Panlong (mythology)
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Panlong (Template:Zh; lit. "coiled dragon") is an aquatic dragon resembling a jiaolong 蛟龍 "river dragon; crocodile" in Chinese mythology, an ancient motif in Chinese art, and a proper name.
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Word
The Chinese compound panlong combines pan Template:Linktext "coiling; curling; curving; bending; winding; twisting" and long Template:Linktext or Template:Linktext "dragon". Longpan Template:Lang "dragon coiling", the reverse of panlong, is a literary metaphor for "person of unrecognized talent" (see the Fayan below).
Panlong "coiled dragon" can be written Template:Lang or Template:Lang, using pan Template:Lang's homophonous variant Chinese character pan Template:Linktext or Template:Linktext "tray; plate; dish". Another example of this graphic interchangeability is panrao Template:Lang or Template:Lang "twine round; surround; fill". Two Classical Chinese panlong Template:Lang idioms are panlongpi Template:Lang ("coiling dragon habit") "gambling addiction" (alluding to 5th-century gambler Liu Yi Template:Lang or Liu Panlong Template:Lang of Eastern Jin ) and panlong-wohu Template:Lang (lit. "coiling dragon crouching tiger") "talented people remaining concealed". In Fengshui and Four Symbols theory, the Dragon and Tiger are symbolic opposites. Take for instance, longtan-huxue Template:Lang ("dragon's pond and tiger's cave") "dangerous places" or Wohu canglong Template:Lang Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Textual usages
Chinese classic texts began using panlong in the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). The (2nd century BCE) Huainanzi first records panlong as a decorative style on Chinese bronzes.
Great bells and tripods, beautiful vessels, works of art are manufactured. The decorations cast on these have been superb. The mountain dragon, or pheasant, and all animals of variegated plumage, the aquatic grass, flamboyants and grains of cereals were engraven on them, one symbol interwoven with another. The sleeping rhinoceros and crouching tiger, the dragon, wreathed in coils, were wrought.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
The later term panlongwen Template:Lang "coiled-dragon pattern/design (on bronzes, pillars, etc.)" compares with panchiwen Template:Lang (see chilong Template:Lang) and panqiuwen Template:Lang (see qiulong Template:Lang). Another Huainanzi context lists longshepan Template:Lang (lit. "dragon snake coiling") "serpentine passage" as a good ambush location.
An exiguous pass, a ferry pontoon, a great mountain, a serpentine defile, a cul-de-sac, a dangerous pitfall, a narrow ravine, full of winding ways like the intestines of a sheep, a hole like a fisher's net, which admits, but from which there is no exit, are situations in which one man can hold back a thousand.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
The materialist philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE) used both panlong and longpan. His Fangyan Template:Lang "Regional Speech" dictionary <ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> defined panlong Template:Lang "coiled/curled dragon", "Dragons which do not yet ascend to heaven [cf. tianlong "heavenly dragon"] are called p'an-lung." His Fayan Template:Lang "Words to Live By" anthology coined the metaphor longpan Template:Lang (lit. "dragon coiling") "person of unrecognized talent", "'a dragon coiled in the mud will be insulted by a newt,' meaning 'a sage will be ridiculed by a fool'."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
The (2nd century CE) Shangshu dazhuan Template:Lang commentary to the Classic of History parallels panlong and jiaoyu Template:Lang (or jiaolong Template:Lang), "the Template:Lang 'coiled dragon' was greatly trusted in its lair, the Template:Lang ' dragon; crocodile' leaped in its pool."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
The (12th century CE) Song dynasty Biji manzhi Template:Lang "Random Jottings from the Green Rooster Quarter" by Wang Zhuo Template:Lang describes using panlong dragons in sympathetic magic for rainfall, "where a mirror, adorned on the backside with a "coiled dragon", p'an lung, Template:Lang, is said to have been worshipped (rather used in a magical way) in order to cause rain."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Proper names
In addition to the ancient decorative style mentioned above, Panlong Template:Lang or Template:Lang "Coiled Dragon" is used in several names.
- Panlong Template:Lang or Template:Lang, pen name of Huan Xuan
- Panlongmu Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Pelycosaur (from Greek "bowl lizard")
- Panlongqu Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Panlong District in Kunming Prefecture, Yunnan
- Panlongjiang Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Panlong River in Kunming City, Yunnan
- Panlongxia Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Panlong Gorge (with a famous waterfall) in Zhaoqing, Guangdong
- Panlongcheng Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Panlongcheng archeological site of Erligang culture in Hubei
- Panlongzhen Template:Lang a township on the Panlong table hill (蟠龙山) in Shaanxi.
The Japanese language borrowed banryū Template:Lang or Template:Lang "coiled dragon" as a loanword from Chinese panlong. Banryu names a Taikyoku shogi chess-piece and a Bakufu schooner warship Banryū.
References
External links
- P'an Basin with Dragon Motif Template:Webarchive, Shang dynasty, National Palace Museum
- Template:Lang, Qing dynasty agate bottle with coiled-dragon pattern Template:In lang