Oriental Dragons

[Dragons in Mythology]

Oriental dragons are long and thin. They are serpents with legs, and their heads are antlered, usually with a thick, flowing mane. They have overlapping scales, and are often playing with a spherical object (Ryujin, a Japanese she-dragon, plays with the moon for she knows in controls the tides, Chinese dragons have a ball of fire which creates storms, or sometimes a Pearl of Wisdom. Some people believe the spheres to be eggs.)
Unlike the western dragons, who needed to be slain by bold knights because they were considered evil, oriental dragons were friendly with humans and gods alike, and myths about them show off their wisdom and kindness.
The number of toes is an important feature of oriental dragons. Chinese and Korean dragons have four toes (long/lung), except for imperial ones (ryong), who have five. Three toed dragons (ryu) come from Japan and Indonesia.


There are nine types of Chinese dragons. 
-Dragons who guard the realms of the gods are called Tian-Lung.
-Dragons who guard treasure are called Fucang-Lung.
-A dragon who can control rivers and streams is called a Ti-Lung.
-A spiritual dragon has a four toed and a five toed form, and the latter can only worn as an emblem if you are the Emperor. As a five toed dragon it is an Imperial Dragon, and both forms of this dragon are called Shen-Lung. 
-Ying-Lung means 'winged dragon'.
-Jiao-Lung means 'horned dragon'.
-Pan-Lung means 'coiled dragon'
-Huang-Lung means 'yellow dragon'. A yellow dragon once rose out of a river and showed a guy called Fuxi how to write, giving the secrets of letters to humankind.
-And the Lung Wang, the dragon king. In some stories there is a Lung Wang for each of the four directions: Green in the East, White in the West, Black in the North and Yellow in the South. They also represented seasons: Green for spring, White for autumn, Black for winter and Yellow for summer.  
In addition, there are the sons of dragons. There are nine frequently mentioned in myths, but more do exist. The come in many forms, from turtles to clams. Chinese dragons are considered masculine and are allied with the Yang force, in the same way a phoenix is allied with the Yin.


Japanese dragons come in two main groups:
-Ryu, a sea dragon that lives out at sea (Ryujin is one of these. She is a pale white dragon who controls the tides)
-Tatsu, which lives on the land. Tatsus are smaller than Ryus, but have large wings.
There are also dragon-birds, called Hai Ryio. There are bird-shaped, but have large dragon heads and webbed wings.


 In the Han dynasty, a guy called Wang Fu wrote a poem to describe the nine main features of a Lung:

His horns resemble that of a stag, his head that of a camel, his eyes those of a demon, his neck that of a snake, his belly that of a clam, his scales that of a carp, his claws those of an eagle, his soles that of a tiger, his ears those of a cow.