The Symbol of the Dragon in the Cosmogonic Schemes of Ancient China

Abstract

The symbol of the dragon is an important element of the cultural and historical identity of the Chinese people. This article attempts to analyze the symbol of the dragon in the genesis of Chinese philosophy, particularly in its cosmogonic and cosmological systems. The article shows that the mythological symbol of the dragon did not disappear at an early stage of the formation of Chinese civiliza­tion; on the contrary, it was fixed in the corpus of categories of philosophical thought and was used to express the cosmological laws and principles of Tao. The symbol of dragon can also be found in 4 symbols (or 4 images 四象, si xi­ang), 5 elements (五行, wu xing), 6 harmonies-correspondences (六合, liu he), 7 stars (七星, qi xing), 8 trigrams (八卦, ba gua) and 64 hexagrams (六十四卦, liu shi si gua). The article concludes that the symbol of the dragon lays at the very origins of Chinese culture since it expresses its main archetypal meanings; it embodies the naturalness (⾃然, zi ran) and the cycle of universal changes.