Why does Xilong always play the villain?

In modern works of art, dragons in the East and the West have completely different images. Not only is there a huge difference in appearance, but there is also a difference in status: the Oriental Dragon is always sacred and rarely appears as an evil force. Dragons in the west are basically evil villains and are often killed by humans. So, how did the western dragon slaying culture come from? When it comes to the story of killing dragons in Europe, the most classic routine is that the knight saves the princess. Anyone who knows a little about European history will immediately think of the story of "St. George Slaughtering the Dragon". The earliest record of St. George comes from 322 AD, when Erus Beus, a local bishop in Israel, recorded the general story of St. George in words. According to real historical records, St. George was born around 260 AD, and his family believed in Christianity. St. George later became a Roman cavalry officer, brave and good at fighting, and had a long reputation. In 302 AD, Emperor Diocletian issued a decree and began to persecute Christians in the army. The emperor told St. George that if he could give up Christianity and believe in the Roman God, he would be given wealth and status. But the pious St. George refused, which angered the emperor and was finally beheaded in 303 AD. It is precisely because of St. George's officer status that such a struggle is destined to become a legend. After Constantine the Great achieved religious peace in the Roman Empire, St. George quickly became a legend and was canonized by the church in 494. Next, let's talk about the story of St. George killing dragons in folklore. St. George's written records about the dragon slayer first appeared in the Gregorian calendar text of 1 1 century Asia Minor. This story was mentioned again in the Golden Legend written by Italian Jacob da Varakin in the 3rd century/KLOC. According to this story, in a small country in Libya, people rely on a lake to get domestic water. However, there is a dragon living in the lake, which threatens everyone all the time. According to the dragon's request, people sacrifice two sheep every day. However, this country seems to be very poor, and it didn't take long to sacrifice sheep. The dragon can't get sheep, so he asks people to provide a girl instead every day. People have no choice but to draw lots every day to choose a girl ... but it didn't take long for them to choose the princess of this country. The king didn't want the princess to die, so he begged his subjects to go somewhere else, but everyone refused. There is no choice but to send the princess to the lake. Just then, St. George passed by. He wore armor, held a spear and used a cross to protect himself from harm. Then he killed the dragon ... the blood of the killed dragon flowed all over the floor, forming a cross, which became the source of the English flag pattern: the red cross on a white background. The story of St. George's dragon slaying is widely circulated, and it also appears in various paintings and sculptures. So the paintings you see of St. George killing dragons usually have a beautiful girl in the background, that is, the rescued princess. And a large number of modern dragon slaying stories, especially fairy tales, basically follow this routine: the heroic knight killed the dragon and saved the princess-only modern stories often emphasize the heroism of the knight, and the story of St. George emphasizes the protection of the cross. So it was not ordinary people who killed the dragon, but Christian knights. The story of St. George's killing dragons can basically confirm the fact that 1 1 century later, Christianity has completely controlled Europe, and in order to strengthen the power of faith, dragons have become the ghost of Christians. So, before Christianity controlled Europe, what was the image of the dragon? Is it evil? The film "Beowulf" was completed around the 8th century AD, three heroic epics of Beowulf and European literature. This long narrative poem tells the story of Scandinavian hero Beowulf. Although Beowulf was regarded as a hero by the Anglo-Saxons in Britain in the 8th century, the story itself has nothing to do with Britain: the ancient Danish king Horosz Karl built a great hall and held a grand celebration. As a result, the party caught the attention of the monster Corindo, and it attacked the celebrants. As a result, ancient Denmark began its struggle with monsters. Ten years later, Beowulf, the great Lord of southern Sweden, decided to help ancient Denmark, so he led brave soldiers to fight monsters. When the monster Corindo eats one of Beowulf's men, the hero watches carefully to find the best time to attack. When Glendo rushes to Beowulf, the hero quickly grabs the monster's arm and successfully lets Glendo leave an arm. The injured Grando fled back to his nest and died soon. Later, Beowulf killed the mother of the monster Corindo and became everyone's great hero. At the end of Beowulf's story, it is said that he fought with a fire-breathing dragon and eventually died with it. The feature of this fire-breathing dragon is also the biggest feature of the western dragon: guarding the treasure. According to the legend of Beowulf, an ancient civilization guards ancient treasures. When the last of their people died, a fire-breathing dragon found the treasure and kept it for 300 years. One day, a slave found the treasure and stole a cup for his master. So, the dragon was very angry and began to take revenge on mankind-Beowulf died with the dragon just to save his kingdom. In this ancient legend, the fire-breathing dragon is obviously not the protagonist. But we can also see that in the legend before St. George slaughtered the dragon, it seems that the dragon is not evil: the dragon's task is to protect the treasure and will not take the initiative to be the enemy of mankind unless the treasure is stolen. In this sense, the European dragon in the 8th century was closely related to wealth-in fact, the dragon metaphor means "great wealth is accompanied by danger". Did Vikings have anything to do with Nordic wealth around the 8th century? Of course, it was from the 8th century or so that the Vikings who roamed Europe for hundreds of years invaded the European coast and the British Isles, creating the famous "Viking Age". Although Europeans call them Vikings, for the Vikings themselves, the harsh natural environment forced them to plunder for a living, which is a kind of "heroic behavior"-let's think about the legend of the fire-breathing giant dragon, which just confirms the Viking experience. The British Isles and the European continent are full of wealth. The Vikings have to take bold risks and defeat the enemy to get the treasure! Therefore, Northern Europe in the 8th century had to fight for survival, even if the road was difficult. So in legend, all kinds of hardships encountered in the process of plunder are visualized as a dragon, and it must be defeated to become a hero. Going back hundreds of years, Song of Nibelungen, written in 1200, originated from oral the legend of heroes in the 5th century, where dragons were also the guardians of treasures. In Song of the Nibelungen, the treasure of the dwarf Andrew Labari was robbed by the Vulcan Loki. Angry Andrew Labari cursed one of the rings: whoever gets it will bring disaster. First of all, the cursed dwarf prince fafnir became a dragon because of greed, guarding the treasure and killing everyone who wanted to get close. It was not until Siegfried, the hero of the story, killed the dragon with an Excalibur that this ring spread among the people ... So, before the 5th century, the dragon was not a villain who was an enemy of mankind, but only a guardian of the treasure. In ancient Greek mythology, the golden apple that Hercules wanted was guarded by a hundred dragons. In the story of Jason and golden fleece, the treasure keeper is also a dragon ... the dragon and the treasure. From this, we can know that in the earliest European legends, dragons represent the guardians of treasures and have no evil attributes (at least they will not attack humans actively); But in later legends, in the story of people taking risks for wealth, the huge European dragon gradually strengthened its evil attribute and became the object that human beings can also kill. 165438+In the 20th century, the church began to demonize dragons. At this time, Ou Long was not only the guardian of the treasure, but also the target of the knights' slaughter ... So the image of Xilong changed constantly and gradually became the villain in most film and television works.