Talk:Draconic Taxonomy

An nice article, interesting mixing of real world and the Temeraire canon. One small issue that I noted;

"The reverence with which the Chinese themselves regard these two breeds would prevent them from attempting to interbreed them with lesser Chinese dragons."

I don't think this is correct. I recall a passage in Throne of Jade that discusses the various Chinese breeds which mentioned that the highest ranking dragons in the Imperial administration might be "honoured" with an Imperial mating following years of good service. I admit that mating isn't the same as breeding, but the context of the paragraph that I recall would seem to suggest that as the intent. Andrew 06:10, 15 December 2008 (PST)

Oh, thank you! Yes, you're right. The reference seems to be specifically to the blue-grey Shen-lung:

"...the blue ones, most common, were engaged in the widest variety of tasks..." [ferrying humans, carrying loads of freight, on business as members of the civil service] Zhao Wei to Laurence: "The Shen-lung are like people, some are clever and some are lazy... Many superior breeds have risen from the best of them, and the wisest may even be honored with an Imperial mating."

I agree that it's fairly obvious that the intent of the mating is to produce offspring. Since the Chinese have presumably had this practice for some while, they would have noticed by now if such matings never produced offspring and stopped offering them. Rose 08:57, 16 December 2008 (PST)