Panlong (mythology)
Panlong (
Word
The Chinese compound panlong combines pan 蟠 "coiling; curling; curving; bending; winding; twisting" and long 龍 or 龙 "dragon". Longpan 龍蟠 "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 蟠龍 or 盤龍, using pan 蟠's homophonous
Textual usages
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. [1]
The later term panlongwen 蟠龍文 "coiled-dragon pattern/design (on bronzes, pillars, etc.)" compares with panchiwen 蟠螭紋 (see chilong 螭龍) and panqiuwen 蟠虯紋 (see qiulong 虯龍). Another Huainanzi context lists longshepan 龍蛇蟠 (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.[2]
The
The (2nd century CE) Shangshu dazhuan 尚書大傳 commentary to the
The (12th century CE)
Proper names
In addition to the ancient decorative style mentioned above, Panlong 蟠龍 or 盤龍 "Coiled Dragon" is used in several names.
- Panlong 蟠龍 or 盘龙, pen name of Huan Xuan
- Panlongmu 盤龍目 or 盘龙目, Pelycosaur (from Greek "bowl lizard")
- Panlongqu 盤龍区 or 盘龙区, Kunming Prefecture, Yunnan
- Panlongjiang 盤龍江 or 盘龙江, Kunming City, Yunnan
- Panlongxia 盤龍峡 or 盘龙峡, Panlong Gorge (with a famous waterfall) in Zhaoqing, Guangdong
- Panlongcheng 盤龍城 or 盘龙城, Panlongcheng archeological site of Erligang culture in Hubei
- Panlongzhen 蟠龙镇 a township on the Panlong table hill (蟠龙山) in Shaanxi.
The
References
- ^ Morgan 1934, ch.8, p. 95
- ^ Morgan 1934, ch. 15, p. 199
- ^ Visser 1913, p. 73
- ^ Carr 1990, p. 112
- ^ Carr 1990, p. 113
- ^ Visser 1913, p. 117
- Carr, Michael (1990). "Chinese Dragon Names" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 13 (2): 87–189.
- Morgan, Evan S (1934). Tao, the Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai Nan Tzu. Kelly and Walsh.
- Visser, Marinus Willern de (1913). The Dragon in China and Japan. J. Müller – via Internet Archive.
External links
- P'an Basin with Dragon Motif Archived 2011-09-27 at the Shang Dynasty, National Palace Museum
- 蟠龙纹玛瑙瓶[Qing Dynastyagate bottle with coiled-dragon pattern (in Chinese)