Ao Shun

THE CORPUS HELD ONE DRAGON KING OF FOUR. Ao Guang of the East Sea was a record and his three brothers were not, so the corpus had a cardinal-direction set with one direction in it. All four were punished together by the Jade Emperor for bringing rain without permission during a drought — a story that needs all four to be a story at all.

Domains

• the north sea
• rainfall
• tides and maritime order

Relations

• sibling: Ao Qin
• sibling: Ao Run
• of the four dragon kings with: Ao Guang
• serves: Jade Emperor

Sources

• Reference treatment of the Four Dragon Kings: they are Ao Guang, Dragon King of the East Sea, Ao Qin of the South Sea, Ao Run of the West Sea and Ao Shun of the North Sea, and they are all siblings, Ao Guang being the oldest brother. Ao Guang rules the East Sea (the Yellow Sea), Ao Qin the South Sea (the South China Sea), Ao Run the West Sea (Qinghai Lake) and Ao Shun the North Sea (Lake Baikal); each is associated with one of the four cardinal directions. Together they serve under the Jade Emperor, carrying out celestial commands relating to rainfall, tides and maritime order, and they were punished by the Jade Emperor for defying the Heavenly court and bringing rain on Earth without permission during a drought. Ao Guang is associated with the element of wood and the spring season, his symbol the azure dragon.