Welcome to Mythology Explained. In todays video we're discussing Chinese dragons. More specifically, their powers and abilities, their appearance, their hierarchy, and their associations with the full-spectrum of ancient Chinese society, from peasant to emperor.Let's get into it.Where dragons and fire have become synonymous in western culture, Chinese dragons break from this tradition, instead being associated with wind and water. Unlike dragons in other cultures, who were often depicted as destructive and as avaricious wealth-hoarders, Chinese dragons were incarnations of strength, intelligence and luck, attributes that would be bestowed on those worthy of them. Those venerated and wielding power - royalty, especially emperors, epitomizing this - were compared to dragons. Those incompetent and unimportant were held in contempt through comparisons to lesser creatures, such as worms. Dragons were among the four smartest creatures in ancient Chinese culture. The other three were the unicorn, the phoenix, and the tortoise. This deep intelligence was one of the reasons emperors and dragons were so closely associated; strength, power, and good-fortune were others.Dragons possessed many amazing abilities. They could shapeshift, vanish and materialize, and grow or shrink in size. Where their real power lay, though, was in their affinity for water. A dragon's power encompassed a wide-variety of weather phenomena centering on air and water, including floods, typhoons, rivers, rain, swift winds, hailstorms, and tornadoes. large bodies of water, great rivers, and cloud-covered skies, were their abodes. When they flew, lightning flashed and thunder boomed.
