Zhulong, the Torch Dragon Whose Eyes Are Day and Night

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Zhulong appears in Great Wilderness: North, on Mount Zhangwei, which the book places beyond the Northwestern Sea and north of the Red River. It is called a god, not a beast. It is red, with a human face on a snake's body, and its eyes are set upright. When it closes its eyes the world goes dark, and when it opens them there is light. It does not eat, sleep or breathe, and it calls up wind and rain. The text ends by saying it lights the nine darks, the dim regions of the far north, and so it is called the Torch Dragon.

Zhuyin, the god of Mount Zhong

A very similar god appears in Beyond the Seas: North under the name Zhuyin, the god of Mount Zhong. When it looks, it is day; when it shuts its eyes, it is night. When it blows, it is winter, and when it calls out, it is summer. It does not drink, eat or breathe, and when it does breathe, the breath becomes wind. Its body is a thousand li long, and it is red, with a human face and a snake's body. Most readers treat Zhuyin and Zhulong as two records of the same god, one controlling day and night, the other the seasons as well.

The Torch Dragon in other early books

Zhulong was well known outside the Shan Hai Jing. The Tianwen, the Heavenly Questions of the Chuci, asks where the sun does not reach, and how the Torch Dragon gives light there. The Huainanzi, a Han dynasty work, says the Torch Dragon lives north of Yanmen, hidden behind Mount Weiyu where the sun never shines, and describes its god as having a human face, a dragon's body and no feet. All of these sources agree on the core idea: Zhulong is a light in a land the sun cannot reach.

Dragon or god?

The Shan Hai Jing calls Zhulong a god and gives it a snake's body, yet its name means torch dragon and the Huainanzi gives it a dragon's body. It is best understood as a god in serpent or dragon form rather than an animal. In Beasts of Shanhai we built its skill on the line about its eyes: it alternates between burning every foe and healing every ally, round after round, like day following night. Yinglong is the other great dragon of the Great Wilderness books.

Torch Dragon in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Torch Dragon is a Fire beast that costs 4 Gold. Its skill is Day and Night. While it is alive, it alternates every round: in rounds 1, 3 and 5 it Burns all foes, and in rounds 2, 4 and 6 it heals all allies, each by 6% of that beast's max HP. At two stars the amount is 10%, and at three stars 14% and foes cannot Dodge.

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