Dragon Gate

quote

 "On the Yellow River at Hunan is a waterfall called the Dragon Gate. It is said that if certain carp called Yulong can climb the cataract they will transform into dragons. Every year in the third month of spring they swim up from the sea and gather in vast numbers in the pool at the foot of the falls. It used to be said that only seventy one could make the climb in any year. When the first succeeded, then the rains would begin to fall. This Dragon Gate was said to have been created after the Flood by the god-emperor Yu who split a mountain blocking the path of the Yellow River. It was so famous that throughout China there was a common saying that: 'a student facing his examinations is like a carp attempting to leap the Dragon Gate.' Hunan is not the only place where this happens. Many other waterfalls in China also have the name Dragon Gate and much the same is said about them. Other famous Dragon Gates are on the Wei River where it passes through the Lung Sheu Mountains and at Tsin in Shanxi Province." - Leaping the Dragon Gate

http://www.egreenway.com/dragonsrealms/DT3.htm

unquote

 I was looking for the Hokusai (Gakutei) painting of Carp Leaping Up Waterfall that I used as reference for the scratchboard DragonFish that I did for Palomar class scratcboard project, and found the above site...Mike's assignment was to make a scratchboard combining the shapes of two animals...on hearing that, I immediately recalled Disney's 'BumbleLion' and such plush toys!...strictly speaking, I was hardly a student at Palomar...I was fiftytwo. or thereabout, with one college degree in English, and part of another in Marine Science, and I'm not sure what kind of achievement working in Disney maintenance for seven years was in regard to art and artistry, but it was an education in the mix...so, unlike the younger students, I could really go off on tangents...the DragonFish was one...Mike gave us a handout to get started, on it little thumbnails of animals, and a carp caught my eye, and researching at home on the web, I happened on the lore of carp in China and Japan...there's a lot of lore, and I could go on and on...the quote above has something new to me, that term 'Dragon Gate'...I changed the title of the post from DragonFish to Dragon Gate...now, I'm not adverse to making symbolic art!...and let me explain the scratchboard...the odd looking motif on the boarder represents rain drops, and upper and lower Falls, these are falling and join together into a stream meandering through boulders back to the ocean where the rain drops came from, and above the ocean are the stars, and Moon that the DragonFish is trying to catch...the bit about the students' acomplishments I thought appropo to my classroom surroundings, but there was a more telling tale in the lore that I found concerning the Dragon Boat Races...

 quote

 Main article: Qu Yuan The story best known in modern China holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty.[11] A cadet member of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason.[11] During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River. It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.[11]

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival

 end quote

...from English literature lore, I saw in this tale something of the tale of Suibne, which is another tale all toghether!...two of my wow characters are named Suibne and Subien...I'll have to find my old sestina about Subien...for sometime!....

 quote

 ...the poetry in the story of Suibhne is rich and accomplished, and the story itself of the mad and exiled king who composes verse as he travels has held the imagination of poets through to the twentieth century. At every stop in his flight, Suibhne pauses to give a poem on the location and his plight, and his descriptions of the countryside and nature, as well as his pathos, are central to the development of the text.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buile_Shuibhne

unquote

Grave's account of the Suibhne tale in his book The White Goddess is somewhat different...There's a battle to be fought, but before, the Druids from the opposing sides meet on a hill to discuss the conduct of the battle to come...Suibhne suspects his side's Druid of treachery, and tosses his spear at him on the hill top. It misses, and the Druid tosses back a handfull of straw, which casts a magic spell on Suibhne,.. he develops the 'flying sickness'...he can't stay on the ground, and flies off naked into the treetops, grows feathers, and joins the Birds...and from the treetops,  he recites poems and such, often lamenting his fate...hadn't intended to go so far afield!...the discerning might have noted that the persona in the entire blog is "Subien"...and that I'm not adverse to symbolism! ...sunny hazy blue warm  ...I really like the look of the redwood shelves combined with the pine uprights in the little model, and went to Home Depot to try and see what woods I can get...found redwood 2x4s with unrounded edges that I can join together for shelves, and table top for the Farmer's Table too, but they're so wet, like they cut the tree down yesterday...but price wise, it's possible to put together such a bookshelf with the construction grade woods...they will likely warp and become misshapen over time...a dried 2"x12"x10' redwood plank with un-rounded edges for a shelf is likely to cost a bundle...oh....Hummingbird was the second watercolor I did in class (from national geographic pic)...there's a lot of Koo Loo Loo lore in American Indian cultures!...oh...I found Carp painting, a woodblock print by Gakutei, and note that I went so far as to put Dolphin/Killer Whale dorsal and pectoral fins on DragonFish!...oh, and one more quote (link is "Moon" above)

quote


There is nothing absurd about this suggestion of swallowing the moon. Celestial dragons are, in reality, personifications of clouds; and among the most primitive and widespread impressions respecting lunar eclipses is the notion that a monster is devouring the moon. Dark and writhing clouds advancing as if alive, and finally extinguishing its light, might easily suggest a similar thought; and it was a matter of early experience that after these hungry cloud-dragons had completed their feast, fertilizing rain usually blessed the thirsty fields and pastures, so that the dragons got the credit. Hence artists liked to represent these public benefactors playfully contending for the opportunity to devour the 'queen of night' and so produce a crop-saving fall of showers for which they (the dragons) would enjoy grateful appreciation. Incidentally, artists note that a pair of their graceful figures make a well-balanced composition. The moon and water are closely connected in all mythologies; hence the moon is closely linked with fertilizing agencies in general. Faith in the moon's influence on the weather lingers strongly in the mind of rural communities even in these progressive United States of America; and it is easy to believe that the dragon-thanking agriculturists and shepherds of China felt assured that the rain-giving will and power of their celestial friends were refreshed by frequently absorbing this bright and stimulating object in the sky.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/ddl/ddl12.htm

unquote