In Chinese culture, the snake seems to have an intricate relationship with the dragon, a symbolic emblem of the nation. Sometimes they could not be differentiated from each other, in other times snakes were widely believed to be a major prototype of dragons. Similar to the dragon, the snake was an important motif throughout the Chinese history, but different from dragons, snakes had fluctuating symbolic meanings.

Snakes were not unfamiliar to ancient Chinese people. In Shuowen Jiezi ("an explanation of Chinese characters"), a basic reference book on Chinese characters written in the second century, author Xu Shen mentioned how people feared snakes and greeted each other by asking if they had encountered any recently, indicating the frequent presence of such creatures in their lives.

As a matter of fact, the ancient Chinese had detailed observations of snakes, gaining profound insights into their biological characteristics. This led to the gradual development of diverse and complicated sentiments toward these creatures, as evidenced by the numerous cultural artifacts and myths they left behind.

The earliest known cultural relics related to snakes can be traced back to nearly 8,000 years ago in northeastern China, where Chahai Site in Fuxin, Liaoning province, has unveiled a cylindrical pottery jar embossed with the pattern of a snake biting a frog.

"The pattern probably came from people's observation of the biological features of the animal, without a religious symbolism," says Han Ding, an associate professor of archaeology at Henan University. He adds that snake patterns continued to exist during the Neolithic period, from this vessel to the Yangshao Culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years and then to Liangzhu Culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River from 5,300 to 4,000 years ago. These snake images occasionally adorned ritual vessels, possibly reflecting concepts related to beliefs, but their sacredness fell far short of the later motifs.

Divinity of snakes

A major upgrade happened at the end of the Neolithic era, when the status of snakes rose rapidly elevating them to a divine symbol. Archaeologists have found in the Erlitou Culture, a Bronze Age culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River that existed from the 18th to 16th centuries BC and believed to be associated with the Xia Dynasty (c. 21stcentury-16th century BC), snakes emerged as a particularly crucial motif, prominently featured on exceptional artifacts.

For example, a longstrip animal made of more than 2,000 turquoise pieces has been found positioned atop the body of a tomb owner from Erlitou Site in Luoyang, Henan province. Scholars mostly believe it is a dragon, but Han points out it can also be seen as a snake, as in the Erlitou Culture, distinguishing between snakes and dragons was challenging, with the snake often regarded as a primary inspiration for the iconic dragon imagery.

"Each of the turquoise piece was designed carefully in its positioning to make this shape. The snake or dragon was put on some organic materials like a wooden plate which was held by the person in one arm, and beside it was a bronze bell, one of the earliest bronze artifacts discovered in East Asia, tied to his hand with a jade bell clapper within. Imagine the man holding the turquoise snake or dragon and ringing the bell, producing maybe the earliest sounds of bronze colliding with jade that East Asian people ever heard. What a divine scene!" says Han.

The symbolic turquoise inlaid bronze plaques unearthed from Erlitou Site, often as funerary objects of people of high social status, possibly wizards, have patterns probably evolved from snakes as well, Han adds."We can say since the Erlitou Culture, the status of snakes was raised significantly, influencing the formation of the dragon image, which later became a symbolic emblem of the Chinese nation," he says.

During the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC) and Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC), snakes kept their divine status, appeared frequently on bronze ritual vessels and began to show different features from dragons, which started to have antlers and claws based on a snake's body.

When the image of dragon was enriched continuously, the snake was paid less attention to with its divinity robbed by the dragon as well. But the snake continued to have an important symbolic meaning.

In a Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) myth, Emperor Liu Bang, founder of the dynasty, killed a snake when he was still a grassroots official of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and later he overthrew the Qin regime.

"Here the snake seems to symbolize the political ruler, by defeating the earlier ruler of the Qin Dynasty, Liu could inherit their power and became a new ruler," says Lian Chunhai, a researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts.

Cultural connotations

In the mythic geography book Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), many gods hold snakes or hang snakes around their ears, or have a snake’s body, as a mark of their extraordinary abilities, says Lian.

According to Han, as snakes dwell in underground caves, they are often believed to be related to the dead, who are also buried underground. From pottery pieces unearthed from an early Shang Dynasty capital in what is now Zhengzhou, Henan province, depictions of a human head within the mouths of snakes have been identified. Han says ancient people realized the lethal nature of snake bites. By placing a human head within snakes’ jaws, individuals experienced a ceremonial death, facilitating communication with their ancestors in the afterlife. These individuals were often shamans, and snakes were commonly used in sacrificial rituals to aid in communication with the dead.

Starting from the Shang Dynasty at the latest, people believed the universe was hierarchical, with gods in the heaven, humans on the earth, and the underworld being the realm of the dead. Seeking to transcend these divisions and offer homage to their ancestors, they believed snakes just had the ability they required when they observed them burrowing from the earth into the underworld.

Consequently, they viewed these mystical creatures as intermediaries between the living, the deceased, and the divine. The images of people with snakes symbolize their wish for gaining this special ability to transcend the boundaries of life and death, says Han.

Going further, they created images with human heads and snake bodies. “By possessing part of a snake’s body, they probably wanted to own its ability of traversing the threshold between life and death as well,” says Han.

Patterns of Nyuwa, the mother goddess in Chinese mythology, and Fuxi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese nation, embracing and looking at each other with their lower bodies twisting into snake tails, coiled in a spiral structure, have been discovered in many places of China since the Han Dynasty, often seen on stone components of tombs or silk paintings. The patterns were probably influenced by the Shang Dynasty images with human heads and snake bodies, he adds.

Han says snakes were also associated with rebirth due to their ability to shed skin and hibernate. “In ancient people’s eyes, the snakes seemed to have died, but then they cast off skin and rejuvenated. This phenomenon mirrored the concept of revival after death. Within cultural artifacts from the Shang Dynasty, snake motifs are often depicted alongside images of cicadas, known for their molting, and deer antlers, which shed and regrow annually. These symbols all represent themes of rebirth and regeneration,” says Han.

Besides the Central Plains,in the culture of ancient Shu, a state in southwestern China that lasted for more than a millennium before its fall in the fourth century BC, people had a similar understanding of the snake’s role as a messenger linking humans and the gods.

For example, a bronze snake has been pieced together with its three parts through sunmao (mortise-and-tenon) joints discovered in 1986 from a sacrificial pit of the Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan, Sichuan province, believed to be a capital of the ancient Shu state from more than 4,000 years ago.

The snake raises its head and has its tail curling upward and coiling inward, seemingly ready to initiate an attack. Since it was from a sacrificial pit, this snake is believed to be a significant prop used during sacrificial rituals in the ancient Shu, says Wang Fang, deputy director of the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan. Wang adds that the Jinsha Site, widely believed to be another capital of Shu after the decline of Sanxingdui, also yielded a dozen vivid stone snakes.

“In ancient Shu, as people ventured into and struggled to survive in the wilderness, they were often threatened by fierce snakes,”says Wang.

“Their wizards, capitalizing on people’s reverence and fear of snakes, tamed and played with the snakes, thus becoming heroes in the eyes of the people. The snake, in turn, became a helper of the gods, playing the role of a spirit animal in sacrificial activities,” she adds.

Qin and Han snakes

Since the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), snakes were sometimes perceived as evil creatures which might disrupt the dead. Consequently, tomb artifacts frequently depicted guardian beasts chewing or trampling snakes to ward off their proximity to the tombs.

Cultural relics about snakes found in northern and southern China during the Qin and Han dynasties exhibit distinct characteristics. “The artifacts from northern China, especially China’s Central Plains, often seemed elegant and solemn. Snakes were often portrayed as intricate patterns alongside other designs. But many artifacts from southern China took the form of snakes, capturing a lifelike essence,” says Lian.

He believes these stylistic disparities reflect the varying prevalence of snakes in the daily lives of people during that era. “Evidence such as the lifelike snake patterns on pottery vessels from the Yangshao Culture indicates the frequent encounters with snakes in northern China during that period. However, as the climate shifted to become cold and arid in northern China — a habitat unfavorable to snakes — they gradually vanished from the region, thriving instead in the more hospitable southern regions,” he says.

“As a result, during the Qin and Han periods, people from northern China only had a vague impression of this animal. But people in southern China often saw the animal, prompting the creation of vivid snake artifacts,” Lian adds.

Snakes played an important role in the culture of the ancient Dian kingdom in the middle and eastern part of present-day Southwest China’s Yunnan province from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. Fan Haitao, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Museum, says the religious sacrifice, social life and artistic creations of Dian people were imbued with the presence of snakes.

For example, there is a bronze sword from the state with its handle in the shape of a snake’s head which opens its mouth from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). The snake’s head is made vividly so that peoplecan feel frightened. “The snake on the weapon may serve as a symbol of people’s wish of a ‘lethal strike’ with the sword by mimicking the venom of a real snake,” says Fan.

In the Han Dynasty, snakes also appeared often on patterns of xuanwu, a Chinese mythical creature that’s depicted as a snake and a tortoise. In the following dynasties, snake appeared less in cultural relics but was still seen as one of the 12 animals in Chinese zodiac and appeared in artifacts themed on it.

Living on the earth for more than 100 million years, the snake has never been away from Chinese people’s culture and life. “Evolving from the Neolithic era, they were revered as divine motifs, served as intermediaries between humans and gods, and eventually became a zodiac symbol for the common folk. The cultural significance associated with snakes has grown increasingly rich, persisting into the modern times,” says Wang.