Once upon a time, there were
no rivers and lakes on earth, but only the Eastern
Sea, in which lived four dragons: the Long Dragon,
the Yellow Dragon, the Black Dragon and the Pearl
Dragon.
One day the four dragons flew
from the sea into the sky. They soared and dived,
playing at hide-and-seek in the clouds.
"Come over here quickly!" the Pearl Dragon
cried out suddenly.
"What's up?" asked
the other three, looking down in the direction where
the Pearl Dragon pointed. On the earth they saw many
people putting out fruits and cakes, and burning
incense sticks. They were praying! A white-haired
woman, kneeling on the ground with a thin boy on her
back, murmured:
"Please send rain quickly,
God of Heaven, to give our children rice to
eat.." For there had been no rain for a
long time. The crops withered, the grass turned
yellow and fields cracked under the scorching
sun. "How poor the people are!" said
the Yellow Dragon. "And they will die if it
doesn't rain soon." The Long Dragon
nodded. Then he suggested, "Let's go and beg the
Jade Emperor for rain." So saying, he
leapt into the clouds. The others followed closely
and flew towards the Heavenly Palace.
Being in charge of all the
affairs in heaven, on earth and in the sea, the Jade
Emperor was very powerful. He was not pleased to see
the dragons rushing in. "Why do you come here
instead of staying in the sea and behaving
yourselves?"
The Long Dragon stepped forward
and said, "The crops on earth are withering and
dying, Your Majesty. I beg you to send rain down
quickly!"
"All right. You go back
first, I'll send some rain down tomorrow." The
Jade Emperor pretended to agree while listening to
the songs of the fairies.
"Thanks, Your
Majesty!" The four dragons went happily back.
But ten days passed, and not a
drop of rain came down. The people suffered
more, some eating bark, some grass roots, some forced
to eat white clay when they ran out of bark and grass
roots.
Seeing all this, the four
dragons felt very sorry, for they knew the Jade
Emperor only cared about pleasure, and never took the
people to heart. They could only rely on themselves
to relieve the people of their miseries. But how to
do it? Seeing the vast sea, the Long Dragon
said that he had an idea.
"What is it? Out with it,
quickly!" the other three demanded.
"Look, is there not plenty
of water in the sea where we live? We should scoop it
up and spray it towards the sky. The water will be
like rain drops and come down to save the people and
their crops."
"Good idea!" The
others clapped their hands.
"But," said the Long
Dragon after thinking a bit, "we will be blamed
if the Jade Emperor learns of this."
"I will do anything to
save the people," the Yellow Dragon said
resolutely.
"Let's begin. We will
never regret it." The Black Dragon and the Pearl
Dragon were not to be outdone.
They flew to the sea, scooped
up water in their mouths, and then flew back into the
sky, where they sprayed the water out over the earth.
The four dragons flew back and forth, making the sky
dark all around. Before long the sea water became
rain pouring down from the sky.
"It's raining! It's
raining!"
"The crops will be
saved!"
The people cried and leaped
with joy. On the ground the wheat stalks raised their
heads and the sorghum stalks straightened up.
The god of the sea discovered these events and
reported to the Jade Emperor. "How dare
the four dragons bring rain without my
permission!" The Jade Emperor was enraged, and
ordered the heavenly generals and their troops to
arrest the four dragons. Being far outnumbered, the
four dragons could not defend themselves, and they
were soon arrested and brought back to the heavenly
palace.
"Go and get four mountains
to lay upon them so that they can never escape!"
The Jade Emperor ordered the Mountain God. The
Mountain God used his magic power to make four
mountains fly there, whistling in the wind from afar,
and pressed them down upon the four dragons.
Imprisoned as they were, they never regretted their
actions. Determined to do good for the people
forever, they turned themselves into four rivers,
which flowed past high mountains and deep valleys,
crossing the land from the west to the east and
finally emptying into the sea. And so China's four
great rivers were formed -- the Heilongjian (Black
Dragon) in the far north, the Huanghe (Yellow River)
in central China, the Changjiang (Yangtze, or Long
River) farther south, and the Zhujiang (Pearl) in the
very far south.
