Why is the dragon's status so low in the westward journey?

"Dragon" has always been the immortal totem symbolizing the great spirit of the Chinese nation, the object of worship of China people and the symbol of imperial power, but it has an extremely embarrassing position in the classic The Journey to the West.

Although the four seas dragon king is in charge of the four seas, in fact, his power is not great. Jinghe Wang Gai was killed after the rainfall point. In addition, King Jinghe was killed by a demigod Wei Zhi, which made people different. Once the Dragon King was beheaded by a mortal in his dream, which shows that the status of "Dragon" in heaven is not high.

The Dragon King of the East China Sea was bullied by the Monkey King, but he has not yet become an immortal. He sent anchor needles and seven treasures in the sea, but only his own. He called the immortals one by one. What is the empty meaning of opening a dragon king?

After the Jade Emperor invited the Tathagata Buddha to subdue the monkey (the Monkey King), all the immortals at the "An Tian Conference" ate "dragon liver and phoenix marrow"!

Uncle Tathagata's golden-winged Dapeng carving eats 500 little dragons every day. Oh, my god ... dragons are actually kept in captivity by heaven and are for immortals to eat. What is the difference between this and livestock?

The hierarchical differentiation of heaven

In fact, the immortals in The Journey to the West all represented the bureaucrats and people in the ancient feudal society, just as those immortals with backers were taken away and those without backers were killed by a stick, which reflected a social injustice at that time.

In the Journey to the West, the dragon's official position is low, and the four seas dragon king lives on earth, not in heaven, and his official position is equivalent to the "office" of heaven, while the four seas dragon king is only the "office director" of heaven. Although the dragon king is higher than the land god, he is definitely not a senior official in charge of power. Most of the people in power in heaven are immortals after cultivation (such as Laozi, Taishang Laojun, and immortals on the list of gods).

This shows that the Dragon King is only an office director. How tall can other members of the dragon be?

"Dragon" is a symbol and has no practical significance.

Dragon is very strong. This is a preconceived view. The Buddha once said in the chapter "True and False Monkey King": "There are five immortals on Sunday, who are gods and ghosts of heaven and earth; There are five insects, Mao Yukun and the scales of grass. " It can be seen that the dragon is not classified as a fairy, but belongs to the "scale" of insects, which shows that the status of the "dragon" itself is not high.

The embarrassing position of "dragon" in The Journey to the West is because "dragon" is just a symbol in the history of China civilization and culture, which has no practical significance and is flashy.

The prototype of Taishang Laojun is Lao Zi, the author of Tao Te Ching, the founder of Taoism, and a famous philosopher and thinker in ancient China.

The prototype of Tathagata is Sakyamuni, the son of Nepalese King Fan Jing, the founder of Buddhism.

"Dragon" is particularly humble in their light, and it is natural that "Dragon" becomes a supporting role.