The snake in Chinese culture can be either divine or demonic in character. The legendary Fu Xi, for example, was “a being of great virtue, with the body of a snake and the head of a human.” It is written that he created the Eight Trigrams after “peering heavenward to read the stars, gazing earthward to read the feng shui, and widely observing the beasts of nature.” He was the source of life and the origin of the wisdom that has been passed down through the ages. Together, he and his sister Nüwa gave birth to the human race.
The snake at times resembles a dragon, and vice versa. It is also sometimes seen as a dragon that has changed its form. Dragon and snake are often paired together in ancient writings. In his seminal work Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian wrote in the chapter on the Emperor Gaozu of Han that when Liu Bang (later known as Emperor Gaozu) was still a minor official in the latter years of the Qin Dynasty, he was once walking along a road with an aide and encountered a large snake blocking the way. The aide urged Liu to retreat, but Liu insisted on proceeding forward, and cut the snake in half. Later, the aide noticed an old woman crying disconsolately, and asked the reason for her sorrow. The woman replied that her son had been killed. The son, whose father was the White God of the West, had turned himself into a snake to stand guard by the road, but was killed by the son of the Red God of the South. Upon finishing those words, she vanished. Liu came to feel that his was no ordinary fate. He styled himself the son of the Red God of the South as he went about founding the Han Dynasty. And a few centuries before Liu Bang’s time, it was written that when Chong’er was seeking to take over as ruler of the kingdom of Jin, “the Dragon (i.e. Chong’er) relied on the services of the Five Snakes (i.e. five able comrades).” The Chinese have traditionally tended to see the snake as a symbol of the good.
Now that the Year of the Snake has arrived, let’s see how a number of different artists have chosen to represent this year’s zodiac.
Wu Hongcang, All Is Well: Peony blossoms symbolizing affluence and refinement are combined with the snake, a traditional totemic animal of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, to create a beauty that is deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture.
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