龙是中华民族自上古以来一直崇尚的神异动物。但是，它到底是什么呢?至今没人能解释清楚。

Dragon is a deified animal worshipped by the Chinese people from the time immemorial. But what is it? No one knows.

有人认为龙的原型是扬子鳄。但更多的人认为龙是多种动物的综合体，集中了多种动物的神通和特长。汉代学者王充就曾指出过，龙的角像鹿，头如驼，眼睛如兔，颈如蛇，腹似蜃，鳞如鲤，爪似鹰，掌如虎，耳朵像牛。

Some people think that the Yanzi crocodile is the archetype of the dragon. However, most people hold that dragon is a combination of many animals. And the abilities of those animals have been collected to it. Wang Chong, a scholar of Han dynasty, once pointed that the horn of dragon liked deer's one, the head liked camel's one, the eyes liked rabbit's one, the neck liked snake's one, the belly liked clam's one, the squama liked carp's one, the talon liked eagle's one, the palm liked tiger's one and the ear liked cattle's one.

在出土的五千年以前的文物中，人们发现了“玉猪龙”和“玉雕龙”。它们的形象比现在的龙的形象简洁许多。可以想象在其以后的漫长岁月里，人们将更多的动物特长赋予了龙，逐渐地形成了今天我们所能看到的龙的形象。

Among the unearthed cultural relics which have the history of more than five thousands years are there Jade pig dragon and Jade dragon. They are much simpler than the dragon today. We can imagine people had added more characteristics to it after the Jade dragon having been created. Then it turned to the dragon that we know now gradually.

那么，中国古代的先民们为什么要创造出龙的形象呢？很多学者认为是源于对动物的崇拜。在远古时期，狩猎是人类最主要的活动。因而动物是人类在自然界中最感兴趣的对象。原始人要靠捕捉动物果腹，还要躲避那些对自己生命构成威胁的凶猛动物的袭击。在这个过程中，原始人对某些动物的奇异的能力，如可以翱翔于天空、潜游于水底，可以无足而行，可以蛰伏而居等，产生了崇拜和幻想。于是他们把那些奇异的能力综合在一起创造出了能力盖过所有其它动物的龙，对它顶礼膜拜，把它推到神的地位。

Why ancient Chinese people wanted to create a dragon? Many scholars think that it originated from the worship to animals. In remote antiquity the main human activity was hunt. So animals were what people most interested in. Ancient people had to survive from hunting animals which were the main food for them and also had to dodge the attacks which were the threats to their lives from fierce animals. In the course of those activities worships and fancies to the special abilities of those animals including flying in the sky, swimming in the river, walking without feet and hibernating etc. were originated. They put the special abilities together and created the dragon whose power were beyond all other animals. They made dragon a deity and worshiped it thereafter.

后来，龙成了权利和帝王的象征。再后来，龙成了整个中华民族的象征。

Later, dragon became the symbol of power and monarch. Now it is the symbol of the whole Chinese people.