What is the position of dragons in the journey to the west?

In the eyes of China people, the dragon is a symbol of good luck and auspicious spirit, and it is a very tall species.

In addition to claiming to be the son of heaven, the emperor is still a dragon, sitting in a dragon chair and wearing a dragon robe. Fortunately, he didn't call this palace the Dragon Palace.

But strangely, in the world of westward journey, the status of dragons is quite low, even lower than that of monkeys (the Monkey King) and pigs (Bajie).

Let's look at a few cases—

1, King Jinghe beheaded at will. Although he disobeyed the jade emperor's orders and slightly changed the time and amount of rain, it was no problem for him to do so before, and it was no problem for others to do so, and it was no problem for Yuan Shoucheng, a fortune teller. He was beheaded this time, just because one person had to be sacrificed to promote the Buddhist scripture project, which was actually a sacrifice.

2. The Dragon King of the East China Sea was bullied many times. First, being bullied by Nezha, his son was not only killed but also cramped. The Monkey King went into the sea to ask for gold cudgels and clothes, but he swallowed his anger and went to heaven to complain, but the Jade Emperor still courted him, which was tantamount to ignoring him.

3. Little White Dragon was ridden by Tang Priest. As the second generation of the dragon, he is also very awesome, but he turns out to be a beast. After arriving in the Western Heaven, although it sounds good, it is called Guangli Bodhisattva, but it is actually just a dragon guarding the Hua Biao. In today's words, he is just a senior security guard in the west. His job is huabiao (please see the original).

4. After Tathagata put the Monkey King at the foot of Wuxing Mountain, there was a dish called Ganlongfengsui at the meeting in An Tian. Some people say that this is just to describe the preciousness of food, but in myths and legends, there are often records of eating dragons in heaven.