Ailén said:
Can you also decompose this word?
龍
Ailén said:
As you know, it is the Chinese (not simplified) for "dragon", and comets have been associated with "dragons in the sky". I wonder if you can tell from the different parts of the character. The only one I recognize is "Yue" 月 (bottom right) = 'moon', 'month' and sometimes 'meat/flesh'.
Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as one might think.
Firstly, the radical for "meat" and "moon" are distinctly different, the outer shape is the same, but the difference is in the two lines within that shape.
The radical for moon simply have two vertical lines, while the radical for meat have two diagonal lines, the bottom one slanting downwards, and the bottom line slanting upwards. Even some Chinese people think they are the same character because of their similarities!
However, they have quite different etymological roots:
Moon:
_http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E6%9C%88&submitButton1=Etymology
Meat:
_http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E8%82%89&submitButton1=Etymology
Now, here is the page for the Dragon character:
_http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E9%BE%8D&submitButton1=Etymology
If you look at the link, you would agree with me, perhaps, that the radical for "moon" isn't even present in the modern character as part of a composite ideogram that can be broken down.
If you look at the bronze characters, for instance, it's quite clear that it's a picture of a dragon. The head of the creature seems to resemble the character for moon, so, I think, over time, as the character changed, the radical for moon was used.
In other words, it looks to me like the radical for moon in the present character is supposed to be the head of the dragon, and not anything to do with the moon character itself.
Not all Chinese characters can be broken down in the way you prescribed, in fact, there are lots of different ways that characters have been created:
_http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com/how-chinese-characters-are-formed.html
Perhaps you thought that the character for dragon is a composite ideogram, like the word "wisdom" that I mentioned earlier, but it's more of an ideogram that evolved over time to look like the way it does.
Secondly, the Chinese dragon, as far as I can discern, isn't referring to something that was seen as such, but rather pointing towards a concept that has an alchemical significance more than anything else.
The oriental dragon's features are made up of five different animals. The talons of an eagle, the body of a snake, horns of a ram, scales of a fish and... Something else, different sources say different things, some say a horse is in there somewhere...
Anyway, as far as I can tell, since I've only read sources dating back to the Han dynasty, it's supposed to be a symbol for adapting to the ever changing dynamics of nature. The different animals represent how beings in nature adapt to the ever changing dynamics of the world, and if one can behold the sight of a dragon, then it's supposed to be a sign of being able to hold steadfast to the ever changing way of nature.
The dragon can swim in the deepest oceans (Unconsciousness) and fly in the highest of the heavens (consciousness) , which, OSIT, is a symbol for the goals of meditation (?)
Coupled with that, the dragon is most often depicted as chasing after a flaming pearl, which, I think is plain, refers to the philosopher's stone, the seed, or the golden child.
To summarise, I do not know if the original ideogram refers to "dragons in the sky" as it would appear from cometary bombardments, but, seeing as the Chinese dragon seems to only have positive connotations, and the dragon isn't even a reptilian creature in the strictest sense, I would say that the Western dragon and the Eastern dragon have completely different concepts behind them.
Further more, I might add that the Chinese unicorn, or the Qilin (_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin), is more similar to the chimerical symbolism of the Chinese dragon, and, according to the book I'm reading by Carl Jung, "Psychology and Alchemy", both seem to have alchemical, or internal significances.
