''Chi'' () means either "a hornless

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

" or "a mountain demon" (namely, ) in

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of t ...

. Hornless dragons were a common motif in ancient

Chinese art Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based in or draws on Chinese ...

, and the ''

chiwen ''Chiwen'' () is a Chinese dragon, and in Chinese mythology is one of the 9 sons of the dragon. He is depicted in imperial roof decorations and other ornamental motifs in traditional Chinese architecture and art. The name for this dragon is ...

'' (lit. "hornless-dragon mouth") was an

imperial roof decoration Chinese imperial roof decorations or roof charms or roof-figures () or "walking beasts" () or "crouching beasts" () were statuettes placed along the ridge line of official buildings of the Chinese empire. Only official buildings (palaces, govern ...

in traditional

Chinese architecture Chinese architecture (Chinese:中國建築) is the embodiment of an architectural style that has developed over millennia in China and it has influenced architecture throughout Eastern Asia. Since its emergence during the early ancient era, the ...

Word

Modern Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...

usage, "hornless dragon" occurs in words such as: * —"hornless dragon"; i.e. making it clear that a dragon and not a demon is being talked about. * —"carved dragon handle (esp. on cups)" * —"a roof ornament shaped like a dragon". Compare the

homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (pa ...

variant . * or ''chītóu'' —"an architectural adornment;

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

" * —"carved patterns of sinuous dragons (esp. on pillars/bronzes)" * —"steps of the imperial palace; the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Characters

The

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are k ...

for , , combines the "bug

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

" (

Kangxi radical The 214 Kangxi radicals (), also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals () of Chinese characters. The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order Traditi ...

#142)—typically used in words for insects, reptiles, and dragons—with a

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

symbol, (). This phonetic element is pronounced either when used for "demon; dragon" or when used for . The c. 3rd century BCE

Seal script Seal script, also sigillary script () is an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty bronze script. The Qin variant of seal ...

character for , which is the earliest known writing, has the same radical-phonetic combination. This "hornless dragon" is also a

variant Chinese character Variant Chinese characters (; Kanji: ; Hepburn: ''itaiji''; ; Revised Romanization: ''icheja'') are Chinese characters that are homophones and synonyms. Most variants are allographs in most circumstances, such as casual handwriting. Some contexts ...

for ''chi'' (differentiated with the "ghost radical" ) "mountain demon", which only occurs in the

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

''chimei'' "mountain and forest demons; evil spirits; goblins". ''Chimei'' is sometimes written or with ''chi'' . Note the "ghost radical" in the ''mei'' characters (with a phonetic of ''wei'' ) and (with the "hair radical" representing the demon's hair, cf. ''chi'' 's variant ). The ''

Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the '' Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give ...

'' (121 CE), which was the first

Chinese dictionary Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...

of characters, gives , , and definitions. * : "A mountain spirit and wild beast, [the pictograph] comes from its birdlike head, legs, and tail." * : "[A creature] like a dragon and yellow, in the north, they call it , [the pictograph] comes from the "bug radical" and a ''chi'' phonetic, or, a hornless

ragon Ragon may refer to: People Surname * Charles Ragon de Bange (1833–1914), French artillery officer and Polytechnician * Heartsill Ragon (1885–1940), United States Representative from Arkansas * Henriette Ragon (1918–2015), stage name Pata ...

is called ''chi''." * : "A kind of ghost/demon, [the ideograph] comes from the "ghost radical" and ''chi'' "mountain demon radical", which is also the phonetic." This "earth cricket" () compares with ''tulou'' "earth cricket," which the

Classic of Mountains and Seas The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed sin ...

mentions in ("

Kunlun The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...

Mound"), "There is an animal here [at the Mound of Offspringline] which looks like a ram, but has four horns. Its name is the earth-cricket. It devours humans."

Etymologies

The

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

of ''chi'' "dragon; demon" is obscure. Carr reviews three proposals by

Peter A. Boodberg Peter Alexis Boodberg (born Pyotr Alekseyevich Budberg; 8 April 1903 – 29 June 1972) was a Russian-American scholar, linguist, and sinologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley for 40 years. Boodberg was influential in 20th ...

, Paul K. Benedict, and

James Matisoff James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a no ...

. Boodberg proposed that ''chi'' or etymologically descends from a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

root *''brong-bri'' "wild oxen", from *''brong'' "wild bull" and *''bri'' or *''brien'' "wild cow". He described this root as a "semantic atom, a referential complex with the meaning of 'wild' → 'wild animal' → 'couple'", and applied this etymon to many male and female animal couples, including *''ly^wung'' < *''bl^wong'' "male dragon" and *''t'ia'' "female dragon". Compare how

Yin and Yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

cosmology dichotomized rainbow-dragons between Yang/male ''hong'' "primary rainbow" and Yin/female ''ni'' "secondary rainbow". Benedict noted how Karlgren inconsistently reconstructed

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

*''t'lia'' for ''chi'' "a mountain demon", "a kind of demon", and "a kind of dragon; a demon"; but *''lia'' for all the other words in this phonetic series (e.g., ''li'' "drip", ''li'' "ornamental scarf"). Benedict reconstructed Old Chinese *''xlia'' "a mountain demon", deriving from a Proto-

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...

*''sri(-n)'' "demon" root, also evident in

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

''sri'' "a species of devil or demon; a vampire", ''srin-po'' "demons", and

Lushai The Mizo people (Mizo: ''Mizo hnam'') are an ethnic group native to the Indian state of Mizoram and neighbouring regions of Northeast India. The term covers several related ethnic groups or clans inside the Mizo group. All Mizo tribes and clan ...

''hri'' < *''sri'' "the spirit believed to cause sickness". He additionally hypothesized the *''xlia'' phonetic was

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

with '' shen'' < *'' yěn'' "spirit; god" from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *'' -lrin'' < *'' -in''. Matisoff analyzes Benedict's *''sri(-n)'' "demon" root as *''s-r-i-n'', and links Chinese *''xlia'' with another Tibetan cognate ''hdre-srin'' "goblins and demons" (from ''hdre'' "goblin; demon; evil spirit"). Schuessler reconstructed Old Chinese *''rhai'' for ''chi'' , , and "mountain demon", and proposed a Sino-Tibetan etymology comparable with Tibetan ''’dre'' < ''ɴdre'' "goblin; demon, evil spirit" and ''gre-bo'' "species of demon", Tangkhul ''rai'' "unclean spirit",

Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...

''ráj'' "devil", and possibly Proto- Kam–Sui ''la:l'' "devil; ghost" borrowed from Chinese.

Meanings

Chinese classic texts Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...

use ''chi'' to mean both "a hornless dragon" and "a mountain demon". The following discussion focuses upon earliest recorded usages in pre-

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

texts, some of which have uncertain dates of compilation.

Hornless dragon

The ''

Lüshi Chunqiu The ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', also known in English as ''Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals'', is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of Michae ...

'' (c. 239 BCE) quotes Confucius comparing ''long'' "dragons", ''chi'' "hornless dragons", and ''yu'' 魚 "fish".

The dragon eats and swims in clear water; the one-footed dragon eats in clean water but swims in muddy water; fish eat and swim in muddy water. Now, I have not ascended to the level of a dragon but I have not descended to that of fish. I am perhaps a one-footed dragon!

The reason for translating "one-footed dragon" is unclear. Compare the legendary Kui "a one-footed dragon". The ''

Chuci The ''Chu ci'', variously translated as ''Verses of Chu,'' ''Songs of Chu'', or ''Elegies of Chu'', is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period ...

'' (c. 2nd century CE) uses ''chi'' five times, which is more than any other Chinese classic. Two contexts mention ''xuanchi'' "dark/black hornless-dragon"; "They lined water monsters up to join them in the dance"; and "Driving black dragons, I travel northwards." Another mentions ''qingqiu'' "green horned-dragons" and "white hornless-dragons"; "With a team of azure dragons, white serpents in the traces." Two final contexts mention ''chi'' with ''long'' "dragons"; one describes a team of four dragons: "I ride a water chariot with a canopy of lotus; Two dragons draw it, between two water-serpents"; the other uses the compound ''chilong'' "hornless dragon": "And water dragons swim side by side, swiftly darting above and below." The ''

Huainanzi The ''Huainanzi'' is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139. The ''Huainanzi'' blends Daoist, Confuci ...

'' (c. 139 BCE) "Peering into the Obscure" chapter () mentions ''chichi'' "red hornless-dragon" and ''baichi'' "white hornless-dragon". The former occurs with ''qingqiu'' "green horned-dragon": "When the red hornless dragon and the green horned dragon roamed the land of Chi , the sky was limpid and the earth undisturbed." The latter occurs with ''benshe'' "fast snake": the chariot of

Fu Xi Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well ...

and

Nüwa Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In the Huainanzi ...

was "preceded by white serpents and followed by speeding snakes." The "

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

" (c. 100 BCE) biography of

Sima Xiangru Sima Xiangru ( , ; c. 179117BC) was a Chinese musician, poet, and politician who lived during the Western Han dynasty. Sima is a significant figure in the history of Classical Chinese poetry, and is generally regarded as the greatest of all com ...

includes two of his '' fu'' poems that mention ''chichi'' "red hornless dragons." "The Shanglin Park" mentions them with ''jiaolong'' , "Here horned dragons and red hornless dragons"; "Sir Fantasy" mentions them with ''qingqiu'' , "red hornless dragons and green horned dragons." Theses texts describe black, white, and red ''chi'' "hornless dragons", which contradicts the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' "like a dragon and yellow" definition. However, a possible explanation might be found in the ''

Hanshu The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...

'' () commentary of Wei Zhao, which describes the ''chi'' demon as "resembling a tiger with scales". Many later dictionaries—for instance, the ''

Guangya The (c. 230) ''Guangya'' (; "Expanded '' ra''") was an early 3rd-century CE Chinese dictionary, edited by Zhang Yi (張揖) during the Three Kingdoms period. It was later called the ''Boya'' (博雅; ''Bóyǎ''; ''Po-ya''; "Broadened ra") owing ...

'' (c. 230 CE), ''

Longkan Shoujian ''Longkan Shoujian'' () is a Chinese dictionary compiled during the Liao Dynasty by the Khitan monk Xingjun (). Completed in 997, the work had originally been entitled Longkan Shoujing (; and are synonyms), but had its title changed owing to n ...

'' (997 CE), and ''

Piya The ''Piya'' (; "Increased ra") was a Chinese dictionary compiled by Song Dynasty scholar Lu Dian ( 陸佃/陆佃, 1042-1102). He wrote this ''Erya'' supplement along with his ''Erya Xinyi'' (爾雅新義 "New Exegesis of the ''Erya''") comment ...

'' (c. 1080 CE)—define a contrast between ''qiu'' "horned dragon" and ''chi'' "hornless dragon". De Groot provides a picture of a sepulchral stone tablet decorated with a ''chi'' and the ''

Gujin Tushu Jicheng The ''Gujin Tushu Jicheng'' (), also known as the ''Imperial Encyclopaedia'', is a vast encyclopedic work written in China during the reigns of the Qing dynasty emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng. It was begun in 1700 and completed in 1725. The wor ...

'' illustration of this hornless dragon.

Mountain demon

The ''chī'' variant used in ''chīmèi'' (; "demon; evil spirit") only occurs as a

bound morpheme In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...

in ''chimèi'', but ''mèi'' () occurs in other expressions such as ''mèilì'' (; "enchantment; fascination; charm"). Both modern Chinese and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

normally use "ghost radical" characters to write ''chīmèi'' and ''

wangliang ''Wangliang'' ( zh, t=魍魎 or ) is the name of a malevolent spirit in Chinese mythology and folklore. This word inclusively means "demons; monsters; specters; goblins; ghosts; devils" in Modern Standard Chinese, but ''wangliang'' originally me ...

'' or ''mōryō'' , but these were not regularly used in classical texts. The ''

'' (111 CE) first wrote ''chimei'' as , but earlier texts like ''Zuozhuan'' and ''

Shiji ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'' wrote it as , with the "hornless dragon" variant. The '' Guoyu'' (c. 4th century BCE) first wrote ''wangliang'' as , but more classics like the ''Shuoyuan'', ''

Zhuangzi Zhuangzi may refer to: * ''Zhuangzi'' (book) (莊子), an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes and fables, one of the foundational texts of Daoism **Zhuang Zhou Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; als ...

'', ''Huainanzi'', and ''Chuci'') phonetically wrote it as , without the ghost radical. ''Chimei'' is joined with ''wangliang'' in the expression ''chimei-wangliang'' "demons and monsters; evil spirits". Since some commentators differentiate between ''chimei'' "demons of the mountains and forests" and ''wangliang'' "demons of the rivers and marshes", ''chimei-wangliang'' can mean either "'demons, monsters' generally or 'mountain and water demons' separately". De Groot describes ''chimei'' as "another demon-tribe" because the "Chinese place in their great class of hill-spirits certain

quadrumana Quadrumana is an outdated taxonomic division within the primates. The division of "Quadrumana" from "Bimana" was an attempt at distinguishing ''Homo sapiens'' from the rest of the great apes. For a century, modern science has considered humans as p ...

, besides actual human beings, mountaineers alien to Chinese culture, perhaps a dying race of aborigines." The '' Zuozhuan'' (c. 389 BCE) commentary to the '' Chunqiu'' has the earliest textual usages of both ''chimei'' and ''chimei-wangliang'' . Both the ''chimei'' contexts concern banishing evildoers into dangerous wilderness regions. The former (18;Tr. .) refers to the ''Sixiong'' " Four Fiends" (

Hundun Hundun () is both a "legendary faceless being" in Chinese mythology and the "primordial and central chaos" in Chinese cosmogony, comparable with the world egg. Linguistics ''Hundun'' was semantically extended from a mythic "primordial chaos; ...

, Qiongqi , Taowu , and

Taotie The ''Taotie'' () is an ancient Chinese mythological creature that was commonly emblazoned on bronze and other artifacts during the 1st millennium BC. ''Taotie'' are one of the " four evil creatures of the world". In Chinese classical texts such a ...

); the legendary ruler

Shun Shun may refer to one of the following: *To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group * Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬) Emperor Shun * Emperor Shun (� ...

, "banished these four wicked ones, Chaos, Monster, Block, and Glutton, casting them out into the four distant regions, to meet the spite of the sprites and evil things".

Du Yu Du Yu (223– January or February 285), courtesy name Yuankai, was a Chinese classicist, military general, and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the late Three Kingdoms period and early Jin dynasty. Life Du Yu was from Duling County ( ...

's commentary glosses ''chimei'' as "born in the strange '' qi'' of mountains and forests, harmful to humans". The latter context only mentions the villainous Taowu: "The ancient kings located T'aou-wuh in

ne of NE, Ne or ne may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Neutral Evil, an alignment in the American role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' * New Edition, an American vocal group * Nicomachean Ethics, a collection of ten books by Greek philosopher Ar ...

the four distant regions, to encounter the sprites and other evil things." The ''chimei-wangliang'' context records how

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...

, legendary founder of the

Xia Dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...

, cast nine instructional bronze ''

ding Ding may refer to: Bronze and ceramics * Ding (vessel), a bronze or ceramic cauldron used in ancient and early imperial China * Ding ware, ceramics produced in Dingzhou in medieval China People * Ding (surname) (丁), a Chinese surname and lis ...

'' "tripod cauldrons" to acquaint people with all the dangerous creatures in China's

Nine Provinces The term Nine Provinces or Nine Regions (), is used in ancient Chinese histories to refer to territorial divisions or islands during the Xia and Shang dynasties and has now come to symbolically represent China. "Province" is the word used to t ...

Anciently, when Hea was distinguished for its virtue, the distant regions sent pictures of the emarkableobjects in them. The nine pastors sent in the metal of their provinces, and the tripods were cast, with representations on them of those objects. All the objects were represented, and nstructions were givenof the preparations to be made in reference to them, so that the people might know the sprites and evil things. Thus the people, when they went among the rivers, marshes, hills, and forests, did not meet with the injurious things, and the hill-sprites, monstrous things, and water-sprites, did not meet with them o do them injury

Note how Legge translates each ''chimei-wangliang'' syllable individually: ''chimei'' "injurious things, and the hill-sprites" and ''wangliang'' "monstrous things, and water-sprites".

Wang Chong Wang Chong (; 27 – c. 97 AD), courtesy name Zhongren (仲任), was a Chinese astronomer, meteorologist, naturalist, philosopher, and writer active during the Han Dynasty. He developed a rational, secular, naturalistic and mechanistic account ...

's ''Lunheng'' (late 1st century CE) considers the ''chimei'' as a dragon hybrid, "Those who give their opinion on the ch'i, state that they are dragon-like beings; therefore, as the word mei is copulated to (the name of) a dragon, the mei must be a congener of this animal."

Mythic parallels

Chinese folklore Chinese folklore encompasses the folklore of China, and includes songs, poetry, dances, puppetry, and tales. It often tells stories of human nature, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural. The stories often explain natural phen ...

and art, most dragons, including the ''long'' , are represented with two horns. Besides the ''chi'' , only a few dragons supposedly lacked horns, for instance, ''

jiaolong ''Jiaolong'' () or ''jiao'' (''chiao'', ''kiao'') is a dragon in Chinese mythology, often defined as a "scaled dragon"; it is hornless according to certain scholars and said to be aquatic or river-dwelling. It may have referred to a species of c ...

'' "aquatic dragon; hornless dragon; crocodile" or ''

qiulong Qiulong (; lit. "curling dragon") or qiu was a Chinese dragon that is contradictorily defined as "horned dragon" and "hornless dragon". Name This Chinese dragon name can be pronounced ''qiu'' or ''jiu'' and written or . Characters The variant ...

'' "horned dragon; hornless dragon". In

comparative mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...

as well, horned dragons are generally more common than hornless ones. Based upon the ''chishou'' "hornless-dragon head" roof adornment, Kroll translates ''chi'' as ''

wyvern A wyvern ( , sometimes spelled wivern) is a legendary winged dragon that has two legs. The wyvern in its various forms is important in heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools and athletic teams (chiefly in the United States, Unit ...

'', "a footed winged dragon with a serpent's tail, becoming in medieval times an oft-pictured heraldic beast."

Notes

References

* * **
Digitalized edition
2007

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi () is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and com ...

Canda - Paris by Pierre Palpant. **
Digitalized edition
2007

Canda - Paris by Pierre Palpant. ** * * * * Footnotes

External links

{{Commons category, Chishou, Chi
螭 entry
Chinese Etymology
螭 entry page
1716 CE

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing d ...

Jade awl of a ''chi'' dragon

Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...

National Palace Museum The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which wer ...

Marble ''chishou'' hornless dragon head

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

Lacquerware vase with hornless dragon design

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, National Palace Museum
Hornless dragon on a porcelain plate
Qing Dynasty,

Royal Alberta Museum The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is a museum of human and natural history in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum is located in Downtown Edmonton, north of City Hall. The museum is the largest in western Canada with more than exhibition space ...

Chinese legendary creatures Chinese dragons Chinese iconography