Carp jumps over the Dragon Gate is a visual representation of this beautiful legend, and it is also an expression of the hope of leaping to a higher position and having good fortune in one day.

Carp jumping over the Dragon Gate is an ancient Chinese myth that refers to the Yellow River carp jumping over the Dragon Gate (where the Longmen Grottoes are located in present-day Luoyang City, Henan Province) and changing into a dragon. It is a metaphor for success in business or rising in status. From Xin's San Qin Ji.

Modern science can solve the mystery of "Carp Leaping Dragon Gate": the "carp" here is actually "tuna", or "Acipenser". "Acipenser", also known as "koala" or "yellowtail", also known as sturgeon.

The sturgeon is a river and sea back to swim fish, body length of about two meters, the largest can be more than 5 meters long. China's rare animal Chinese sturgeon, Northeast sturgeon, Yangtze River sturgeon is this kind of fish. Because the ancient big carp is also known as "Acipenser", so the ancients will be "tuna Acipenser" and big carp mixed, rumored to be "carp leap Dragon Gate".

Chinese Idioms

The carp living in the Yellow River heard that the scenery of the Dragon Gate was good, so they started from the Yellow River in Mengjin, Henan Province, and passed through the Luo River, and then came to the place where the water of the Dragon Gate splashed out, but there was no water way to the Dragon Gate Mountain, so they had to get together in the north of the Dragon Gate at the foot of the mountain.

A big red carp proposed to jump over the Dragon Gate, but none of the fish traveling with it had the courage to do so, and the red carp volunteered to be the first to try it, and with all its strength it jumped into a half-day cloud and drove the clouds and rain in the air forward. A ball of heavenly fire came from behind and burned off its tail. It endured the pain and continued to leap forward, finally crossing Dragon Gate Mountain and landing in the lake south of the mountain, turning into a giant dragon in the blink of an eye.

The other carp were uncertain, and no fish dared to try again. At that moment, a huge dragon came down from the sky and told them that he was the carp, and urged them to try bravely, but most of them were unsuccessful, and some of them could not jump over, and falling down from the air would also leave a black scar on their foreheads.

Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem dedicated to this matter: "Three feet of carp in the Yellow River, this is in the Mengjin residence, the point of the forehead does not become a dragon, return to accompany the ordinary fish." It means that the carp of the Yellow River originally lived in Mengjin, Henan Province, because it did not leap over the dragon gate to become a dragon, so it can only continue to live in the fish.