This phonetic jiao 交 (originally a pictograph of a person with crossed legs) is also used with the "fish radical" 魚 in jiao 鲛 "shark" (see below) and the "horse radical" 馬 in bo 駮, which is a variant Chinese character for bo 駁 "mixed colors; piebald; confused". In some circles, depicting a dragon facing downwards is considered bad luck as if the dragon cannot ascend to the sky. It is said that the pearl stands for truth, wisdom, or life, and if the dragon loses this pearl, he is left helpless and incapable of action. In the Japanese writing system, the kanji 蛟 can be read mizuchi "a Japanese river dragon" in native kun'yomi or kō in Sino-Japanese on'yomi (e.g., kōryō 蛟竜 "flood dragon: hidden genius" from jiaolong).

Jiao occurs abbreviating jiaolong with feng abbreviating fenghuang 鳳凰 "Chinese phoenix" in tengjiaoqifeng 騰蛟起鳳 ("soaring jiao rising feng") "a rapidly rising literary/artistic talent; a genius". Or perhaps we should call it by the name of its close kin, the double-headed crocodile-jawed Indian makara, which, in ninth-century Java at least, took on some of the attributes of the rain-bringing lung of China. For example, the highest waterfall in Taiwan is Jiaolong Dapu 蛟龍大瀑 "Flood Dragon Great Waterfall" in the Alishan National Scenic Area. Jiao meaning "female dragon; dragon mother" is first recorded in the (c. 810 AD) Buddhist dictionary Yiqie jingyinyi 一切經音義 (19). Their eyes have the power to weep, but what they bring forth is pearls. Eberhard 1968:378). He lives near the sea, and he fears to meet the big whale.6.Chiwen (螭吻 chīwěn /chee-wnn/) Jiaolong (the name is very ambiguous, it can mean aquatic dragon, mother dragon, snake dragon) Aquatic dragon resembling a reptile. (tr. Chinese New Year. Chinese dragons don’t exist factually — there is no evidence to prove that they are real creatures. The snake as river god or god of the ocean is typical for the coastal culture, particularly the sub-group of the Tan peoples. It represents the Chinese people’s unrelenting and pioneering spirit of keeping pace with the times. The deep-sea submersible built and tested in 2010 by the China Ship Scientific Research Center is named Jiaolong (Broad 2010:A1). Dragon boat racing: Dragon boats are decorated like a Chinese dragon. Eberhard (1968:378) notes from an early time, 蛟 was considered an embodiment of the fish, snake, rhinoceros; or the tiger. Jiaolong Jiaolong [Dragon] is the first deep-sea manned submersible designed and independently developed by China. But sometimes it was manlike, and sometimes it was merely a fish. Visser 1913:79). Female dragon. which supplies the phonetic element "jiao". Birrell 2000:93, 97) records jiao in the Kuang River 貺水 and Lun River 淪水: "There are numerous alligators in the River Grant" and "The River Ripple contains numbers of alligators". Therefore I (or they) say: 'If a kiao-lung gets water, his soul can be in full vigour'.".