Jiaolong (simplified Chinese: 蛟龙; traditional Chinese: 蛟龍; pinyin: jiāolóng; Wade–Giles: chiao-lung) or jiao (chiao, kiao) is a dragon in Chinese mythology, often defined as a "scaled dragon"; it is hornless according to certain scholars and said to be aquatic or river-dwelling. It may have referred to a species of crocodile.

A number of scholars point to non-Sinitic southern origins for the legendary creature and ancient texts chronicle that the Yue people once tattooed their bodies to ward against these monsters.

In English translations, jiao has been variously rendered as "jiao-dragon", "crocodile", "flood dragon", "scaly dragon", or even "kraken".

The jiao 蛟 character combines the "insect radical" 虫, to provide general sense of insects, reptiles or dragons,^[a] etc., and the right radical jiao 交 "cross; mix", etc. which supplies the phonetic element "jiao". The original 交 pictograph represented a person with crossed legs.

The Japanese equivalent term is kōryō or kōryū (蛟竜).^[b] The Vietnamese equivalent is giao long, considered synonymous to Vietnamese Thuồng luồng.

The Piya dictionary (11th century) claims that its common name was maban (馬絆).^[1][2]

The jiao is also claimed to be equivalent to Sanskrit 宮毗羅 (modern Chinese pronunciation gongpiluo) in the 7th-century Buddhist dictionary Yiqiejing yinyi.^[c][3] The same Sanskrit equivalent is repeated in the widely used Bencao Gangmu or Compendium of Materia Medica.^[4] In Buddhist texts this word occurs as names of divine beings,^[d][e] and the Sanskrit term in question is actually kumbhīra^[7] (कुम्भीर). As a common noun kumbhīra means "crocodile".^[8]

Schuessler reconstructs Later Han Chinese kau and Old Chinese *krâu for modern jiao 蛟.^[9] Pulleyblank provides Early Middle Chinese kaɨw/kɛːw and Late Middle Chinese kjaːw.^[10]

The form kău is used as the Tang period pronunciation by American sinologist Edward H. Schafer.^[11] The transliteration kiao lung was given by Dutch orientalist Marinus Willem de Visser [de]'s book on dragons.^[12]

Jiao's (蛟) etymology is obscure. Michael Carr, using Bernhard Karlgren's reconstruction of Old Chinese *kǒg 蛟, explains.

Most etymologies for jiao < *kǒg 蛟 are unsupported speculations upon meanings of its phonetic *kǒg 交 'cross; mix with; contact', e.g., the *kǒg 蛟 dragon can *kǒg 交 'join' its head and tail in order to capture prey, or moves in a *kǒg 交 'twisting' manner, or has *kǒg 交 'continuous' eyebrows. The only corroborated hypothesis takes *kǒg 交 'breed with' to mean *kǒg 蛟 indicates a dragon 'crossbreed; mixture'. (1990:126-7)

The word has "mermaid" as one possible gloss,^[13] and Schuessler suggests possible etymological connections with Burmese k^hru^B or k^hyu^B "scaly, furry beast" and Tibetan klu "nāga; water spirits", albeit the Tibeto-Burman are phonologically distant from OC.^[9]

Crossed eyebrows

The explanation that its name comes from eyebrows that "cross over" (交 jiao) is given in the ancient text Shuyi ji [zh] "Records of Strange Things" (6th century).^[14][f][g]

Early sense as mating dragons

It has been suggested that jiaolong might have referred to a pair of dragons mating, with their long bodies coiled around each other (Wen Yiduo 2001a:95–96^[17])

Thus in the legend around the jiaolong 蛟龍 hovering above the mother giving birth to a future emperor i.e., Liu Bang, the founding emperor of Han, r. 202-195 BCE ^[h] (Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian),^[18] the alternative conjectural interpretation is that it was a pair of mating dragons.^[16]

The same legend occurs in nearly verbatim copy in the Book of Han, except that the dragons are given as 交龍 "crossed dragons".^[18] Wen noted that in early use jiaolong 交龍 "crossed dragons" was emblematic of the mythological creators Fuxi and Nüwa, who are represented as having a human's upper body and a dragon's tail.^[19]

In textual usage, it may be ambiguous whether jiaolong 蛟龍 should be parsed as two kinds of dragons or one, as Prof. Zhang Jing (known in Japan as Chō Kyō [ja]) comments: "It is difficult to determine whether jiaolong is the name of a type of dragon, or [two dragons] "jiao" and "long" juxtaposed 蛟龍はそもそも龍の一種の名称なのか、それとも「蛟」と「龍」からなる複合なのかは判断しにくい。.^[20]

Zhang cites as one example of jiaolong used in the poem Li Sao (in Chu Ci), in which the poet is instructed by supernatural beings to beckon the jialong and bid them build a bridge.^[20] Visser translated this as one type of dragon, the jiaolong or kiao-lung.^[21] However, it was the verdict of Wang Yi, an early commentator of this poem that these were two kinds, the smaller jiao and the larger long.^[22][23]

Since the Chinese word for the generic dragon is long (龍), translating jiao as "dragon" is problematic as it would make it impossible to distinguish which of the two is being referred to.^[24] The term jiao has thus been translated as "flood dragon"^[25][26] or "scaly dragon",^[27][28] with some qualifier to indicate it as a subtype. But on this matter, Schafer has suggested using a name for various dragon-like beings such as "kraken" to stand for jiao:

The word "dragon" has already been appropriated to render the broader term lung. "Kraken" is good since it suggests a powerful oceanic monster. ... We might name the kău a "basilisk" or a "wyvern" or a "cockatrice." Or perhaps we should call it by the name of its close kin, the double-headed crocodile-jawed Indian makara, which, in ninth-century Java at least, took on some of the attributes of the rain-bringing lung of China. (1967:218)

Some translators have in fact adopted "kraken" as the translated term,^[18][29] as Schafer has suggested.

In some contexts, jiao has also been translated as "crocodile"^[30][31][i] (See §Identification as real fauna).

The Shuowen Jiezi dictionary (121 CE) glosses the jiao as "a type of dragon (long),^[32][33] as does the Piya dictionary (11th c.), which adds that the jiao are oviparous (hatch from eggs).^[2][15] The Bencao Gangmu states this also,^[34] but also notes this is generally true of most scaled creatures.^[35]

Jiao eggs are about the size of a jar of 1 or 2 hu [zh] capacity in Chinese volume measurement, according to Guo Pu's commentary;^[36][37] a variant text states that the hatchlings are of this size.^[38][39] It was considered that while the adult jiao lies in pools of water, their eggs hatched on dry land, more specifically on mounds of earth (Huainanzi).^[40][41]

The jiao did eventually metamorphose into a form built to fly, according to Ren Fang [zh]'s Shuyi ji [zh] ("Records of Strange Things"), which said that "a water snake (hui 虺) after 500 years transforms into a jiao (蛟); a jiao after a millennium into a dragon (long), a long after 500 years a horned dragon (角龍), a horned dragon after a millennium into a yinglong (a winged dragon)".^[32][42][j]

The hujiao 虎蛟 or "tiger jiao"^[k] are described as creatures with a body like a fish and a tail like a snake, which made noise like mandarin ducks. Although this might be considered a subtype of the jiao dragon, a later commentator thought this referred to a type of fish (see #Sharks and rays section).^[29]

The foregoing account occurs in the early Chinese bestiary Shanhaijing "Classic of Mountains and Seas" (completed c. 206–9 BCE), in its first book "Classic of the Southern Mountains".^[44][l][m]

The bestiary's fifth book, "Classic of the Central Mountains"^[n][45] records the presence of jiao in the Kuang River (貺水, "River Grant") and Lun River (淪水, "River Ripple").^[46][o] Guo Pu (d. 324)'s commentary to Part XI glosses jiao as "a type of [long 龍] dragon that resembles a four-legged snake".^[48] Guo adds that the jiao possesses a "small head and a narrow neck with a white goiter" and that it is oviparous, and "large ones were more than ten arm spans in width^[p] and could swallow a person whole".^[36][50]

A description similar to this is found in the Piya dictionary, but instead of a white "goiter (ying)" being found on its neck, a homophone noun of a different meaning is described, rendered "white necklace" around its neck by Visser.^[15] Other sources concurs with the latter word meaning white "necklace" (or variously translated as white "tassels"), namely, the Bencao Gangmu quoting at length from Guangzhou Ji (廣州記) by Pei Yuan (裴淵, 317–420):^[q]

A later text described jiao "looks like a snake with a tiger head, is several fathoms long, lives in brooks and rivers, and bellows like a bull; when it sees a human being it traps him with its stinking saliva, then pulls him into the water and sucks his blood from his armpits". This description, in the Moke huixi 墨客揮犀 (11th century CE), was considered the "best definition" of a jiao by Wolfram Eberhard.^[48]

The description as "scaly" or "scaled dragon" is found in some medieval texts, and quoted in several near-modern references and dictionaries.

The Guangya (3rd century CE) defines jiaolong as "scaly dragon; scaled dragon", using the word lin 鱗 "scales".^[51] The paragraph, which goes on to list other types of dragons, was quoted in the Kangxi Dictionary compiled during the Manchurian Qing dynasty.^[51] A similar paragraph occurs in the Shuyi ji [zh] (6th century) and quoted in the Bencao Gangmu aka Compendium of Materia Medica:^[34]

Several texts allude to the jiao being the lord of aquatic beings. The jiaolong is called the "god of the water animals".^[54][s] The Shuowen jieji dictionary (beginning of 2nd c.) states that if the number of fish in a pond reaches 3600, a jiao will come as their leader, and enable them to follow him and fly away".^[32] However, "if you place a fish trap in the water, the jiao will leave".^[33] A similar statement occurs in the farming almanac Qimin Yaoshu (6th c.) that quotes the Yangyu-jing "Classic on Raising Fish", a manual on pisciculture ascribed to Lord Tao Zhu (Fan Li).^[56] According to this Yangyu-jing version, when the fish count reaches 360, the jiao will lead them away, but this could be prevented by keeping bie 鱉 (variant character 鼈, "soft-shelled turtle").^[t][57][58]

Jiao and jiaolong were names for a legendary river dragon. Jiao 蛟 is sometimes translated as "flood dragon". The (c. 1105 CE) Yuhu qinghua 玉壺清話 Carr says people in the southern state of Wu called it fahong 發洪 "swell into a flood" because they believed flooding resulted when jiao hatched.^[59] The poem Qijian ("Seven Remonstrances") in the Chu Ci uses the term shuijiao 水蛟 or water jiao.^[60][u]

The Shuowen Jiezi does not commit to whether the jiāo 蛟 has or lacks a horn.^[v][33] However the definition was emended to "hornless dragon" by Duan Yucai in his 19th-century edited version.(^[61] A somewhat later commentary by Zhu Junsheng [zh] stated the contrary; in his Shuowen tongxun dingsheng (説文通訓定聲) Zhu Junsheng explained that only male dragons (long) were horned, and "among dragon offspring, the one-horned are called jiāo 蛟, the bicorned are called qiú 虯, and the hornless are called chì 螭.^[62]

Note the pronunciation similarity between jiāo 蛟 and jiǎo 角 "horn", thus jiǎolóng 角龍 is "horned dragon".^[w]

Lexicographers have noticed that according to some sources, the jiao was a dragoness, that is, a dragon of exclusively female gender.^[13][x]

Jiao as female dragon occurs in the glossing of jiao 蛟 as "dragon mother" (perhaps "dragoness" or "she-dragon") in the (c. 649 CE) Buddhist dictionary Yiqiejing yinyi,^[y] and the gloss is purported to be a direct quote from Ge Hong (d. 343)'s Baopuzi 抱朴子.^[3] However, extant editions of the Baopuzi does not include this statement.^{[citation needed]} The (11th century CE) Piya dictionary repeats this "female dragon" definition.^{[dubious – discuss]}

As aforementioned, jiao is fully capable of devouring humans, according to Guo Pu's commentary.^[39][50]

It is also written that a green jiao which was a man-eater dwelt in the stream beneath the bridge in Yixing County [zh] (present-day city of Yixing, Jiangsu) according to a story in Zu Taizhi [zh] (祖臺之; fl. c. 376–410)'s anthology, Zhiguai.^[38] The war-general Zhou Chu (周處; 236–297) in his youth, who was native to this area, anecdotally slew this dragon: when Zhou spotted the man-eating beast he leaped down from the bridge and stabbed it several times; the stream was filled with blood and the beast finally washed up somewhere in Lake Tai where it finally died.^[38] This anecdote is also recounted in the Shishuo Xinyu (c. 430; "A New Account of Tales of the World")^[28] and selected in the Tang period primer Mengqiu [zh].^[38]

Other early texts also mention the hunt or capture of the jiao. Emperor Wu of Han in Yuanfeng 5 or 106 BCE reportedly shot a jiao in the river.^[63][59][39] The Shiyiji 拾遺記 (4th century CE) has a jiao story about Emperor Zhao of Han (r. 87-74 BCE). While fishing in the Wei River, he

...caught a white kiao, three chang [ten meters] long, which resembled a big snake, but had no scaly armour The Emperor said: 'This is not a lucky omen', and ordered the Ta kwan^[z] to make a condiment of it. Its flesh was purple, its bones were blue, and its taste was very savoury and pleasant.^[15]

Three classical texts (Liji 6,^[64] Huainanzi 5, and Lüshi Chunqiu 6) repeat a sentence about capturing water creatures at the end of summer; 伐蛟取鼉登龜取黿 "attack the jiao 蛟, take the to 鼉 "alligator", present the gui 龜 "tortoise", and take the yuan 黿 "soft-shell turtle"."

There is a legend surrounding the Dragon Boat Festival which purports to be the origin behind the offering of zongzi (leaf-wrapped rice cakes) to the drowned nobleman Qu Yuan during its observation. It is said that at the beginning of the Eastern Han dynasty (25 A. D.), a man from Changsha named Ou Hui had a vision in a dream of Qu Yuan instructing him that the naked rice cakes being offered for him in the river are all being eaten by the dragons (jiaolong), and the cakes need to be wrapped in chinaberry (Melia; Chinese: 楝; pinyin: liàn) leaves and tied with color strings, which are two things the dragons abhor.^[65][66][aa]

It has been suggested that the jiao is not a creature of Sinitic origin, but something introduced from the Far South or Yue culture,^[69] which encompasses the people of the ancient Yue 越 state), as well as the Hundred Yue people.^[70]

Eberhard concludes (1968:378-9) that the jiao, which "occur in the whole of Central and South China", "is a special form of the snake as river god. The snake as river god or god of the ocean is typical for the coastal culture, particularly the sub-group of the Tan peoples (the Tanka people)". Schafer also suggests, "The Chinese lore about these southern krakens seems to have been borrowed from the indigenes of the monsoon coast".^[71]

The onomastics surrounding the Long Biên District (now in Hanoi, Vietnam) is that it was so-named from a jialong "flood dragon" seen coiled in the river (Shui jing zhu or the Commentary on the Water Classic 37).^[26][72][73]

It is recorded that in southern China, there had been the custom of wearing tattoos to ward against the jiaolong. The people in Kuaiji (old capital of Yue; present-day Shaoxing City) adopted such a custom during the Xia dynasty according to the Book of Wei (3rd c.).^{[ab][ac][74][75][76]} The Yue created this "apotropaic device"^[77] by incising their flesh and tattooing it with red and green pigments.^[78][79][80]

The jiao seems to refer to "crocodiles", at least in later literature of the Tang and Song dynasties, and may have referred to "crocodiles" in early literature as well.^[69]

Aside from this zoological identification, paleontological identifications have also been attempted.

The term jiao e or "jiao crocodile" (蛟鱷; Tang period pronunciation: kău ngak)^[81][ad] occurs in the description of Han Yu's encounter with crocodiles according to Zhang Du [zh]'s Xuanshi zhi [zh] or "Records of the House of Proclamation" written in the late Tang period.^[83][84][ae]

As noted the Compendium of Materia Medica identifies jiao with Sanskrit 宮毗羅,^[4][85] i.e., kumbhīra^[7] which denotes a long-snouted crocodylid.^[8] The 19th-century herpetologist Albert-Auguste Fauvel concurred, stating that jiaolong referred to a crocodile or gavial clade of animals.^[86]

The Compendium also differentiates between jiaolong 蛟龍^[4] and tuolong 鼉龍,^[87] Fauvel adding that tuolong (鼉; t'o²) should be distinguished as "alligator".^[86][88]

Fauvel noted that the jiao resembled the dinosaur genus Iguanodon,^[af] adding that fossil teeth were being peddled by Chinese medicine shops at the time(1879:8).^[89]

In the foregoing example of the huijiao in the "Classic of the Southern Mountains" III,^[44] the 19th-century sinologist treated this a type of dragon, the "tiger kiao",^[43] while a modern translator as "tiger-crocodile".^[30] However, there is also an 18–19th-century opinion that this might have been a shark. A Qing dynasty period commentator, Hao Yixing [zh] suggested that huijiao should be identified as jiaocuo 蛟錯^[ag] described in the Bowuzhi 博物志,^[29][91] and this jiaocuo in turn is considered to be a type of shark.^[29][93]

As in the above example jiao 蛟 may be substituted for jiao 鮫 "shark" in some contexts.^[92]

The jiao 鮫 denotes larger sharks and rays,^[94] the character for sharks (and rays) in general being sha 鯊, so-named ostensibly due to their skin being gritty and sand-like^[ah][ai] Compare the supposed quote from the Baopuzi, where it is stated that the jialong is said to have "pearls in the skin" 皮有珠.^[3][92]

Schafer quotes a Song dynasty description, "The kău (jiao) fish has the aspect of a round fan. Its mouth is square and is in its belly. There is a sting in its tail which is very poisonous and hurtful to men. Its skin can be made into sword grips", which may refer to a sting ray.^[99]

Jiaolong occurs in Chinese toponyms. For example, the highest waterfall in Taiwan is Jiaolong Dapu (蛟龍大瀑), "Flood Dragon Great Waterfall" in the Alishan National Scenic Area.

The deep-sea submersible built and tested in 2010 by the China Ship Scientific Research Center is named Jiaolong (Broad 2010:A1).

• Jiaolong (album), an album by DJ Daphni (musician)
• Mizuchi, Japanese dragon whose name is sometimes represented using the same Chinese character

Citations

Bibliography

• 蛟 entry, Chinese Etymology
• 蛟 entry page, 1716 CE Kangxi Dictionary
• Flood Dragon Waterfall Archived 2011-10-05 at the Wayback Machine, Alishan National Scenic Area