Yinglong
Mythological Narrative
Yinglong is the dragon that grew wings — Guo Pu's commentary separates it from ordinary dragons in one clause: 'a dragon with wings is called yinglong.' The Great Wilderness: East introduces it in the passage on a mound in the far northeast, but lodges the dragon itself at the southern extremity: after it killed Chiyou and Kuafu it could no longer ascend to heaven, and with no rain-making dragon above, the lands below suffered repeated drought. In time of drought people dressed in the likeness of Yinglong, and great rains came — a line of scripture preserving an actual rain-magic rite.
The Great Wilderness: North supplies the battle. Chiyou forged weapons and attacked the Yellow Emperor, who sent Yinglong against him in the wilds of Jizhou. Yinglong's art was hoarding the waters; Chiyou countered by summoning the Lord of Wind and Master of Rain to unleash a tempest, until the Emperor sent down his daughter Ba to stop the storm, and Chiyou was killed. Like the drought-woman, the victorious dragon paid with its power and its place in heaven.
In the Heavenly Questions the poet asks how far the dragon of the rivers and seas ranged and where its work ended; Wang Yi's commentary answers that when Yu tamed the flood, Yinglong drew lines on the earth with its tail to mark the channels. Ren Fang's Shuyiji later ranked it as the dragon's highest grade — five hundred years make a horned dragon, a thousand make a yinglong — and the winged dragons on Han dynasty carved stones bear its shape.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Yinglong.
You Might Also Like
Chinese Dragon
The supreme scaled beast, deer-horned and eagle-clawed, able to shrink or fill the sky, climbing to heaven at the spring equinox and diving into the deeps in autumn; master of rain and emblem of emperors.
Nüba
The Yellow Emperor's daughter in blue-green robes. Sent down to stop Chiyou's storm, she could never reascend; wherever she stays no rain falls, and people drive her off shouting 'Goddess, go north!'
Chiyou
Chief of the Nine Li tribes, bronze-headed and iron-browed with eighty-one brothers. He raised a great fog against Huangdi at Zhuolu, and even in defeat was worshipped as the god of war.
Yu the Great
He tamed the great flood by dredging instead of damming, passing his own gate three times in thirteen years without entering, mapped the Nine Provinces, cast the Nine Tripods, and fathered the Xia dynasty.