View source for Chinese Influences in Dragon Ball

By way of his wife's own interests<ref>{{Cite guidebook|Title="Akira Toriyama Super Interview"|Book=8|Page=pp. 164-169}}<br>[https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/daizenshuu-4-akira-toriyama-super-interview/ Kanzenshuu Translations Archive: Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 4: World Guide - "Akira Toriyama Super Interview"]</ref>, [[Akira Toriyama]] found inspiration in China in late 1981, first introducing these influences into his work with the Tsun family in ''[[Dr. Slump]]'' in 1982. Toriyama worked toward concluding ''Dr. Slump'' and beginning a new manga series over the course of 1983, resulting in the "prototype" works ''[[Dragon Boy]]'' and ''[[The Adventure of Tongpoo]]''. Ultimately settling on a concept based on the 16th century Chinese novel ''[[Journey to the West]]'' for his upcoming series, Toriyama took a research trip to China in April 1984<ref name="birdlandpress15">Toriyama, Akira. "The Making of Dragon Ball". ''Bird Land Press 15''. November 1984.<br>[https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/bird-land-press-making-of-dragon-ball/ Kanzenshuu Translations Archive: Bird Land Press 15 - "The Making of Dragon Ball"]</ref>; after working through a few drafts/manuscripts, ''Dragon Ball'' began serialization in November 1984, debuting in a Chinese-style setting.<ref>{{Cite guidebook|Title="Akira Toriyama Super Interview"|Book=6|Page=pp. 261-265}}<br>[https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/daizenshuu-2-akira-toriyama-super-interview/ Kanzenshuu Translations Archive: Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide - "Akira Toriyama Super Interview"]</ref>

This page covers several areas of Chinese influence in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', whether in [[Akira Toriyama]]'s original [[Dragon Ball (manga)|manga]] or in its various adaptations, continuations, and spin-off works.

{{see|Mythology, folklore, and literature references in Dragon Ball‎}}

==Locations==

===General Landscapes===

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/dragon-ball-z-anime-special-dragon-call/

{{quotation|At the beginning, I aimed for backgrounds with a Chinese-style transparency, and also depth, in accordance with Toriyama-''sensei'''s wishes; however, they turned out more like fairy tale-style, Chinese-landscape paintings, without much sense of dimension.|Yūji Ikeda, "Dragon Call," ''Jump Gold Selection: Dragon Ball Z Anime Special''}}

==Items==

===Son Goku's ''Dōgi''===

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/daizenshuu-1-akira-toriyama-super-interview/

{{quotation|'''When you say yellow or orange, do you mean the color of Goku's ''dōgi''?'''<br>Yes. However, I didn't make his ''dōgi'' that color because I liked it, but rather because it was the color of the ''dōgi'' worn by Buddhist monks who trained in China. It was a color particular to China.|"Akira Toriyama Super Interview," ''Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 1: Complete Illustrations''}}

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/chogashu-akira-toriyama-super-interview-latest-edition/

{{quotation|'''How did you decide on the coloring of costumes, such as the main characters' clothes and the Kamesen-school ''dōgi''?'''<br>For the colors of the ''dōgi'', the motif is naturally the color of the robes worn by Chinese monks, such as the Shaolin. The fact that it became red in the anime was always something I was a bit dissatisfied with.|"Akira Toriyama Super Interview," Dragon Ball Chōgashū: Super Art Collection}}

===Nyoi-Bō===

{{See|Nyoi-Bō#Origin in Journey to the West}}

===Kinto'un===

{{See|Kinto'un#Origin in Journey to the West}}

===Bashō Fan===

{{See|Bashō Fan#Origin in Journey to the West}}

===Dragon Balls===

''furigana'' above the names indicate a Japanese approximation of the Chinese readings

==Characters==

===Son Goku===

''Dragon Ball'''s main character, 孫悟空 (pronounced as ''Son Gokū'' in Japanese), takes his name verbatim from 孫悟空 (''Sun Wukong'') in the 16th century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' by Wu Cheng'en; this is one of the monkey king's various titles, given to him by his first master, the Taoist monk Subodhi:<ref name="jttwvol1">Wu Cheng'en. Yu, Anthony C. ''The Journey to the West Volume 1''. USA: The University of Chicago Press, 1977. ISBN 0-226-97150-3.</ref>

{{quotation|The Patriarch laughed and said, "Though your features are not the most attractive, you do resemble a monkey (''hu-sun'') that feeds on pine seeds. This gives me the idea of deriving your surname from your appearance. I intended to call you by the name 'Hu.' Now, when the accompanying animal radical is dropped from this word, what's left is a compound made up of the two characters, ''ku'' and ''yüeh''. ''Ku'' means aged and ''yüeh'' means female, but an aged female cannot reproduce. Therefore, it is better to give you the surname of 'Sun'. When the accompanying radical is dropped from this word, we have the compound of ''tzŭ'' and ''hsi''. ''Tzŭ'' means a boy and ''hsi'' means a baby, so that the name exactly accords with the Doctrine of the Baby. So your surname will be 'Sun'." When the Monkey King heard this, he was filled with delight. "Splendid! Splendid!" he cried, kowtowing. "At least I know my surname. May the Master be even more gracious! Since I have receive the surname, let me be given also a personal name, so that it may facilitate your calling and commanding me." The Patriarch said, "Within my tradition are twelve characters which have been used to name the pupils according to their divisions. You are one who belongs to the tenth generation." "Which twelve characters are they?" asked the Monkey King. The Patriarch said, "They are: wide (''kuang''), great (''ta''), wise (''chih''), intelligence (''hui''), true (''chên''), conforming (''ju''), nature (''hsing''), sea (''hai''), sharp (''ying''), wake-to (''wu''), complete (''yüan''), and awakening (''chüeh''). Your rank falls precisely on the word 'wake-to' (''wu''). You will hence be given the religious name 'Wake-to-Vacuity' (''wu-k'ung''). All right?" "Splendid! Splendid!" said the Monkey King, laughing: "henceforth I shall be called Sun Wu-k'ung."|''The Journey to the West'' Volume 1, Translated and Edited by Anthony C. Yu (page #)}}
Because the name is taken directly from its source material, various other "Son Goku" (or simply "Goku") characters exist throughout other — even sometimes contemporary — manga and anime series that likewise take inspiration from or otherwise adapt ''Journey to the West''. Some of these include, but are not limited to:

* Goku Furinji (Buichi Terasawa's ''Midnight Eye Goku'')
* Son Goku (Kazuya Minekura's ''Saiyuki'')
* Goku (Jōji Arimori and Romu Aoi's ''Asobotto Senki Gokū'')

Many of the early elements of ''Dragon Ball'''s Son Goku are taken from or inspired by ''Journey to the West'', including his transformation into a [[Great Ape]] (inspired by Wukong's ability to change his size at will) and his usage of ''[[Nyoi-Bō]]'' (inspired by Wukong's Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod).

===Oolong===

{{See|Oolong#Origin in Journey to the_West}}

===Yamcha===

{{See|Yamcha#Origin in Journey to the_West}}

===Ox Demon King===

{{See|Ox Demon King#Origin in Journey to the_West}}

===Shenlong===

神龍 (''furigana'' above the name indicates a Japanese approximation of ''Shenron'' from the Chinese pronunciation of ''Shénlóng'', as opposed to a native Japanese pronunciation of the ''kanji'' as ''Shin Ryū'')

===Ginkaku & Kinkaku===

TBD

===Evil Dragons===

As with the Dragon Balls that give birth to them, the evil dragons from the last arc of the ''[[Dragon Ball GT]]'' television series have names that are approximated in Japanese according to their Chinese pronunciations.

This name source is obfuscated and corrupted in FUNimation's English dub of the series, which mistakes ''Shinron'' ("-Star Dragon") for ''Shenron'' ("Dragon God"), and goes on to create its own series of names that spell out S-H-E-N-R-O-N from the first letter of each name when listed in numerical order.

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="font-weight:bold;"
! Stars
! Chinese Name
! Japanese Approximation
! FUNimation English Name
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
| One
| [[Yi Xing Long]]
| Ī-Shinron
| Syn / Omega Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle; background-color:#FFF;"
| Two
| [[Liang Xing Long]]
| Ryan-Shinron
| Haze Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
| Three
| [[San Xing Long]]
| San-Shinron
| Eis Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle; background-color:#FFF;"
| Four
| [[Si Xing Long]]
| Sū-Shinron
| Nuova Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
| Five
| [[Wu Xing Long]]
| Ū-Shinron
| Rage Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle; background-color:#FFF;"
| Six
| [[Liu Xing Long]]
| Ryū-Shinron
| Oceanus Shenron
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
| Seven
| [[Qi Xing Long]]
| Chī-Shinron
| Naturon Shenron
|}

==Language==

==Music==
Every ''Dragon Ball'' composer has written music that deliberately invokes Chinese traditional music, often in the stereotypical manner of the Western classical tradition, up to and including 20th century film music. These stereotypes include parallel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fourth perfect fourths] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth fifths], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale pentatonic] movement, and imitations of traditional Chinese [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_musical_instruments instruments] using Western instruments or sound synthesis.

===Shunsuke Kikuchi===
Below is a table of [[Shunsuke Kikuchi]]'s Chinese-style compositions, their parallel diatonic tonalities, and their stereotypes.

{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="min-width:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
!colspan=6|Shunsuke Kikuchi's Chinese-style Dragon Ball works
|-
!scope=col; style="width: 8%"|Kanzenshuu<br>Catalogue
!scope=col; style="width: 8%"|Official<br>Catalogue
!scope=col|Tonality
!scope=col|Chinese elements
!scope=col|Debut
!scope=col|Release
|+ style="caption-side:bottom;text-align:left;font-size:10px"|'''<sup>†</sup> Minor Chinese-style references or elements.'''
|-
!scope=col|K-2
!scope=col|[[H4]]
|rowspan=3|D Minor
|pentatonic movement, instruments
|rowspan=2|[[Dragon Ball Episode 1]]
|[[Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z: Daizenshuu|Daizenshuu 2:7(d)]]
|-
!scope=col|K-3
!scope=col|[[H3]]
|pentatonic movement, parallel fourths
|[[Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z: Daizenshuu|Daizenshuu 2:7(c)]]
|-
!scope=col|K-225
|[[K-225]]
|pentatonic movement, parallel fourths, instruments
|rowspan=2|[[Dragon Ball Movie 1]]
|Unreleased
|-
!scope=col|K-227
!scope=row|[[M229]]<sup>†</sup>
|F Minor
|pentatonic movement, parallel fourths
|[[Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z: Daizenshuu|Daizenshuu 5:2(c)]]
|-
!scope=col|K-602
|[[K-602]]
|rowspan=4|F Major
|pentatonic movement, instruments
|rowspan=4|[[Dragon Ball Movie 3]]
|rowspan=3|Unreleased
|-
!scope=col|K-625
|[[K-625]]
|pentatonic movement, instruments
|-
!scope=col|K-645
|[[K-645]]
|pentatonic movement, instruments
|-
!scope=col|K-647
!scope=row|[[M655]]
|pentatonic movement, instruments
|[[Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z: Daizenshuu|Daizenshuu 5:4(e)]]
|}

==External Links==

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}