Zhulong (Torch Dragon)

The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness North Classic records: Beyond the northwestern sea, north of the Red River, lies Zhangwei Mountain, where dwells a deity with a human face and serpentine body, entirely red in hue; its eyes are upright and gaze straight ahead. When it closes its eyes, darkness falls; when it opens them, light appears. It neither eats, sleeps, nor breathes, commands wind and rain, illuminates the Nine Yins, and is thus named Zhulong. The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Overseas North Classic identifies it as the Deity of Zhongshan Mountain—its gaze brings day, its slumber brings night, its blowing brings winter, and its exhalation brings summer. In Qu Yuan’s ‘Heavenly Questions’, the line ‘Where does the sun not reach? How then does Zhulong shed light?’ alludes to the far northern regions beyond the sun’s reach, where illumination depends solely upon Zhulong holding aloft its torch. Zhulong is a primordial, cosmogonic deity who governs the fundamental rhythms of day and night, light and darkness.