Cult of Gods

Dragon Kings

Also: Lóngwáng

Chinese tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
rain, the four seas
Symbols and attributes
Dragon; underwater palace
The Jade Emperor, a Ming dynasty painting.
The Jade Emperor, a Ming dynasty painting.

Key myth

Four Dragon Kings rule the four seas, and prayers for rain go to them. They appear in Fengshen Yanyi and Journey to the West, where Sun Wukong takes his staff from the East Sea.

Primary sources

  • Journey to the West
  • Fengshen Yanyi

All sources for the Chinese pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

PángǔFúxīNǚwāYellow EmperorShénnóngHòu YìCháng'éQueen Mother of the WestJade EmperorKitchen GodGuan YuMazuDragon KingsYanluo

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorsePapyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.Hindu

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Dragon Kings: sea and waters, sky, storm and thunder. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Thor

thunder, protection of gods and people, strength

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Norse

Ægir

the sea, brewer of the gods' ale

Norse

Rán

drowning, the sea's net

Egyptian

Nun

the primeval waters

Egyptian

Shu

air, sunlight

Egyptian

Tefnut

moisture, the lion's rage

Compare across cultures