Jin (Dragon)

Those born in the year of the Dragon are said to inherit the dragon's ever-changing nature: active and free-spirited, with great ambitions and a heart wide enough to embrace many people. The museum describes them as healthy, energetic, brave, sensitive and trustworthy, scornful of money-chasing and of flattery — but also easily irritated and excited, stubborn, very clear about what they like and dislike, and somewhat temperamental.

The symbols encyclopedia gives a portrait of each of the five Dragon years of the sixty-year cycle: those born in a gapjin year (甲辰) are taciturn and upright, good at gathering wealth; byeongjin (丙辰), flexible, independent and open-hearted; mujin (戊辰), stubborn, persevering and reliable; gyeongjin (庚辰), socially active and full of ambition; imjin (壬辰), quick-witted and quick to act. For people of the Dragon, it adds, the samjae — the three years of misfortune — fall in the years of the Tiger, the Rabbit and the Dragon.

The native Korean word for the dragon is mireu (미르): the Hunmong jahoe, a Joseon-era primer of Chinese characters for children, glosses 龍 as "mireu yong". The word comes from the root mil-, the same as mul, "water". The tiger is the god of the mountains, the dragon the god of the waters: it lives in great ponds, rivers and the sea, raises rain and wind and drives them before it. Its bond with water is written on the map of Korea, in the countless places named after it, such as Yongso, Yongjeong, Yongdam, Yongyeon or Yongdu, and the places where the dragon was worshipped were all by the water.

The dragon was also the guardian of the kingdom. The people of Silla, the museum writes, gave birth to a dragon that protected the country (護國龍), the brightest image of patriotism in Korean history: King Munmu, who unified the Three Kingdoms, said that after his death he would become a great dragon to guard the country and uphold Buddhism. His bones were laid at the place named Daewangam, the temple built for him was called Gameunsa, and the spot from which the dragon was later seen took the name Igyeondae. On Jeju Island, Yongduam, "Dragon Head Rock", carries the legend of a dragon that hardened into stone as it soared.

Along with the phoenix and the turtle, the dragon was one of the Four Divinities (四靈), the imaginary animals; among all creatures it was held to have the highest authority, armed with the best weapons of every other animal and able to bring all things into harmony. The Compendium of Materia Medica by the Ming herbalist Li Shizhen describes it as a composite: the nose of a pig, the eyes of a rabbit, the head of a camel, the ears of an ox, the horns of a deer, the paws of a tiger, the talons of a falcon and the scales of a carp. The dragon makes clouds and rain and moves freely in the waters and in the sky, wrapped in fog so dense that heaven and earth cannot be told apart; to ascend it needs the magic pearl, yeouiju (如意珠), and without it it stays on earth as an imugi, waiting until it finds the pearl and can rise.

Because it ruled the water and flew in the sky, the dragon became the emblem of the king. In a farming culture, where the right weather from heaven mattered above all, king and dragon were naturally identified: the king's face was yongan, "dragon face", his throne yongsang, his robe the gollyongpo, his accession yongbi, "the dragon's flight". The title of the Yongbieocheonga, the song of the founding of Joseon, means "the six dragons of Haedong flew up to heaven": the six ancestors who rose to the throne. The character 辰 itself, the symbols encyclopedia explains, means that all things move, shake, thunder and quake.

In Korean myth the dragon is often the parent of founders, kings and clans. Al-yeong, wife of Bak Hyeokgeose, the founder of Silla, was born from the side of a dragon that appeared at the well of Al-yeong; Seok Tal-hae of Silla was the son of the king of Yongseong. King Taejo of Goryeo, Wang Geon, was the son of Yonggeon, child of a dragon woman — which is why the royal Wang clan of Goryeo was called yongjong, "dragon seed". Seodong, who became King Mu of Baekje, was born to a widow and the dragon of the Namji pond in the capital, by which she lived; and the founder of the Changnyeong Jo clan, Jo Gye-ryong, was said to descend from a dragon.

The dragon also foretells and protects. In the Dongmyeongwang-pyeon, Haemosu, son of the Lord of Heaven, comes down to earth in a chariot drawn by five dragons; the History of the Three Kingdoms records that a black dragon appeared over the Han River, the sky grew dark with cloud and mist, the dragon flew away — and the king died. The Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms tells many stories of dragons guarding the Buddhist law and the country, among them the origin of the nine-storey wooden pagoda of Hwangnyongsa temple, built so that the Buddha's power would keep invaders away.

In Goguryeo the dragon appears as one of the Four Symbols (四神), with the White Tiger, the Red Phoenix and the Black Tortoise. The hook of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, one of the oldest bells in Korea, is shaped like a dragon's head. In Buddhist temples the guardian of the south among the Four Heavenly Kings holds a dragon in his hand, the tale goes that nine dragons came down from heaven to bathe the newborn Buddha, and the wooden fish and the dharma drum used in the service never lack their carved dragon.

Tradition speaks of nine sons of the dragon, each with its own place: Jiaotu, like a clam, on door knobs; Suanni, who loves smoke and fire, on incense burners; Baxia, who loves water, on bridges; Yazi, who loves killing, on knife hilts; Qiuniu, who loves music, on instruments such as the geomungo; Chaofeng, who likes to climb, on the corners of roofs; Chiwen, who likes to look out and swallow, at the ends of the roof ridge; Pulao, who likes to cry out, on top of bells; and Bixi, with his great shell, carrying tombstones. In everyday life, believing that the dragon brings happiness, people carved it on poles and wardrobes.

For a farming people, water was as precious as life, and when drought struck, rites to call the rain were offered to the dragon; the Dongguk yeoji seungnam records many such prayers at dragon wells, pools and ponds. Fishing villages held the yongwang-gut or yongwang-je, rites for the Dragon King, praying for boats to come back safe, for a big catch and for peace in the village, and the same rites were held at the wells of villages and homes.

The Dragon, the Rat and the Monkey form one of the four harmonious triads (samhap, 삼합): the dragon, the museum says, is a creature made of the rat's clever brain and the monkey's agile body. Dragon and Monkey are drawn to each other — the Dragon to the Monkey's boundless good nature, the Monkey to the Dragon's grandeur — and with the Dragon's strength and the Rat's skill, Dragon and Rat can achieve great things together. The symbols encyclopedia adds the Rooster among the Dragon's friends and names the Dog as the animal it clashes with.

The Pig is the Dragon's wonjin (원진), the animal in conflict with it: "the dragon hates the pig's nose" (龍嫌猪黑面). The dragon embodies all the animals, but of all its grand features it took the pig's nose, and it blames that ugly nose for spoiling its looks; so, in folk matchmaking, Dragon and Pig were often kept apart. Wonjin, the encyclopedia explains, is the resentment that lingers after a quarrel, and it weighs heavily in marriage compatibility.