The Winged Dragon Who Slew Chiyou
Yinglong is the dragon that grew wings — Guo Pu's commentary separates it from ordinary dragons in one clause: 'a dragon with wings is called yinglong.' The Great Wilderness: East introduces it in the passage on a mound in the far northeast, but lodges the dragon itself at the southern extremity: after it killed Chiyou and Kuafu it could no longer ascend to heaven, and with no rain-making dragon above, the lands below suffered repeated drought. In time of drought people dressed in the likeness of Yinglong, and great rains came — a line of scripture preserving an actual rain-magic rite.
The Great Wilderness: North supplies the battle. Chiyou forged weapons and attacked the Yellow Emperor, who sent Yinglong against him in the wilds of Jizhou. Yinglong's art was hoarding the waters; Chiyou countered by summoning the Lord of Wind and Master of Rain to unleash a tempest, until the Emperor sent down his daughter Ba to stop the storm, and Chiyou was killed. Like the drought-woman, the victorious dragon paid with its power and its place in heaven.
In the Heavenly Questions the poet asks how far the dragon of the rivers and seas ranged and where its work ended; Wang Yi's commentary answers that when Yu tamed the flood, Yinglong drew lines on the earth with its tail to mark the channels. Ren Fang's Shuyiji later ranked it as the dragon's highest grade — five hundred years make a horned dragon, a thousand make a yinglong — and the winged dragons on Han dynasty carved stones bear its shape.
