Longma was a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology

Chinese mythology

Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...

. Seeing a longma was an omen of a legendary sage-ruler, particularly one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

Name

The Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 word longma combines long 龍 "dragon

Chinese dragon

Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts among Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Western and Turkic dragons. In Chinese art, dragons are typically portrayed as long, scaled, serpentine creatures with four legs...

" and ma 馬 "horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

". Compare hema 河馬 (lit. "river horse") "hippopotamus

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...

" and haima 海馬 ("sea horse") "seahorse

Seahorse

Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...

". In addition to naming the mythic creature, longma 龍馬 "dragon horse" can mean "an eminent person" and occurs in the four-character idiom

Four-character idiom

Chengyu are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four characters. Chengyu were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language today...

 longma jingshen 龍馬精神 "vigorous spirit in old age".

Longma interconnects traditional Chinese beliefs about dragons and horses. An early example comes from the Zhouli "Rites of Zhou

Rites of Zhou

The Rites of Zhou , also known as Zhouguan, is one of three ancient ritual texts listed among the classics of Confucianism. It was later renamed Zhouli by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the Classic of History which was also known as Zhouguan.Though tradition ascribed the text of the...

" (夏官司馬), which differentiates names for horses of different heights, measured in the chi 尺 "Chinese foot" (historically around 23-33 centimeters, see Chinese units of measurement

Chinese units of measurement

Chinese units of measurement are the customary and traditional units of measure used in China. In the People's Republic of China, the units were re-standardised during the late 20th century to make them approximate SI units. Many of the units were formerly based on the number 16 instead of 10...

). Horses up to 8 feet tall are called long 龍 "dragon", those up to 7 feet are called lai 騋, and those up to 6 feet are called ma 馬 "horse". The Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 scholar Wang Fu

Wang Fu

Wang Fu was an official of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history.-Life:Wang Fu was said to have a dignified appearance, and was excellent in evaluating people and in the political scene. He first served Liu Zhang, but when Liu Bei took over the lands of Shu, he became the guard...

 (tr. Visser 1913:70) says, "The people paint the dragon's shape with a horse's head and a snake's tail."

Edward H. Schafer

Edward H. Schafer

Edward Hetzel Schafer, was a leading historian of Tang Dynasty China. He wrote ground-breaking works such as The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of Tang exotics and The Vermilion Bird: T'ang images of the South. Schafer wrote his Ph.D...

 describes the horse's "tremendous importance" to Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 rulers for military tactics, diplomatic policy, and aristocratic privilege.

Still, this patrician animal owed his unique status to more than his usefulness to the lords of the land. He was invested with sanctity by ancient tradition, endowed with prodigious qualities, and visibly stamped with the marks of his divine origin. A revered myth proclaimed him a relative of the dragon, akin to the mysterious powers of water. Indeed, all wonderful horses, such as the steed of the pious Hsüan-tsang which, in later legend, carried the sacred scriptures from India, were avatars of dragons, and in antiquity the tallest horse owned by the Chinese were called simply "dragons". (1963:59)

This "steed" refers to Xuanzang

Xuanzang (fictional character)

The fictional character Xuanzang is a central character of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.For most of the novel he is known as Táng-sānzàng, the title Sānzàng referring to his mission to seek the Sānzàngjīng, the "Three Collections of Scriptures"...

's famous bailongma 白龍馬 "white dragon horse".

The Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

 ryūma or ryōma 龍馬 (simplified 竜馬) has several meanings. Ryūma refers to the legendary Chinese "dragon horse" and the name of a chess piece

Chess piece

Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...

 in Shogi

Shogi

, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...

 (translated "promoted bishop", also pronounced ryūme). Ryōma

Ryoma

Ryōma is a Japanese given name. It can be written with several kanji, including 龍馬 The following people and fictional characters have the name Ryoma:People*Sakamoto Ryōma, a late-Edo Era notable...

is commonly used as a Japanese name

Japanese name

in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...

, for instance Sakamoto Ryōma

Sakamoto Ryoma

was a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Ryōma used the alias .- Early life :Ryōma was born in Kōchi, of Tosa han . By the Japanese calendar, this was the sixth year of Tenpō...

. See Visser (1913:147-9) for details about the dragon-horse in Japan.

Classical references

Many Chinese classic texts

Chinese classic texts

Chinese classic texts, or Chinese canonical texts, today often refer to the pre-Qin Chinese texts, especially the Neo-Confucian titles of Four Books and Five Classics , a selection of short books and chapters from the voluminous collection called the Thirteen Classics. All of these pre-Qin texts...

 refer to the longma "dragon horse".

The most famous longma occurrences are connected with the mythical Hetu 河圖 "Yellow River

Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...

 chart", which along with the Luoshu 洛書 "Luo River

Luo River

Luo River may refer to:*Luo River , river in Henan, China*Luo River , river in Shaanxi, China*Lô River, river in Vietnam...

 writing; Lo Shu Square

Lo Shu Square

Lo Shu Square |Luo ]] Book/Scroll) or the Nine Halls Diagram , is the unique normal magic square of order three. Lo Shu is part of the legacy of the most ancient Chinese mathematical and divinatory traditions, and is an important emblem in Feng Shui , the art of geomancy concerned with the...

" are ancient magic square

Magic square

In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n2 numbers, usually distinct integers, in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant. A normal magic square contains the integers from 1 to n2...

 arrangements of the Ba gua "8 Trigrams" and Wuxing "5 Phases". They are traditionally linked with prehistoric Chinese rulers, a longma revealed the Hetu to Fu Xi or Shun, and the shell of a gui 龜 "tortoise" revealed the Luoshu

Lo Shu Square

Lo Shu Square |Luo ]] Book/Scroll) or the Nine Halls Diagram , is the unique normal magic square of order three. Lo Shu is part of the legacy of the most ancient Chinese mathematical and divinatory traditions, and is an important emblem in Feng Shui , the art of geomancy concerned with the...

to Yu

Yu the Great

Yu the Great , was a legendary ruler of Ancient China famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and for his upright moral character....

. "The Great Treatise" commentary to the Yijing explains.

Heaven creates divine things; the holy sage takes them as models. Heaven and earth change and transform; the holy sage imitates them. In the heavens hang images that reveal good fortune and misfortune; the holy sage reproduces these. The Yellow River brought forth a map and the Lo River brought forth a writing; the holy men took these as models. (tr. Wilhelm and Baynes 1967:320)

"The water of the Ho sent forth a dragon horse; on its back there was curly hair, like a map of starry dots", says the Yijing commentary (tr. Visser 1913:57), "The water of the Lo sent forth a divine tortoise; on its back there were riven veins, like writing of character pictures." Hetu 河圖 is alternately named longtu 龍圖 and matu 馬圖, with "dragon" and "horse". For instance, the Baihutong 白虎通 (封禪) says 河出龍圖 "the Yellow River sent forth the dragon chart" while the Liji (禮運, cf. Legge 1885:1:392-3) says 河出馬圖 "the Yellow River sent forth the horse chart".

The Shujing (顧命, cf. Legge 1865:554) records the original Hetu "river plan" among the royal treasures of King Cheng of Zhou

King Cheng of Zhou

King Cheng of Zhou or King Ch'eng of Chou was the second sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The dates of his reign are 1042-1021 BC or 1042/35-1006 BC King Cheng was young when he ascended the throne...

 (r. ca. 1042-1021 BCE). Kong Anguo 孔安國's Shujing commentary explains the longma.

A dragon horse is the [qi 氣] vital spirit of Heaven and Earth. As a being its shape consists of a horse's body, yet it has dragon scales. Therefore it is called 'dragon horse'. Its height is eight ch'ih

Chi (unit)

The chi is a traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately equal to one foot. Its length is derived from the length of human forearm and has first appeared during the Shang Dynasty approximately 3000 years ago. Since then it has spread to and adopted by other East Asian cultures, such as...

 five ts'un

Cun (length)

The cun is a traditional Chinese unit of length. Its traditional measure is the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle, whereas the width of the two forefingers denotes 1.5 cun and the width of all fingers side-by-side is three cuns...

. A true dragon horse has wings at its sides and walks upon the water without sinking. If a holy man is on the throne it comes out of the midst of the Ming river, carrying a map on its back. (tr. Visser 1913:58)

The Jushu jinian 竹書紀年 "Bamboo Annals

Bamboo Annals

The Bamboo Annals is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins at the earliest legendary times and extends to the Warring States Period , particularly the history of the Wei state...

", which records ancient Chinese mythology and history, describes the longma in a context of Yao

Yao (ruler)

Yao , was a legendary Chinese ruler, one of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors. His ancestral name （姓）is Yi Qi （伊祁） or Qi（祁）,clan name （氏）is Taotang , given name is Fangxun , as the second son to Emperor Ku and Qingdu...

 conveying the throne to Shun. The spirits of the five planets appeared on the Yellow River and predicted, "The river scheme will come and tell the emperor of the time. He who knows us is the double-pupilled yellow Yaou." (Yao supposedly had double-pupil eyes, indicating insight). The Yellow River gave off light, beautiful vapors, and clouds.

Then a dragon-horse appeared, bearing in his mouth a scaly cuirass, with red lines on a green ground, ascended the altar, laid down the scheme, and went away. The cuirass was like a tortoise shell, nine cubits broad. The scheme contained a tally of white gem, in a casket of red gem, covered with yellow gold, and bound with a green string. On the tally were the words, 'With pleased countenance given to the emperor Shun'. (tr. Legge 1865:113)

A subsequent Bamboo Annals context describes the spirit of the Yellow River as a person rather than a dragon-horse, and says Yao rather than Yu received the Hetu in order to control the Great Flood.

As he was looking at the Ho [Yellow River], a tall man, with a white face and fish's body, came out and said, 'I am the spirit of the Ho.' He then called Yu, and said, 'Wan-ming [Yu] shall regulate the waters.' Having so spoken, he gave Yu a chart of the Ho, containing all about the regulating of the waters; and returned into the deep. (tr. Legge 1865:117)

The (4th century CE) Shiyiji 拾遺記 (tr. Visser 1913:59) records that Emperor Mu of Jin

Emperor Mu of Jin

Emperor Mu of Jin , personal name Sima Dan , courtesy name Pengzi , was an emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty...

, "drove around the world in a carriage, drawn by eight winged dragon horses." This context uses the modified expression long zhi jun 龍之駿 "dragon's excellent-horse".

The (10th century CE) Taiping Yulan says a longma that appeared in 741 CE was considered as a good omen for Emperor Xuanzong of Tang

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , also commonly known as Emperor Ming of Tang , personal name Li Longji , known as Wu Longji from 690 to 705, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712 to 756. His reign of 43 years was the longest during the Tang Dynasty...

.

It was spotted blue and red, and covered with scales. Its mane resembled that of a dragon, and its neighing was like the tone of a flute. It could cover three hundred miles. Its mother was a common horse which had become pregnant by drinking water from a river in which it was bathed. (tr. Visser 1913:59)

Comparative mythology

Longma "dragon horse" connects with other creatures in Chinese folklore

Chinese folklore

Chinese folklore includes songs, dances, puppetry, and tales. It often tells stories of human nature, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural, or stories explaining natural phenomena and distinctive landmarks.-Folktales:...

. While longma sometimes applies to the Qilin

Qilin

The Qilin is a mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creature known throughout various East Asian cultures, and is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler. It is a good omen that brings rui . It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over...

 (Williams 1989:390), the closest relative is the legendary tianma 天馬 "heavenly horse" or the "Chinese Pegasus

Pegasus

Pegasus is one of the best known fantastical as well as mythological creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine horse, usually white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing...

", which was metaphorically identified with the hanxiema 汗血馬 "blood-sweating horse" or Ferghana horse

Ferghana horse

Ferghana horses were one of China's earliest major imports, originating in an area in Central Asia. These horses, as depicted in Tang Dynasty pottery representations of them, "resemble the animals on the golden medal of Eucratides, King of Bactria ."-Ancient history:Dayuan, north of Bactria, was...

. A poem attributed to Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...

 celebrates a 101 BCE victory over Western tribes.

The Heavenly Horses are coming, Coming from the Far West. They crossed the Flowing Sands, For the barbarians are conquered. … The Heavenly Horses are coming; Jupiter is in the Dragon. Should they choose to soar aloft, Who could keep pace with them? They will draw me up and carry me To the Holy Mountain of K'un-lun. The Heavenly Horses have come And the Dragon will follow in their wake. I shall reach the of Heaven, I shall see the Palace of God. (tr. Waley 1955:96-97)

In Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. The development of Chinese astrology is tied to that of astronomy, which came to flourish during the Han Dynasty ....

, the Dragon

Dragon (zodiac)

The Dragon , is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and the only animal that is legendary...

 and Horse

Horse (zodiac)

The Horse is the seventh of the 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Horse is associated with the earthly branch symbol 午.- Years and the Five Elements :...

 are two of the twelve animals. A Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name,...

(列禦寇) story mentions finding a "pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold" under the chin of a lilong 驪龍 "black-horse dragon".

Some mythic elements of the longma "dragon horse" are culturally widespread. Schafer elucidates.

The legend of water-born horses was known in various parts of Turkestan. In Kucha, for instance, when that city was visited by Hsüan-tsang in the seventh century, there was a lake of dragons in front of one of its temples. "The dragons, changing their form, couple with mares. The offspring is a wild species of horse (dragon-horse) difficult to tame and of a fierce nature. The breed of these dragon-horses became docile." This story must have had its origin farther west in Iranian lands, where winged horses were familiar in art and myth. Even the long-legged small-bellied horses of the "Tajik," that is, of the Arabs, were said to have been born of the conjunction of dragons with mares on the shores of the "Western Sea." (Schafer 1963:60)

The Chinese longma "dragon horse" is not culture specific. Mythological hybrid animals or chimeras

Chimera (mythology)

The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...

 are known worldwide, including combinations of dragons and horses. In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, the Hippocamp

Hippocamp

The hippocamp or hippocampus , often called a sea-horse in English, is a mythological creature shared by Phoenician and Greek mythology, though the name by which it is recognised is purely Greek; it became part of Etruscan mythology...

 or Hippocampus (lit. "horse sea-monster"), which supposedly has the head and front legs of a horse and the hindquarters of a dragon or fish, parallels the longma (Carr 1990:154). In Babylonian mythology, "dragon-horse" is a title of the goddess Tiamat

Tiamat

In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû to produce younger gods. It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is 'creatrix', through a "Sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water,...

 (Massey 1907:274). Among the prehistoric hill figure

Hill figure

A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and rubble made from material brighter than the natural...

s in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, Dragon Hill

Dragon Hill, Uffington

Dragon Hill is a small hillock immediately below the Uffington White Horse on the border of the civil parishes of Uffington and Woolstone in the English county of Oxfordshire...

 is below the Uffington White Horse

Uffington White Horse

The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...

.

External links

• Dragon-Horse, the Serene Dragon