Panlong (; lit. "coiled dragon") is an aquatic dragon resembling a jiaolong 蛟龍 "river dragon; crocodile" in Chinese mythology, an ancient motif in Chinese art, and a proper name.
The Chinese compound panlong combines pan "coiling; curling; curving; bending; winding; twisting" and long or "dragon". Longpan Chinese: 龍蟠 "dragon coiling", the reverse of panlong, is a literary metaphor for "person of unrecognized talent" (see the Fayan below).
Panlong "coiled dragon" can be written Chinese: 蟠龍 or Chinese: 盤龍, using pan Chinese: 蟠's homophonous variant Chinese character pan or "tray; plate; dish". Another example of this graphic interchangeability is panrao Chinese: 蟠繞 or Chinese: 盤繞 "twine round; surround; fill". Two Classical Chinese panlong Chinese: 盤龍 idioms are panlongpi Chinese: 盤龍癖 ("coiling dragon habit") "gambling addiction" (alluding to 5th-century gambler Liu Yi Chinese: 劉毅 or Liu Panlong Chinese: 劉盤龍 of Eastern Jin) and panlong-wohu Chinese: 盤龍臥虎 (lit. "coiling dragon crouching tiger") "talented people remaining concealed". In Fengshui and Four Symbols theory, the Dragon and Tiger are symbolic opposites. Take for instance, longtan-huxue Chinese: 龍潭虎穴 ("dragon's pond and tiger's cave") "dangerous places" or Wohu canglong Chinese: 臥虎藏龍 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Chinese classic texts began using panlong in the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). The (2nd century BCE) Huainanzi first records panlong as a decorative style on Chinese bronzes.
Great bells and tripods, beautiful vessels, works of art are manufactured. The decorations cast on these have been superb. The mountain dragon, or pheasant, and all animals of variegated plumage, the aquatic grass, flamboyants and grains of cereals were engraven on them, one symbol interwoven with another. The sleeping rhinoceros and crouching tiger, the dragon, wreathed in coils, were wrought.The later term panlongwen Chinese: 蟠龍文 "coiled-dragon pattern/design (on bronzes, pillars, etc.)" compares with panchiwen Chinese: 蟠螭紋 (see chilong Chinese: 螭龍) and panqiuwen Chinese: 蟠虯紋 (see qiulong Chinese: 虯龍). Another Huainanzi context lists longshepan Chinese: 龍蛇蟠 (lit. "dragon snake coiling") "serpentine passage" as a good ambush location.
An exiguous pass, a ferry pontoon, a great mountain, a serpentine defile, a cul-de-sac, a dangerous pitfall, a narrow ravine, full of winding ways like the intestines of a sheep, a hole like a fisher's net, which admits, but from which there is no exit, are situations in which one man can hold back a thousand.
The materialist philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE) used both panlong and longpan. His Fangyan Chinese: 方言 "Regional Speech" dictionary defined panlong Chinese: 蟠龍 "coiled/curled dragon", "Dragons which do not yet ascend to heaven [cf. ''[[tianlong]] "heavenly dragon"] are called p'an-lung." His Fayan Chinese: 法言 "Words to Live By" anthology coined the metaphor longpan Chinese: 龍蟠 (lit. "dragon coiling") "person of unrecognized talent", "'a dragon coiled in the mud will be insulted by a newt,' meaning 'a sage will be ridiculed by a fool'."
The (2nd century CE) Shangshu dazhuan Chinese: 尚書大傳 commentary to the Classic of History parallels panlong and jiaoyu Chinese: 鮫魚 (or jiaolong Chinese: 蛟龍), "the Chinese: 蟠龍 'coiled dragon' was greatly trusted in its lair, the Chinese: 鮫魚 ' dragon; crocodile' leaped in its pool."
The (12th century CE) Song dynasty Biji manzhi Chinese: 碧雞漫志 "Random Jottings from the Green Rooster Quarter" by Wang Zhuo Chinese: 王灼 describes using panlong dragons in sympathetic magic for rainfall, "where a mirror, adorned on the backside with a "coiled dragon", p'an lung, Chinese: 盤龍, is said to have been worshipped (rather used in a magical way) in order to cause rain."
In addition to the ancient decorative style mentioned above, Panlong Chinese: 蟠龍 or Chinese: 盤龍 "Coiled Dragon" is used in several names.
The Japanese language borrowed banryū Chinese: 蟠龍 or Chinese: 蟠竜 "coiled dragon" as a loanword from Chinese panlong. Banryu names a Taikyoku shogi chess-piece and a Bakufu schooner warship Banryū.