RESONANT STONE OF JADE SHOWING DRAGON WITH CLOUD ORNAMENTS, SUSPENDED FROM CARVED BLACKWOOD FRAME
A fine specimen of the glyptic art of the Kʼien-lung period. The symbols include the peach of longevity, the swashtika, the luck bat, the fungus of immortality, &c. These combined signify, “May numberless years and luck come to an end only at old age.”
By courtesy of B. Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
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Once upon a time the daughter of the dragon king, who was named “Abundant Pearl Princess”, fell in love with a comely youth of Japan. He was sitting, on a calm summer day, beneath a holy tree, and his image was reflected in a dragon well. The princess appeared before him and cast a love spell over his heart. The youth was enchanted by her beauty, and she led him towards the palace of the dragon king, the “Abundant Pearl Prince”. There she married him, and they lived together for three years. Then the youth was possessed by a desire to return to the world of men. In vain the princess pleaded with him to remain in the palace. When, however, she found that his heart was set on leaving the kingdom of the Underworld, she resolved to accompany him. He was conveyed across the sea on the back of a wani (a dragon in crocodile shape). The princess accompanied him, and he built a house for her on the seashore.
The “Abundant Pearl Princess” was about to become a mother, and she made the youth promise not to look upon her until after her child was born. But he broke his vow. Overcome with curiosity, he peered into her chamber and saw that his wife had assumed the shape of a dragon. As soon as the child was born, the princess departed in anger and was never again beheld by her husband.
This story, it will be noted, is another Far-Eastern version of the Melusina legend.
An Indian version of the tale relates that the hero was a sailor, the sole survivor from a wreck, who swam to a small island in the midst of the sea. When he reached the shore, he set out to look for food, but found that the trees and shrubs, which dazzled him with their beauty, bore beautiful gems instead of fruit. At length, however, he found a fruit-bearing tree. He ate and was [[98]]well content. Then he sat down beside a well. As he stooped to drink of its waters, he had a vision of the Underworld in all its beauty. At the bottom of the well sat a fair sea-maid, who looked upwards with eyes of love and beckoned him towards her. He plunged into the well and found himself in the radiant Kingdom of Ocean. The maid was the queen, and she took him as her consort. She promised him great wealth, but forbade him to touch the statue of an Apsara[1], which was of gold and adorned with gems. But one day he placed his hand on the right foot of the image. The foot darted forth and struck him with such force that he was driven through the sea and washed ashore on his native coast.[2]
The oldest version of this type of story comes from Egypt. It has been preserved in a papyrus in the Hermitage collection at Petrograd, and is usually referred to as of Twelfth Dynasty origin (c. 2000 B.C.). A sailor relates that he was the sole survivor from a wreck. He had seized a piece of wood and swam to an island. After he recovered from exhaustion, he set out to search for food. “I found there figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds.” In time, he heard a noise “as of thunder”, while “the trees shook and the earth was moved”. The ruler of the island drew nigh. He was a human-headed serpent “thirty cubits long, and his beard greater than two cubits; his body was as overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lapis-lazuli”.
The story proceeds to tell that the sailor becomes the guest of the serpent, who makes speeches to him and introduces him to his family. It is stated that the island “has risen from the waves and will sink again”. After [[99]]a time the sailor is rescued by a passing vessel.[3] This ancient Egyptian tale links with the Indian and Chinese versions given above. The blue serpent resembles closely the Chinese dragon; the vanishing island is common to Egypt and China. Like much else that came from Egypt, the island has a history. Long before the ancient mariners transferred it to the ocean, it figured in the fused mythology of the Solar and Osirian cults. Horus hid from Set on a green floating island on the Nile. He was protected by a serpent deity. His father, Osiris, is Judge and Ruler of the Underworld, and has a serpent shape as the Nile god and the dragon of the abyss. The red light associated with the Chinese dragon island of ocean recalls the Red Horus, a form of the sun-god, rising from the Nile of the Underworld, on which floated the green nocturnal sun, “the green bed of Horus” and a form of his father Osiris as the solar deity of night.