Tag: Ancient Chinese

Chinese Dragon VS. Western Dragon 中国龙

The Chinese dragon is a far different feast from its Western counterpart. Smaug from J.R.R.Tolkien’s "The Hobbit" is perhaps the most widely known dragon from recent Western fiction, a cruel, avaricious and bloodthirsty creature whose lair under the Lonely Mountain identifies him as a creature of the earth. Tolkien drew much of his inspiration for Smaug from the dragon in the Old English epic of "Beowulf", penned more than a thousand years earlier, which gives some indication of depth of the European tradition of portraying dragons as bad news.

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Chinese Myth Figures 中国神话人物 22 Pixiu 貔貅

Also known as Tianlu or Bixie, Pixiu is one of the five auspicious animals in ancient Chinese mythology, the other four being the dragon, phoenix, tortoise, and Chinese unicorn. Pixiu is considered a wealth-bringing divine animal with a dragon’s head, a horse’s body and a unicorn’s feet. The animal, capable of flying, looks like a lion and has gray fur.

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