Recently, my daughter and I enjoyed revisiting the story The Sons of the Dragon King by Ed Young. In this beautifully illustrated picture book, the legend of how the nine sons of the Dragon King came to their particular vocations is told. Each of the nine sons has either a penchant for something or a talent unrecognized that the king confers a blessing on thus turning his sons into obedient and useful creatures. For example, bellowing son Lu Pao is urged by his father to use his voice to become musical and so it is that Lu Pao’s dragonly visage decorates Chinese musical instruments to this day. Ba-Sha, another son, is a good swimmer and becomes the dragon on the bridges that span the country’s waters and watches over those in boats. Even the unruly traits of bellowing and anger by son Ya Zi are channeled into — where else — but the military where Ya Zi’s fearsome visage is emblazoned on weaponry.
Ed Young’s wonderful ink-and-brush illustrations marvelously display the dragons at their boisterous best, whether perched watchfully on a roof, or bearing a heavy pillar on their back, or cavorting through the water. The medium is perfect for catching the fluid movement of the dragons with their snake-like long bodies; alongside the ink-and-brush image is a more static picture of the dragon as it would appear on the edifice or object with which it has become associated.
The tale of the Dragon King itself is an old Chinese legend. As Young points out in his Author’s Note, the ancient Chinese tribes who used to each have a totem animal, formed a union to be ruled under one totemic animal — the Dragon King. Variations of the folktale exist in different parts of China but all of them speak of the king having nine sons. “The Sons of the Dragon King” in which all nine sons are accounted for is the version of the story Young chose for his book. And indeed, a good choice it was as evidenced in the pleasure my daughter and I experienced in reading it!