Tranh cãi về nguồn gốc của Rồng - biểu tượng uy lực nhất Trung Quốc

Long — hay Rồng Trung Quốc — vốn là biểu tượng của tài lộc và hoàng gia. Nhưng truyền thuyết này bắt nguồn từ đâu? 

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The Year of the Dragon (năm Thìn) is finally here. Of the 12 years in the Chinese zodiac (cung hoàng đạo), that of the dragon — better referred to as the loong (long, rồng) to distinguish (phân biệt) it from its counterparts (vật tương tự) in other cultures — may be the most anticipated (đề cập). Its association with good fortune (vận may) often results in a mini-baby boom, as Chinese parents time the birth of their children to give them a lucky start in life.

Curiously, the loong is also the only one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac that doesn’t exist. This oddity has long perplexed Chinese scholars (học giả): What exactly was the inspiration (cảm hứng) for the loong?

One theory is that it evolved (tiến hóa) from snakes. In 1946, the poet and scholar Wen Yiduo speculated that the loong began as a kind of snake used as a totem (vật tổ) by an ancient tribe (bộ lạc). After defeating other tribes in battle, the tribe would incorporate (sáp nhập) their animal totems into its own, creating a creature with “the four legs of a beast, the head and mane of a horse, the horns of a deer, the claws of a dog, and the scales and whiskers of a fish.”

...Of course, this debate is largely academic. Whether the answer is snakes or alligators, neither are what we think of today as loong. The inspiration for the creature (sinh vật) was likely based on a variety of reptiles (bò sát), but over time its image changed as artists endowed it with new features and mysterious (kỳ bí), supernatural (siêu nhiên) abilities. The loong thus became a hybrid totem, a testament to the Chinese people’s ability to create meaning from the humblest of origins.

source: Sixth Tone,