Yong (Korean dragon)

The yong is the Korean dragon, a benevolent water and weather spirit that brings rain, guards the sea, and protects kings and the nation, often shown holding the wish-granting jewel called the yeouiju.

The Korean Dragon

The Korean word yong comes from the Chinese lóng, and the native Korean word for dragon is mireu. Like its Chinese cousin, the yong is a long, scaly, wingless creature that lives in rivers, ponds, and the sea and rises into the clouds to bring rain. Korean dragons are often painted holding a glowing orb, the yeouiju, a wish-granting jewel. Dragons appear in the tomb murals of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo, where the Azure Dragon guards the east wall.

King Munmu, the Dragon of the East Sea

The most famous Korean dragon story comes from the kingdom of Silla. King Munmu (reigned 661–681), who unified most of the Korean peninsula, asked to be buried at sea so that he could become a dragon and protect his kingdom from Japanese raiders. His ashes were placed at a rock islet off the coast near Gyeongju, now called Daewangam, the "Rock of the Great King." According to the Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, about 1281), his son King Sinmun completed the nearby temple Gameunsa with a channel under its main hall so the dragon could come and go. The dragon later gave Sinmun bamboo from a floating mountain, which was made into the flute Manpasikjeok, said to calm waves, cure illness, and drive away enemies.

The Samguk yusa also tells of Cheoyong, a son of the Dragon of the East Sea, who came to serve the Silla court and became a guardian against disease.

Dragons and Kings

As in China, the dragon became a symbol of the ruler. The Joseon dynasty's founding epic, Yongbi eocheon ga (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, completed in 1445), praised the royal ancestors as dragons. It was one of the first works written in the Korean alphabet, hangul. Joseon kings wore robes with dragon roundels and sat before dragon screens.

Legacy

Fishing villages long held rites for the Dragon King, or Yongwang, to pray for safety at sea, and dragons remain common in Korean folk painting and temple art. Korean folklore also tells of the imugi, a great serpent that has not yet become a dragon. See our Dragons Across Cultures page for Korea's place in the East Asian dragon family.

Related

• Imugi: The imugi is a great serpent of Korean folklore that has not yet become a true dragon and must live a thousand years, or catch a wish-granting jewel fallen from heaven, before it can ascend as a yong.
• Lóng (Chinese dragon): The lóng is the Chinese dragon: a long, scaly, usually wingless creature with four clawed legs that rules rain, rivers, and seas and became the emblem of the emperor and of Chinese culture.
• 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.
• Azure Dragon (Qinglong): The Azure Dragon, or Qinglong, is the dragon of the east in Chinese cosmology, one of the Four Symbols that guard the directions, linked to spring, the element wood, and seven constellations of the eastern sky.
• Ryūjin: Ryūjin is the dragon god of the sea in Japanese myth and folklore, who rules from the undersea palace Ryūgū-jō, controls the tides with magic jewels, and was claimed as an ancestor of the imperial family.
• Dragons Across Cultures
• Chinese Dragons

Sources and Further Reading

• Iryŏn, Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea, trans. Ha Tae-hung and Grafton K. Mintz (Yonsei University Press, 1972)
• James Huntley Grayson, Myths and Legends from Korea: An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials (Curzon Press, 2001)
• Peter H. Lee, Songs of Flying Dragons: A Critical Reading (Harvard University Press, 1975)

Cite this entry: “Yong (Korean dragon),” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/yong.