December 2021
All about
Korean Dragons
Hi, everyone! In this post, I’ll be writing about the history of dragons, focusing on my favorite, Korean dragons. Yes, Korea has its own dragons, known as Yeong - 용.
Dragons have always captured people’s fascination, both East and West. Tales of these giant beasts started when ancient peoples first unearthed dinosaur bones and made up stories to explain such odd creatures. As one example, Chang Qu, a 4th-century Chinese historian, noted that villagers in Sichuan discovered “dragon bones” in 300 BC. In fact, the Chinese word for dinosaur, 恐龙, translates to “terrorizing dragon.”
Korean dragon
©James Johnston, 2021
Dragons in other cultures
It’s amazing that almost every culture around the world has its own story of a giant serpentine monster. They take many forms and have evolved greatly over the millennia. There are snakelike creatures with no legs like the Leviathan from Abrahamic religions, the Ouroboros from Ancient Egypt which would come to be an important symbol in alchemy centuries later, and the Vritra from Hinduism which has striking similarities to the lore surrounding Chinese dragons. There are multi-headed dragons like the Hydra from Greece; dragons that look like fish, such as the Imugi from Korean mythology; there are even human-snake-fish combos like Fuxi from China and also giant rainbow dragons, known as Ayida-Weddo, from Benin. Rainbows! Pretty! Of course, there are the more well-known four-legged dragons, such as Fafnir in Norse mythology, the Piasa from Native American mythology, and others.
Ouroboros
The Hydra
Fuxi and Nuwa,
8th Century
(Wikipedia)
Fafnir, drawn by Arthur Rackham, 1911
Over the centuries, tales of these giant monsters would gradually merge into two main types of dragons in the popular imagination, European dragons and Asian dragons.
European dragons are traditionally seen as malevolent beasts that breathe fire, eat peasants (yum!), and have a penchant for gold. They are also usually depicted as giant lizard-like creatures, usually with legs and wings and jagged armor-like scales. Some are highly intelligent and can talk to humans, for example, Smaug from the Hobbit. Some might be perverts like Balthromaw from Rick and Morty. Others, of course, are just dumb, wild beasts like Hungarian Horntails from the Harry Potter movies. A few other things of note are that Western dragons are hatched from eggs and grow up looking pretty much the same as they did at birth, except bigger, and they are also seen as symbols of ultimate power but in that they are vanquished by some chivalrous knight like Saint George’s dragon. This “modern” idea of a European dragon originated around the 11th century, A.D.
Asian dragons
Asian dragons are very different. They are not evil beasts. Quite the contrary, they are wise, godlike creatures often in control over water. They are usually benevolent, doing things like bringing rain clouds to help farmers or keeping floods at bay (Vritra, a Hindu dragon was likewise in control over water but was associated with droughts). Being deities, Asian dragons represent good fortune, eternal life, and the celestial forces of the yin and yang, that is, a balance between opposite forces in the universe – cold and hot, dark and light, female and male, rom coms and action movies, etc. Asian dragons are, in fact, the embodiment of yang.
Like their Western counterparts, Asian dragons are associated with ultimate power, but as mentioned, in the West, power is gained by slaying the dragon; in the East, however, power is gained by being descendants of the dragon. Think, Targaryens from Game of Thrones. In fact, most ancient East Asian dynasties based their lineage on dragons. The Chinese emperors said they were descended from Fuxi and Nuwa, the human-dragon-fish hybrids mentioned earlier, as did the Koreans and Japanese by proxy. A side note on Fuxi: he is said to be the first divine emperor of China and, indeed, the first human. He is said to have existed around 2,000 B.C.; interestingly, that’s just before China’s great flood story. Good thing he had a fishtail.
Fuxi and Nuwa,
8th Century
(Wikipedia)
The Vietnamese say that they are descended from a dragon, too, but from a relationship between a dragon and a fairy. Sounds cool, but I wonder how that went down.
Powers
Also, Asian dragons have insane powers. They don’t have wings, but they can fly. If you look at pictures of them, they some have little knobs on their heads, known as a poshans; those allow them to levitate. If they don’t have one of those, they have a magical item that allows them to float. As mentioned, they also have elemental powers over water. This allows them to control the rain, the oceans, lightning, and most importantly, chi, which can be thought of as electromagnetic forces in the universe. As an aside: this is why you’ll often see images of dragons on water spouts or on roof ledges where the rainwater spills off.
In addition to all of that, Asian dragons can shape shift, become invisible, shrink to the size of a worm, grow to the size of the universe, and do generally cool things like that. They’re not well-known for breathing fire, but they can do that, too.
Baby dragons & imugis
Asian dragons are also hatched from eggs. It takes 3,000 years for these eggs to mature. According to legend, they must spend 1,000 years in the water, 1,000 years in the mountains, and 1,000 years in the world of man.
The mythology around Korean dragons is a little more nuanced. Once hatched, Korean dragons are known as imugis. These are basically just lesser dragons or good old fashioned monsters. In most cases, they are depicted as giant rat snakes. They might also look like carp or weird turtle-like creatures. These guys hang out in bodies of water or in dark caves, chilling.
Imugi
Balls
What they want is to catch a dragon ball! Yes, Dragon Ball Z fans, they want to catch a dragon ball.
Dragon balls are also known as yeouiju, which have origins in Buddhist lore, where they are known as cintamani. Like in Dragon Ball Z, dragon balls grant wishes and give the possessor enlightenment, immortality, and free subscriptions to Netflix. They are also known to represent chi, yang energy, and essentially, the purest potential from the universe. In some images, you might see a small sprout coming out of them which represents the purest form of potential in the universe. They fall to earth every thousand years or so. If an imugi can get its hands on one of these, it can transform into a fully-fledge dragon. So, once an imugi has lived about 1,000 years, it will start keeping an eye on the skies. Really, though, anything can become a dragon if it wishes... even you! Dare to dream!
Dragon ball’s actually have a Western counterpart, the philosopher’s stone. As I mentioned, images of ouroboros – dragons that are eating their tails – were used to symbolize alchemy. That’s an interesting link since alchemists’ main goal was to create the philosopher’s stone which would give them ultimate powers, too.
Okay! Back to Asia. A yeouiju falls to earth, an imugi gets it, and it is like, “Sweet! I got a dragon ball. Check me out!” You’ll see in a lot Asian art where the dragon is holding onto its dragon ball greedily (or chasing after one). That’s because these dragons, despite being godlike creatures, have human-like feelings of vanity and want to show off that they have a dragon ball.
Korean dragons in art
Let’s change topics and talk about dragons in Korean art a little bit more. We've already discussed that images of dragons were used to bring good luck, ward off evil spirits, and were often put around things that dealt with water - drain covers or ship masts for example. And as we'll discuss a little bit later, images of dragons were used by royalty to show their ultimate power.
However, you might also see a painting of an imugi jumping up out of the water trying to catch a dragon ball. Like most old-school Asian art, these types of paintings were intended to bring the owner good fortune in a very specific way. It’s a bit nerdy, but this type of painting represents a person passing the national service exam. So, in case you’re unclear, Korea followed the Chinese model where people had to take a giant public service exam to get government positions, known as the kwago shihom. This test was a big, big deal. People would spend years and years studying for this test, and by passing it, they could become powerful politicians, rich, and "omniscient" like a dragon. To improve their luck, to help them catch their own dragon ball, they'd be given one of these paintings to hang in their house.
Korean dragon's appearance
Next up, let’s talk about what Asian dragons look like. First of all, all Asian dragons are derived from Chinese dragons, known as Lung, since China was and is the most influential power in the region. Other countries’ dragons have slight differences which we’ll discuss in a bit. But in any case, the “modern” form of Asian dragons can be traced back to about 200 B.C.
When you look at Asian art, it’s important to remember that artists had very strict guidelines for pretty much every type of image they made. Dragons were the epitome of this. If an artist misrepresented a dragon – too many toes, the wrong color, or something like that – they could be executed. No joke!
Okay! So, your everyday, run-of-the-mill Asian dragons are long and snake-like; that much we’ve established. Also, they will often have four legs, but once in a while, you’ll see a legless dragon. However, the most interesting thing about them is that they are actually made up of nine different animals. They have 1.) a camel’s head, 2.) a deer’s antlers, 3.) a rabbit’s eyes, 4.) a bull’s ears, 5.) a snake’s neck, 6.) a clam’s belly (I didn’t know a clam had a belly but anyway), 7.) a carp’s scales and whiskers, 8.) a tiger’s paws, and 9.) an eagle’s talons. In other renditions, it might have an iguana’s neck and a frog’s stomach – not sure how to tell the difference but the more you know [*PSA jingle].
Having parts from each of those powerful animals, dragons are able to gain the traits of each. If you ever read your zodiac on one of those Chinese restaurant menus, you’ll know that a rabbit is lucky, a tiger is ferocious, and so on. The dragon has the best traits of each.
If you really want to impress your friends at parties (or let them know how big of a nerd you are), you can tell them these other interesting facts: Chinese dragons usually have 117 scales; 81 of those represent the yang, and 36 represent the yin. Korean dragons, on the other hand, will just have 89 scales. Also, if a Korean dragon decides to ascend to heaven, the trail it leaves behind is a rainbow. I’m not sure about Japanese or Vietnamese dragons.
Claws!
How many claws a dragon has is really important. If a dragon has five claws, it is all-powerful, omniscient and capable of wielding a dragon ball. Images of five-clawed dragons were reserved exclusively for the emperor of China – yellow dragons to be precise. The emperor of Korea could also have a five-clawed dragon but usually a red one. Lower vassal kings could have images of four-clawed dragons. Three-clawed dragons were used to denote the Japanese dragon, known as a ryu. There were a few reasons for this. According to the mythology, dragons originated in China, the center of the universe. But as they flew further away from there, they’d lose their claws. Since Japan was far away, dragons could only have three claws. However, another meaning of this was to show that Japan was subordinate to China.
Vietnamese dragons, on the other hand – or claw, did their own thing; they’d have three, four, or five claws based on the whims of the emperor of the time, seemingly without any of the hierarchical significance of East Asian dragons. To add more, Vietnamese dragons might also have a lion’s nose, a dog’s teeth, and other differences. Plus, they were into fairies!
Korean and Japanese kings would sometimes up the number of claws on their dragon insignias to six or seven and even make them yellow to show their discontent with Chinese overlordship or to assert their own national identity. But if a normal person had a picture of a four- or five-clawed dragon, they’d get executed.
Other tidbits
A few other interesting things: Asian dragons’ favorite foods are sparrows and swallows. They hate centipedes – not sure why. Also, their weakness is iron. The only thing that can kill an Asian dragon is an iron needle.
That brings up an interesting bit of history. As mentioned, dragons embody chi, and, in fact, places where they dwell are thought to be focal points of chi, in other words, connections between the heavens and earth. Several mountains are said to be homes of dragons and, thus, holy places. Back in 1910, Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula. Unfortunately, the Japanese did a lot of horrible things to break the Korean spirit during this time. For example, they forbade Koreans from speaking Korean and insisted they speak Japanese. They forced thousands of Koreans into what essentially amounted to slave labor. The list of atrocities goes on and on. One thing they did to break the chi of the Korean people, specifically, was to go to famous mountains that were said to be the homes of dragons and drive iron spikes into the mountaintops to trap the chi in the earth. After World War II ended, the Japanese were kicked out of Korea and attempts were made to find and dig out those iron spikes to return the chi back to Korea. It seems like it worked because Korea is a pretty cool place now.
Alright! That’s all I got on dragons!
Works cited
For this article, I got most of my information from two places. The first was from a 2005 Korea Society lecture given by Heinz Insu Fenkl, director of the Interstitial Studies Institute at SUNY New Paltz. You can listen to it here: The Meaning of Dragons in Korean Folklore. And the second was from a visit to the Korea Minhwa Museum in Gangjin. I can't remember the name of the curator (I'm bad with names), but she was super patient with me and answered all of my questions. I highly recommend visiting that museum if you find yourself in the South Jeolla Province.
Aside from the first image, which I drew, all other artwork was taken from Pixabay, which offers free public domain images, Wikipedia, or in the case of the Dragon Ball Z images, "borrowed."
If you'd like to visit places in Korea that are related to dragon lore, please take a look at these two books I wrote on cycling in the country. For example, in the Shinan Islands, you can visit Dragon Birth Cave, a coastal cave that fills up at high tide - quite beautiful.
