Details
Media Recommendation
“By integrating folkloric studies with analysis of literary texts, Professor Zhao’s study of dragonology promises to be a landmark in East/West Comparative Literature. With his vast referential range, Zhao breathes new fire into that rarest of being: a truly global symbol.”
—David Lenson
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Qiguang Zhao’s stimulating book on dragons East and West is a thoroughly researched work of scholarship, but is much more than just a collection of facts and data. This is also a work of ideas and conceptions. By opening wide the scope of his inquiry and dismissing all arbitrary constraints, the author has demonstrated in a most edifying fashion the relatedness of human cultures. Above all, he has given us a fresh, new way to look at ancient Chinese mythology. This is a book about dragons, but it is also a collection of valuable insights about the nature and development of Chinese civilization in the context of world history and culture.”
—Victor H. Mair （University of Pennsylvania）
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 Our Approaches to Dragonology
CHAPTER2 The Dragon's "Origin" and Appearances
The So-Called Unique Origin of International Dragons
Dragons of Chinese Sub-Origin
Miao (Hmong) Dragons
Japanese, Korean, and Bhutanese Dragons
Dragons of Indic Sub-Origin
Dragons of Middle-Eastern Sub-Origin
CHAPTER 3 The Great Dragon Was Cast Out: The Western Dragon as a Symbol
The Western Dragon: Identification with the Judeo-Christian Devill, Monsters, and Enemies
Its Sexualized Image
Its Association with Fire, the Underworld, and Death
The Combination of the Western Dragon's Symbolic Aspects
CHAPTER 4 The Great Dragon Was Enshrined
The Implication of the Chinese Mythological Dragon: the Sky
Spiritual Nobility
Good Fortune and Philosophical Symbol
Emperorship
The Chinese Nation
CHAPTER 5 The Dragon of the Waters, East and West
The Myth of Yu and Hydraulic Despotism
The Chinese Dragon of the Waters
The Different Functions of the Dragon and the Dragon King in the
Hydraulic Society
The Western Dragon of the Waters
The Spring of Water and the Fire
Summary
CHAPTER 6 The Dragon-Slayer
The Dragon Involved in Human Life
Western Dragon-Slayers
Japanese Dragon-Slayers
Chinese Dragon-Slayers
The Structure of Dragon-Slayer Tales
Dragon-Slaying As a Struggle with the "Inner Exoteric"
CHAPTER 7 Dragons As Zoological "Fact," Psychological Archetypes, and Ideological Symbols
Dragons as Fact
Dragons as Psychological Archetypes
The Dragon as Ideological Symbol
Conclusion
CHAPTER 8 The Dragon Between Hard Covers: The Scholarship of Dragon Studies
Western Writings about Dragons
Chinese Writings About Dragons
GLOSSARY
Sample Pages Preview
On the other hand, the fusion of human reality with the dragon's fabulousness makes it possible for ordinary people to be transformed into heroes. When humans become protagonists,their own life is considerably enriched and enlarged. And all systems and all anthropo-cosmic experiences become their surroundings. In this case, the human protagonists no longer feel themselves to be a fragment of daily life, but a god open to all the other gods by which they are surrounded. In a tale of dragon-human confrontation, dragons at large are no longer something outside the human world and therefore ultimately mysterious.A battle with the exoteric dragon does not alienate the dragon-slayers from themselves and their daily life. On the contrary, it leads them towards the meaning of their life, and reveals their own esoteric existence. The dragon-slaying tales thus appear as a means to the understanding of people's self-recognition:through battles, heroes find their own significance and come to understand life.
We have referred to a number of dragon slayers in Western myths that are characteristic of human reality. It is inevitable that the exoteric part of the dragon should beget Western folktales about the slayer of the dragon. Such folktales, with their rich flavor of daily life, are numerous and widespread. Best known is the dragon sacrifice motif. The central episode deals with a youth - most often an ugly duckling at home - who discovers a beautiful maiden - most often a princess - about to be sacrificed to an evil dragon.
