Story 6 of Paul Taylor's Dragon Claims
From EvoWiki
Claim: Thousands of dragon stories and pictures can be found in ancient Chinese books and art. One interesting legend tells about a famous Chinese man named Yu. After the great world flood, Yu surveyed the land of China and divided it into sections. He "built channels to drain the water off to the sea" and helped make the land livable again. Many snakes and "dragons" were driven off from the marshlands when Yu created the new farmlands. Some old Chinese books even tell of a family that kept "dragons" and raised the babies. It is said that in those days, Chinese kings used "dragons" for pulling royal chariots on special occasions. Ancient Chinese books even tell of people using dragon's blood, fat, brains, and saliva for medicine.
Rebuttal: Plenty wrong with this claim. There is no Acanthopholis remains found in China. Acanthopholis was actually a English dinosaur that lived 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now the UK, not the fabled Chinese dinosaur/dragon as seen in the book, video, and site.
Paul got this myth found on pages 42-43 from an ancient Buddhist resource that in one part tells of 2 dragons that flown from the heavens down to earth and were tamed and gentled by a man named Liu lie who was taught by a family of dragon tamers and eventually became known as the Dragon Ruler and Feeder for the Emperor; providing water and meat for them to eat and drink. Acanthopholis never ate meat. The dragons that pull the chariot of the Emporer as mentioned in the Mythical Monsters book as well as in the ancient Chinese writings known as The Chinese Classics actually flew way up in the air pulling the Emperor in his chariot among the clouds and above the sea and are also said to have pulled the chariot for the gods as well. Except birds, no dinosaur ever flew.
The claim about Yu's clearing of the swamps for farming; driving away dragons (possibly Chinese alligators) and snakes in the process are also found in the Mythical Monsters book as well. This along with an ancient volume of writings made by a Chinese translator is possibly where Paul and other YECs got their fabricated ideas of dragons being dinosaurs from other than the rest of the ancient literature.
The family may have kept Chinese alligators as pets, which has known to be called dragons at that time and were worshiped as gods by the people of China for many centuries. There were once saltwater crocodiles living in China's rivers, but they were exterminated by the Chinese around a thousand years ago. This must have been the inspiration behind the written accounts of 2 families who were known to raise dragons as pets as depicted in the Chinese classic literature.
If what Marco Polo have said in his writings about the Emperor's chariots being pulled by dragons were true, then Kublai Khan, the great Emperor of China, on special occasions, actually had alligators pull his chariot, not dinosaurs, or that Kublai Khan had gold statues of dragons pulling a chariot in the Imperial Treasury. Otherwise this is just one of the many made up tales Marco Polo made up to entertain the people; getting the concept from the ancient Buddhist writings he saw over there. Except birds, No dinosaur were around during Kublai Kahn's time, nor in all other people's time either. Not one dragon in Chinese folklore ever resembled dinosaurs. Most, if not some, of Marco's writings were entirely all made up as an attempt to entertain the reader, which includes his sightings of dragons over there which are made up of Lindorms or Lindworms as illustrated here in his book The Book of Marvels and Wyverns that swallow elephants, and explains how the Chinese used methods to dragon proof their clothing. No way are they dinosaurs nor do they look like them. Some people believed that what Marco have saw were actually just snakes, alligators, and crocodiles. The Chinese Dragon actually looked like this. Some parts of his tales however were based on his actual adventures of what he saw over there in China and what he heard from the merchants coming from China, speaking of things in China that the Europeans have never heard of such as paper money, express mail, and coal.
Finally, the Chinese actually used only fossilized bones and teeth of dinosaurs and other extinct animals. It seems highly unlikely did ancient Chinese apocatheries get the opportunity to use dragons' blood, saliva, fat, and brains like what it is said in Legge's Chinese literature to make medicine, unless they used those of the alligator's. Instead of just bones and teeth of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, The Chinese also used oyster shells, bear biles, tiger bones, seal penises and rhinoceros horns in making medicine to cure all sorts of ailments from headaches to the common cold. It is said that Confucius remarked, upon reading a recipe for roast dragon, that "one should first catch the dragon before one writes a recipe for it." Also, the Chinese are notorious for using "dragon" as a positive label for just about anything (like "dragon fruit," or refering to lobsters as "dragon shrimp").
