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Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs - Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck

The special problem of "dragons"

The accounts most closely resembling UFO crashes within the scope of our chronology come from Chinese lore and describe the fall of "dragons." For example, we have mentioned the episode of 1169 AD, when dragons were seen battling in the sky during a thunderstorm and pearls like carriage wheels fell down on the ground, where they were found by herds' boys. These pearls would constitute physical proof that a phenomenon had occurred but unfortunately nothing more is said about them.

A similar situation occurred one night in the late Fourth Century AD when Lu Kwang, King of Liang, saw a black dragon in the sky: "Its glittering eyes illuminated the whole vicinity, so that the huge monster was visible till it was enveloped by clouds which gathered from all sides. The next morning traces of its scales were to be seen over a distance of five miles, but soon were wiped out by the heavy rains."

One of Kwang's attendants told him that the omen foretold "a man's rise to the position of a ruler," adding that he would no doubt attain such a rank. Lu Kwang rejoiced when he heard this, and did actually become a ruler some time afterwards. More than a century later, in 1295, two dragons fell into a lake at I Hing. This was followed by a strong wind which raised the level of the water "more than a chang," that is, some 10 feet.

The fourteenth century chronicler of this incident, Cheu Mih, adds that he had personally seen the results of another 'dragonfall' himself. Seeing the scorched paddy fields of the Peach garden of the Ts'ing, he interviewed one of the villagers about it. "Yesterday noon there was a big dragon that fell from the sky," he was told. "Immediately he was burned by terrestrial fire and flew away. For what the dragons fear is fire."

This raises the question of exactly what the Chinese of that era understood by the words we now translate as "dragons," obviously a term that covered a wide variety of aerial phenomena, rather than our simple contemporary image of a flying, fire-belching serpent with wings.

In cases when the circumstances surrounding the dragon are clearly stated (storms, destruction, lightning strikes, objects lifted into the sky) it seems that the terrified witnesses were observing tornadoes, with funnel clouds in the shape of giant serpents whipping around in the sky and causing widespread disaster.