regret the broken pot." Deng Xia died not long after, and he was posthumously awarded the office of Grand Warden of Luling (廬陵; around present-day Ji'an, Jiangxi). In folklore The people of Deng Xia's time believed that he was a general of the Chinese god, Erlang Shen. A folklore tells of Deng Xia killing a river dragon which parallels that of Erlang Shen's story. In the Mian River, it was said that there was a deep pool where lived a dragon who terrorized the people of Xiangyang. Deng Xia, serving as the Grand Warden of Xiangyang at the time, pulled out a sword and dived into the depths to kill it. According to the Book of Jin, the dragon coiled around his feet, and Deng Xia quickly chopped the dragon into pieces. The river ran red with blood, and with Deng Xia's bravery, the people of Xiangyang no longer worried about the dragon. Liu Jingshu's Yiyuan provided a different take on the story. Deng Xia went into the river to fight the dragon, but rather than with a sword, he defeated it with his fists and brought it ashore to kill it. However, his mother stopped him, saying that dragons are sacred creatures, and it would be wrong to kill them. Instead, she told him that he should cast an incantation on it to stop it from being violent. Deng Xia did so and released it into the river, and the dragon no longer posed a threat to the people of Xiangyang. Deng Xia's valour earned him the title "Erlang Shen" and there is a temple dedicated to him in Zhongqingli (忠清里), Hangzhou. Note References Fang, Xuanling (ed.) (648). Book of Jin (Jin Shu). Liu, Yiqing (ed.) ( 5th century). A New Account of the Tales of the World (Shishuo Xinyu / Shiyu). Sima, Guang (1084). Zizhi Tongjian. Liu, Jingshu ( 5th century}). Garden of the Strange (Yiyuan) 370 deaths Jin dynasty (266–420) generals Deified Chinese people