The Sea of Dungting concealed a mystery beneath its waters. On a hill beside the sea lay a deep opening that seemed to have no bottom. One day, a fisherman passing nearby lost his footing and tumbled into its depths.
Instead of meeting his death, he found himself in a strange underground country. Winding passages led him over hills and through valleys for miles until he finally reached a vast plain. At its centre stood a magnificent dragon castle, surrounded by green slime that rose almost to his knees. The substance was surprisingly edible and tasted much like rice porridge.
At the castle gate, a dragon stood guard, sending water into the air until it dissolved into a fine mist. A smaller, hornless dragon crouched nearby. It raised its head, displayed its claws and refused to let the fisherman enter.
Explore more stories from our The Chinese Fairy Book collection.
For several days, the fisherman remained trapped in the cavern, surviving on the strange green substance. Eventually, he discovered a way back to the surface.
He immediately reported his adventure to the district mandarin, who passed the story to the emperor. Intrigued by the discovery, the emperor summoned a wise man and demanded an explanation.
The Wise Man Reveals the Secret of the Dragon Castle
The wise man explained that the cavern contained four passages. One led to the southwestern shore of the Sea of Dungting, another to a valley in the land of the four rivers, a third to a cave on Mount Lo-Fu, and the fourth to an island in the Eastern Sea.
The castle belonged to the seventh daughter of the Dragon-King of the Eastern Sea. She was entrusted with guarding her father’s enormous treasure, which consisted of countless precious pearls and jewels. Thousands of little dragons served under her command.
The wise man also explained that dragons had particular likes and dislikes. They feared the smell of wax, delighted in beautiful jade, favoured a special hollow green wood known as kung-tsing, and enjoyed eating swallows.
Long ago, he continued, a fisherboy had once dived beneath the water and retrieved a pearl from under the chin of a sleeping black dragon. Because the dragon had been asleep, the boy escaped unharmed. That pearl was only one example of the extraordinary treasures hidden in the Dragon-King’s domain.
The emperor was delighted. If the dragon princess possessed so many precious jewels, he wanted to establish contact with her and obtain some for his imperial treasury. He announced a generous reward for anyone capable of delivering his message to the dragon castle.
The Wrong Messenger Is Turned Away
The first volunteer was a man named So Pi-Lo. But the wise man rejected him immediately. One of his distant ancestors had killed more than a hundred dragons of the Eastern Sea before the dragons finally killed him in return. The feud between the family and the dragons had lasted too long. So Pi-Lo would not be welcomed at the castle.
Next came Lo-Dsi-Tschun, a man from Canton, accompanied by his two brothers. They claimed that their ancestors had been related to the Dragon-King and that the dragons knew and favoured their family. They also possessed a magical stone that could command certain dragons to obey them.
The wise man examined the stone and explained that it worked only on dragons responsible for making clouds and bringing rain. It had no power over the dragons guarding the sea king’s pearls.
The brothers had no knowledge of another substance called dragon-brain vapour, which the wise man believed was necessary for dealing with the treasure guardians.
The emperor asked how they could possibly obtain it.
The wise man explained that foreign merchants sailed the Western Ocean and traded in dragon-brain vapour. He also knew a holy man skilled in taming dragons who had prepared a special dragon-stone. The emperor therefore dispatched messengers to obtain both.
The mission took months. Eventually, they returned with two fragments of dragon-stone from one of the holy man’s disciples and a pill of dragon-brain vapour. At last, the preparations could begin.
The Journey to the Dragon-Princess
The emperor ordered his craftsmen to prepare gifts worthy of the dragon princess. They carved two small boxes from the finest jade and polished them with ashes from the Wutung tree. They also prepared two vases from the special hollow green wood, using sea-fish glue and fire to harden the material.
The messengers received another unusual protection. Their bodies and clothes were rubbed with tree wax, whose smell dragons detested. They were also supplied with five hundred roasted swallows, a delicacy certain to please their hosts.
Armed with the gifts, the three brothers entered the cavern and made their way to the dragon castle.
At the entrance, the little dragon guard caught the smell of wax. Instead of attacking, it crouched down and left them unharmed. The brothers offered it a hundred roasted swallows and asked it to announce their arrival to the dragon princess.
Their request was granted.
When they were brought before the princess, they presented the jade boxes, the vases and the remaining four hundred roasted swallows. She received the gifts graciously and listened as they read the emperor’s letter.
An ancient dragon, more than a thousand years old, lived in the castle. He possessed the ability to take human form and understand human speech. Through him, the princess learned the purpose of the emperor’s message.
She responded generously. In return for the gifts, she sent three great pearls, seven smaller pearls and an entire bushel of ordinary pearls.
The brothers took their leave and travelled on the back of a dragon. Their journey was astonishingly swift. In a moment, they reached the banks of the Yangtze River, from where they continued to Nanking, the imperial capital. There they presented the pearls to the emperor.
The Wise Man Explains the Pearls
The emperor was delighted with the treasure and invited the wise man to examine it.
The wise man identified the three great pearls as one divine wishing-pearl of the third class and two black dragon-pears of medium quality. Of the seven smaller pearls, two were serpent-pearls and five were mussel-pearls. The remaining pearls included those associated with sea cranes, snails and oysters.
Even the ordinary pearls, he explained, were remarkable, though none could rival the three great jewels.
The emperor’s servants were unimpressed by these descriptions. They suspected that the wise man was merely inventing stories about the pearls to make himself appear knowledgeable.
The wise man therefore explained their supposed powers and distinctive features.
A first-class wishing-pearl could shine across forty miles, a second-class pearl across twenty miles, and a third-class pearl across ten miles. Within the reach of their radiance, he declared, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, water, fire and weapons could do no harm.
Black dragon-pearls glowed at night in nine colours and protected everything within their light from the poison of serpents and worms. Serpent-pearls shone in seven colours, while mussel-pearls glimmered in five. The best pearls were those with the fewest blemishes. According to the tale, mussel-pearls also grew and shrank in step with the waxing and waning of the moon.
One of the listeners then asked how serpent-pearls could be distinguished from sea-crane pearls.
The wise man proposed a test.
The Serpent and the Crane
The emperor selected a serpent-pearl and a sea-crane pearl, mixed them with a bushel of ordinary pearls, and scattered the entire collection across the courtyard.
He then ordered a large yellow serpent and a black crane to be brought before the assembled court.
The moment the animals saw the pearls, each reacted in a different way. The crane picked up a sea-crane pearl in its beak and began to dance, sing and flutter about. The serpent seized the serpent-pearl and coiled its body tightly around it.
The spectators watched in astonishment. The animals had identified their respective pearls without hesitation.
The emperor also tested the radiance of the larger and smaller jewels. Their brightness corresponded to the measurements the wise man had described.
At last, the emperor’s servants accepted that the wise man had spoken the truth.
The Emperor Rewards the Messengers
The three brothers had enjoyed extraordinary food in the dragon castle. Its flavours reminded them of flowers, herbs, ointment and sugar. They had brought some of the delicacies back with them, but once exposed to the air, the remnants hardened until they were as solid as stone.
The emperor ordered these fragments to be preserved in the imperial treasury.
He rewarded the three brothers with high ranks and titles, giving each man a thousand rolls of fine silk.
But one mystery remained. The emperor wanted to know why the fisherman had survived his accidental journey into the dragon kingdom when the castle’s guards were so dangerous.
An investigation revealed the answer: the fisherman’s clothes had been soaked in oil and tree wax. Their smell had repelled the dragons and protected him from attack.
Thus, the substance that had helped the fisherman survive also became an essential part of the successful expedition. What began as an accidental fall into a seemingly bottomless hole ended with the emperor’s treasury enriched by extraordinary jewels, the messengers rewarded for their ingenuity, and the wise man’s knowledge finally recognised.
Explore our complete Historic Folklore & Fairy-Tale Collections archive.
Moral
Knowledge, preparation and understanding are often more powerful than force or authority alone. The emperor succeeds because he listens to the wise man’s advice, prepares carefully and respects the customs and preferences of the beings he hopes to approach.
Knowledge Check
1. How did the fisherman discover the dragon kingdom?
He accidentally fell into a deep opening in a hill beside the Sea of Dungting and eventually found a dragon castle underground.
2. Why was So Pi-Lo rejected as a messenger?
His distant ancestor had fought and killed many dragons of the Eastern Sea, creating a family feud that made him unsuitable for the mission.
3. What protected the three brothers at the castle entrance?
The smell of tree wax repelled the dragon guarding the gate, while roasted swallows served as gifts to secure its cooperation.
4. How did the wise man demonstrate the difference between serpent-pearls and sea-crane pearls?
He placed both kinds among ordinary pearls and brought a serpent and a crane into the courtyard. Each animal identified its corresponding pearl.
5. Why did the fisherman survive his encounter with the dragons?
His fishing clothes had been soaked in oil and tree wax, whose smell the dragons feared.
Source
The retelling is based on The Dragon-Princess, Tale XLV, in The Chinese Fairy Book, edited by Richard Wilhelm and translated into English by Frederick H. Martens after original sources.
Explore More The Chinese Fairy Book
