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A dragon is a large magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of feline, reptilian, mammal, and avian features. Scholars believe large extinct or migrating crocodiles bear the closest resemblance, especially when encountered in forested or swampy areas, and are most likely the template of modern Asian dragon imagery.[1][2]

In his book An Instinct for Dragons (2000), David E. Jones (anthropologist) suggests a hypothesis that humans, like monkeys, have inherited instinctive reactions to snakes, large cats, and birds of prey.[14] He cites a study which found that approximately 39 people in a hundred are afraid of snakes[15] and notes that fear of snakes is especially prominent in children, even in areas where snakes are rare.[15] The earliest attested dragons all resemble snakes or have snakelike attributes.[16] Jones therefore concludes that dragons appear in nearly all cultures because humans have an innate fear of snakes and other animals that were major predators of humans' primate ancestors.[17] Dragons are usually said to reside in "dark caves, deep pools, wild mountain reaches, sea bottoms, haunted forests", all places which would have been fraught with danger for early human ancestors.[18]

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In her book The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000), Adrienne Mayor argues that some stories of dragons may have been inspired by ancient discoveries of fossils belonging to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.[19] She argues that the dragon lore of northern India may have been inspired by "observations of oversized, extraordinary bones in the fossilbeds of the Siwalik Hills below the Himalayas"[20] and that ancient Greek artistic depictions of the Monster of Troy may have been influenced by fossils of Samotherium, an extinct species of giraffe whose fossils are common in the Mediterranean region.[20] In China, a region where fossils of large prehistoric animals are common, these remains are frequently identified as "dragon bones"[21] and are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine.[21] Mayor, however, is careful to point out that not all stories of dragons and giants are inspired by fossils[21] and notes that Scandinavia has many stories of dragons and sea monsters, but has long "been considered barren of large fossils."[21] In one of her later books, she states that, "Many dragon images around the world were based on folk knowledge or exaggerations of living reptiles, such as Komodo dragons, Gila monsters, iguanas, alligators, or, in California, alligator lizards, though this still fails to account for the Scandinavian legends, as no such animals (historical or otherwise) have ever been found in this region."[22]

Robert Blust in The Origin of Dragons (2000) argues that, like many other creations of traditional cultures, dragons are largely explicable as products of a convergence of rational pre-scientific speculation about the world of real events. In this case, the event is the natural mechanism governing rainfall and drought, with particular attention paid to the phenomenon of the rainbow.[23]

Rostam is also credited with the slaughter of other dragons in the Shahnameh and in other Iranian oral traditions, notably in the myth of Babr-e-Bayan. In this tale, Rostam is still an adolescent and kills a dragon in the "Orient" (either India or China, depending on the source) by forcing it to swallow either ox hides filled with quicklime and stones or poisoned blades. The dragon swallows these foreign objects and its stomach bursts, after which Rostam flays the dragon and fashions a coat from its hide called the babr-e bayn. In some variants of the story, Rostam then remains unconscious for two days and nights, but is guarded by his steed Rakhsh. On reviving, he washes himself in a spring. In the Mandean tradition of the story, Rostam hides in a box, is swallowed by the dragon, and kills it from inside its belly. The king of China then gives Rostam his daughter in marriage as a reward.[55][56]

The Chinese dragon (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: lng) is the highest-ranking creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels."[59] A number of popular stories deal with the rearing of dragons.[60] The Zuo zhuan, which was probably written during the Warring States period, describes a man named Dongfu, a descendant of Yangshu'an, who loved dragons[60] and, because he could understand a dragon's will, he was able to tame them and raise them well.[60] He served Emperor Shun, who gave him the family name Huanlong, meaning "dragon-raiser".[60] In another story, Kong Jia, the fourteenth emperor of the Xia dynasty, was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven,[60] but could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named Liulei, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong.[60] One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liulei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king,[60] who loved it so much that he demanded Liulei to serve him the same meal again.[60] Since Liulei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace.[60]

One of the most famous dragon stories is about the Lord Ye Gao, who loved dragons obsessively, even though he had never seen one.[62] He decorated his whole house with dragon motifs[62] and, seeing this display of admiration, a real dragon came and visited Ye Gao,[62] but the lord was so terrified at the sight of the creature that he ran away.[62] In Chinese legend, the culture hero Fu Hsi is said to have been crossing the Lo River, when he saw the lung ma, a Chinese horse-dragon with seven dots on its face, six on its back, eight on its left flank, and nine on its right flank.[63] He was so moved by this apparition that, when he arrived home, he drew a picture of it, including the dots.[63] He later used these dots as letters and invented Chinese writing, which he used to write his book I Ching.[63] In another Chinese legend, the physician Ma Shih Huang is said to have healed a sick dragon.[64] Another legend reports that a man once came to the healer Lo Chn-jen, telling him that he was a dragon and that he needed to be healed.[64] After Lo Chn-jen healed the man, a dragon appeared to him and carried him to heaven.[64]

In the Shanhaijing, a classic mythography probably compiled mostly during the Han dynasty, various deities and demigods are associated with dragons.[65] One of the most famous Chinese dragons is Ying Long ("responding dragon"), who helped the Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, defeat the tyrant Chiyou.[66] The dragon Zhulong ("torch dragon") is a god "who composed the universe with his body."[66] In the Shanhaijing, many mythic heroes are said to have been conceived after their mothers copulated with divine dragons, including Huangdi, Shennong, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun.[66] The god Zhurong and the emperor Qi are both described as being carried by two dragons,[67] as are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Yuqiang, and Roshou in various other texts.[60] According to the Huainanzi, an evil black dragon once caused a destructive deluge,[60] which was ended by the mother goddess Nwa by slaying the dragon.[60]

A large number of ethnic myths about dragons are told throughout China.[60] The Houhanshu, compiled in the fifth century BC by Fan Ye, reports a story belonging to the Ailaoyi people, which holds that a woman named Shayi who lived in the region around Mount Lao became pregnant with ten sons after being touched by a tree trunk floating in the water while fishing.[66] She gave birth to the sons and the tree trunk turned into a dragon, who asked to see his sons.[66] The woman showed them to him,[66] but all of them ran away except for the youngest, who the dragon licked on the back and named Jiu Long, meaning "sitting back".[66] The sons later elected him king and the descendants of the ten sons became the Ailaoyi people, who tattooed dragons on their backs in honor of their ancestor.[66] The Miao people of southwest China have a story that a divine dragon created the first humans by breathing on monkeys that came to play in his cave.[60] The Han people have many stories about Short-Tailed Old Li, a black dragon who was born to a poor family in Shandong.[62] When his mother saw him for the first time, she fainted[62] and, when his father came home from the field and saw him, he hit him with a spade and cut off part of his tail.[62] Li burst through the ceiling and flew away to the Black Dragon River in northeast China, where he became the god of that river.[68] On the anniversary of his mother's death on the Chinese lunar calendar, Old Li returns home, causing it to rain.[69] He is still worshipped as a rain god.[69]

In China, a dragon is thought to have power over rain. Dragons and their associations with rain are the source of the Chinese customs of dragon dancing and dragon boat racing. Dragons are closely associated with rain[70] and drought is thought to be caused by a dragon's laziness.[71] Prayers invoking dragons to bring rain are common in Chinese texts.[70] The Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu, prescribes making clay figurines of dragons during a time of drought and having young men and boys pace and dance among the figurines in order to encourage the dragons to bring rain.[70] Texts from the Qing dynasty advise hurling the bone of a tiger or dirty objects into the pool where the dragon lives;[71] since dragons cannot stand tigers or dirt, the dragon of the pool will cause heavy rain to drive the object out.[71] Rainmaking rituals invoking dragons are still very common in many Chinese villages, where each village has its own god said to bring rain and many of these gods are dragons.[71] The Chinese dragon kings are thought of as the inspiration for the Hindu myth of the naga. [71] According to these stories, every body of water is ruled by a dragon king, each with a different power, rank, and ability,[71] so people began establishing temples across the countryside dedicated to these figures.[71] 006ab0faaa