Tianlong (; lit. "heavenly dragon") is a flying dragon in Chinese mythology, a star in Chinese astrology, and a proper name.
The term tianlong combines tian "heaven" and long "dragon". Since tian literally means "heaven; the heavens; sky" or figuratively "Heaven; God; gods", tianlong can denote "heavenly dragon; celestial dragon" or "holy dragon; divine dragon".
Tianlong Chinese: 天龍 is homophonous with another name in Chinese folklore. Tianlong Chinese: 天聾 "Heavenly Deaf" (with the character long "deaf" combining the "ear radical" and a long Chinese: 龍 phonetic element) and Diya Chinese: 地啞 "Earthly Dumb" are legendary attendants to Wenchang Wang Chinese: 文昌王, the patron deity of literature.
From originally denoting "heavenly dragon", Tianlong Chinese: 天龍 semantically developed meanings as Buddhist "heavenly Nāgas" or "Devas and Nāgas", "centipede", and "proper names" of stars, people, and places.
Among Chinese classic texts, tian "heaven" and long "dragon" were first used together in Zhou dynasty (1122 BCE – 256 BCE) writings, but the word tianlong was not recorded until the Han dynasty (207 BCE – 220 CE).
The ancient Yijing "Book of Changes" exemplifies using tian "heaven" and long "dragon" together. Qian Chinese: 乾 "The Creative", the first hexagram, says: Commentaries on these explain:
The earliest usage of tianlong Chinese: 天龍 "heavenly dragon", according to the Hanyu Da Cidian, is in the Xinxu Chinese: 新序 "New Prefaces" by Liu Xiang (79–8 BCE). It records a story about Zigao, the Duke of Ye, who professed to love dragons.[1] After he carved and painted dragon images throughout his house, a [Chinese: 天龍] heavenly dragon [or fulong Chinese: 夫龍 in some editions] came to visit, but Ye was scared and ran away.
The Fangyan Chinese: 方言 dictionary by Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE) has another early usage of tian and long. It defines panlong Chinese: 蟠龍 "coiled dragon" as Chinese: 未陞天龍,[2] syntactically meaning either "Dragons which do not yet ascend to heaven"[3] or "Heavenly Dragons which do not yet ascend".[4]
Tianlong Heavenly Dragon names both the Western constellation Draco and a star in the Chinese constellation Azure Dragon.
Tianlongza Chinese: 天龍座 "Heavenly Dragon Seat/Constellation" is the Chinese translation of Draco (from Latin "Dragon"), a constellation near the north celestial pole. The (1578 CE) Bencao Gangmu pharmacopeia's entry for long "dragon" describes "a pearl under its chin",[5] and Read notes,
The constellation Draco has the appearance of guarding and encircling the northern pole which is the centre of the movement of the fixed stars. The Chinese paintings of the Dragon straining after a mystical "Pearl" undoubtedly relate to this relationship to the North Pole Star, though other explanations are given for this.[6]
Tianlong Chinese: 天龍 "Heavenly Dragon" is the 3rd star in Fangxiu Chinese: 房宿 "Room (Chinese constellation)" and corresponds to the Western constellation Scorpius. "Room" is the 4th of the Twenty-eight mansions in the Azure Dragon, which is one of the celestial Four Symbols. Wolfram Eberhard notes, "When the dragon star appeared in the sky it was customary to make a sacrifice supplicating for rain," and this springtime dragon festival occurs on the 2nd day of the 2nd month.[7]
The Bencao Gangmu entry for wugong Chinese: 蜈蚣 "centipede" lists tianlong Chinese: 天龍 "heavenly dragon" as an alternate name. Li Shizhen's commentary reviews earlier Chinese commentators and texts. The Zhuangzi says, "People eat meat, deer eat grass, [Chinese: 蝍且] giant centipedes savor snakes, hawks and crows relish mice."[8] The Huainanzi says, "The [Chinese: 騰蛇] ascending snake can drift in the mist, yet it is endangered by the [Chinese: 蝍蛆] centipede."[9] The Erya dictionary defines jili Chinese: 蒺蔾 "thorns; puncture vine; bramble" as jieju Chinese: 蝍蛆 "centipede; cricket";[10] which Guo Pu's commentary says resembles a huang Chinese: 蝗 "locust" with a large abdomen, long horns, and which eats snake brains. Although jieju can also mean xishuai Chinese: 蟋蟀 "cricket", Li concludes it means the snake-controlling wugong "centipede" that the Fangyan dictionary also calls maxian Chinese: 馬蚿 "horse/giant millipede" or juqu Chinese: 蛆蟝.[11] According to Eberhard, centipedes were snake predators, and "the enmity between snake and centipede occurs in many folktales and customs."[12]
In Chinese Buddhist terminology, tianlong means either "heavenly Nāgas (dragon gods)" or "Devas (heavenly gods) and Nāgas".
First, tianlong Chinese: 天龍 means "heavenly dragon/nāga" as the first of four nāga classes in Mahayana tradition.[13]
Hangzhou Tianlong Chinese: 杭州天龍 "Heavenly Dragon from Hangzhou" was a 9th-century Chan Buddhist master who enlightened Juzhi Yizhi by holding up one finger. The Blue Cliff Record (tr. Cleary 1977:123-8) calls this "Chu Ti's One-Finger Ch'an" kōan. Second, tianlong Chinese: 天龍 translates Sanskrit deva-nāga "Devas and Nāgas", the 2 highest categories of the Tianlong Babu Chinese: 天龍八部 "8 kinds of beings that protect the Dharma". The lower 6 categories are yecha Chinese: 夜叉 "Yaksha; cannibalistic devils; nature spirits", gantapo Chinese: 乾闥婆 "Gandharva; half-ghost music masters", axiuluo Chinese: 阿修羅 "Asura; evil and violent demigods", jialouluo Chinese: 迦樓羅 "Garuda; golden bird-like demons that eat dragons", jinnaluo Chinese: 緊那羅 "Kinnara; half-human half-bird celestial music masters", and maholuluojia Chinese: 摩睺羅迦 "Mahoraga; earthly snake spirits".
Tianlong Babu Chinese: 天龍八部 is also the title of a 1963 wuxia novel by Jin Yong, translated as English Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. This Chinese title is further used by movies, television series, and a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Tianlong is a common name in Standard Chinese. Tianlongshan Chinese: 天龍山 "Heavenly Dragon Mountain", which is located near Taiyuan in Shanxi, is famous for the Tianlongshan Shiku Grottoes (Chinese: 天龍山石窟). The commercial name Tianlong "Heavenly Dragon" is used by companies, hotels, and gungfu schools.
Japanese Tenryū Chinese: 天龍 or Chinese: 天竜, a loanword from Chinese Tianlong, is a comparable proper name. A famous example is Tenryū-ji Chinese: 天龍寺 "Heavenly Dragon Temple" in Kyoto, which is headquarters of the Tenryū-ji Branch of the Rinzai sect. Tenryū place names include a waterway (Tenryū River Chinese: 天竜川), a city (Tenryū, Shizuoka Chinese: 天竜市), and a village (Tenryū, Nagano Chinese: 天龍村). Further examples include Imperial Japanese Navy names (Japanese cruiser Tenryū Chinese: 天龍), and personal names (Genichiro Tenryu Chinese: 天龍源一郎, a wrestler).