Teng (mythology)

Teng (Chinese: 螣; pinyin: téng; Wade–Giles: t'eng) or Tengshe (simplified Chinese: 腾蛇; traditional Chinese: 騰蛇; pinyin: téngshé; Wade–Giles: t'eng-she; lit. "soaring snake") is a flying dragon in Chinese mythology.

This legendary creature's names include teng 螣 "a flying dragon" (or te 螣 "a plant pest") and tengshe 螣蛇 "flying-dragon snake" or 騰蛇 "soaring snake".

The Chinese character for teng or te graphically combines a phonetic element of zhen "I, we (only used by emperors)" with the "insect radical" . This radical is typically used in characters for insects, worms, reptiles, and dragons (e.g., shen "a sea-monster dragon" or jiao "an aquatic dragon"). The earliest written form of teng 螣 is a (ca. 3rd century BCE) Seal script character written with the same radical and phonetic.

Teng 螣 has two etymologically cognate Chinese words written with this zhen 朕 phonetic and different radicals: teng (with the "water radical" ) "gush up; inundate; Teng (state); a surname" and teng (with the "horse radical" ) "jump; gallop; prance; mount; ascend; fly swiftly upward; soar; rise". This latter teng, which is used to write the 騰蛇 tengshe flying dragon, occurs in draconic 4-character idioms such as longtenghuyue 龍騰虎躍 (lit. "dragon rising tiger leaping") "scene of bustling activity" and tengjiaoqifeng 騰蛟起鳳 ("rising dragon soaring phoenix", also reversible) "a rapidly rising talent; an exceptional literary/artistic talent; a genius".

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