Chinese mythology merely fantastic types of the bestiary sort. Sometimes the dragon is considered part of this category, related to it, or the ruler of all the swimming and crawling folk. This may include the giant marine turtle or tortoise Ao, the Bashe snake reputed to swallow elephants, a nine-headed snake monster reminiscent of the hydra known as Xiangliu, and the White Serpent from the novel "Legend of the White Snake". Various birds are found in Chinese mythology, some of them obviously based on real birds, other ones obviously not, and some in-between. The Crane is an example of a real type
Mythology (fiction) Mythology (fiction) Mythology (also referred to as a mythos) is the term often used by fans of a particular book, television, or movie series to describe a fiction franchise's overarching plot and often mysterious backstory. Daniel Peretti argues that mythology "is often used emically to refer to back story". The term was pioneered by the American science fiction series "The X-Files", which first aired in 1993. With this being said, many other forms of media have some sort of mythology, and the term is often applied in regards to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Lost", and the Batman and Superman comics,