú 囚牛, (Form of dragon) a creature that likes music, are used to adorn musical instruments.

The yázì 睚眦, (Hybrid of wolf and dragon) a creature that likes to fight, is aggressive and is normally found on cross-guards on sword as ornaments.

The cháofēng 嘲風, (Resemble a Phoenix and dragon) a creature that likes to adventure. They are typically placed on the four corners of roofs.

The púláo 蒲牢, (Four leg small form dragon class) a creature that likes to scream, and are represented on the tops of bells, used as handles.

The suānní 狻猊, (Hybrid of lion and dragon) a creature that likes to sit down, are represented upon the bases of Buddhist idols (under the Buddhas' or Bodhisattvas' feet).

The bìxì 贔屭, also known as bàxià 霸下 (Hybrid of turtle and dragon) a creature with a large shell able to carry heavy objects, and are normally found on under grave-monuments.

The bì'àn 狴犴, (Hybrid of tiger and dragon) a creature that likes litigation, are placed over prison gates (in order to keep guard).

The bāxià 霸下, (Hybrid of reptilia animal and dragon) a creature that likes to drink water, and is typically used on bridge structures.

The chīwěn 蚩吻, (Hybrid of fish and dragon) a creature that likes swallowing, are placed on both ends of the ridgepoles of roofs (to swallow all evil influences).

The thing is that, this user was looking for one of the Dragons that is supposedly called Haoxian. The problem is... This dragon is not in the original 9 Dragons myth... But there are some sources claiming the contrary, with few mentions of it in the western web, and we have no access to its Hanzi to properly in the Chinese web.

It's worth to note, there's a hot clue here: According to some sources which include the book cited in the wikipedia article, it seems the author of the Wuzazu also described 9 more dragons from yes another group, not only the 9 Dragon Children. It is possible the elusive so called Haoxian is among them, but... I can't speak Chinese, so i can't find it in the digital version of the work. If you can, let us know!

First and foremost, the user theorized that Haoxian is just a misread of the dragon Yazi. They both shared similarities in personality, both likes to fight, for instance. But without the Haoxian Hanzi, we can't be sure.

Yazi and Haoxian share so much similarities indeed that, in most sources where Haoxian is cited (note that we only could identify English ones) usually replace Yazi by Haoxian, according to the user's research. So that pretty much busts Haoxian as just a misread of Yazi. But there's more...

One of the few sites that sources Haoxian info is this one:

-https://www.blackdrago.com/fame/beishe.htm

Note how the URL writes the Dragon's name as Beishe... Which is also a way to read one of the 9 Dragon's name: Baxia. I can totally see Baxia turning into (I mean, someone reading it as) Haoxian, but Baxia has a totally different personality from what the sources describes Haoxian's. So... How could Haoxian be a misread of Baxia, when it borrows Yazi's personality? Weird.

Now, even if there are many ways to read the Dragon's names, many modern interpretations of the myth, and variations. But all of them, or most of them, are properly sourced and archived. But not Haoxian, it does not appear in any credible sources of the western internet. We can't also research about it in Chinese because it even lacks the proper Hanzi characters to its name.

So... Now, if you put this puzzle together you can pretty much tell that either Haoxian was a western misread, or a regional variation of one of the Dragons, or confused text that borrows misread names and personalities from some Dragons. We are almost sure some of this is true, if not a bit of all of those options above. We just want to know where did it came from?

TLDR: We are sure Haoxian does not exist in official sources, we just want to know where it came from.

We are looking for: -Haoxian Chinese sources

-Haoxian proper Hanzi characters if it does exist

-Oldest account of Haoxian in the western web (Ours go as far as the 2000s)

If you have anything about this Dragon, more than i could find on my own, this would help a lot our fellow's research!

You can always message me via Asks here!

And that was it for our first ''request'' Let us see if we can find more about this creature.

Sources: -Wuzazu

-Beijing Government

Links are in their respectives sections.

#chinese mythology #9dragons #creatures #Dragons #chinese dragons #chinese literature #myths #folklore

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