Word
The Chinese compound panlong combines pan 蟠 "coiling; curling; curving; bending; winding; twisting" and long 龍 or 龙 "dragon". Longpan 龍蟠 "dragon coiling", the reverse of panlong, is a literary metaphor for "person of unrecognized talent" (see the Fayan below).
Panlong "coiled dragon" can be written 蟠龍 or 盤龍, using pan 蟠's homophonous variant Chinese character pan 盤 or 盘 "tray; plate; dish". Another example of this graphic interchangeability is panrao 蟠繞 or 盤繞 "twine round; surround; fill". Two Classical Chinese panlong 盤龍 idioms are panlongpi 盤龍癖 ("coiling dragon habit") "gambling addiction" (alluding to 5th-century gambler Liu Yi 劉毅 or Liu Panlong 劉盤龍) and panlong-wohu 盤龍臥虎 (lit. "coiling dragon crouching tiger") "talented people remaining concealed". In Fengshui and Four Symbols theory, the Dragon and Tiger are symbolic opposites. Take for instance, longtan-huxue 龍潭虎穴 ("dragon's pond and tiger's cave") "dangerous places" or Wohu canglong 臥虎藏龍 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Read more about this topic: Panlong (mythology)
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