Are You A Dragon?
Moral: Empathy, compassion and self sacrifice.
In this saga we will discover how the four rivers of China were created people believed there were no rivers or lakes on earth only the eastern sea where four dragons lived. They were the long dragon, the yellow dragon, the black dragon and the pearl dragon.
One day while out flying in the skies soaring amongst the clouds the pearl dragon paused in the air noticing the people down below offering fruits, cakes and decorations of burning incense. The dragons watched noticing an old white haired woman as she kneel to the ground with a small frail boy strapped upon her back clasping her hands as she began reciting a prayer to the god of heaven asking for rain so that the people may tend their fields in order to grow rice to feed their children. The yellow dragon after seeing the woman looked to the ground noticing she was in fact right the ground was dry, scorched by the sun and bare of crops. The yellow dragon knew if they did nothing to save the people they would surely die. The long dragon agreed and suggested they visit the jade emperor to beg for rain flying off up into the air as the others followed close behind.
The four dragons flew to the heavenly palace to meet with the jade emperor who was very powerful and was in charge of all affairs in heaven, the sea and down on earth. The long dragon was the first to step forward and explained all the crops on earth were withered and the people dying, begging for rain. The emperor agreed he would send rain the following day as long as the dragons promised to return home. The dragons happy with the emperors response returned back to the sea keeping their promise.
After ten days passed without a single drop of rain the people were so desperate they were forced to to eat bark, grass roots and white clay to survive. This upset the dragons seeing the people suffer and that the jade emperor did not care for them as he said he would and only concerned in taking care of his own pleasures this forced the dragons to come up with a plan of their own to help the people.
The long dragon devised a plan and explained it to the others they would collect up water from the sea spraying it over the clouds until full causing rain to fall and save the people and their crops. After thinking on this plan a little longer the long dragon realized this act would have consequences if they were caught. Weighing up everything up the four dragons agreed on the plan and got to work until they were done. The people jumped and cheered over the rain watching as the ground began to crack and out appeared wheat stalks.
However the dragons actions had not gone unnoticed the sea god had seen everything and reported back to the emperor enraging him. He demanded the dragons be captured and brought before him at the heavenly palace. Once the dragons arrived the jade emperor ordered the mountain god to place four separate mountains out across the land burring a dragon below each one.
The dragons were imprisoned and separated from one another but did not regret their actions and vowed to do good for the people regardless turning themselves into long flowing rivers forming the Heilongjian river (black dragon), the Huanghe river (yellow dragon), the Changjiang river (long dragon) and the Zhujiang river (pearl dragon).
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