Quora 问答：龙和杜拉更兽有什么区别？

What are the differences between the Chinese Loong and the West Dragon?

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Guo Wei, writing & living in China

Totally different animals.

Chinese loongs have no wings but fly. They live in the water and will bring rain to the world. It is believed that under each of the legendary Four Seas (East, South, West and North) there lives a Loong King who is in charge of everything under that sea. Anyway, there may be a loong in every water, such as wells, rivers and lakes. People think loongs love collecting treasures. And when a loong comes along, you will see plenty of clouds with it, hiding part of its appearance.

Loong is also a symbol of luck, happiness, wealth and power. As a metaphor, we compare husband and wife to Loong and Feng (phoenix). Kings and emperors are incarnations of Loong in the earthly world. And Loongs can be used as house decorations by royal families in the old time for they would protect people from anything evil.

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Sah Lee, Chinese

1. Nature

Dragon, if I understand correctly, is usually an evil creature (more like a monster) that doesn't have intelligence or a personality.

Loong is similar to some kind of god, and have their needs and thoughts. So they decide to be either good or evil, in different stories.

2. Appearance

Dragon shows up naked.

Loong is usually dressed up, human-alike, unless they are out to attack you in their battle-mode.

3. Gender

There are male dragons and female dragons.

There is just male loong.

4. Reproduction

Dragon mates with another dragon and bears baby dragons

Loong mates with all kinds of female creatures and there are various of sons of Loong. (Nine sons of the dragon)

5. Attacking

Dragon attacks by breathing fire.

Loong doesn't breathe fire. The attacking is usually done by flooding because Loong is the god of water systems. Sometimes when the situation escalates, an army of sea creatures (crabs and shrimps, etc.) could also get involved.

6. Flying

Dragon flies with wings and respects the basics of physics.

Loong doesn't have wings. They just... can fly.

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Inaba Rabbit

Allow me to answer in the most dragonologic way possible.

A eastern Loong is seen by the people as a divine spirit and is known to be more benevolent. Its body type is greatly different from the more well known Western dragon, as it has a body not unlike that of a Wyrm. In fact, it is more closely related to the Wyrm than the dragon. Also, the Loong flies not my wings, but by levitation and traveling between spaces. Its diet have been known to compose mainly of fish and other aquatic creatures. It does not hoard treasure nor breath fire as it lacks the igniter under the tongue.

A Western dragon, on the other hand is seen as devilish and evil. It is one of the rare creatures known to demontologists as treasure hoarders and a bearer of more than four limbs. It relies mainly on its large, bat-like wings for flight and possesses a flint-like organ under its tongue known as the igniter. The sole purpose of the igniter is to light the stream of methane and various other gasses produced my the dragon to create a fire-breathing effect. Its diet have been known to include cattle, game (deer, horses, foxes, etc) and the occasional human.

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Michael Chan, lived in China

The western dragon is essentially a fire-breathing dinosaur that can fly with ridiculously tiny wings. They are evil creatures, meant to be taken down by godly and brave knights so they have stories to tell to the next generation.

Chinese dragons, on the other hand, are essentially deities! They are in charge of water bodies (rivers, lakes and seas) and bringing rain to the puny Chinese (and Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Laotian, etc) so that they can have great harvests and lead a good life. They fly without wings and are more snake-like than lizard-like (in Chinese mythology, snakes are cousins to dragons).

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Zoe Ruan, works at Self-Employment

In China, loong is some kind of symbol: power, mystery, emperor blahblahblah. Actually, it doesn't really exist in life. It's a hybrid of several animals like rooster, goat, horse etc. ( In Chinese culture, we have our own zodiac, these animals are gods in zodiac.)

In old days, emperors were more likely to symbolize themselves as "loong in human body." I have mentioned it's never been seen in real life, but in mythology, loong has the power to turn over everything and bless everything. It's mighty as GOD in the Bible. Emperors did that just for adding some mysterious feelings to their life. And the color of loong is always golden, this color was forbidden to be used outside emperors' palace.

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Adrian Marco-Polo Smith, Teacher at Beijing University of Technology (2016-present)

Chinese Dragons are positive, auspicious and highly venerated.

Dragons in Western Lore are synonymous with wanton death and destruction. Not necessarily an evil force, but by nature, a destructive force.

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https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-the-Chinese-Loong-and-the-West-Dragon

（2018年12月14日下载）

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