CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
Xu Xianming* and Ji Hongli
The Concepts of Dragon in Chinese Language
and Culture
Institute of Foreign Languages, Yuxi Teachers’ College, Yunnan Province 653100, People’s
Republic of China.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Key words: Chinese Dragon, Concept Exploration
Introduction
he concept dragon has different interpretations in different cultures.
In western culture, a dragon is a kind of fire-breathing demon
with wings; it is the symbol of violence and evil. In the Bible, dragon is
described as Satan in Revelation. In Southeast Asian cultures, for example,
Thai and Burmese cultures, dragon is regarded as an animal that looks like
a snake which has human being’s mind. In Chinese culture, dragon is a
kind of animal that can bring good luck to people and control cloud and
rain. Thus, it is a symbol of authority, power, prosperity and so forth. The
concept of dragon is widely used in Chinese vocabulary: such as the wrath
of dragon, dragon bed, dragon-head enterprises, the son of dragon; it is widely
used in Chinese culture, dragon boat and the dragon dance have become
popular in Chinese festivals, as well as international events.
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CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
ABSTRACT
he concept of dragon has different meanings in different cultures.
In western cultures, the dragon is often something terrible—
a fire-breathing demon with wings—a symbol of evil and violence. In
Chinese culture, on the other hand, the dragon is a widely-revered totem,
symbolizing power, authority, talent, wealth, prosperity and good luck.
When Chinese people speak of the dragon, many different categories can
be represented through the concept. Why do Chinese people have so many
dragon-related concepts? How is the distinctive concept dragon organized
cognitively? This paper aims to provide a semantic analysis to the concept
dragon by using prototype as a main theory (Lakoff, 1987).
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Research questions
t remains unknown whether the dragon existed or where it came
from. However, there is no doubt that the concept of the dragon has
experienced a history that is as long as Chinese history, and the dragon is
deeply rooted in the Chinese mind.
For Chinese, the dragon is a composite of the parts of nine animals,
which includes the horns of a deer, the head of a camel, the eyes of a devil,
the neck of a snake, the abdomen of a large cockle (a kind of animal like
crocodile), the scales of a carp, the claws of an eagle, the paws of a tiger
and the ears of an ox, as shown in Figure 1:
I
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Figure 1. The prototype of dragon in Chinese culture.
The concept of dragon has greatly influenced Chinese culture. It is
thought that dragon is credited with enormous power that allows them to
make rain and to control floods. It is also considered as an animal that
is in charge of happiness and fortune; it seems to be a Deity for Chinese
people. Therefore, they worship the dragon and describe it in numerous
articles and books. In addition, people carve dragons on furniture, roofs
and even on bodies as tattoos. As early as the Qin Dynasty, the dragon
had become the sign on the national flag as a symbol of power and of a
conqueror. Thus, the Chinese people regard themselves as the descendants
of the dragon.
What does the prototype of dragon mean? Why are there so many
words linked with the concepts of dragon in Chinese vocabulary? How are
these words related to the prototype of dragon? This paper explores these
questions.
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
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Prototype theory
Prototype theory covers semantics, and was proposed by Eleanor
Rosch (1978: 27) in 1870’s, and newly applied in the analysis of cognitive
linguistics. The prototype theory includes: the concept of prototype, prototype structure and prototype effect, as well as metaphor and metonymy
that are applied for the extension of a concept within certain category. In
building the concept, people always recognize the typical features of that
concept by comparing and narrowing down its scope, and identifying
the differences and similarities. Thus, prototype refers to the best exemplar among a category (Taylor, 1991). What prototype defines is certain
phenomena, some of which are central, some of which are non-central.
In addition, in the concept, similar concepts tend to coincide, thus, the
prototype motivates experience and imagination, and differentiates the
best example by applying family resemblance principle (Taylor, 1991).
For example, on the bird list, bat, sparrow, parrot, owl, dove, penguin,
peacock, sparrow is considered an excellent example, parrot, owl, dove,
peacock, penguin are thought of as moderate or poor examples of a bird,
and bat is ruled out of the category. In this case, we say sparrow is the
prototype of the bird, because it represents the characteristics of an ideal
bird: feathers, wings, beak, nest-building and flying ability. The others
such as peacock or dove are regarded as poor examples of birds because
they share less characteristics of an ideal bird compared to a sparrow. They
are members of bird category because they are similar to the prototypical bird. In other words, to test whether any new example belongs to a
category or not, we can match it against the characteristics of the prototype.
It doesn’t have to match exactly the same; just share similarities, though
not necessarily visual. From this perspective, prototype theory provides a
good explanation about why words may be used with different meanings,
and how people can recognize good or bad examples of a category.
When approaching the concepts of psychology linguistics, the existence of prototype motivates experiences and imaginations, then the family
resemblance provides references to judge inner structures to set up prototype
effect. Therefore, some variants may overlap; some are extended via family
resemblance and motivated by the central member. This asymmetry radial
structure is prototype effect, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2. Prototype effect of bird.
CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
The prototype of “dragon”
The concept of dragon can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty.
The dragon was described as an animal with horns, teeth, scales and claws,
and has been considered as a combination of nine animals since ancient
times. These animals represent power, authority, elegance, good luck,
gift, abilities. Thus, the concept of dragon is rooted in Chinese culture as
supernatural and powerful animal. It can control rain and wind, and it
can live in the sky or under the ocean. There is nothing that is beyond its
abilities. In summary, a prototypical dragon contains the following bundles
of features:
• authoritative and elegant
Dragons are always high above and everyone is under their control.
They are the most super ordinate beings in the world.
• talented
Dragons are talented, they are gifted with all humanity’s talents;
moreover, they can do many things that are beyond humanity’s means.
Dragon can: control cloud and fly into the sky; swim in the water; bring
rain for human. It seems that nothing is beyond a dragon’s abilities.
• strong and powerful
Dragons have the claws of an eagle and the paws of a tiger, which
make very strong and sometimes fierce. Therefore some people like to
make a dragon engraved on the body to show their masculinity.
• the symbol of fortune and good luck
Dragons are regarded as the protection of human; they can bring
good luck to human. In Chinese culture, dragons and phoenixes are the
animals that stand for future. On some special occasions, like wedding,
spring festival, people like hanging pictures of dragons and phoenixes to
pray for good luck in the future.
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
The concepts of “dragon” in Chinese culture
First set derivations in the concepts of dragon
The dragon is an animal, and can be used to refer to many distinctive persons and things such as emperors and water.
The dragon was first used to refer to the Chinese emperors. In feudal
times, the political system was an autocratic monarchy. An emperor was
the only ruler supreme power. Whenever the emperor appeared, everyone
had to kneel down and show respect. The emperor was just like a dragon,
in the highest position, having the power to do everything. Thus, they
declared themselves the sons of dragon and separated themselves from the
ordinary people. Besides, emperors also separated their belongings by using
dragon, an emperor’s chair was called a dragon’s chair, an emperor’s bed was
a dragon’s bed, and an emperor’s robe was a dragon’s robe. If an emperor
was angry, people usually said the dragon was anger in example (1):
Example (1):
大
minister
臣
一
惹
one
番
得
cause
dragon
怒。
angry
的
classifier
possessive
words
aux
他
him
color
大
very
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• controlling rain
It is widely believed that dragons are in charge of rain. Only dragons
can decide when and where to bring rain. In the past, people built many
temples to show their respect for dragons, wishing that dragons could
bring rain for them so that they could have a good harvest. This is another
important reason why people like the dragons so much.
With so many features and equipped with so many abilities, a prototypical dragon is a perfect creature and it is widely admired and respected.
Wherever a dragon appears, an ordinary thing can become mysterious and
supernatural. During the development of history, Chinese people have a
variety of dragon culture, which they use dragon words and concepts that
they use to characterize and describe daily life. The concepts of dragon will
be analyzed in Section 5.
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What the minister said caused the wrath of the emperor.
Emperors are related to dragon, because emperors shared some
features with the prototype of dragon. Since a dragon is capable of everything,
it is believed to be the most talented creature in the world. When talking
about the concept talent, people often experience it with the concept of
dragon by using a conceptual metaphor. Therefore, if a person is gifted
and versatile, people often use dragon to describe this kind of person. This
is reflected in example (2):
Example (2):
CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
望
”
的
wish
子
son
成
become
dragon
是
be
Chinese
父
father
中
母
最
心
superlative
大
great
heart
愿。
will.
possessive
mother
What the parents expect mostly is that their sons are outstanding
among their peers.
Chinese parents place a lot of expectations on the next generation,
especially to their sons. Traditionally, sons are the successor of the whole
family. Whether a family can be prosperous or not mainly depends on
the son. If the sons are outstanding among their peers, the parents will
be very happy and proud of them. In order to help their sons, parents
would rather give up their own needs and regard their sons’ achievements
as the greatest pleasure. Dragon here is an outstanding son, namely a
talented person. With the familiar concept of dragon, the abstract concept
of talented is expressed. The mapping between these two concepts can be
shown in Figure 3:
A
B
Dragon (source domain)
A’
B’
Talent (target domain)
Figure 3: Domains about the concepts of dragon.
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
他
he
屋
house
喝,
drink
mother
mother
笑
smile
particle
speak
dragon
了
rush
找
上
search
climb
into
水
天
water
sky
particle
He rushed into the house for searching water to drink; His mother
said to him with a smile: “the dragon has gone to the sky.”
The concept about dragon in this sentence is water, because it can
bring rain for people. In Chinese culture, it is believed that the dragons’
natural habitat is the sky and it can take people to heaven after death. The
dragon is conceived as supernatural, graceful, talented, and most important
it can help people go to heaven. This means that the dragon can bring good
fortune to people. The metonymy DRAGON FOR GOOD FORTUNE is
the case mentioned by Lakoff and Johnson (1980): symbolic metonymies
link people’s everyday experience with religious and cultural concepts. The
metonymy concept about dragon is shown in example (4):
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CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
In the source domain, A stands for a prototypical dragon’s features:
it can do so many things, like swimming, flying, bringing rain and wind,
and other benefits for people. B stands for perfection of a prototypical
dragon: a dragon seldom fails to bring rain and wind, it controls raining.
In the target domain, A’ signifies a people’s skills in different fields: they
have good knowledge about science and they solve many problems just like
dragon. B’ signifies the good foundation of people’s specialization: People
are experts in this field just like dragons control rain. With the conceptual
metaphor, A is mapped onto A’ and B is mapped onto B’. Thus, with the
conceptual metaphor TALENT IS DRAGON, the abstract concept of
talent is understood in the concrete term of dragon.
The semantic link in example (2) is the conceptual metaphor. From
the prototype, we know that dragons are in charge of rain and thus they
are regarded as closely related to water. In the past, many people like
going to temples to pray for rain from dragons. People think, a dragon is
the owner of water, wherever there is no dragon, there is no water. This
concept about dragon can be traced back to this example, example (3):
Example (3):
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CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human.
Example (4):
他
he
作
him.
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Yesterday
make
昨
了
dragon
夢。
dream
晚
particle
night
classifier
Last night, he had a dream, a dream which can bring fortune to
CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
In this sentence, the concept of good fortune is experienced by the
cultural symbol dragon. With the domain of good fortune, there are many
cultural symbols in Chinese people’s mind and experiences. For example,
the number of two and the color of red are traditional symbols which
stand for fortune in Chinese culture. The concept of dragon is one of
the symbols in this domain. It can be linked to good fortune because of
conceptual metonymy.
Another concept about dragon is based on the appearance similarities
between them. If an object looks like a dragon or a part of a dragon, it
is usually called dragon xx, this is common way to generate considerable
names related to a dragon. Their semantics link is based on the similarity
of shape or form. See example (5):
Example (5):
他
He
服
自
bicycle
handles
把
make
衣
coat
挂
hang
在
location
head
上.
on
行
He put his coat on the handles of the bicycle.
If the similarity between dragon and handles happens by chance,
there is another case in which people make some artifacts by imitating
the shape of a dragon. For this case, people naturally link artifacts with
the concepts of dragon, as in example (6):
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
Example (6):
多
much
的
possessive
啊！
exclamation
漂
beautiful
亮
bright
dragon
舟
boat
Chaining categories in concepts of dragon
A chaining category is another source to extend the concepts of
dragon. It derives not from the prototype but from one specific deviant
category. Meanings from chaining are widely accepted by people and some
of them have become idioms, as shown in example (7):
Example (7):
Cantonese
喜
like
虎
tiger
州
人
dragon
斗.
Fight
Cantonese like the dish of Dragon and Tiger Fighting.
Dragon in this sentence actually refers to the meat of snakes. Cantonese eat a lot of things unusual. There is a saying to describe their eating:
eating all those flying in the sky except planes, all those crawling on the
land except tanks, all those swimming in the water except submarines.
Here, dragons and tigers is a dish that mixes the meat of snakes and
cats. In mandarin, snake is pronounced as she[
], which is the same
折
as (a loss of money). Tiger is a member of cat family. There are many
similarities between them. Considering that many clients are businessmen,
such a menu will not be welcome if using Snake and Cat Fighting. People
want to find a substitute that sounds good and can bring them good fortune, thus, they change the menu snakes and cats into dragons and tigers.
Whenever people talk about this menu, they always say Dragon and Tiger
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What a beautiful dragon boat it is!
From the analysis above, we can see that the deviant concepts about
dragon are linked with the prototype dragon because they more or less share
some features with it. The radial categories are mainly based on similarity
comparison. If the category is not similar to the prototype, or they may
have nothing to do with the prototype, how can they be linked with it?
This is another case about the concept dragon which will be discussed in
Section 5.2.
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Fighting instead of Snake and Cat Fighting.
As it can be seen that dragon in example (7), it doesn’t come from
the prototype, since the meat of a snake doesn’t have any relationships
with the prototype dragon. People call snake a dragon in order to avoid
the unlucky pronunciation produced by the word snake. Since a dragon
stands for good fortune, it is natural to replace snake with dragon. This
extension of the prototype about dragon indicates that the semantic link
is chaining.
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Conclusion
In summary, the concepts of dragon are shown in Figure 4:
7a.Dragon Chair 7b.Dragon Robe
6 Dragon Boat
Handle 5
1 Emperor
dRAGon 2
Good Fortune
4
An Outstanding Son
8 Dragon and tiger (menu)
3
Water
9 Son (made)
Figure 4. The concepts of dragon.
It can be seen in Figure 4 that the central dragon is the prototype of
the category. Examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 compose the general categories
of dragon. They are linked to the prototype based on family resemblance.
They share some features in common with a dragon that derive directly
from the prototype. From the six radial categories, the concept about
dragon is realized by chaining. They are not directly related to the prototype, chaining lets similar concepts occur with some concepts about
dragons. For example, 7a (dragon chair) and 7b (dragon robe) are linked
to the prototype through the general category 1 (emperor) because they are
belongings of the emperor. From 2 (good fortune), the semantic link is
conceptual metonymy; then through chaining, the concept about dragon
is extended to 8 (dragon and tiger). Similarly, from the prototype to 4 (an
outstanding son) then to 9 (son), it is the third chaining. The semantic
link between the prototype and deviant 9 (son) is a conceptual metaphor.
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
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CMU. Journal of Soc. Sci. and Human. (2008) Vol. 2(2)
9 (son) can be derived from 4 (an outstanding son) because they are both
male. 5 (handles), because their shapes share the similar function, they are
the key part among the composition elements.
The examples have also shown that the concepts about dragon
involve cultural background as well as cognitive categories. The concepts
of dragon in each category can be linked by semantic chains through
similarity comparison, conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Prototype is
used through the whole process of analysis, and provided a way to explain
how people can cope with words when there are so many concepts. By
analyzing a prototypical exemplar of a word, many new examples close to
the characteristics of the prototype can be identified. This explains how
words can be used with different meanings and concepts and how people
can recognize new examples of a category.
The analysis supports the theories applied in this paper. It shows
that prototype theory provides a means to explain how to deal with the
different concepts about dragon. It also displays the prototype effects based
on family resemblance in the deviant categories of prototype, and the
use of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. The deviant meaning about
dragon are related to dragons by certain semantic links. Radial categories,
extensions and chaining all derive from the primitive dragons, namely the
prototype of dragon. They do not present the exact dragon which is deeply
rooted in the Chinese peoples’ mind, however, they share some features
in common with the prototype. The prototype of dragon is the source of
the meanings about dragon in Chinese culture.
CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human.
2008
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire and dangerous things: What category
reveal about the mind. Chicago and London: University of Chicago
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Taylor, J. R. 1991. Linguistic categorization. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
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