Dragon as a culture symbol in Chinese culture

Dragon as a Cultural Symbol in Chinese Culture

龙的文化象征

专业：_______________ 姓名：_______________ 班级：_______________

2012年7月5日

Dragon as a Cultural Symbol in Chinese Culture

I. Introduction.

China is an old civilization with 5,000 years of splendid traditional culture. Chinese culture is universally acknowledged as the oldest continuous culture in the world. Though in history China was more than once under the rule of border ethnic minorities, the essential qualities of Chinese culture remained unchanged. Chinese culture is unique in that it flourished while absorbing the cultures of those ethnic minorities.

Nowadays, there are many people of the western countries who celebrate the Spring Festival, the most important festival of China. However, with the communication of different cultures, a phenomenon appears at the same time. What’s the phenomenon? It’s that there are more and more people who start to address Chinese Long as dragon, including Chinese. In fact, with the development of the whole world, as Chinese people, not only should we absorb other cultures’ essences, but we should persist in and encourage our own particular, unique culture.

In the traditional Chinese culture, Long is the symbol of Chinese culture, is also the symbol of Chinese spirit, and even is an important complex of nation. Long is the Chinese totem. As Chinese people, as descendents of Long, what should we do, addressing Long as dragon or Long, throwing away or developing and expecting our traditional, unique culture—the culture of Chinese Long ? II. Embodiments of Chinese Long in folkway culture

Since China had been under the rule of feudalism for thousands of years, “power” and “monopoly” were the first priorities for the whole state. At that time, Long was also monopolized by emperors, just because Long was the symbol of power. However, from ancient times to now, Long is always considered as a god and a lucky symbol in the folkway culture, for Long can bring harvest and wealth, health and happiness. All of people worship the god—Long. All of these we can see from the embodiments of Long in folkway culture.

Based on the folklore, we all know that Long is a god who can summon wind and rain for people. When the weather is not suitable for farming on the land, people

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always pray the King Long for the good weather, which can bring the harvest of crops. In traditional Chinese festivals, there are the festivals to thank or sacrifice the King Long for the help to people. For example, the 2nd day on the 2nd lunar month, is the traditional Chinese festival called “龙抬头” (long tai tou). The meaning of this festival is that Long, the god of wind and rain, always raises its head to begin to wok on the day, the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month; that is to say, Long would revive on the second day of the second lunar month, and would start its jobs to control the wind and rain. It is said that every year, rain will be more from this day on. So, for the harvest, on this day morning, every family gets water from river or wells, and then carries two buckets of water on a shoulder pole from river or wells to home, carrying lanterns. When they get home, they will be used to starting to lamp, burn incense, and sacrifice the King Long. Besides, they would eat nodule, oil pastry and popcorn during the whole day. The way of celebrating the festival is called “引田龙”, that is to say, people attract the King Long to come to farmland to bring the crops’ harvest by carrying water and lanterns. All of people believe that the crops will be healthier and stronger by the way of celebrating the festival.

Besides the festivals to thank or sacrifice the King Long, there are many festivals to celebrate health or happiness by using the ways refer to Long, which just because Long is the symbol of luck. For example, “元宵节” (Yuanxiaojie, the Lantern Festival) was also called “上元节” (Shangyuanjie, the first full moon in a new year).The celebration of happy reunion is usually on the evening of the 15th evening of the 1st lunar month in a year. “舞龙” (wu long, all kinds of dances with Long—a kind of artistic work is made of paper and bamboo), becomes a major display to celebrate the happy reunion, together with many other activities, such as “观灯” (guan deng, lantern display), “猜灯谜” (cai deng mi, riddle-guess in lantern), “放焰火” (fang yan huo, fireworks display) and “吃元宵” (chi yuan xiao, eat sweet glutinous dumplings), etc. And “端午节” (Duan wujie), the 5th day of the 5th lunar month is the traditional Chinese festival. “龙舟赛” (long zhou sai, boat races, the appearance of boat likes the figure of Long) is hold on the river as a major display to

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commemorate the great poet—“屈原” (Qu Yuan), a famous Chinese poet who is believed to have died by jumping into the river on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.

Long is not only the symbol of luck, but the totem of Chinese people. In addition to festivals, we can see Long in the many important custom, the traditional and unique Chinese custom. For example, in ancient China, people, in order to keep in memory their year of birth, used to name after “十二生肖” (shi er sheng xiao, 12 Symbols Animals) as a way to match the “十二地支” (shi er di zhi, 12 Earthly Branches). The twelve animals are: rat, ox, tiger, hare, Long, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog and hog. Besides Long, a fictional animal and a mascot that people believe in, others are all common animals that exist in real world. From the West Han Dynasty to Southern and Northern Dynasties, and even to now, 12 Symbolic Animals has been much loved and popularly used. What’s more, people believe that they may have come originally from ancients’ worship to earlier totems. III. Other Meanings of Chinese Long.

We can see that Chinese Long is always a good symbol. People consider Long as the god of wind and rain, often pray Him to bring nice weather so as to get harvest, health, and wealth, And Long symbolizes a happy reunion, because people always hold Long dance on important festival—the Lantern Festival, a symbol of happy reunion festival. Besides, Long also symbolizes a complex affection, and in people’s minds, Long is a holy and sacred animal, so people like to commemorate the great people with the ways related to Long . For example, “龙舟赛” of “端午节” is often held on the river to commemorate the great poet. In fact, Long also symbolizes important memory, for example, which year you were born in, and so on. IV. The culture of Chinese Long

We should develop and expand the culture of Chinese Long, well, what’s the culture? The answer is that Chinese people are descendants of Long, the Chinese totem is Long and Chinese people all have faith in the Belief that Unification and Harmony of Chinese Long.

As Chinese, we often call ourselves as the descendants of Long, but who can tell the reasons. It is said that in Chinese mythologies, the earliest ancestors of Chinese

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