Dragon sightings in China
[China’s Long History of Dragon Sightings](https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2024/01/chinas-long-history-of-dragon-sightings/)
>In the Eastern Han dynasty (25 – 220) Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters (《说文解字》) by Xu Shen (许慎), a dragon is described as a long creature adorned with scales, capable of morphing its size and length. It was said to ascend to the sky during the spring equinox and dive into the sea during the autumn equinox. There is no mention that it may not be real.
>In 80 CE, eight yellow dragons were spotted in the Xiang River in present-day Yongzhou, Hunan province, according to the Book of Later Han (《后汉书》); and in Supplement to the Annals of the Tang (《唐年补录》), Jia Wei (贾纬), a historian from the Five Dynasties (907 – 960), recorded an incident where 40-meter long dragon, was found dead with a grievous injury to its throat.
[Not just a metaphor: Dragons of imperial China show us how people lived](https://thechinaproject.com/2023/07/05/not-just-a-metaphor-dragons-of-imperial-china-show-us-how-people-lived/)
>According to the Míng Shílù 明实录 (the Veritable Records of the Ming dynasty), on July 7, 1517, no fewer than nine dragons darkened the skies north of Nanjing. As described by historian Tim Brook in his history of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the nine sucked water from the Huai, creating a waterspout that pulled a canal boat from the river. A woman on board was spared injury when the dragon responsible set the boat down softly.
>A year later, dragons came again, to worse effect. This time, Brook writes, “three fire-breathing dragons descended through the clouds over the Yangzi delta and sucked two dozen boats into the sky.” More than 300 houses were destroyed, and not only did many die falling from the sky, but even more perished from fright at just seeing the terrifying spectacle.
>And less than a year later, dozens of dragons engaged in an enormous battle in the skies over Lake Poyang — reprising one of Ming founder Zhū Yuánzhāng’s 朱元璋 greatest battles on his way to overthrowing the Yuan. The fight is said to have resulted in floodwaters that submerged several islands in the lake, never to reappear.
>The last official sighting of a dragon in China came in the 20th century: November 1905, just six years before the last emperor abdicated the Dragon Throne.
[Chinese Dragon Sightings in the Historical Record](https://peterhuston.substack.com/p/chinese-dragon-sightings-in-the-historical)
>Brooks’ book includes an entire chapter, pages 6 to 24, on reports of dragon sightings in the official records during the Yuan and Ming Dynasty and their context and interpretation.
>Throughout pre-modern Chinese history, people believed in the reality of dragons. Obviously, they did not believe they were common creatures, but they did believe that dragons were living creatures with awesome power who normally kept to themselves and thus whose very appearance was worth recording.
>Some will ask if the pre-modern Chinese saw dragons as supernatural creatures or not. I would respond that that is a question rooted in modern conceptions where the value of the scientific method is recognized, and thus the world is divided into things that are natural, meaning recognized, measure, and defined by science, and things that are supernatural, meaning not recognized, measured, defined, or behaving in ways and producing actions definable by science. Having acknowledged this, the dragons that the ancient and pre-modern Chinese believed in were definitely beings whose actions and behaviors were intertwined with floods and rain (dragons being categorized as linked with the “water” phase of the five phases) and whose appearance and subsequent behavior was seen as indicative of the general sense of how Heaven might view the fitness of the empire and imperial officials.
>In the Eastern Han dynasty (25 – 220) Analytical Dictionary of Chinese Characters (《说文解字》) by Xu Shen (许慎), a dragon is described as a long creature adorned with scales, capable of morphing its size and length. It was said to ascend to the sky during the spring equinox and dive into the sea during the autumn equinox. There is no mention that it may not be real.
>In 80 CE, eight yellow dragons were spotted in the Xiang River in present-day Yongzhou, Hunan province, according to the Book of Later Han (《后汉书》); and in Supplement to the Annals of the Tang (《唐年补录》), Jia Wei (贾纬), a historian from the Five Dynasties (907 – 960), recorded an incident where 40-meter long dragon, was found dead with a grievous injury to its throat.
[Not just a metaphor: Dragons of imperial China show us how people lived](https://thechinaproject.com/2023/07/05/not-just-a-metaphor-dragons-of-imperial-china-show-us-how-people-lived/)
>According to the Míng Shílù 明实录 (the Veritable Records of the Ming dynasty), on July 7, 1517, no fewer than nine dragons darkened the skies north of Nanjing. As described by historian Tim Brook in his history of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the nine sucked water from the Huai, creating a waterspout that pulled a canal boat from the river. A woman on board was spared injury when the dragon responsible set the boat down softly.
>A year later, dragons came again, to worse effect. This time, Brook writes, “three fire-breathing dragons descended through the clouds over the Yangzi delta and sucked two dozen boats into the sky.” More than 300 houses were destroyed, and not only did many die falling from the sky, but even more perished from fright at just seeing the terrifying spectacle.
>And less than a year later, dozens of dragons engaged in an enormous battle in the skies over Lake Poyang — reprising one of Ming founder Zhū Yuánzhāng’s 朱元璋 greatest battles on his way to overthrowing the Yuan. The fight is said to have resulted in floodwaters that submerged several islands in the lake, never to reappear.
>The last official sighting of a dragon in China came in the 20th century: November 1905, just six years before the last emperor abdicated the Dragon Throne.
[Chinese Dragon Sightings in the Historical Record](https://peterhuston.substack.com/p/chinese-dragon-sightings-in-the-historical)
>Brooks’ book includes an entire chapter, pages 6 to 24, on reports of dragon sightings in the official records during the Yuan and Ming Dynasty and their context and interpretation.
>Throughout pre-modern Chinese history, people believed in the reality of dragons. Obviously, they did not believe they were common creatures, but they did believe that dragons were living creatures with awesome power who normally kept to themselves and thus whose very appearance was worth recording.
>Some will ask if the pre-modern Chinese saw dragons as supernatural creatures or not. I would respond that that is a question rooted in modern conceptions where the value of the scientific method is recognized, and thus the world is divided into things that are natural, meaning recognized, measure, and defined by science, and things that are supernatural, meaning not recognized, measured, defined, or behaving in ways and producing actions definable by science. Having acknowledged this, the dragons that the ancient and pre-modern Chinese believed in were definitely beings whose actions and behaviors were intertwined with floods and rain (dragons being categorized as linked with the “water” phase of the five phases) and whose appearance and subsequent behavior was seen as indicative of the general sense of how Heaven might view the fitness of the empire and imperial officials.