"According to the dictionary of Hü Shăn, the character lung in the antique form of writing represents the shape…
- Date of account
- Published 1886
- Source
- Mythical Monsters
- Reference
- Mythical Monsters · selected passage 109
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
"According to the dictionary of Hü Shăn, the character lung in the antique form of writing represents the shape of the animal
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention only"According to the dictionary of Hü Shăn, the character lung in the antique form of writing represents the shape of the animal. According to the _Shang Siao Lun_, the dragon is deaf, hence its name of _lung_ (deaf). In Western books the dragon is called _nake_ (_naga_). Shi-Chăn says that in the _'Rh Ya Yih_ of Lo-Yuen the dragon is described as the largest of scaled animals (literally, insects). Wang Fu says that the dragon has nine (characteristics) resemblances. Its head is like a camel's, its horns like a deer's, its eyes like a hare's,[243] its ears like a bull's, its neck like a snake's, its belly like an iguanodon's (?), its scales like a carp's, its claws like an eagle's, and its paws like a tiger's. Its scales number eighty-one, being nine by nine, the extreme (odd or) lucky number. Its voice resembles the beating of a gong. On each side of its mouth are whiskers, under its chin is a bright pearl, under its throat the scales are reversed, on the top of its head is the _poh shan_, which others call the wooden foot-rule. A dragon without a foot-rule cannot ascend the skies. When its breath escapes it forms clouds, sometimes changing into rain, at other times into fire.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis is a historical compilation of unusual-animal reports and argument. Witness testimony, repetition between publications and the author's zoological assumptions all affect independence and reliability.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares morphology, behaviour and setting while keeping misidentification, folklore, exaggeration, error and known animals available as alternatives.
Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.