Perhaps it is purely coincidental, but I believe it is intentional, deliberate and then move. In January 2024, on the eve of year of the loong, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), a treasure house of English words, showed obvious movement, and turned its attention to China again after many years. The English word "loong" awoke from hibernation, opened his eyes and got up, ready to rise.
For the first time in history, Chinese dragon (loong) has been included in the brand English dictionary, and it is also OED, a recognized word authority in the English-speaking world. Chinese dragon has gone through lexicalization, from loose free combination to tight fixed collocation, and it has been loaded into dictionaries and become a justified lexical unit.
Bronze Dragon with Gold Core in Tang Dynasty Collected in Shaanxi History Museum
The voluminous OED published its first edition in 1928, positioning itself as "the most authoritative record of English language". The second edition was launched in 1989, with a total of 20 volumes. After that, three small volumes of Addendum Series of Oxford English Dictionary were published one after another, adding new words and meanings and revising existing contents. In 2000, OED integrated the second edition and the addendum series, and launched a paid online edition. Since then, OED has gone online and updated online every quarter, providing readers with some results of the third edition under editing.
OED was updated in the fourth quarter of 2023 and was not officially launched until January 2024. Among them, the new entry, Chinese dragon, is complete and comprehensive in content, including pronunciation, etymology, definition, documentary evidence (quotation, a written example with a source), cross reference (two words are complementary to each other), and the collection history of entries (time information shows that Chinese dragon was first published in December 2023). Prior to this, Chinese dragon was not included in the traditional brand dictionaries in the English-speaking world, and it was only mentioned in the definitions or examples of other terms at most.
Chinese dragon has two definitions in OED. The first one focuses on the physical entity, which refers to the image or statue of loong, and the second one focuses on the psychological projection, which refers to the animals in China mythology, covering the first definition. The following is the second definition of Chinese dragon, which is rich in content and three-dimensional:
A mythological creature or god associated with China,depicted in a variety of different animal forms but typically as a serpent with four limbs, And symbolizing wisdom, fortune, and power. Also: such a creative viewed as a personification of China or its former empire. (The god beast or spirit related to China is depicted as various animal forms, but it is basically a four-legged snake, symbolizing wisdom, fate and power. In addition, this beast is also regarded as the embodiment of China or the former empire)
OED’s documentary evidence shows that as early as 1754, the Chinese dragon group had appeared in the literature, and the Italian Letter written by Earl Irish aristocracy Orie. The latest documentary evidence is taken from the English Shanghai Daily on August 7, 2013:
The Chinese dragon is the greatest symbol of power and good fortune and no traditional festival is complete without an undetermined dragon dance. (loong is the grandest symbol of power and luck, and traditional festivals are complete only with undulating dragon dances.).
Before Chinese dragon became an independent word, the English translation of "dragon" was generally based on bare dragon. However, the traditional dragon in the West is the embodiment of evil, and its negative image is deeply rooted in people’s hearts. OED defines dragon as follows: "The mythical monster is a giant and terrible reptile, which often combines the body structure of snakes and crocodiles, with strong claws, like beasts or raptors, scales and wings, and can breathe fire sometimes."
Tang Chi Jin Zou Long Shaanxi History Museum
Loong looks like a dragon in the west, but there are key differences. That’s why English adds Chinese decoration in front of dragon to define and distinguish it. This Chinese dragon group appeared in written records in the middle of the 18th century, which indicated that English speakers at that time had realized the differences between loong and Western Dragons.
Loong is different from the Western Dragon, which is clearly reflected in the other two large authoritative dictionaries. One is Webster’s Third Edition New International English Dictionary published in 1961, which is a very large single-volume modern English dictionary published in the United States. Webster’s does not include Chinese dragon, but the definition of dragon gives loong a meaning, saying that it is a beneficial supernatural creation in Chinese mythology connected with rain and floods (a miraculous animal in China mythology, kind and generous, related to rain and floods).
The second is the New Oxford English Dictionary published in 1998, which is a large-scale single-volume modern English dictionary based on corpus, and has nothing to do with OED. Chinese dragon is not included in New Oxford either, but in the definition of dragon, loong’s goodness and auspiciousness are pointed out: in East Asia, the dragon is naturally a beneficial symbol of fertility, associated with water and the treasures. (In East Asia, dragons are mostly kind and generous, symbolizing wealth, which is related to water and heaven).
What these two large authoritative modern English dictionaries reveal is that even though loong has no other entries and is included separately, the semantics of dragon has been divided, which clearly shows that the dragon of western traditional culture is one piece, and the dragon of China traditional culture is another piece, which is related to each other but different. Dictionaries reflect the current situation of language, which means that such cognition has a sufficient mass base in the English world.
Some theorists believe that translating China’s dragon into English is a huge mistake, which must be dealt with seriously and corrected thoroughly. Now, it seems that it is no longer necessary. All kinds of evidence show that dragon can also refer to loong, which is different from the Western Dragon. If there are doubts about semantics and the context is ambiguous, it must be made clear that this dragon is loong, and it can be easily resolved by putting Chinese before Dragon. The literature also shows that Chinese dragon has been used for more than 200 years, and the relevant evidence of various corpora is overwhelming. On the eve of year of the loong, Jiachen was certified and included by OED, so it should be no problem to translate China dragon into Chinese dragon.
Of course, if the English of "long" wants to find another way, it is also a way worth trying with the help of the transliteration of Long. Dragon is one of the core features of Chinese culture, and the English translation of cultural characteristic words is always based on phonetics, which is universally applicable. Transliteration highlights the main body of culture and expresses cultural self-confidence. However, English as a non-native language is not our decision, and it is only effective if it is widely recognized by English speakers. This road is long.
Author: Zeng Taiyuan
Text: Zeng Taiyuan Professor, English Department, Shanghai Sanda University Researcher, Corpus Application and Research Center Photo: Editor: Chen Shaoxu Editor: Li Chunyi
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