SoFi

Below contents were translated and reorganized by me from Chinese dragon related website, hope it is useful for you. ;)

The Chinese dragon is a symbol of Chinese. As it was said that Chinese's ancestors and emperors were relative closely with the dragon, Chinese called themselves as "offspring of the dragon".

In Chinese traditional culture, Chinese dragon presents power, noble and honor, also it is the symbol of luck and success. In Chinese legendary stories, Chinese dragon is an intelligent creature with magical power, which combines nine animals as one, ex. shrimp eyes, dear horn, cow mouth, dog nose, catfish beard, lion bristle, fish scale and eagle claw. Each part of it has specific meaning, protruding forehead presents intelligent; dear horn presents longevity; cow ears present being the top; tiger eyes present majesty; eagle claw presents brave; sword eyebrow presents soldierly bearing; lion nose presents valuable; fish tail presents flexible; horse teeth presents diligent and kind-hearted.

It was taken as God by Chinese ancestors, later, it presents emperors in Chinese dynasty, emperors called themselves as "real dragons and the sons of heaven", therefore, the dragon is the symbol of power, every item used in the palace was decorated by dragon, everything related to emperors was printed by dragon, for instance, only emperors can put five-claw dragon on his yellow cloth as his tag, other relatives and ministers can only use four-claw dragon, as long as anyone use five-claw dragon to decorate everything, it may cause danger, as it showed disrespect to emperors. In Taiwan, there are many four-claw dragon statues and paintings in temples.

In nowadays, Chinese dragon culture mainly transferred to the folk expression, especially Chinese traditional festivals, they can't celebrate without dragon, ex. Chinese New Year has dragon and lion dance and Dragon Boat Festival has dragon boat race. The dragon becomes the symbol to gather the heart of Chinese. Moreover, the dragon presents positive energy; everything related to it symbolize lucky, for example, it's used in star, cloth, food, buildings, ships, horse and planet. Being successful calls "reaching dragon door", getting marry calls "a pair of dragon and phoenix", getting new baby calls "dragon son and dragon daughter". Furthermore, dragon presents outstanding, it's God that can't compare with human, only the saint can compare with it.

In conclusion, the Chinese dragon is deeply influenced Chinese culture and people's mind, you can see it in every aspect and everywhere in Chinese life, everything is relatively connected with it. No matter where you go, as long as it is the place where gathered Chinese, you can always see its image, it symbolize Chinese's offspring's feeling for their home nation, no matter where they go, they always keep their home in mind.