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In the land now called China, in a time long ago, so long ago that not even the grandfather of the oldest man alive had seen it, nor had his grandfather's grandfather, nor had the many grandfathers before him. This was a very long time ago. This was so long ago that there were no rivers or lakes or pools or streams. There was only the Great Sea to the East and the Great Ice to the North. High above the Great Sea there lived four great dragons; Long Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Black Dragon, and Pearl Dragon. They played together in the sky gathering water from one part of the ocean and letting it rain down on another part of the ocean. They did this for many, many centuries. 
Then one day one of the water balls they used in their play almost rolled off the sky. Long dragon went to fetch it, and as he did he looked over the edge of the sky that was over the water and saw down onto the land. When he saw what he saw he called his brother dragons to come look. There were fields where nothing grew. There were barns where cows and pigs were dying. The children were skinny and had nothing to drink. The women had no milk for their babies. The fathers all cried dry tears because there was nothing they could do. The four dragons wept to see such things. They went to the Jade Emperor in his palace high in the sky. "What are you doing here?" the Jade Emperor asked. "Go back to your homes in the sky over the ocean." he thundered. The Four Dragons told him what they had seen; the starving people, the waterless ground, and the dying animals. They begged the Jade Emperor to send water to the people and help them to survive. Eventually the Jade Emperor promised he would help but first the Four Dragons had to go back to their homes over the Great Sea. The four promised to go back and off they went. A while passed and the Four Dragons decided to go see how happy the land people were with all the new water. But when they got there things were worse. They realized that the Jade Emperor had lied to them. He had never intended to give the water to the land people. In their anger the dragons made the decision to take water to the land people on their own. They gathered up their rain balls, and their rain clouds, and their water from the Great Sea and flew all around over the land people and squeezed their rain clouds, and poured their water, and bounced their rain balls, giving the people the water they needed. But when the Ocean Emperor saw this he was furious. It was his decision where the rain would go, where the lakes would form, and where the rivers would run. He went to the Jade Emperor and demanded that something be done to the dragons that disobeyed the orders of both the Ocean Emperor and the Jade Emperor so brazenly. Even though he ruled over the Ocean Emperor the Jade Emperor gave in to him and ordered the Earth Emperor to capture them and place mountains over them from which they could not escape. He ordered the Ocean Emperor to mix salt into his ocean so that no other could use it. But he could not stop the rain that fell all over the land, and even more over the mountains, because the Four Dragons used the last of their magic to turn themselves into four great rivers that could catch the rain and spread it all over the places where there were land people. 
And there they are to this day. The Black Dragon they call Heilongnian River far to the north. The Yellow Dragon became the Huanghe River in central China. The Long Dragon became the Changjiang (also the Yangtze) River that flows across the wide flatlands in the southern central region. The Pearl Dragon flows deep in the south lands, where he is known as the Zhujiang River. And there, because their sacrifice was so great, they flow to this day bringing life to the farmers' plants, food and water for the cows and pigs, and water for the children to drink while they eat the food the farmer grows, and there is plenty of milk for the babies. And this very old story is told even today whenever children ask why there are always dragons in their parades or from where the rivers flow. |
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