The Dragon, with its special implications, has been pervasive in all aspects of ancient Chinese culture, and it has become a strong spiritual symbol for the Chinese people. Do dragons really exist? Are they merely imaginations in the realm of spirituality, or do they have physical existence? It is still a mystery to us today. I was surprised that many eye-witness accounts about the appearance of dragons can be found in our history books, which entices me to re-examine whether dragons truly exist.
● Five Dragons and Green Deities:
"Recording for Ye County • Miscellaneous Section" from the Qing Dynasty says the followings: In 1503 AD (Ming Dynasty, Hongzhi's 16th Year), five dragons hovered in the air about 10 Li (3 miles) north of the city gate of Ye County, Henan Province. After a long time aloft, they dropped to the ground, and were unable to ascend again. The sky clouded over, and the sea began churning. A deity in green clothing descended from the sky, and was immediately surrounded by the fallen dragons. A moment later, the clouds dispersed and the ocean was tranquil. The five dragons were still unable to fly away. At this time, another green deity descended, and the dragons crawled around him. Suddenly, the sky became dark. Thick clouds and heavy fog reappeared. When the sky finally cleared, the deities and the five dragons were gone.
● White Dragons and Purple Deities:
"Recording for the Jiaxing Regional Government • Fortunate, yet Strange Phenomena Section" has a similar story in Ye County. In September 1588 AD, a white dragon was spotted on Lake Ping of Pinghu County, Zhejiang Province. It was flying above the lake, illuminating half of the sky with red light. Eyewitness Shen Maoxiao, an history-recording officer for the royal court, saw a deity in purple clothes with a golden crown, standing over 30 meters tall, between the horns of the dragon. This deity held an object resembling a sword. There appeared a sphere of bright light as large as a dou (a ladder-shaped container for measurement in China) beneath the head of the dragon.
● White Dragon on Huangpu River:
"Recording for the Songjiang Regional Government • Fortunate, yet Strange Phenomena Section" records an eyewitness account that took place 20 years after the white dragon sighting in Pinghu County. In July 1608 AD, a white dragon similar to the one on Lake Ping was sighted on Huangpu River in Songjiang County, Shanghai. There was also a deity standing on the head of the dragon.
● Dragon in Wenming Palace:
"Recording for the Later Han Dynasty • Five Elements Section," later cited by "Recording for Luoyang County • Strange Phenomena Section," recorded a dragon sighting in the imperial palace. Liu Hong, the emperor of the Dong Han Dynasty, had his capital city near today's Luoyang City, Henan Province; Wenming Palace might be where he lived. On July 1, 178 AD, a huge black object fell from sky into the east courtyard of the Wenming Palace. The object was round and resembled the canopy over an ancient carriage. It was over 20 meters long, and spun rapidly, giving out light of different colors. The object had a head, but no feet and tail. It looked like a dragon, but might not have been one.
● "History of Yuan Dynasty • Recording of Five Elements" states that there appeared a dragon near Mount Long in Linxong County, Shandong Province in August 1190. Unfortunately, its appearance has not been recorded. The dragon was able to make a piece of rock weighing half a ton float in the air.
● In Jian'an 24th Year of Dong Han Dynasty, a yellow dragon appeared on Chishui River of Wuyang City, and remained there for nine days before it finally left. A temple was built and a stone tablet was erected inside the temple to honor the appearance of the dragon.
● In April, Yonghe's 1st Year, Dong Jin Dynasty (345 AD), two dragons, one black and the other white, appeared on Mount Long. Murong, Emperor of the Yan Kingdom, led officials of the court to the mountain and held a worship ceremony 200 yards away from the dragons.
● Local history books from Ming and Qing Dynasty also contain sighting of dragons. According to "Recording for the Lin'an Regional Government," Chongzhen 4th Year (1631 AD), a large dragon was sighted on Lake Yilong, southeast of Shiping County, Yunan Province. The record states: "The whiskers, feet, and scales of the dragon were above the water, and the dragon was several dozens of meters long." The dragon might have appeared more than once around Mount Long (Mt. Dragon) and Lake Yilong (Lake Strange Dragon), thus explaining the choice of names for these features.
● "Amended Recording of Tang Dynasty" recorded that one day in the last year of Xiantong, a black dragon fell to the ground within the territory of Tongcheng County, and died there from a wound in the throat. The full length of the dragon measured over 30 meters, half of which was its tail. The shape of the tail was flat. Scales were like that of fish. The head had two horns. The whiskers by the side of the mouth were over 6 meters long. Its feet, which grew from under its belly, had a red film covering them.
● "Seven Books and Scriptures" by Long Ying recorded that one day in the last year of Chenghua, Ming Dynasty, a dragon fell down onto the beach in Xinhui County, Guangdong Province. It was beaten to death by the local fishermen. The dragon was as tall as an adult person, and tens of meters in length. It looked very much like the dragon in classical paintings except that the belly was red.
● A dead dragon was found by Lake Taibai in Shaoxing's 32nd Year of Nan Song Dynasty (1162 AD). It had long whiskers and large scales. The back was black and belly white. Fins grew from the dragon's back, and two large horns protruded the head. It could be smelled from miles away. The local people covered it with a mat. The government sent people to hold worship ceremony at the site. However, after a night of severe thunderstorms, the dragon disappeared. Only a ditch remained where it laid.
● "History for the Yongping Regional Government" recorded that, in the summer of 19th Year of Daoguang (1839 AD) a dragon fell from the sky along the lower reaches of Luanhe River in Laoting County. The dragon lay inert, covered by flies and maggots. Local people made a shelter for it to protect it from the direct sunlight, and also drizzled cold water on its body. Three days later, after a night of thunderstorms, the dragon left.
● In August 1944, hundreds of people from the Chenjiayuanzi Village, Fuyu County, south of Songhuajiang River surrounded a black dragon by the riverbank. Yen Dianyuan, an eyewitness who is still alive, said that the dragon was about 7 meters long and looked like a lizard. The face was almost the same as that of the dragons in classical paintings, with seven or eight thick hard whiskers. The upper body was over one foot in diameter. Its four paws went deep in the sand. Crocodile-like scales covered its whole body. Yen Dianyuan still wonders why that large animal looked so much like a dragon on the paintings.
● In the summer of 1953, an unidentified animal fell down from sky in a place near south of Henan Province. Curious people came hiked out to see it. According to the description of some of the witnesses, the dragon looked like a huge shark. The odor of decay attracted countless flies. If it was a shark, it should live in the deep sea. Why did it fall down from the sky? This case might be related to the dragons recorded in history as dropping from the sky.
● A Dragon appeared on earth on August 31, 2000.
Scientists have been investing countless hours and energy exploring how large and how mysterious the universe is, and they achieved very little except for ever-expanding numbers of hypotheses and suppositions. They have worked day and night, yet they still crawl within the boundary of their own limited theories. In order to be rid of the alleged "superstition" when discussing the "truth of the universe," I would like to present to you a phenomenon that is intangible and invisible, but objectively existing and reflected into our physical dimension.
The weather in most regions of China this year has been hot and dry with temperatures reaching higher than 40oC (104F), which has led to the death of trees and grass. Crops failed to grow in a large area of farmland. We are used to seeing bumper harvests whenever autumn comes. But it was not so in the year of 2000. Many rivers have dried up, resulting in lack of drinking water and the spread of diseases. It is exactly as what Teacher Li Hongzhi said in his poem, "If people have no de (virtues), they shall have heavenly catastrophes and human disasters; If earth has no de, all lives on it shall wither and perish."
People were troubled by the lack of rain in summer, and the excess of it in autumn. On August 4, a downpour over Heishanzi Village ended, and the village was covered by a layer of hot steam. All of a sudden, thick clouds came down from the sky and rolled along above the ground. The people in the village were so scared, for they had never seen this kind of weather before. They stayed inside with all the doors and windows shut. One bold young man went outside to see what was going on. He walked through and found nothing unusual other than the thick, rolling clouds. He continued walking, and soon he was outside his village. Suddenly he was stunned by the sight of two dragons, one black and one white, lying on the ground in front of him. He was dazzled and unable to believe what he saw. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, and pinched his arms. His arms felt pain, so he knew that it was not a dream.
The young man got closer to have a better look at the dragons. He saw that the horns, scales, paws, and tails of the dragons were exactly the same as that from traditional dragon paintings except that their whiskers were shorter. He turned around and ran toward the village as fast as he could, shouting, "Come see the dragons; come see the dragons that have fallen from the sky!" All the villagers went out to see the dragons. The news quickly spread through the entire region. Police, government officials, experts and scholars all came to the Heishanzi Village. Someone took pictures of the crowd around the dragons. Then, the experts and scholars began rambling on some kind of theory about the phenomenon, but the people could not understand a word of what they were talking about. Later, police officers started dispersing the crowd, leaving several persons assigned to guard the dragons.
A gust of wind made the dark clouds roll up and down. When it passed, the white dragon had disappeared from under the watchful eyes of the guards. The officials were unable to explain the disappearance, and they were equally frustrated about the black one still on the ground. At this time, a farmer of over 70 years old said, "I heard that something like this happened several years ago, and people poured water on the dragons to make them return home." He asked a few young villagers to fetch several mats and they erected a shelter for the dragon. They then hauled water with wheelbarrows, spraying it on the mats so that the water could drip down on the dragon from the mats. As a result, the dragon has lived to this day.
Are those who are inclined to allege people to be "superstitious" going to hit the witnesses of the dragon with another allegation? I don't think so, because they dare not. Thousands of people have been there and seen the dragons with their own eyes. They can "explain" why apes were the ancestors of human being, and how Egyptians built the pyramids. But they cannot "explain" the appearance and disappearance of the dragons outside the Heishanzi Village. Obviously, human science cannot offer any explanation. The universe is so immense and mysterious, and only Buddha's Fa is able to tell the truth about it. Teacher Li Hongzhi told us: "the Buddha's Fa can provide mankind with insights into the immeasurable and boundless world. Throughout ancient ages, only the Buddha's Fa is able to give a perfect and clear exposition of man, various dimensions of material existence, life, and the entire universe."
The appearance of the dragons on earth has given an opportunity to each person to think about the purpose of life. We should not be too attached to life in this dimension, and we should broaden our views to seek for the truth.
● Wusong is a city by the west side of the Changbai Mountain Ridge, southeast of Jilin Province; it is called "the town of Ginseng." At 6:10 p.m. on September 18, 2000, a dragon appeared in the sky over the city, and everyone was able to see it. On that day, as the sky was getting dark in the evening, a beam of unusual light shot from the sky northwest above the city, and it soon became brighter and multicolored. More and more people noticed the light, and they felt that a miracle was about to take place. It surely was, a dragon showed up. At the beginning, the head was seen, but not the tail. Gradually, the whole body could be seen, and the dragon was getting closer to the people. Finally, the mouth, whiskers, paws and scales could all be seen clearly. The dragon was showered with bright light, and it curled up, then stretched out, then swirled, then rolled forward. It opened its mouth, then closed it. People were shocked and speechless at the scene. Some mumbled, "There really are dragons after all." The dragon was visible for more than twenty minutes. Most people in the city saw it, some of whom witnessed the entire event. The bright light eventually dimmed into dark-red, and the dragon slowly disappeared... At eight o'clock, a friend of mine from Wusong called me and told me in detail the appearance and disappearance of the dragon, and the above was what I wrote down.
Category: Perspective
