A legendary monster usually depicted as a huge, bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard or snake with a barbed tail. In general, in the Middle Eastern world, the dragon was symbolic of the principle of evil. In the Far East, the dragon was prestigious and considered a beneficent creature. The Chinese dragon, lung, represented yang, the principle of heaven, activity, and maleness in the yin-yang of Chinese cosmology. From ancient times, it was the emblem of the Imperial family, and until the founding of the republic (1911) the dragon was on the Chinese flag.