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.