SONS OF DRAGON AND SON OF GOD
Pastor Kwong-Wah Lau
For thousands of years, the Chinese people have had a fearful feeling toward the dragon. There are two reasons. First, the Chinese worshipped their emperors as sons of the dragon. Second, the emperors made themselves a god and called themselves sons of the true dragon that they might rule China from generation to generation. As we all know, the Chinese dragon or any dragon does not exist. It is a myth. However, the Bible points out that the devil is called the old dragon. He is the ruler of the air, the father of liars and the king of the world. Thus, those tyrants who drank people’s blood and ate people’s flesh were certainly like the sons of the old dragon.
The Chinese people proudly call themselves descendants of Huang Di. Huang Di was the first king in Chinese history. All descendants of Huang Di! Let us wake up and look clearly into our history and those man-made stories about dragons!
According to Gu Jing, one of the oldest books on Chinese history, Chi, the son of Yue, wore two earings which were two little green snakes, rode a dragon to heaven and stole the heavenly orchestra to play for himself. Yue was the last of the first four kings in Chinese history. The first king was Huang Di who gave this throne to Yiao. Before Yiao died, he gave his throne to Sin because he believed Sin could make himself a better king. Before Sin died, he gave his throne to Yue because he believed Yue could make himself a better king. These four early kings have been considered and honored as model kings by the Chinese until today. However, after Yue died, his followers crowned his son Chi as king. Since then, all kings after Chi gave their throne only to their own descendants.
Based on this record, it is not too hard for us to imagine what kind of a person Chi was and what he did to fool and control his subjects. According to Chinese history, Chi had no talent and lived a very corrupt life. He knew he was not qualified to be king and was afraid he might be overthrown by those officers who didn’t like him, so he tried to make himself look special. He also made up a story and said he once rode a dragon to heaven and stole the heavenly orchestra to play for him. The Chinese believe Heaven is a powerful god. What Chi was trying to tell his enemies was that he did not fear even Heaven. This is the first dragon story recorded in Chinese history. There is no doubt it is a man-made story.
After Chi was crowned, the dynasty of Hsia began. The tenth king in the Hsia dynasty was called Kong Jia. According to Si Ji which has been considered one of the most important ancient books on Chinese history, Kong Jia, like his ancestor Chi, did not fear Heaven, but worshipped demons and lived a very evil life. During his reign, Heaven sent down two dragons, a male and a female. Kong Jia ordered one of his servants to raise them. Later, the female died and the male ran away. Kong Jia ate the meat of the female dragon. This is second dragon story recorded in Chinese history.
It is very clear these two dragons were not the dragons described in Chinese culture because they could be found in a specific place and their meat was good for food. The dragon described in Chinese culture was a strange and powerful monster going back and forth in the sky. No one knew where it was and no one could catch it. The dragon in Chinese culture is not true. It is a myth.
Si Ji also says later two more dragons descended to Kong Jia’s palace from heaven. But this time Kong Jia killed them and kept their saliva in a box. The box was kept until the reign of King Li of the Chou dynasty. King Li opened the box and the saliva of the two slain dragons ran on the floor. King Li ordered some of his maid servants to dance naked around the saliva. Suddenly the dragon saliva turned into two lizards and ran away. But the saliva touched one of the maid servants and she became pregnant. Later she gave birth to a baby girl. She was afraid and left her baby girl on the roadside. A couple came by, took the baby and raised her as part of their family.
When the girl grew up and became a teenager, the couple offered her to King Yiu who was the son of the King Li and the last king of the Chou dynasty. Everybody hated King Yiu because he was an evil tyrant. King Yiu was amazed by the beauty of the girl and loved her more than any concubine in his palace. The name of the girl was called Bo Shi who was one of the most famous beauties in Chinese history.
Although Bo Shi was very pretty, she never laughed. In order to make her laugh, King Yiu ordered the lighting of the Signal Fire Towers. In the ancient days, the Chinese king lit the Signal Fire Towers only to ask for help from his army during an attack on the palace. When the army saw the signal fire, they immediately rushed to the capital. Since the order was so sudden, some soldiers did not have enough time to put on their full armor. Some did not wear helmets, some did not wear shoes, and some did not wear clothes. Bo Shi laughed loudly when she saw this event. But after a short while, the enemy really came to attack the capital and King Yiu gave the order to light up the Signal Fire Towers again. This time no army came to rescue King Yiu because they were fooled by him before and no longer believed him. As a result, King Yiu was killed, Bo Shi was missing and the Chou dynasty ended.
This is the third dragon story recorded in Chinese history. After studying this story carefully, I am convinced these two dragons and the former two dragons were actually giant lizards. Saliva coming out from a giant lizard’s mouth is a very common thing. Kong Jia killed the last two dragons and did not eat their meat because he ate lizard meat before and probably did not enjoy it. The rest of the description about the dragon saliva was invented by those who hated King Yiu and Bo Shi. As years passed, these myths grew into legend and legend turned into fact. Unable to separate fact from fiction, some historians afterwards added these myths into their history books.
The purpose of this article is to prove the ancient Chinese kings were neither the sons of the true dragon nor gods. They were all sinners just like you and me. But unfortunately, the innocent Chinese have worshipped their leaders as dragons, gods and saviors for thousands of years. The dragon culture has blinded their eyes so they do not see the truth of the one and only true God. Great historian Arnold Toynbee makes a statement about China in the conclusion of his famous book entitled A Study of History: “The 21st century belongs to the Chinese.” If Toynbee’s prophecy about China makes sense, then we Christians must work harder to spread the gospel among the Chinese before it is too late. Today, one fifth of the population of the world is Chinese and over 95 percent of them do not know God. Let us imagine what kind of consequence a powerful people who does not believe in God will bring to all mankind!
Then, what is the gospel? John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV) The gospel is “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NIV) This is the theme of Christmas. As we approach this joyful season, let us lift up our voices to proclaim this good news to all mankind, especially to our kinsmen, that many lost souls will come to accept God’s love and His great salvation through Jesus Christ.