Dogs
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
are an important
motif 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 ...
. These motifs include a particular dog which accompanies a hero, the dog as one of the twelve totem creatures for which years are named, a dog giving first provision of grain which allowed current agriculture, and claims of having a magical dog as an original ancestor in the case of certain ethnic groups.
Myth versus history
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 ...
includes myths in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and other languages, as transmitted by
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...
as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by the current administration of China). (Yang 2005:4)
In the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one which tradition which presents a more historicized and one which presents a more mythological version.(Yang 2005: 12–13) This is also true of some accounts related to mythological dogs in China.
Historical accounts and anecdotes about dogs from ancient China and onwards exist in extant literary works, for example in the ''
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 ...
'', by
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
. Archaeological study provides substantial backing and supplemental knowledge in this regard.
Names in cross-cultural comparison
Wolfram Eberhard points out that compared to other cultures it is "striking " that Chinese literature rarely has given names for dogs. (Eberhard 2003: 82) This means that in the context of Chinese mythology, often a dog will play an important role, but that it will not be given a proper name, but rather being referred to as "dog".
As
Chinese grammar
The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or plural) and ...
does not require the use of definite or indefinite articles or marking for singular or plural number, there may be ambiguity regarding whether the reference to ''dog'' means "Dog" (proper name), "dogs", "a dog", "the dog", "some dogs", or "the dogs".
Zodiacal dog
![KCityParkDog](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/KCityParkDog.JPG)
For thousands of years, a twelve-year cycle named after various real or mythological animals has been used in Southeast Asia. This twelve-year cycle, sometimes referred to as the "
Chinese zodiac
The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its variations remain ...
," associates each year in turn with a certain creature, in a fixed order of twelve animals, after which it returns to the first in the order, the
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
. The eleventh in the cycle is the
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
.
One account is that the order of the beings-of-the-year is due to their order in a racing contest involving swimming across a river, in the
Great Race. The reason for the
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
finishing the race second from last despite generally being a talented swimmer is explained as being due to its playful nature: the
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
played and frolicked along the way, thus delaying completing the course and reaching the finishing line.
The personalities of people born in
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
years are popularly supposed to share certain attributes associated with
Dogs
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, such as loyalty or exuberance; however, this would be modified according to other considerations of
Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD).
Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the t ...
, such as the influences of the month, day and hour of birth, according to the traditional system of
Earthly Branches
The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts, including its ancient dating system, astrological traditions, zodiac and ordinals.
Origin
This system was built ...
, in which the zodiacal animals are also associated with the months and times of the day (and night), in twelve two-hour increments.
The Hour of the
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
is 7 to 9 p.m. and the
Dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
is associated with the ninth lunar month.
Panhu
There are various myths and legends in which various ethnic groups claimed or were claimed to have had a divine dog as a forebear, one of these is the story of Panhu. The legendary Chinese sovereign
Di Ku
Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor.
He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and th ...
has been said to have a dog named
Panhu
Panhu ( hanzi: 盤瓠; pinyin ''Pánhù''; IPA: /pʰan³⁵-xu⁵¹/) is an important figure in Chinese and Yao mythologies. The Panhu mythological complex includes myths in Chinese and also other languages. This myth has a long history of being t ...
. Panhu helped him win a war by killing the enemy general and bringing him his head and ended up with marriage to the emperor's daughter as a reward.
The dog carried his bride to the mountainous region of the south, where they produced numerous progeny. Because of their self-identification as descendants from these original ancestors, Panhu has been worshiped by the
Yao people
The Yao people (its majority branch is also known as Mien; ; vi, người Dao) is a government classification for various minorities in China and Vietnam. They are one of the 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities in China and reside in ...
and the
She people
The She people (; Shehua: ; Cantonese: , Fuzhou: ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.
The She are the largest ethnic minority in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jia ...
, often as King Pan, and the eating of dog meat tabooed (Yang ''et al'' 2005, 52–53). This ancestral myth is also has been found among the
Miao people
The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 List of ethnic groups in China, official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in ...
and
Li people
The Hlai, also known as Li or Lizu, are a Kra–Dai-speaking ethnic group, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The vast majority live off the southern coast of China on Hainan Island, where they ...
(Yang ''et al'' 2005, 100 and 180).
An early documentary source for the Pan-hu origin myth is by the
Jin dynasty (266–420)
The Jin dynasty (; ) or the Jin Empire, sometimes distinguished as the (司馬晉) or the (兩晉), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed from 266 to 420. It was founded by Sima Yan (Emperor Wu), eldest son of Sima Zhao, who had pr ...
author
Gan Bao
Gan Bao (or Kan Pao) (, pronounced ân.pàu ( fl. 315, died March or April 336), courtesy name Lingsheng (令升), was a Chinese historian and writer at the court of Emperor Yuan of Jin. Life
He was a native of Xincai County, in southern Henan. ...
, who records this origin myth for a southern (that is, south of the
Yangzi River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
) ethnic group which he refers to as "Man" (蠻) (Mair October, 1998: 3-5 and note 3, 31–32).
Variations
There are various variations of the Panhu mythology. According to one version, the Emperor had promised his daughter in marriage as a reward to the one who brought back the enemy general's head, but due to the perceived difficulties of a dog marriage with a human bride (especially an imperial princess), the dog proposed to magically turn into a human being, by means of a process in which he would be sequestered beneath a bell for 280 days.
However, the curious emperor, unable to restrain himself, lifted up the rim of the bell on the 279th day: the spell was thus broken before the transformation was completed, and, although the rest of the body had been transformed to human, the head had not (Christie 1968: 121–122).
Culturally-relative interpretations
Victor Mair (October, 1998) brings up the point that the idea of being descended from dogs may have a pejorative connotation or connotations. Whether this would be the case or not would be relative to assumed cultural evaluations of dogs versus humans.
Erlang's dog
One of the stock heroic supernatural beings with mighty martial prowess in Chinese culture is Erlang, a character in ''Journey to the West''.
Erlang has been said to have a dog. In the epic novel, ''
Journey to the West
''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popu ...
'' Erlang's dog helps him in his fight against the evolved-monkey hero,
Sun Wukong
The Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...
, critically biting him on the leg.
Later on in the story (Chapter 63), Sun Wukong with Erlang (now both on the same side) and their companions-in-fight battle against a Nine-headed Insect monster, when, again, Erlang's small hound comes to the rescue and defeats by biting off the monster's retractable head, which popped in and out of its torso: the monster then flees, dripping blood, off into the unknown.
The author of the ''Journey to the West'' comments that this is the origin of the "nine-headed blood-dripping bird", and that this trait was passed on to its descendant. Anthony C. Yu, editor and translator of ''Journey to the West'' associates this bird with the ''ts'ang kêng'' of Chinese mythology (1980: Volume III, 441, note 5 on chapter 63).
Tiangou
The Tiangou ("Heavenly Dog") has been said to resemble a black dog or meteor, which is thought to eat the sun or moon during an eclipse, unless frightened away.
Obtaining grain
According to the myths of various ethnic groups, a dog provided humans with the first grain seeds enabling the seasonal cycle of planting, harvesting, and replanting staple agricultural products by saving some of the seed grains to replant, thus explaining the origin of domesticated cereal crops. This myth is common to the
Buyi
The Bouyei (also spelled ''Puyi'', ''Buyei'' and ''Buyi''; self called: Buxqyaix, or "Puzhong", "Burao", "Puman"; ; vi, người Bố Y), otherwise known as the Zhongjia, are an ethnic group living in Southern Mainland China. Numbering 2.5 mil ...
,
Gelao,
Hani,
Miao Miao may refer to:
* Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China
* Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages
* Miao (Unicode ...
,
Shui,
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 ...
,
Tujia, and
Zhuang peoples. (Yang 2005: 53)
A version of this myth collected from ethnic Tibetan people in
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
tells that in ancient times grain was tall and bountiful, but that rather than being duly grateful for the plenty that people even used it for personal hygiene after defecation, which so angered the God of Heaven that he came down to earth to repossess it all.
However, a dog grasped his pant leg, piteously crying, and so moving God of Heaven to leave a few seeds from each type of grain with the dog, thus providing the seed stock of today's crops. Thus it is said that because humans owe their possession of grain seed stocks to a dog, people should share some of their food with dogs.(Yang 2005: 53–54)
Another myth, of the Miao people, recounts the time of the distantly remote era when dogs had nine tails, until a dog went to steal grains from heaven, and lost eight of its tails to the weapons of the heavenly guards while making its escape, but bringing back grain seeds stuck onto its surviving tail. According to this, when Miao people hold their harvest celebration festival, the dogs are the first to be fed.(Yang 2005: 54) The Zhuang and Gelao peoples have a similar myth explaining why it is that the ripe heads of grain stalks are curly, bushy, and bent – just so as is the tail of a dog.(Yang 2005: 54)
Ritual
Paper dogs
In northern China, dog images made by cutting paper were thrown in the water as part of the ritual of the Double Fifth (
Duanwu Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival ( zh, s=端午节, t=端午節) is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar.
Names
The Engl ...
) holiday, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, as an
apotropaic magic
Apotropaic magic (from Greek "to ward off") or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of supersti ...
act meant to drive away evil spirits. Paper dogs were also provided for protecting the dead (Eberhard, 2003: 80).
"Foo Dogs"
![Rock Lions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Rock_Lions.JPG)
Numerous statuary of Chinese guardian lions exist, which are often called "''Fu Dogs''" "''Foo Dogs''", "''Fu Lions''", "''Fo Lions''", and "''Lion Dogs''". Modern lions are not native in the area of China, except perhaps the extreme west; however, their existence was well known, and associated symbolism and ideas about lions were familiar; however, in China, artistic representations of lions tended to be dog-like. Indeed, "
e 'lion' which we see depicted in Chinese paintings and in sculpture bears little resemblance to the real animal, which, however, plays a big part in Chinese folklore."(Eberhard, 2003: 164) The reasons for referencing "guardian lions" as "dogs" in Western cultures may be obscure, however the phenomenon is well known.
Real and legendary dogs
![Dinastia han posteriore, cane stante, sichuan, I-III sec](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Dinastia_han_posteriore%2C_cane_stante%2C_sichuan%2C_I-III_sec.JPG)
Despite any fantastic myths from China about dogs, real dogs have been familiar throughout China since prehistorical times (unlike certain exotic animals, such as lions or other creatures, whose real attributes may often only have been known indirectly).
Dogs also feature in various historical and legendary accounts or stories, found in the extensive literary records of China, although in some cases the lines between myth and ancient history are uncertain. However, in many myths, legends, or other accounts of dogs in Chinese literature, the dog or dogs are presented in ways that in have no appearance of the fanciful or fantastic (as opposed to the way other creatures may typically be handled in mythology, such as in the case of turtles, snakes,
dragons
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 often even horses).
The Savior with a Tail (Chinese: 的尾救主/Dewěijiùzhǔ), is a novel originating from the
Northern Song Dynasty
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
. In the novel, a man named Hualong loved to shoot and hunt. His dog, nicknamed 'Tail' (的尾/Dewěi) follows him every time he goes hunting. One day, Hualong went to the riverside and a python wound itself around him, suffocating him. 'Tail' bit the snake to death, but his master lay stiffly on the ground unconsciously. 'Tail' barked restlessly around Hualong for a while, before running back home. Hualong's family was surprised by the dog's behavior, so they followed the dog to the river. Seeing Hualong unconscious on the ground, his family rushed him back home, where he woke up only two days later. 'Tail' did not eat for two days until his master had woken up. Since then, Hualong has cherished dogs as if they were his kin.
The "Tomb for the Righteous Dog" (义犬冢) is a tomb made for dogs who died in order to save their owners. During the
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Han dynasty#Eastern Han, Eastern Han dynasty and wa ...
period, there was a man named Li Xinchun, and his family had a dog named "Heilong" (黑龙, Black Dragon). Li loved this dog very much, allowing it to go wherever he went and eating with it.
"One day, Li was drunk outside the city and fell asleep in the grass on the side of the road. It happened that Zheng Xia, the Governor (上太守), came out to hunt, and seeing that the grass in the field was long, sent someone to set the grass on fire in order to scare out the animals. The place where Li lay was just downwind.
When Heilong saw the fire coming, he dragged Li's clothes in its teeth, but Li didn't move. There was a small stream near where Li was lying, only thirty or fifty steps away from him. Heilong ran into the stream and soaked his body with water, then ran back to where Li was lying, wetting him with the water from the dog's body. In consequence, Li survived the fire, but Heilong was so tired that he died beside his owner.
When Li woke up and found his hair wet and Heilong dead beside him, he very surprised by what had happened. He saw the traces of the fire, and then burst into tears. The Governor Zheng Xia heard of the news, felt very sorry for the dog and said: "A dog's repayment of kindness is greater than man's. Man does not know (true) kindness; how can he compare to a dog?" He asked people to prepare coffin clothes for Heilong's burial. Today,
Jinan
Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...
has the Tomb of the Righteous Dog, which is more than ten ''
Zhàng
The zhang ( zh, c= ) is a customary Chinese unit of length equal to 10 chi (Chinese feet). Its value varied over time and place with different values of the chi, although it was occasionally standardized. In 1915, the Republic of China set it equ ...
'' high."
This story was recorded in the ''
Soushenji
The ''Soushen Ji'', variously translated as ''In Search of the Sacred'', ''In Search of the Supernatural'', and ''Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals'', is a Chinese compilation of legends, short stories, and hearsay concerning Chinese gods, ...
''.
Other canids in Chinese mythology
Other members of the
canidae
Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). There are three subfamilies found within th ...
family also figure in Chinese mythology, including wolves and foxes. The portrayal of these is usually quite different than in the case of dogs.
Tales and literature on foxes is especially extensive, with foxes often having magical qualities, such as being able to shift back and forth to human shape, live for incredible life spans, and to grow supernumerary tails (nine being common).
See also
*
Cynocephaly
The characteristic of cynocephaly, or cynocephalus (), having the head of a canid, typically that of a dog or jackal, is a widely attested mythical phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts. The literal meaning of "cynocephaly" is ...
*
Dogs in ancient China
Dogs (''Canis lupus familiaris''), known in Classical Chinese as ''quan'' (), played an important role in ancient Chinese society.
Domestication
Remains of dogs and pigs have been found in the oldest Neolithic settlements of the Yangshao (circa ...
*
Mosuo
The Mosuo (; also spelled Moso, Mosso or Musuo), often called the Naxi among themselves, are a small ethnic group living in China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, close to the border with Tibet. Consisting of a population of approximately 40,000, ...
References
Works cited
*Christie, Anthony (1968). ''Chinese Mythology''. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing. .
*Eberhard, Wolfram (2003
986 (German version 1983)
Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byz ...
, ''A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought''. London, New York: Routledge.
*Yang, Lihui, ''et al.'' (2005). ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*
Mair, Victor H. (October, 1998). "Canine Conundrums: Eurasian Dog Ancestor Myths in Historical and Ethnic Perspective", in Sino-Platonic Papers 87. New Haven:Yale. < Stable URL: www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp087_dog_myths.pdf >
*
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
''Records of the Historian: Chapters from the Shih Chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien''. Translated by
Burton Watson
Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.Stirling 2006, pg. 92 Watson's translations received many awards, includi ...
(1969). New York: Columbia University Press. .
*Yu, Anthony C., editor, translator, and introduction (1980
977
Year 977 ( CMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* May – Boris II, dethroned emperor (''tsar'') of Bulgaria, and his brother Roman ma ...
. ''The Journey to the West''. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
{{Chinese mythology
Animals in Chinese mythology
Mythological dogs