The nine sons of the dragon is a traditional name for a set of

mythological Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

creatures whose imagery is used in certain types of decorations. The concept was first mentioned by

Lu Rong Lu Rong (; 1436–1494) was a Chinese scholar. He is also known under the courtesy name Wenliang (文量) and the pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs fro ...

in the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, although similar set of creatures (not necessarily nine) is recorded even earlier.

List of nine sons

The oldest known attestation of the children of the dragon list is found in the ''Miscellaneous records from the bean garden'' () by

(1436–1494); however, he noted that the list enumerates mere synonyms of various antiques, not children of a dragon. Several

texts list what were claimed as the Nine Offspring of the Dragon (), and subsequently these feature prominently in popular Chinese stories and writings. There are four principal versions of the list: *

's (, 1436–1494) list, which includes 14 creatures * Li Dongyang's (, 1447–1516) list, which includes 9 creatures *

Yang Shen Yang Shen (; 1488–1559) was a poet in the Chinese Ming dynasty. His courtesy name was Yongxiu (); his art names included Sheng'an (), Bonan Shanren () and Diannan Shushi (). Yang Shen was the son of Yang Tinghe and originally lived in Chengd ...

's (, 1488–1559) list, which also includes 9 creatures — this version is the most widely found one * Fang Yizhi's (, 1611－1671) list, which combines elements of the previous lists Below are all the creatures mentioned in these lists: As seen in the table, some names are assigned to different creatures by different authors. Aside from these names, there are other variants in use, such as for the dragons depicted on the tops of steles, or for the turtle found beneath the steles. The word "dragon head" () may be applied to some of the mentioned structures. Some of these creatures are based on earlier mythological beasts, such as pulao or

bixi Bixi, or Bi Xi (), is a figure from Chinese mythology. One of the nine sons of the Dragon King, he is depicted as a dragon with the shell of a turtle. Stone sculptures of Bixi have been used in Chinese culture for centuries as a decorative p ...

, but most of them have no other mythological background and are merely used as names for decorative structures. There are other creatures that have features of the dragon, but are not listed among the "nine sons of the dragon", including Kirin,

Longma The ''longma'' is a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology. Seeing a ''longma'' was an omen of a legendary sage-ruler, particularly one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Name The Chinese word ''longma'' combin ...

Pixiu Pixiu ( "PEA-show", zh, c=, p=píxiū, w=pʻi2-hsiu1, j=, cy=, sl=, poj=, zhu=, l=, labels=, links=, first=, scase=; ) is a Chinese mythical hybrid creature. Pixiu are considered powerful protectors of the souls of the dead, ''xian'', and f ...

, and Denglong

Modern usage

In 2012's year of the Dragon, Shanghai Mint issued two sets of coins featuring nine sons of the dragon, one in silver and one in brass. Each coin in the nine-coin sets depicts one of the nine sons. A 10th additional coin was issued depicting the father dragon in silver and brass, which has iconography of the nine sons on the reverse, for a total of 20 coins in the series.CCT4243
2012 lunar dragon 9 sons of the dragon 20 coin set

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links