Dilong

Dilong, the "earth dragon," is the Chinese dragon said to mark out and clear the courses of rivers and streams, the third of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.

What the Name Means

Di means "earth," so dilong is the "earth dragon." In everyday Chinese the word has a humbler meaning too: dilong is the traditional name for the earthworm, which is used as an ingredient in Chinese medicine under that name. The joke is an old one, since an earthworm looks rather like a very small dragon living in the soil.

The Earthly Dragons

In the Buddhist scheme that divided nāgas, or dragons, into four classes, the earthly dragons were the ones who "drain off rivers" and "open sluices," in M. W. de Visser's translation of the list he found in a Ming dynasty encyclopedia. Their job was practical: keeping water moving across the land. The other classes were the heavenly dragons (tianlong), the rain-giving divine dragons (shenlong), and the hidden dragons that guard treasure (fucanglong).

The American scholar Cyrus Adler gave English readers the same list in 1888, describing the ti-lung as the dragon "which marks out the courses of rivers and streams." Ernest Ingersoll repeated his words in Dragons and Dragon Lore (1928).

Older Roots

The idea of a dragon cutting river channels is much older than the Buddhist scheme. In ancient Chinese myth the winged dragon Yinglong dragged its tail across the land to show Yu the Great where to dig channels during the Great Flood. Chinese folk religion also gave rivers, lakes, springs, and wells their own resident dragons, later called dragon kings, who were honored in local temples. The earth dragon class gave a tidy name to this very old belief that dragons shape and govern the waterways.

Dragons in the Land

Chinese geomancy, or feng shui, uses dragon language for the shape of the land itself. Ridges and mountain ranges are "dragon veins" that carry qi, and choosing a site for a house or tomb meant reading where the dragon's energy gathered. This is a related but separate tradition, and the term dilong is not its technical name. For more on dragons in Chinese thought, see our page on Chinese dragons.

Related

• Tianlong: Tianlong, the "celestial" or "heavenly" dragon, is the Chinese dragon said to guard the palaces of the gods and hold them up so they do not fall, the highest of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.
• Shenlong: Shenlong, the "spiritual" or "divine" dragon, is the Chinese dragon that raises clouds and sends wind and rain for the good of people, one of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.
• Fucanglong: Fucanglong, the "dragon of hidden treasures," is the Chinese dragon said to lie hidden underground guarding buried wealth, the fourth of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.
• Yinglong: Yinglong is the winged dragon of ancient Chinese myth, a rain-bringing servant of the Yellow Emperor who killed the rebel Chiyou and, in other accounts, used its tail to help Yu the Great channel the Great Flood.
• Dragon Kings (Longwang): The Dragon Kings are the dragon rulers of the seas, rivers, and lakes in Chinese religion and folklore, rain-giving lords who live in crystal palaces, take human form, and answer to the Jade Emperor.
• Chinese Dragons
• Dragon Types

Sources and Further Reading

• M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, 1913)
• Ernest Ingersoll, Dragons and Dragon Lore (New York: Payson & Clarke, 1928)
• Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993)

Cite this entry: “Dilong,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/dilong.