The nine sons of the dragon is a traditional name for a set of mythological creatures whose imagery is used in certain types of decorations. The concept was first mentioned by Lu Rong in the Ming Dynasty, although similar set of creatures (not necessarily nine) is recorded even earlier.
The oldest known attestation of the children of the dragon list is found in the Miscellaneous records from the bean garden (Chinese: 菽園雜記) by Lu Rong (1436–1494); however, he noted that the list enumerates mere synonyms of various antiques, not children of a dragon.[1]
Several Ming Dynasty texts list what were claimed as the Nine Offspring of the Dragon, and subsequently these feature prominently in popular Chinese stories and writings. There are four principal versions of the list:
Below are all the creatures mentioned in these lists:
| Placing | Shape | Names | Fond of | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lu Rong | Li Dongyang | Yang Shen | Fang Yizhi | |||||
| under steles | turtle | heavy weights | ||||||
| tops of steles | dragon | literary talent | ||||||
| under bridges | lizard | water | ||||||
| bronze vessels | beast | food | ||||||
| sword handles | demon | murder | ||||||
| roof corners | dragon | gazing | ||||||
| roof ridges | fish | swallowing fire | ||||||
| roof ridges | dragon | wind and rain | ||||||
| door knockers | lion | absorbing evil | ||||||
| door knockers | spiral shell | shutting its mouth | ||||||
| tower tops | small dragon | peril | ||||||
| roof corners | phoenix | peril | ||||||
| incense burners | lion | smoke | ||||||
| Buddha thrones | lion | sitting | ||||||
| bell tops | small dragon | roaring | ||||||
| prison gates | tiger | confronting | ||||||
| patrolling routes | mermaid | being aware | ||||||
| lutes | yellow dragon | music | ||||||
As seen in the table, some names are assigned to different creatures by different authors. Aside from these names, there are other variants in use, such as for the dragons depicted on the tops of steles, or for the turtle found beneath the steles. The word "dragon head" may be applied to some of the mentioned structures.
Some of these creatures are based on earlier mythological beasts, such as pulao or bixi, but most of them have no other mythological background and are merely used as names for decorative structures.
There are other creatures that have features of the dragon, but are not listed among the "nine sons of the dragon", including Kirin, Longma, Pixiu, and Denglong
In 2012's year of the Dragon, Shanghai Mint issued two sets of coins featuring nine sons of the dragon, one in silver[2] and one in brass.[3] Each coin in the nine-coin sets depicts one of the nine sons. A 10th additional coin was issued depicting the father dragon in silver[4] and brass,[5] which has iconography of the nine sons on the reverse, for a total of 20 coins in the series.[6]