Tianlong (simplified Chinese :天龙; traditional Chinese :天龍; pinyin :tiānlóng; Wade–Giles :t'ien lung; lit. "heavenly dragon") is a flying dragon in Chinese mythology, a star in Chinese astrology, and a proper name.
Tianlong (simplified Chinese :天龙; traditional Chinese :天龍; pinyin :tiānlóng; Wade–Giles :t'ien lung; lit. "heavenly dragon") is a flying dragon in Chinese mythology, a star in Chinese astrology, and a proper name.
The term tianlong combines tian 天 "heaven" and long 龍 "dragon". Since tian literally means "heaven; the heavens; sky" or figuratively "Heaven; God; gods", tianlong can denote "heavenly dragon; celestial dragon" or "holy dragon; divine dragon".
Tianlong 天龍 is homophonous with another name in Chinese folklore. Tianlong 天聾 "Heavenly Deaf" (with the character long 聾 "deaf" combining the "ear radical" 耳 and a long龍 phonetic element) and Diya地啞 "Earthly Dumb" are legendary attendants to Wenchang Wang 文昌王, the patron deity of literature.
From originally denoting "heavenly dragon", Tianlong天龍 semantically developed meanings as Buddhist "heavenly Nāgas" or "Devas and Nāgas", "centipede", and "proper names" of stars, people, and places.
Among Chinese classic texts, tian "heaven" and long "dragon" were first used together in Zhou dynasty (1122 BCE – 256 BCE) writings, but the word tianlong was not recorded until the Han dynasty (207 BCE – 220 CE).
The ancient Yijing "Book of Changes" exemplifies using tian "heaven" and long "dragon" together. Qian乾 "The Creative", the first hexagram, says:
—Qian乾 "The Creative", Yijing [2]
Commentaries on these explain:
— Commentary on the Decision (彖傳) [3]
—Commentary on the Images (象傳) [4]
The earliest usage of tianlong天龍 "heavenly dragon", according to the Hanyu Da Cidian , is in the Xinxu新序 "New Prefaces" by Liu Xiang (79–8 BCE). It records a story about Zigao, the Duke of Ye, who professed to love dragons. [5] After he carved and painted dragon images throughout his house, a [天龍] heavenly dragon [or fulong夫龍 in some editions] came to visit, but Ye was scared and ran away.
The Fangyan 方言 dictionary by Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE) has another early usage of tian and long. It defines panlong 蟠龍 "coiled dragon" as 未陞天龍, [6] syntactically meaning either "Dragons which do not yet ascend to heaven" [7] or "Heavenly Dragons which do not yet ascend". [8]
Tianlong Heavenly Dragon names both the Western constellation Draco and a star in the Chinese constellation Azure Dragon.
Tianlongza天龍座 "Heavenly Dragon Seat/Constellation" is the Chinese translation of Draco (from Latin "Dragon"), a constellation near the north celestial pole. The (1578 CE) Bencao Gangmu pharmacopeia's entry for long "dragon" describes "a pearl under its chin", [9] and Read notes,
The constellation Draco has the appearance of guarding and encircling the northern pole which is the centre of the movement of the fixed stars. The Chinese paintings of the Dragon straining after a mystical "Pearl" undoubtedly relate to this relationship to the North Pole Star, though other explanations are given for this. [10]
Tianlong天龍 "Heavenly Dragon" is the 3rd star in Fangxiu房宿 "Room (Chinese constellation)" and corresponds to the Western constellation Scorpius. "Room" is the 4th of the Twenty-eight mansions in the Azure Dragon, which is one of the celestial Four Symbols. Wolfram Eberhard notes, "When the dragon star appeared in the sky it was customary to make a sacrifice supplicating for rain," and this springtime dragon festival occurs on the 2nd day of the 2nd month. [11]
The Bencao Gangmu entry for wugong蜈蚣 "centipede" lists tianlong天龍 "heavenly dragon" as an alternate name. Li Shizhen's commentary reviews earlier Chinese commentators and texts. The Zhuangzi says, "People eat meat, deer eat grass, [蝍且] giant centipedes savor snakes, hawks and crows relish mice." [12] The Huainanzi says, "The [騰蛇] ascending snake can drift in the mist, yet it is endangered by the [蝍蛆] centipede." [13] The Erya dictionary defines jili蒺蔾 "thorns; puncture vine; bramble" as jieju蝍蛆 "centipede; cricket"; [14] which Guo Pu's commentary says resembles a huang蝗 "locust" with a large abdomen, long horns, and which eats snake brains. Although jieju can also mean xishuai蟋蟀 "cricket", Li concludes it means the snake-controlling wugong "centipede" that the Fangyan dictionary also calls maxian馬蚿 "horse/giant millipede" or juqu蛆蟝. [15] According to Eberhard, centipedes were snake predators, and "the enmity between snake and centipede occurs in many folktales and customs." [16]
In Chinese Buddhist terminology, tianlong means either "heavenly Nāgas (dragon gods)" or "Devas (heavenly gods) and Nāgas".
First, tianlong天龍 means "heavenly dragon/nāga" as the first of four nāga classes in Mahayana tradition. [17]
Hangzhou Tianlong 杭州天龍 "Heavenly Dragon from Hangzhou" was a 9th-century Chan Buddhist master who enlightened Juzhi Yizhi by holding up one finger. The Blue Cliff Record (tr. Cleary 1977:123-8) calls this "Chu Ti's One-Finger Ch'an" kōan.
Second, tianlong天龍 translates Sanskrit deva-nāga "Devas and Nāgas", the 2 highest categories of the Tianlong Babu天龍八部 "8 kinds of beings that protect the Dharma". The lower 6 categories are yecha夜叉 "Yaksha; cannibalistic devils; nature spirits", gantapo乾闥婆 "Gandharva; half-ghost music masters", axiuluo阿修羅 "Asura; evil and violent demigods", jialouluo迦樓羅 "Garuda; golden bird-like demons that eat dragons", jinnaluo緊那羅 "Kinnara; half-human half-bird celestial music masters", and maholuluojia摩睺羅迦 "Mahoraga; earthly snake spirits".
Tianlong Babu天龍八部 is also the title of a 1963 wuxia novel by Jin Yong, translated as English Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils . This Chinese title is further used by movies, television series, and a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Tianlong is a common name in Standard Chinese. Tianlongshan 天龍山 "Heavenly Dragon Mountain", which is located near Taiyuan in Shanxi, is famous for the Tianlongshan Shiku Grottoes (天龍山石窟). The commercial name Tianlong "Heavenly Dragon" is used by companies, hotels, and gungfu schools.
Japanese Tenryū天龍 or 天竜, a loanword from Chinese Tianlong, is a comparable proper name. A famous example is Tenryū-ji 天龍寺 "Heavenly Dragon Temple" in Kyoto, which is headquarters of the Tenryū-ji Branch of the Rinzai sect. Tenryū place names include a waterway (Tenryū River 天竜川), a city (Tenryū, Shizuoka 天竜市), and a village (Tenryū, Nagano 天龍村). Further examples include Imperial Japanese Navy names (Japanese cruiser Tenryū 天龍), and personal names (Genichiro Tenryu 天龍源一郎, a wrestler).
Tian (天) is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty, the Chinese referred to their highest god as Shangdi or Di. During the following Zhou dynasty, Tian became synonymous with this figure. Before the 20th century, worship of Tian was an orthodox state religion of China.
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Jiaolong or jiao is a dragon in Chinese mythology, often defined as a "scaled dragon"; it is hornless according to certain scholars and said to be aquatic or river-dwelling. It may have referred to a species of crocodile.
Qiulong or qiu was a Chinese dragon that is contradictorily defined as "horned dragon" and "hornless dragon".
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Zhulong or Zhuyin, also known in English as the Torch Dragon, was a giant red solar dragon and god in Chinese mythology. It supposedly had a human's face and snake's body, created day and night by opening and closing its eyes, and created seasonal winds by breathing.
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Chinese gods and immortals are beings in various Chinese religions seen in a variety of ways and mythological contexts.
Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the Chinese classics and Chinese folk religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist, and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic, that is to say it sees the world and the gods of its phenomena as an organic whole, or cosmos, which continuously emerges from a simple principle. This is expressed by the concept that "all things have one and the same principle". This principle is commonly referred to as Tiān 天, a concept generally translated as "Heaven", referring to the northern culmen and starry vault of the skies and its natural laws which regulate earthly phenomena and generate beings as their progenitors. Ancestors are therefore regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore as the means connecting back to Heaven which is the "utmost ancestral father". Chinese theology may be also called Tiānxué 天學, a term already in use in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Tian-Long, Tian Long, Tianlong, may refer to: