Textual Usages
Chinese classic texts began using panlong in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). The (2nd century BCE) Huainanzi (8, tr. Morgan 1934:95) first records panlong as a decorative style on Chinese bronzes.
Great bells and tripods, beautiful vessels, works of art are manufactured. The decorations cast on these have been superb. The mountain dragon, or pheasant, and all animals of variegated plumage, the aquatic grass, flamboyants and grains of cereals were engraven on them, one symbol interwoven with another. The sleeping rhinoceros and crouching tiger, the dragon, wreathed in coils, were wrought.
The later term panlongwen 蟠龍文 "coiled-dragon pattern/design (on bronzes, pillars, etc.)" compares with panchiwen 蟠螭紋 (see chilong 螭龍) and panqiuwen 蟠虯紋 (see qiulong 虯龍). Another Huainanzi context (15, tr. Morgan 1934:199) lists longshepan 龍蛇蟠 (lit. "dragon snake coiling") "serpentine passage" as a good ambush location.
An exiguous pass, a ferry pontoon, a great mountain, a serpentine defile, a cul-de-sac, a dangerous pitfall, a narrow ravine, full of winding ways like the intestines of a sheep, a hole like a fisher's net, which admits, but from which there is no exit, are situations in which one man can hold back a thousand.
The materialist philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE-18 CE) used both panlong and longpan. His Fangyan 方言 "Regional Speech" dictionary (12, tr. Visser 1913:73) defined panlong 蟠龍 "coiled/curled dragon", "Dragons which do not yet ascend to heaven are called p'an-lung." His Fayan 法言 "Words to Live By" anthology (4, tr. Carr 1990:112) coined the metaphor longpan 龍蟠 (lit. "dragon coiling") "person of unrecognized talent", "'a dragon coiled in the mud will be insulted by a newt,' meaning 'a sage will be ridiculed by a fool'."
The (2nd century CE) Shangshu dazhuan 尚書大傳 commentary to the Classic of History (1, tr. Carr 1990:113) parallels panlong and jiaoyu 鮫魚 (or jiaolong 蛟龍), "the 蟠龍 'coiled dragon' was greatly trusted in its lair, the 鮫魚 ' dragon; crocodile' leaped in its pool."
The (12th century CE) Song Dynasty Biji manzhi 碧雞漫志 "Random Jottings from the Green Rooster Quarter" by Wang Zhuo 王灼 (tr. Visser 1913:117) describes using panlong dragons in sympathetic magic for rainfall, "where a mirror, adorned on the backside with a "coiled dragon", p'an lung, 盤龍, is said to have been worshipped (rather used in a magical way) in order to cause rain."
Read more about this topic: Panlong (mythology)