Cheongryong- Korean DragonDragon"Guardian of the East"
Also known as: 청룡 and 青龍
Description
The Blue Dragon of the East, painted on the eastern walls of Goguryeo royal tombs in coils of azure scales and cloud. Cheongryong guards the direction where the sun rises, one of four spirits who shield the dead from every quarter.
Mythology & Lore
The Eastern Wall
At the Gangseo Great Tomb, a late Goguryeo burial site, the Blue Dragon stretches across the eastern wall. The painters rendered Cheongryong mid-flight: a sinuous body coiling through clouds, azure scales catching the light, claws extended. On the opposite wall, Baekho the White Tiger faces him. The four spirits together guard the dead from every direction.
The Gangseo tomb is not the only site. The Deokheungri Tomb and the Tomb of the Four Spirits both bear Cheongryong on their eastern walls, painted in styles that shifted over three centuries of Goguryeo mural art. The murals are now Korean national treasures.
The Dragon's Terrain
In Korean pungsu, the four directional spirits govern the placement of homes and graves among the living. Geomancers reading a site look east for the Cheongryong position: elevated terrain that shields the site from that quarter. They trace yongmaek, dragon veins, through the landscape, reading the contours of hills and ridges as the dragon's coiled body. A strong eastern rise means the Blue Dragon is present. A flat or broken eastern landscape means he is absent, and the site is exposed.