MASTER WOO MYUNG QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – DRAGONS AND PHOENIXES ARE THOUGHT TO BE IMAGINARY. DO THEY ACTUALLY EXIST?
Why would dragons be called dragons if they did not exist? Dragons do actually exist but they are believed to be imaginary because they rarely appear in front of people. They live deep in the mountains, and they move around at night by flying. There are some dragons in Korea, but only a very few. They live in Mount Jiri and Mount Taebaek. They do not have any wings, but they are able to fly using their scales. In Korea, the saying, “A dragon has been born in a stream” is used to denote a rare occurrence, and this saying comes from the fact that they breed very rarely. They hibernate underground during the winter and feed on reptiles.
There is another saying, “A dragon is ascending to heaven”, but there is no place for dragons to live in heaven. They are simply moving from one place to another by flying. In the olden days, people did not know this so when they saw a dragon flying they thought that it was going to heaven. There are as many dragons in the world now as in the past. They used to appear in front of people in villages, but they have stopped doing so.
The saying, “pulling out a dragon” comes from great sages who would pull out a dragon of fantasy, that is, they would pull out the spirit of a dragon and use it.
Chinese phoenixes also exist. They live in China and they are as tall as a large person. They live in the mountains but are believed to be rare as they are seldom seen and are very few in number.
-Woo Myung-
