Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Tale for Chinese Lunar Year - The Dragon Princess
Episode Date: February 8, 2024With 2024 being the year of the dragon, become immersed in these ancient myths about Chinese Dragons. Please leave a 5-star review & SUBSCRIBE on Apple and Spotify. Sleep Cove Premium Become a Premi...um Member for Bonus Episodes & Ad-Free listening: Visit https://www.sleepcove.com/support and become a Premium Member. Get Instant Access and sign up in two taps. The Sleep Cove Premium Feed includes: - Access to over 300 Ad-free Episodes - Regular Exclusive Bonus Episodes - A Back Catalogue of Dozens of Exclusive Episodes - Full Audiobooks like Alice in Wonderland - Your name read out on the Show - Our Love! Get your 7-day free trial: https://sleepcove.com/support For Apple users, click the TRY FREE button for a 2-week free trial and become a Premium Member Today. Support our Sponsors: This episode of Sleep Cove is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/sleepcove and get on your way to being your best self. Our Sister Shows: - Calm Cove - https://link.chtbl.com/bgSKfkbt - Relaxing Music & Ambient Sounds - Mysteries at Midnight - Mystery Bedtime Stories - https://link.chtbl.com/skj6YFah - Let's Begin - Daytime Meditations with wake sections at the end - https://link.chtbl.com/Z--DgSH4 - YouTube Bedtime Story Channel - https://rb.gy/t7wyjk - YouTube Sleep Hypnosis & Meditation Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClE6WJgPYRBtwVQ1qDBrbqw Connect: - Join the Newsletter for a Bonus Meditation - https://www.sleepcove.com/bonus - Facebook: https://rb.gy/azpdrd - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sleep_cove/ - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sleepcovechris Recommended Products: Comfortable Sleep Headphones - https://www.sleepcove.com/headphones The Best Mattress from Puffy: https://sleepcove.com/puffy Our Sister Shows in more detail: Calm Cove is our music channel, where you can find Relaxing Music, White Noise and Nature Sounds - https://link.chtbl.com/bgSKfkbt Let’s Begin is our brand new Day Meditation podcast. Start your day feeling relaxed and positive, or take some time out to unwind with these calming meditations with wakeners at the end so that you can continue your day. If you love our bedtime stories, check out Mysteries at Midnight, our brand-new podcast dedicated to the mystery stories our listeners love so much. Enjoy even more from Poirot, Sherlock and more classic mystery tales. _______________ All Content by Sleep Cove is for educational or entertainment purposes and does not provide or replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your medical professional before making any changes to your treatment and if in any doubt, contact your doctor. Please listen in a place where you can safely go to sleep. Sleep Cove is not responsible or liable for any loss, damage or injury arising from the use of this content. _________________ Sleep Cove content includes guided sleep meditations, sleep hypnosis (hypnotherapy), sleep stories (visualizations) and Bedtime Stories for adults and grown-ups, all designed to help you get a great night's sleep Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid
have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun
or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti
if you have you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast
every week we explore tales of this ancient culture
The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix.
Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt.
Hello and welcome to Sleep Cove, the place to get a great night's sleep.
Tonight I've read a couple of Chinese stories, which include myths about dragons.
2024, according to Chinese astrology, is the year of the dragon.
Unlike Western culture, dragons are an important part of Chinese culture,
symbolising strength, power, wisdom, nobility, good fortune and success.
Indeed, dragons don't actually exist, but during the times of imperial rules,
all, dragons held symbolic significance of authority and power.
In Chinese legend, it has thought that dragon kings had absolute control over weather and water.
Hence dragons were revered as the pioneering spirit associated with rainfall and land fertility.
So people born in the year of the dragon are beneath.
to possess revered qualities of the dragon, including intelligence, pride and ambition.
But there are possibilities that one might carry flaws too, such as arrogance and impulsivity.
So tonight I've read two stories about dragons, as I really think you'll enjoy.
So please get comfortable and let's begin.
The Dragon Princess
In the Sea of Dung Ting
There is a hill
And in that hill there is a hole
And this hole is so deep
That it has no bottom
Once a fisherman
Was passing there who slipped and fell into the hole
He came to a country
Full of winding ways
Which led over hill and dale
for several miles.
Finally, he reached a dragon castle, lying in a great plain.
There grew a green slime which reached to his knees.
He went to the gate of the castle.
It was guarded by a dragon who spouted water which dispersed in a fine mist.
Within the gate lay a small, hornless dragon, who rose.
raised his head, showed his claws, and would not. The fisherman spent several days in the cave,
satisfying his hunger with the green slime. He found it edible, and it tasted like rice
mush. He found a way out again. He told the district Mandarin what had happened to him,
and their latter reported the matter to the emperor.
The Emperor sent for a wise man and questioned him concerning it, the wise man said.
There are four paths in this cave.
One path leads to the southwest shore of the Sea of Denging.
The second path leads to a valley in the land of the four rivers.
The third path ends in a cave of the mountain of Lung-Ting.
Lofu and the fourth in an island of the eastern sea.
In this cave dwells the seventh daughter of the dragon king of the eastern sea,
who guards his pearls and his treasure.
It happened once in the ancient days that a fisher boy dived into the water and brought up a pearl
from beneath the chin of the black dragon.
The dragon was asleep,
which was the reason the Fisher Boy brought the pearl to the surface
without being harmed.
The treasure which the daughter of the dragon king has in charge
is made up of thousands and millions of such jewels.
Several thousands of thousands of.
of small dragons watch over them in her service.
Dragons have the peculiarity of fighting shy of wax,
but they are fond of beautiful jade stones,
and of Kung Tsying the holly green wood and like to eat swanows.
If one were to send a messenger with a letter,
it would be possible to obtain precious pearls.
The Emperor was greatly pleased and announced a large reward for the man who was competent to go to the Dragon Castle as his messenger.
The first man to come forward was so p. low, but the wise man said,
A great, great, great-grandfather of yours once slew more than a hundred of their dragons of the
eastern sea, and was finally himself slain by the dragons. The dragons are the enemies of your
family, and you cannot go. Then came a man from Canton, Loh Tse-Tzion, with his two brothers,
who said that his ancestors had been related to the dragon king. Hence, they were well-like,
by the dragons and well known to them.
They begged to be entrusted with a message.
The wise man asked,
Have you still in your possession the stone which compels the dragons to do your will?
Yes, said they, we have brought it along with us.
The wise man had them show him the stone.
Then he spoke not to.
for the dragons who guard the pearls of the sea king.
Many questioned them further.
Have you the dragon brain vacated?
When they admitted that they had not,
the wise man said,
will you compel the dragons to yield their treasure?
And the emperor said,
What shall we do?
The wise man replied,
On the western ocean sail foreign merchants who deal in dragon brain vapour.
Someone must go to them and seek it from them.
I also know a holy man who is an adept in the art of taming dragons
and who has prepared ten pounds of the dragonstone.
someone should be sent for that as well.
The Emperor sent out his messengers.
They met and disciples and of fragments of the dragon stone from him.
Said the wise man, this is what we want.
Several more months went by,
and at last a pill of dragon brain vapour.
had been secured.
The emperor felt much pleased
and had his jeweller's carved two little boxes
of the finest jade.
These were polished with the ashes of the one-tong-tree,
and he had an essence prepared
of the very best holy green wood,
pasted with sea-fish lime,
and hardened in the fire.
Of these two vases were made.
Then the bodies and the clothing of the messengers were rubbed with tree wax
and they were given 500 roasted swallows to take along with them into the cave.
When they reached the dragon castle,
the little dragon who guarded the gate smelled the tree wax.
So he crouched down and did them know how.
harm. They gave him a hundred roasted swallows as a bribe to announce them to the daughter of the
dragon king. They were admitted to her presence and offered her the shade caskets, the vases and the
400 roasted swallows as gifts. The dragon's daughter received them graciously,
and they unfolded the Emperor's letter.
In the castle there was a dragon who was over a thousand years old.
He could turn himself into a human being
and could interpret the language of human beings.
Through him the dragon's daughter learned that the Emperor
was sending her the gifts
and she returned them with a gift of three.
great pearls, seven smaller pearls, and a whole bushel of ordinary pearls. Their messengers took leave,
rode off with their pearls on a dragon's back, and in a moment they had reached the banks of
their way to land king, the imperial capital, and there handed over their treasure of gems. The emperor
was much pleased and showed them to the wise man.
He said, of their three great pearls, one is a divine wishing pearl of the third class,
and two are black dragon pearls of medium quantity.
Of the seven smaller pearls, two are serpent pearls, and five are muscle pearls.
The remaining pearls are in part sea-crombes.
pearl, in part snail and oyster pearls. They do not approach the great pearls in Matthew,
and yet few will be found to equal them on also showed them to all his servants. They,
however, thought the wise man's words all talk, and did not believe what he said.
and the wise man said
The radiance of wishing-pearls
Of the first class
Is visible for 40 miles
That of the second class
For 20 miles
Of the third for 10
As far as their radiance carries
Neither wind nor rain
Thunder nor lightning
Water fire
Nor weapons
May re
The pearls of the black dragon are nine-colored and glow by night.
Within the circle of their light, the poison of serpents and worms is.
The serpent pearls are seven-colored.
The mussel pearls are five-colored.
Both shine by light.
Those most free from spots are the best.
They grow with in the sun.
the muscle and increase and decrease in size as the moon waxes and wanes.
Someone asked how the serpent and the sea crane pearls could be told apart, and the wise man
answered, the animals themselves recognise them.
Then the emperor selected a serpent pearl and a sea crane pole.
put them together with a whole bushel of ordinary pearls
and poured the lot out in the courtyard
Yellow Serpent and a black crane
were fetched and placed among the pearls
And once the crane took up a sea-crain pearl in his mill
And began to dance and sing and flutter around
But the serpent snatched
at the serpent pearl and wound himself about it in many coils.
Saw this, they acknowledged the truth of the wise man's words.
As regards the radiance of the larger and smaller pearls,
it turned out too, just as the wise man had said.
In the Dragon Castle, the messengers enjoyed dainty fair,
which tasted like flowers, herbs, ointment and sugar.
They had brought a remnant of it with them to the capital,
yet exposed to the air it had become as hard as stone.
The emperor commanded that these fragments be preserved in the treasury.
Then he bestowed high rank and title on the three brothers.
and made each one of them a present of a thousand rolls of fine silk stuff.
He also had investigated why it was that the fishermen, when he chanced upon the cave,
had not been destroyed by the dragons.
And it turned out that his fishing gloves had been soaked in oil and tree wax.
The dragons had dreaded.
Dragon after his winter's sleep
Once there was a scholar
Who was reading in the upper story of his house
It was a rainy cloudy day
Suddenly he saw a little thing
Which shone like a firefly
It crawled upon the table
And wherever it went
It left traces of burns
curved like the track of a rainworm.
Gradually it wound itself about the scholar's book,
then it occurred to him that it might be a dragon.
So he carried it out of the doors on the road for quite some time.
But it sat and curled.
Without, then the scholar said,
What to be said of me with these words,
he carried the book and once more laid it on the table.
Then he put on his robes of ceremony, made a deep bow and escorted the dragon out on it again.
No sooner had he left the door, then he noticed that the dragon raised his head and stretched himself.
Then he flew up from the book with a hissing sound like a radio,
streak. Once more, he turned around toward the scholar and his head had already grown to the size
of a barrel. While his body must have been a full fathom in love, he gave one more sneaky twist,
and then there was a terrible crash of thunder, and the dragon was sent sailing through the air.
The scholar then returned and looked to see which way the little creature had come
and then he could follow his tracks hither and thither to his chest of books