In Journey to the West , why doesn t the status of the Dragon King feel very high?

In Journey to the West, dragons have a very low status, and they all live in water. For example, the Dragon King of the East China Sea was bullied by a monkey. And later, when Brother Monkey learned the scriptures, he asked him for help many times, but he didn't dare to refuse.

Looking at the white dragon horse, he was almost beheaded because he burned a broken bead, and if it wasn't for the Bodhisattva's intercession, the dragon head would have fallen to the ground. And his sense of presence on the way to learn the scriptures is also very low, which shows that these dragons are really not good.

Moreover, the dragons in Journey to the West are all sea dragons and live in the water. And the most famous is the Dragon King of the Four Seas, who is in charge of the four major waters, namely Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East China Sea, Ao Qin, the Dragon King of the South China Sea, Ao Shun, the Dragon King of the North Sea, and Ao Yan, the Dragon King of the West Sea. These four dragons are all surnamed Ao.

So they should be in the same family, and they are four brothers. But I don't know if it's a pro or a cousin. These four dragons, although they have a very high status in the dragon clan, but in the entire Three Realms, their status is really low.

Why is that?

In fact, the answer lies in their last name. They are all surnamed Ao! And this surname is actually derived from Ao.

When Nuwa mended the sky, she used one of her legs as Optimus Prime. And the three sacred mountains are all carried by giant turtles. So Qin Shi Huang couldn't find it.

Later, there was a legend that a giant took the three giant turtles away, and the three sacred mountains sank to the bottom of the sea.

So far, the answer is very clear, the Sea Dragon King is the successor of the giant ao, and the prototype of the giant ao is just a turtle. This is an ordinary creature, so the giant turtle has no status. As for the Sea Dragon King, he has no status.

But as for whether they are real dragons or not, I believe my friends also know.

In Journey to the West, the Dragon King is a very high and low status, and the difference is very large. The Dragon King of the Four Seas is the Dragon King, and the Dragon King in the well in the Black Rooster Country is also the Dragon King. As for the beheading of the Dragon King of Jinghe, it is clearly stated in the Taoist "Female Qingtian Law", "Those who violate the season of the dragon kings in the rain will be beheaded."

In Journey to the West, the status of the dragon is very low, basically at the same level as the city god and the land. When the Dragon King first appeared, it was when Sun Wukong went to the Dragon Palace to ask for a treasure. At that time, Sun Wukong was just an unknown scattered immortal on Huaguo Mountain.

But the dragon king still didn't dare to offend, one by one, with a few treasures, before sending Sun Wukong out of the Dragon Palace, and finally wrote a fold and reported the loss to the heavenly court.

In Journey to the West, the status of the Dragon King will give people a low feeling, in fact, there are two reasons.

In the Chinese mythological system, although the dragon symbolizes various totems, they are divided into the category of beasts. And the level of beasts does not mean that their abilities are low.

On the contrary, for example, the three brothers of Lion Camel Ridge, Taishang Laojun's green cow, etc., are also very good, but as soon as their owners arrive, they will immediately show their original form and obediently obey the law.

This kind of mythological setting is not unique to Journey to the West. In ancient Chinese mythology, dragons were used as beings to call the wind and rain when the Yellow Emperor conquered Chiyou, but they were to obey the orders of the Yellow Emperor.

And in another god and demon ** "Romance of the Gods", the exposition of the teachings represented by Yuan Shi Tianzun, when he complained about the disciples of the Tongtian Sect Master, he scolded them for being turned into beasts.

Moreover, the dragon's ability is also average in front of other beasts, such as the Dapeng bird, which uses dragons as food. And in Journey to the West, one of the origins of the dragon is also written: the dragon horse urine of the white dragon horse.

The second reason: Zhu Yuanzhang.

Soon after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he issued a regulation: "After the founding of the People's Republic of China, all the city gods in the country must be included in the system, divided into four ranks: king, prince, hou, and uncle." (From "History of the Ming Dynasty. Rites. III).

And in the second year, it was ordered again that all places must build a city god temple, and it must be built according to the level of the government office at the same level. (From the "Continuation of the General Examination of Literature").

In this way, not only in reality, but also in mythology, the rank of the official has naturally become the key factor in determining the level of status. And the dragon king, as a ** who is only in charge of the rain, has a low status, which is normal.

In "Journey to the West", why is the status of the Dragon King not high? The dragon in "Journey to the West" is no longer a native Chinese dragon, but a product of mixing with Buddhist concepts. If you have read "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Huainanzi", you can know that the status of some dragons is still quite high, and there are even several big dragon gods such as Ying Long and Candle Dragon.

But with the introduction of Buddhism, the dragon king in the Buddhist scriptures began to spread in China. This dragon king, in fact, is called Naga, one of the eight tribes of the heavenly dragon, in India, Naga is a poisonous existence with many heads, cobra-like poison, and there is no great divine power of the native Chinese dragon, it is the product of snake worship, and in the Buddhist scriptures it is the food of the Dapeng bird (the golden-winged Dapeng eats 500 small dragons every day, and if you eat too much, you will be poisoned), which belongs to the animal way. It's such a creature that was treated as a dragon after entering China.

In the subsequent development of dragon culture, the image of the two was also integrated (in the past, the Chinese dragon was not completely a snake body, there were many animal bodies, or at least the limbs and tails were roughly subdivided, rather than the current snake body plus limbs), and then there was no dragon king in China, there were many well dragon kings and pond dragon kings, the largest is only the river dragon king sea dragon king, think about the mountains and seas in the dragon should be the tail of the land can open a big river, now the merged dragon is afraid to manage the small pond, the next rain is not right to be cut by other gods, which is probably the result of Naga culture. In addition, with the introduction of Naga, there are also many dragon girls and dragon sons in classical Chinese works, the former are basically used to marry people in the story, and the latter is generally cut down for evil, which is basically the influence of the story in India. "Journey to the West" is basically Buddhist-oriented, and it is relatively normal for the dragon to have a very low status.

Readers who have passed "Journey to the West Dao" know that the lowest level of the Zhi Immortal in the book is the Dragon Clan, especially the Dragon King version has the lowest status in the book, especially the Jinghe Dragon King can only be called Xiaolong in front of Li Shimin.

In ancient times, the dragon clan was the first of the four divine beasts, why is the status of the dragon clan so low in the book? In fact, you can know after carefully reading the first episode of "Journey to the West". It was because the Jade Emperor killed the Candle Dragon, that is, he killed the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Dragons.

In the book, it is said that after the beginning of the opening of heaven and earth, there is still a state of chaos between heaven and earth, which makes the order of heaven and earth chaotic, why is this? In fact, it's because the candle dragon is doing tricks.

The candle dragon is a god of Zhongshan in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and it is also a divine beast with boundless power, it can cover the sky and the sun when it stands up, causing darkness in the Three Realms, and the world is even more devastated.

In this way, the candle dragon confusing the heavens and the earth for 129,600 years, which was also a catastrophe for the Jade Emperor. Later, the Jade Emperor practiced the Infinite Dao and slew the candle dragon into the dark abyss. When the candle dragon was killed, only then did heaven and earth merge and all things were born, and only then did the book say that "Zitian is ugly and inferior".

When the Candle Dragon of the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Dragons was killed, at that time, divine beasts such as phoenixes and unicorns appeared, and the dragon clan was demoted to the mortal world by the Jade Emperor and became immortals at the level of earth immortals.

It is said that the candle dragon may be Pangu, and some readers believe that the candle dragon is the sun god. But the most powerful immortal in "Journey to the West" is still the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor is the earliest immortal to appear in heaven and earth.