Yonsei University 2020
English essay test question
Compare the dragons of
the West and the East. Then apply those concepts to the contemporary society.
Dragons are mythical creatures in both the
Western and the Eastern civilizations. In the West, dragons symbolized evil
power. In the most popular folk lore of the West, a dragon kidnaps a damsel,
and a brave knight goes to defeat the dragon and to rescue the damsel in
distress. This literary theme has been used in a popular coffee commercial
recently. The evil nature of the dragon stems from the New Testament of the
Bible. The devil is referred to as the dragon, or the old serpent. The Beast
who represents the force of the Anti-Christ is referred to as the dragon. In
the Eastern tradition, the dragon represents the mythical source of political
authority. The emperors of China were called dragons. Their thrones were called
the thrones of dragons, and their faces were referred to as the faces of
dragons. There was a popular Korean TV drama series called “The Tears of the
Dragon,” depicting the founding of the Yi Dynasty. In the East, dragons are not
considered as evil creatures, but as divine sources of power for kings and
emperors.
Dragons in both traditions are mythical
beings. They do not actually exist. They exist only in the myths and
imaginations of mankind. The idea of a dragon may have risen from the memory of
dinosaurs or their similar appearance to reptiles. Whatever the origin of the
idea may have been, dragons are mythical imaginations which do not exist in
reality.
In that sense, dragons may refer to the
non-existent source of either evil or political authority depending on who is
imagining them. In the West, dragons represented the ultimate source of evil
against which mankind must wrestle. As the ultimate source of evil, their
existence is elusive. Though people imagine that dragons exist, they actually
do not exist. Nonetheless people imagine them into existence in order to peg
the identity of evil in the world. The nature of evil is elusive. We do not
know where evil originates. In fact evil originates from the heart of man. It
is not what goes in from outside which corrupts a man, but what comes out from
within which corrupts him. But such elusive nature of evil is too abstract and
vague. In order to clearly identify the source of evil, the Western man
imagined the existence of the dragon as the omnipotent being against which man
has to battle. In the popular culture of the late 20th century and
the 21st century, however, there have been attempts to reverse the
image of the dragons from negative to positive. “Puff the Magic Dragon” sung by
Peter, Paul, and Mary depicted the dragon not as an evil being, but as a
childish, loyal, and mischievous being which could be befriended by an innocent
boy. Also recent Hollywood fantasy films depicted dragons as friendly beings
coming to the aid of mankind. This attempt to reverse the image of dragons may
represent the contemporary revision of the age-old religion-based concept of
good versus evil principles.
In the East, especially in China and Korea,
dragons represented the source of political authority of the kings and emperors
over the people. In the age when democracy did not exist, the mandate to govern
people had to be found somewhere in order to provide legitimacy to a ruling
king. In the absence of democratic elections, political legitimacy had to be
invented. The use of dragons as the source of political authority must have
been an effective way of creating the moral and spiritual basis of political
power. As long as people look up to their kinds as dragons, they will not dare
to defy the kings’ authority.
Both in the West and the East, the mythical dragon
was imagined in order to provide some actuality to the concepts which do not
concretely exist in the world. The ultimate evil does not exist as a concrete
being. It is a state of being which cannot be materialized. Nonetheless the
Western Christian civilization imagined the dragon into existence in order to
designate the foe against which mankind must wrestle. In the East, the
non-existent dragon was imagined in order to provide legitimacy to non-elected
kings and emperors. In the contemporary times, we should be more realistic and
responsible about where true political legitimacy comes from and where moral
evil comes from. Instead of blaming moral evil on the dragon, we must own up to
our own moral failure. Also instead of attributing political legitimacy to the
non-existent dragon, our nations must draw their right to rule from the only
source of legitimacy: the people.
카톡 아이디: gimmemogas
