The Cultural Comparison of Chinese Loong and Western Dragon

I.Introduction (1)II.The Origin of Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (2)A. The Origin of Chinese Loong (2)B. The Origin of Western Dragon (2)III.The Cultural Compa rison Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (3)A. The Similarities of Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (3)1. The Similarities of Their Archetypes (3)2. The Partial Similarities of Loong and Dragon in Appearance (4)3. Having Some Similar Abilities (4)B. The Discrepancies Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (4)1. Different Appearances (4)2. Different Cultural Connotations and Symbolic Meanings (5)3. People’s Different Attitudes Toward Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (7)4. Different Uses of Loong and Dragon in Chinese and English (8)5. Different Translations of Loong and Dragon in Chinese and English (9)IV.The Causes of the Cultural Differences Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon (11)A. The Geographical Environment Differences of the Origin of Chinese and WesternCivilizations (11)B. The Ideological Differences of China and Western Countries (11)V.Conclusion (12)Notes (13)Bibliography (14)Chinese loong and western dragon are mythological animals, and they have some things in common, such as their archetypes, some of their appearances, etc. But there exist considerable cultural differences between them. Chinese loong is mainly a positive image and the incarnation of wisdom and power in Chinese culture, and it symbolized the emperor who had a very high status in the feudal society. After several thousand years of development, loong gradually becomes a symbol of the Chinese nation, and Chinese people call themselves “the descendents of the loong”. However, dragon, in the western myths, is a monster of guarding the treasure, and it is the Devil who disobeys the God in the Bible, which has an essential difference with Chinese loong. Since antient times, there has been the inter-translation of “loong” and “dragon” in China and west because of some reasons. With the rapid development of the global cross-cultural communication, nowadays more and more scholars realize the barriers of the inter-translation. Therefore, most of them advocate to use transliteration when communicating with the foreigners, which is more conducive to the cultural exchange of China and western countries.This paper tries to analyze the similarities of loong and dragon from their archetypes, some of their appearances, abilities, etc. and the discrepancies from their cultural connotations and symbolic meanings, people’s attitudes, translations and so on, and finally by analyzing the causes of the cultural differences between loong and dragon, letting people better know the cultural differences between loong and dragon and use the correct translations in the cross-cultural communication, which is of benefit for the spread of Chinese culture and western culture, and what’s more, promoting the development of economy.Key words: Chinese loong; western dragon; similarities; discrepancies; translation摘要中国龙与西方的dragon都是传说中的动物，它们存在一定的相似性，但由于中西方文化的差异，二者的文化内涵也存在着巨大的差异。

中国龙主要是正面的形象，在中国文化中是力量，权威的化身，封建帝制社会将龙作为皇帝的象征，具有至高无上的地位。

经过几千年的发展，龙成为中华民族的象征，中国人自称是龙的传人。

Dragon在西方神话中是看守财宝的怪物，凶狠、残暴，危害百姓。

在《圣经》中它是与上帝作对的魔鬼，与中国龙有着本质的区别。

“龙”与“dragon”的互译最初是西方传教士所为，由于某些原因，这种互译一直延续至今。

随着全球跨文化交际的迅速发展，现在许多学者越来越意识到两者间的互译妨碍了中西方文化交流。

多数学者主张采用音译的方式来进行翻译。

从长远来看，音译形式更有利于中西方文化交流。

本文拟从二者的原型、外形、本领来分析其相似性，从文化象征内涵、人们的态度、使用以及翻译来比较二者的不同点，最后分析形成龙与dragon文化差异的原因。

通过对比，让人们更好的了解龙与dragon之间存在的文化差异，以及在跨文化交流中使用正确的翻译，这有利于中西方文化的传播以及促进经济的发展。

关键词：中国龙；西方dragon；相似性；文化差异；翻译I.IntroductionIt is acknowledged that language is closely related to the culture, and it is also the carrier of culture and a mirror. Because of the differences of China and western countries in religions, historical backgrounds, geographical environments and cultural customs, there exsit considerable cultural differences between China and west. And many differences reflect on the culture-loaded words like “loong” and “dragon”.By analyzing the scholars’ discourses on Chinese loong and western dragon in recent years, people know that both of them are mythological animals which do not exist in the real world. And the dragon in western legends has a lot in common with Chinese loong, such as their archetypes, some of their appearances and so on. However, though they have some similarities, this paper mainly analyzes their differences, and these differences embody in the appearances, cultural connotations, symbolic meanings and so on. As is known to all, loong is one of the most important symbols of Chinese throughout Chinese culture for almost eight thousand years. In traditional Chinese culture, loong is a sign of good luck and success, a symbol of power, elegance and honor. And in ancient times of China, loong symbolized the imperial power, and the emperors called themselves “sons of loong”, and almost all the things related to the emperors are connected with loong, such as their bodies were called “loong bodies”,their clothes were called “loong robes”and so on. However, in western countries, dragon is primarily a negative image, and it is the incarnation of Satan, sin and evil.With the rapid development of society and economy, cross-cultural communication between China and western countries is becoming more and more frequent. So how to use the language correctly is becoming increasingly important. Because of the differences between Chinese loong and western dragon, and their improper translations, there appears a lot of cross-cultural communication barriers. Scholars realize that translating “龙” (Chinese character “Long” ) into dragon is improper. Based on their researches, they get a conclusion that it is much more suitable to transliterate “龙” (Chinese character “Long”) into loong. From the perspective of the word loong, double “o”is on behalf of the two big eyes of the loong, and this transliteration better explains the characteristics of the loong.This paper aims to compare Chinese loong and western dragon, and by analyzing the similarities from their archetypes, some of their appearances, abilities, etc. and the discrepancies from their cultural connotations andsymbolic meanings, people’s attitudes, translations and so on, letting people better know the cultural differences between loong and dragon. An insight into these differences plays a significant role in smoothing the communication.II.The Origin of Chinese Loong and Western DragonA. The Origin of Chinese LoongWhen on earth did loong originate? From the point of literal data, there are some descriptions of loong in the oldest books like Shijing(the Book of Songs), Zhouyi(the Book of Changes), Chuci(the Songs of Chu), etc. And the earliest dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi has included the word “loong” and made the explanations. 1 The concept and image of loong should appear earlier than these materials. From the archaeological data, there was excavated a copper pot in the grave of monarch of the Zhongshan State in the warring states period, and there are two loongs in the both sides of the copper pot, and also in the unearthed jade pendants. These materials illustrated that the appearance of loong should be in the spring and autumn period and the warring states period. With the constant discovery and excavation of the archaeological ruins, the time of loong’s origin is also constantly going back further. In 1987, a grave of the Yangshao culture was excavated in Puyang city, where a loong made of mussel shells was found, and this tomb was the grave of Xia Dynasty. And another discovery is that the archaeologists excavated a jade loong and a huge sculpture of loong made by stones in Chahai site of Fuxin in 1994. And the latter is sculptured by the same size of reddish brown stones whose length is about 20 meters and width is about 2 meters, and it is clear to see its head, tail and legs.According to the historical data, it can get a conclusion that the time of loong’s origin can date back to the primitive society of about 8000 years.B. The Origin of Western DragonThere is also not a clear record about the origin time of western dragon on the historical documents. However, the appearance of dragon is later than Chinese loong judging from the time. In western mythological tales, there appeared a monster about 4000 years ago, and this monster was called dragon. And in Greek myth, the dragons mentioned earlier were dragon-shaped giants who were the children of Gaea and Uranus that sought to rule heaven and were overthrown and supplanted by Zeus. 2 Because of the far-reaching influence of ancient Greek civilization on the west, the image of dragon got the inherit and carried forward. In the myths and legends orfolktales of Italy, Germany, England and other countries, the figure of dragon appeared one after another.III. The Cultural Comparison Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon Loong, as a mascot of China, has about 8000 years history. Although it is the mythological animal in the world, it is the symbol of the Chinese nation. And Chinese people call themselves the descendents of loong. 3 Since ancient times, Chinese people worship the loong and think it is the leader of all things. Loong, in traditional Chinese culture, is a symbol of luck and honor. And in ancient times of China, loong symbolized the imperial power, and the emperor was the true loong and the son of Heaven. However, in the western countries, dragon is the incarnation of Satan, sin and evil. Whenever westerners meet the dragon, they cannot wait to kill it.Therefore, by comparing Chinese loong and western dragon from their similarities and discrepancies, letting people better know about the culture of loong and dragon.A. The Similarities of Chinese Loong and Western Dragon1. The Similarities of Their ArchetypesWhat does loong come of? This is becoming the controversial issue. For example, in the Warring States Periods more than 2000 years ago, Quyuan, the great patriotic poet, asked more than 170 questions in Asking Heaven. He raised his suspicions to the natural phenomenon, myths and legends, social reality and loong, of course. Then, what is the first archetype of loong? There are a lot of answers such as crocodile, snake, pig or even lightening. Although the views are quite different, scholars want to express the same idea that loong, which worshipped by people, is a sacred but not a real animal. In primitive societies when people took agricultural farming as the main production, rain played an important role in their lives, so loong became an miraculous animal that could summon wind and call for rain. And people in ancient times also liked to use the images of creatures or plants as the symbols of their tribes, because they believed that totem worship could bring them good luck and protection. For example, in ancient times of clanship, the Huaxia Clan symbolized by snake totem in the Yellow River basin overcame other clans, and then grew into a big clan union by integrating other clans together with their totems. Nowadays many specialists agree on that loong was a totem mainly consisting of snake, and it had snake’s body, pig’s head, deer’s horns, ox’s ears, goat’s beards, eagle’s claws and fish’s scales.Then, what is the archetype of dragon? Dating back to nearly 4300 to 3500 BC, thearchaeologists found that the heads of them were lizard-shaped or snakelike from the excavation of the men and women clay figures in the Al Ubaid-Eridu site of Western Asia Mesopotamia. Maybe it is the variant of dragon. And it is clearly recorded that dragon is snake in the Bible, and in the Book of Revelation, it also says dragon is snake and its name is Devil or Satan. 4 Thus it can be seen the archetype of the dragon is snake.Therefore, by analyzing the historic data we know that snake is the archetype of loong and dragon.2. The Partial Similarities of Loong and Dragon in AppearanceAccording to the historical data, even though there are enormous differences between Chinese loong and western dragon, there still exsit partial similarties in appearance. First, the main physical features of loong is snake body, and dragon’s appearance is a monster like a snake. Second, both loong and dragon have a tail, claws, scales and legs. Third, from the perspective of legends or tales, both loong and dragon have a lot of colors, such as yellow, white, red and so on.3. Having Some Similar AbilitiesBesides the abilities of diving and flying, both loong and dragon have a ability of protecting. For example, there is a white loong horse that protects Tang Seng to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in the Journey to the West. Legend says that the white loong horse is the third son of the loong king of the West Sea. Because he offended the laws of God in heaven, he was descend to the world and became Tang Seng’s mount. In order to save his master, he was back to his original shape to fight with bogies when Sun Wukong was trapped. He became an immortal after finishig his mission. Moreover, there is the dragon which likes guarding the treasure in the ancient Greek mythology. It often lives in the caves and likes to corner a great deal of treasure. If someone wants to snatch the treasure, it will struggle with the man. And it is unwilling to leave the treasure away except looking for something to eat.B. The Discrepancies Between Chinese Loong and Western Dragon1. Different AppearancesMany scholars believe that loong is a snake’s totem mixed with another eight kinds of creatures. It is recorded in the Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica that loong has the similar head and neck of snake’s, horns of deer’s, eyes of a rabbit’s, ears of cattle’s, abdomen of a clam’s, scales of a carp’s, claws of an eagle’s and palms of a tiger’s. It has four legs to walkover land and swim in the river. And what’s more, it can fly up to the cloudy regions without wings and control the forces of nature.However, dragon’s appearance is quite different from loong’s. It is firstly described the description of dragon in the Bestiary that there are some feathers on the dragon’s head and it can breathe through a blowhole, and it has a little mouth which can spit out the tongue, and what’s more, its tail and teeth are very powerful, so it can kill all the things if it rolls up its tail. Moreover, it usually kills the enemies by blowing air instead of beating. 5 People consider that it is very similar to the devil. In western legends, dragon is an ugly and disgusting monster like a snake or lizard whose body type is very bulky and big belly is like a lizard’s. And what’s more, it has the stinging tail, the wings of bat, the claws of lion and the head of crocodile, and it also can breathe out fire.2. Different Cultural Connotations and Symbolic MeaningsEven though both loong and dragon are mythological creatures, they do exsit in the Chinese culture and western culture, but their cultural connotations and symbolic meanings are diverse.In ancient China, loong played a very important role in agriculture. When the weather was not suitable for the crops, people would pray the loong king for the good weather. But how did loong king come into being? It could not be separated with religions. Because of the large-scale translation of Buddhist sutras, Buddhism gradually spreaded to China more than one thousand years from the Eastern Han Dynasty to Tang and Song Dynasties. The introduction of the Buddhism further enrich ed and perfected the Chinese loong’s image and meaning, meanwhile, there appeared "loong king", "loong temple", "loong ball" and other concepts in Chinese culture. Loong king was a god of wind and rain who could bring good luck and help people have a good harvest for their crops. In order to thank or sacrifice the loong king, there appeared many festivals in China such as “龙抬头” (Long Tai Tou, Loong heads-raising Day). On the second day of the second lunar month, loong wakes up from its winter hibernation, and starts its jobs to control wind and rain.In the feudal society, loong was a symbol of imperial power. According to records put down in Chinese literature, loong’s image had been connected with the emperor since the beginning of loong. For instance, the epoch-making Pan Gu was a loong in the legends, 6 and hehad a loong’s head and snake’s body while both Fu Hsi and Nu Wa had a man’s head and loong’s body or snake’s body. 7 In addition, there were some loong-related descriptions about Yan Di (Yan Emperor) and Huang Di (Yellow Emperor) in the myths and legends. Loong’s image had basically been formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties. And from this period the emperors began to call themselves “the sons of Heaven”. For example, The Han emperor Liu Bang who thought himself was the son of loong. In order to consolidate his position, he made up a story that his mother met an immortal when there was a lot of thunder and lightning during the storm in her dream and the immortal told her there was a loong on her body. And before long his mother was pregnant, and then gave birth to Liu Bang. Therefore, the emperors considered they were the true loong or the sons of loong from the beginning of the early Han Dynasty, and loong gradually became a symbol of imperial power. Some words with the word “loong” such as loong bodies and loong robes were the emperor’s specialized vocabularies, others could not use them arbitrarily if they didn’t want to be killed. So loong of this period was a tool that the feudal emperors consolidated their regimes.Besides the symbol of imperial power, loong is also the symbol of outstanding people. In the ancient times of China, people called the sage as “loong”. For instance, Qu Yuan, an ancient patriotic poet, did all that he can do for the prosperity of Chu and never yielded to the forces of evil, but at last he was exiled by the calumny. The inability to save the peril of the country, he threw himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month in lunar calendar. In the minds of people, he is a hero like the loong, so this day is called Loong Boat Festival. People will row loong boats and make “粽子”(Zongzi, rice dumpling) in memory of Qu Yuan on this day. Furthermore, it is said that after Confucius met the founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, he did not say a word for three days, which made his disciples feel very strange. He told them that Lao Tzu was a loong among men. And what’s more, Zhuge Liang was called the sleep loong before his debut. Therefore, as long as you are a man of morality and capability, or a man of great behavior, or an honest and upright official, etc. you can compare yourself to the loong.However, in the western countries, dragon refers to the fierce person, especially a woman.8 For example, Charles Dickens, one of the famous English writers, described the scene in his novel Hard Times: Mrs. Sparsit always think that she is a fairy of the bank and sits there every day. So people in the town consider she is a bank dragon of this bank that guards the treasures ofthe mine. Except associating with the western dragon likes the treasures, the bank dragon here refers to the people who are irritable and vicious. Moreover, police who hit people are also called the dragon. 9In western countries, dragon is a kind of monster which is full of aggressiveness and it is a symbol of evil. In the tale about The Woman and The Dragon in the Bible, dragon was a ferocious animal. When a pregnant woman cried before the production of pain, the great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, dragging the tail of one-third of the stars was entrenched in front of the woman and waited for the birth of the baby, and then swallowed the baby. After the countless times struggles, the great red dragon was caught and locked in the bottomless pit by Archangel Michael.Under the influence of the Christian culture, dragon was a meaning of sea monster. In the Middle Ages, dragon was the symbol of evil, and the Devil who was against the God was called the great dragon. Because it made people feel horrible, it was used as the flags of war in the early period and it was also used as a British royal war badge before the Normans conquered England.In the Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic around the year of 700AD, dragon was described as a ferocious monster that could breathe out fire and killed by the hero Beowulf at last. Therefore, many saints became heroes because of slaying dragons.3. People’s Different Attitudes Toward Chinese Loong and Western DragonAs the symbol of the Chinese nation, loong has been deeply rooted among the people. So Chinese people have a good impression on loong throughout the entire Chinese nation. On various traditional Chinese festivals such as the Lantern Festival, the Loong Boat Festival and so on, Chinese people at home and abroad will perform loong dancing and loong boat racing to express their happiness, hope and good wishes. All in all, loong is a positive image in Chinese people’s minds and they are very proud that they are the descendents of the loong. However, dragon in the westerners’ minds is evil, cruel and ferocious. If they meet the dragon, they will feel very frightened and terrified. In the western legends and religious books, there are many tales about dragon-slaying, so no matter who kills the dragon will be a hero or warrior. In the modern and contemporary of western cultures, dragon symbolizes the terrorism and German fascists. It is a big trouble in politics, and it stands for deficit in economy. Dragon is a destroyer of the future world in the movies or other art works, and it usually plays the role of the villain.So there will appear a brave man to fight againt the dragon and win victory by killing it. In the online games, dragon is also a demon that should be wiped out and overthrown. Dragon is the delegate of the negative characters, so people can not wait to kill the dragon when it appears.4. Different Uses of Loong and Dragon in Chinese and EnglishThere are many expressions about loong in Chinese language, and most of them have a positive meaning used widely by people, such as “乘龙快婿”(Cheng Long Kuai Xu, a son-in-law of high rank), “望子成龙”(Wang Zi Cheng Long, expect one’s son to become an outstanding person), “鲤鱼跳龙门” (Li Y u Tiao Long Men, like a carp leaping into the loong’s gate) and so on. Each parent wants their sons and daughters to have a good future or become an outstanding person, so they can use Chinese idiom Wang Zi Cheng Long to express their wishes. And Chinese people like to use “龙凤呈祥” (Long Feng Cheng Xiang, prosperity brought by the loong and the phoenix) to have the best wishes for newlyweds. When a mother gives birth to twins, one is a girl, and the other is a boy, we call them “龙凤胎” (Long Feng Tai, a pigeon pair). If someone is full of vim and vigour, we can say he or she is “生龙活虎”(Sheng Long Huo Hu, a lively loong and an active tiger), etc. People like to use the word “loong” in their names, such as Lee Siu Loong, a well-known martial arts actor. And there are also many movie titles contains the word “loong”, such as Wo Hu Cang Long(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Loong), Long Men Ke Zhan(Loong Gate Inn), etc. In the twelve creatures of the Chinese zodiac, there are also the figure of the loong. In ancient China, the Chinese zodiac was a way of numbering the years. If someone is born in the year of loong, he or she is considered a lucky person and has a bright future.Loong, as a mascot of Chinese nation, is a postive image in the people’ minds, so most of the expressions about loong is positive. However, there are exceptions, too. Such as an idiom “龙扣夺粮” (Long Kou Duo Liang, snatch food from the loong's mouth), it refers to farmers speed up the summer harvesting before the storm breaks. And “龙潭虎穴” (Long Tan Hu Xue, a chasm for loong to hide or a cave for tigers to have their lair), its symbolic meaning refers to an extremely dangerous place.However, dragon has a disgraceful meaning in the western culture, so the expressions about dragon are negative in English language. For example, if we say that woman is a dragon, that is, she is a woman who is very fierce or likes to stir up enmity. And if someone gets thedragon, that is to say, he or she has a bad breath and should brush his or her teeth right now. And there are also some phrases about dragon. For instance, dragon lady usually refers to a woman who is strong, deceitful, domineering or mysterious, and it is not the same as “龙女” (loong lady) in Chinese. Another phrase “chase the dragon” is the meaning of taking heroin. As is known to all, dragon can spit out smoking and breathe out fire, which is similar to taking heroin.There is an English idiom “to sow dragon’s teeth” which came from the allusion of the Greek mythology. The allusion was that the God told the Cadmus to go to the fane, following the first cattle which came out from the fane, and built a city where the cattle slept. The cattle took Cadmus to the spring guarded by a dragon. After Cadmus killed the dragon, he sowed the dragon’s teeth to the virgin land, soon these teeth turned into a group of warriors who came out of the ground, and all of them attacked Cadmus. After listening to the advice of the goddess Athena, he threw a huge stone into them, then these warriors fought against each other, and there were only five warriors alive at last. On the advice of the goddess Athena, these five warriors became the assistants of Cadmus and built the Thebes city. So the meaning of the dragon teeth is “the seeds of conflict with each other and the root of fighting with each other”. And it goes without saying that the meaning of the idiom “to sow the dragon’s teeth”.5. Different Translations of Loong and Dragon in Chinese and EnglishIt has a very long history about the translation between loong and dragon. By comparing before, there were some similarites in their appearances, which concealed their discrepancies. However, the western missionaries used the similarities to equate loong with dragon for the spread of their religions and pursuing the cultural aggression. Robert Morrison, one of the western missionaries, firstly translated “龙” (Chinese character “Long”) into English dragon in the translation of Bible in 1815. And in his first Dictionary of the Chinese Language, he also translated loong into dragon. So the inter-translation of loong and dragon came into being. And there was the continuation of this translation in the later English-Chinese Dictionary and Chinese-English Dictionary which compiled by Chinese people.And what’s more, the inter-translation of loong and dragon to some extent, was a kind of cultural misreading. In the feudal society, people were unable to recognize and object to the western cultural hegemony under the unilateral discourse power. And because of the long-term isolation of China, scholars of our country learnt little about the differences between Chineseculture and western culture. When they compiled English-Chinese or Chinese-English dictionaries, they continued this inter-translation until now. So when people look over the dictionaries, the first explanation of “龙”(Chinese character “Long”) is “dragon”in Chinese-English dictionaries and in English-Chinese dictionaries, the first explanation of “dragon” is “龙” (Chinese character “Long”). As is known to all, dictionary is a tool for persons’studies, so many English learners and users have connected the two without thinking for a long time, so that there are a lot of misunderstandings and barriers in cross-cultural communication.Loong and dragon represent for two different kinds of culture. However, many Chinese people are used to translating “龙”(Chinese character “Long”) into dragon and in turn, translating dragon into “龙”(Chinese character “Long”) without thinking. For instance, the writers translated “龙的传人” (Long De Chuan Ren) into “the descendents of the dragon” and translate d “望子成龙” (Wang Zi Cheng Long) into “to hope one’s to become a dragon” in the past. But with the development of the society, people gradually realized that the translation made no contribution to the communication of Chinese culture and western culture and made lots of misunderstandings instead.It is acknowledged that there are mainly two methods of translation, one is free translation, and the other is transliteration. It is known to all that both loong and dragon are mythological creatures, people cannot find counterparts in the world. So the best way of the translation of loong and dragon is transliteration. Nowadays some scholars advocate to translate “龙” (Chinese character “Long”) into Pinyin “long”, and others insist on translating it into “loong”. With the development of society, it is widely acknowledged that “loong” is a better translation. First, there has been the word “long”in English language, which has a lot of meanings that may make people feel confused. In the sentence “There is a long with a long tail”, people cannot distinguish the meanning of the word long and long correctly, which can easily cause the ambiguity. However, the word “loong”well expresses the image of “龙”(Chinese character “Long”), double “o” look like the two eyes of loong and symbolize the long body of loong. 10 And what's more, the word “loong” has been used before 60 years. For example, loong has firstly appeared in the packaging of Loong V oong cigarettes in 1940’s. And it is also used in the people’s names, such as Liu Siu Loong (a well-known martial arts actor) and Li Hsien Loong (the Prime Minister of Singapore).。