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The Dragon King in Chinese Mythology

The Dragon King (龍王, Longwang) is the Chinese god of rain and water. Popular belief gave each of the four seas its own Dragon King, who lived in a palace under the waves, sent rain when Heaven ordered it and protected people at sea. He appears in temples, in Journey to the West and in many old tales.

Updated November 2, 2026

Longwang, the rain god

The Dragon King is the dragon (龍, long) turned into a god who rules water and brings rain.

Britannica says the Chinese dragon was originally a rain divinity, a beast of rivers, lakes, oceans and sky. Of four kinds of dragon in ancient thought, popular belief kept two, the earth dragon of the waterways and the spiritual dragon of rain and wind, and turned them into the Dragon Kings: gods of the four oceans who delivered rain and protected seafarers.

Journey to the West (西遊記, Xiyouji) shows that a Dragon King does not choose the weather himself. In chapter 10, the Dragon King of the Jing River bets a fortune teller about the next day’s rain, then changes the hour and amount the Jade Emperor ordered so he can win. For breaking Heaven’s law he is beheaded in a dream by the minister Wei Zheng.

The Dragon Kings of the Four Seas

The best-known names for the four sea dragons come from Journey to the West, where they are brothers.

  • East Sea: Ao Guang (敖廣), the eldest brother.
  • South Sea: Ao Qin (敖欽).
  • West Sea: Ao Run (敖閏).
  • North Sea: Ao Shun (敖順).

In chapter 13, Investiture of the Gods (封神演義, Fengshen yanyi) lists them as Ao Guang (written 敖光), Ao Shun, Ao Ming (敖明) and Ao Ji (敖吉).

Dragon palaces under the water

A Dragon King holds court in a palace under the sea or lake he rules, often called the Crystal Palace (水晶宮, Shuijing gong).

In the Tang tale of Liu Yi, a visitor reaches the palace under Dongting Lake by knocking three times on a great orange tree, and a warrior rises from the waves to lead him down. Pu Songling’s tale of the Luocha Country describes a sea palace with beams of tortoiseshell, tiles of fish scales and four crystal-bright walls.

Chinese dragon vs Western dragon

The Chinese long is a lucky rain spirit, while the dragon of medieval Europe was usually a fire-breathing enemy.

Chinese dragon (long 龍)Western dragon (medieval Europe)
BodyFour legs, a scaled, snakelike body, horns and clawsLizard- or serpent-like; the Greek word drakōn first meant any large serpent
WingsUsually wingless, though counted among the powers of the airUsually winged, with a barbed tail
ElementWater: rivers, lakes, seas and rainFire: it breathes it
CharacterBeneficent, linked to Heaven’s favour and fertilityMostly evil
Symbol ofYang, and the imperial familySin and paganism in Christian art, shown beneath the heels of saints; also a war emblem

The Dragon King in Journey to the West

In chapter 3 of the Ming novel, Sun Wukong takes his famous staff from Ao Guang’s palace under the East Sea.

Wukong finds a steel fork and a halberd too light. The dragon queen and daughter point out a glowing pillar of divine iron that, Ao Guang says, Yu the Great used to fix the depth of the waters when he tamed the floods. It shrinks at Wukong’s will, and its inscription reads “Ruyi jingu bang” (如意金箍棒), weight 13,500 jin. The other three kings then hand him cloud-stepping boots, golden chain mail and a phoenix-winged cap.

Nezha and the Dragon King in Investiture of the Gods

In Investiture of the Gods, the child Nezha kills the East Sea Dragon King’s son, and the Dragon Kings demand a life in return.

In chapter 12, Nezha bathes where the Nine-Bend River (九灣河) meets the East Sea, and his red silk sash shakes the Crystal Palace. He kills the yaksha sent to look, then the Dragon King’s third son, Ao Bing (敖丙), and pulls the sinew from the dragon’s body to make a belt for his father, Li Jing. In chapter 13 the four Dragon Kings hold Nezha’s parents. To free them, Nezha cuts open his own body to return his flesh and bones, and dies. In chapter 14 his teacher Taiyi Zhenren builds him a new body from lotus.

Dragon King temples and rain prayers

Dragons were asked for rain from early times, and emperors prayed at Dragon King temples.

Britannica notes that rain rituals as early as the 6th century BCE used a dragon image carried by dancers. In Beijing’s Summer Palace, a Dragon King Temple on South Lake Island in Kunming Lake was kept for rain prayers. Beijing’s tourism bureau says the Jiaqing emperor renamed it Guangrun Lingyu Temple, and that the Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng emperors prayed for rain there in person or through ministers.

The Story of Liu Yi: the dragon princess

The Story of Liu Yi (柳毅傳, Liu Yi zhuan) is a Tang-dynasty chuanqi, or tale of marvels, credited to Li Chaowei (李朝威). It is not by Pu Songling.

The scholar Liu Yi, heading home after failing the examinations, meets a young woman herding sheep near Jingyang. She is the youngest daughter of the Dragon Lord of Dongting Lake. Her husband, the second son of the Jing River dragon, has grown cold to her, and his parents have sent her out to herd “sheep” that are really rain workers (雨工). Liu Yi carries her letter to Dongting. Her uncle, the Lord of Qiantang, flies off as a huge red dragon and returns with her, saying he has eaten the heartless husband. Liu Yi refuses Qiantang’s demand that he marry her, but years later his new wife, a woman of the Lu family, reveals that she is the Dongting princess.

Dragons in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異, Liaozhai zhiyi) has several dragon tales, including these two.

  • The Luocha Country and the Sea Market (羅剎海市). Ma Ji, a merchant’s son, is led through a parted sea to the palace of the Eastern Sea’s Dragon King, writes a poem on the sea market and marries the king’s daughter. Three years after he goes home, he finds their twin children on the sea.
  • The Princess of West Lake (西湖主). On Dongting Lake the secretary Chen Bijiao frees a wounded zhupolong (豬婆龍, in Giles’s gloss a “pig old-woman dragon”). Shipwrecked a year later, he finds a hidden palace: the creature was the lake king’s consort, and Chen marries her daughter.

Read it as a story

A Debt of Dragons is a manhwa-style comic drawn from tales by Pu Songling. Hong Mei poles the ferry at Willow Crossing and charges the drowned half fare. She pulls an arrow out of a golden carp; the fish is the Eighth Prince of the lake’s dragons, bound to her lamp until he saves her life. The Lake Court has plans of its own. The first 20 comic chapters are free. The novel is A Debt of Dragons, Book One, and the first 10 novel chapters are free.

A Debt of Foxes is a comic also drawn from tales by Pu Songling, about a clerk in an office of the dead and her fox surety, Nine.

More legends: The Nine-Tailed Fox, The Legend of the White Snake, Wuxia vs xianxia, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

Questions about the Dragon King

Who are the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas?
In Journey to the West they are four brothers: Ao Guang of the East Sea, Ao Qin of the South Sea, Ao Run of the West Sea and Ao Shun of the North Sea. Investiture of the Gods lists Ao Guang, Ao Shun, Ao Ming and Ao Ji.
Is the Dragon King good or evil?
Mostly good: he brings the rain farmers need and protects people at sea. Heaven does punish a Dragon King who misuses the rain, as the Jing River dragon learns in Journey to the West.
What is the difference between a Chinese dragon and a Western dragon?
The Chinese long is a usually wingless rain spirit linked to good fortune and the emperor. The dragon of medieval Europe usually has wings, breathes fire and stands for evil.
Did Pu Songling write the story of Liu Yi and the dragon princess?
No. The Story of Liu Yi is a Tang-dynasty tale credited to Li Chaowei, centuries older than Pu Songling’s book.

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