China's dragon worship is an extremely important folk belief, which is transformed from the taboo of poisonous snakes and has nothing to do with snake totem worship.
Dragon is a magical animal and one of the four spirits in ancient legends of China. People in China worship dragons very much. We call the worship of dragons "dragon worship". Dragon worship is a folk belief and custom. According to the available materials, we can draw the conclusion that the custom of dragon worship came into being as early as 8,000 years ago in the early Neolithic Age. The dragon-shaped piled plastic and dragon-shaped pottery pieces unearthed from the Chahai site in Fuxin, Liaoning fully illustrate this point. The emergence of dragon worship custom is closely related to people's production and living conditions. Liaohe River Basin is the birthplace of China's custom of worshipping dragons.
For a long time, the academic circles have been arguing endlessly about the prototype of the dragon, publishing hundreds of articles and putting forward twenty or thirty kinds of opinions. There are mainly two kinds: one thinks it is a snake, and the other thinks it is a crocodile. After Qin and Han Dynasties, dragons were generally quadruped. Crocodiles happen to have four legs, while snakes have no legs. So many people think that the prototype of the dragon is a crocodile, not a snake. In recent decades, many Neolithic dragons have been unearthed. We found that there were few quadrupeds in the pre-Qin period. The earliest dragons had no legs. Later, one-legged dragons and two-legged dragons appeared gradually, and finally four-legged dragons appeared. All the dragons of past dynasties have the same morphological feature-snake body, which is also the main morphological feature of dragons. According to this, the prototype of the dragon is a snake. Later, people transformed and processed the shape of snakes, forming a popular dragon shape. The morphological characteristics of dragons have rich cultural connotations.
Many people think that dragon worship is developed from snake totem worship, but this is not the case. Many materials show that the Han nationality has always been popular with the taboo custom of poisonous snakes, rather than the custom of snake totem worship. Among the cultural relics unearthed from the Chahai site, there are data to illustrate this point. Dragon worship can only be transformed from poisonous snake taboo, not from snake totem worship. In ancient times, the custom of worshipping snakes was popular among the Yue people. Many Yue people take snakes as totems, but their custom of worshipping snakes has not developed into a custom of worshipping dragons. These materials show that China's dragon worship did not develop from snake totem worship.
Taboo and worship are a pair of contradictory categories and the premise of their existence. Under certain conditions, taboo contains two opposing emotions, which also exist in worship, but their respective positions and functions are different. Han people have a taboo attitude towards poisonous snakes. They dare not touch and collide with poisonous snakes, dare not call them by their first names, and try to avoid poisonous snakes. In case they meet a poisonous snake, they will either drive it away, kill it or run away by themselves. However, when people use poisonous snakes to scare away poisonous insects and everything that may harm human beings, people worship poisonous snakes.
For a long time, the custom of dust removal and pest control has been popular among Han people. This is recorded in Zhou Li. Today, the remnants of this custom can still be seen during the Dragon Head Lifting Festival on the second day of February every year. In short, he said, the custom of removing dust and killing insects and the custom of using poisonous snakes to ward off evil spirits eventually evolved into the custom of worshipping dragons. People call something that looks like a poisonous snake "dragon" and worship it as a protector that can ward off evil spirits and resist fierce attacks. The taboo against poisonous snakes becomes the worship of dragons.
From the evolution of cultural meaning, dragon worship has gone through several stages, from the symbol of protecting god, water god and autocratic imperial power to the symbol of national culture; From the evolution of morphology, the dragon has gone through several stages, from snake-shaped, pig-headed snake-shaped to horsehead snake-shaped
People endow the dragon with many cultural meanings, mainly including the skills of all kinds of insects, the symbol of protector, water god, auspicious symbol, the symbol of autocratic imperial power, the symbol of national culture and so on. These cultural meanings are not formed at one time, but gradually enriched. Some cultural meanings have disappeared and some cultural meanings still exist today.
Dragon worship is a spiritual worship, not a totem worship.
Most ethnic groups in our country worship dragons. The dragon worship custom of ethnic minorities is influenced by the dragon worship custom of Han nationality. Ethnic minorities have a long history of worshipping dragons.
The prototype of the dragon in western countries is also a poisonous snake. People in China worship dragons, which are regarded as a symbol of good luck and happiness. Western countries regard dragons as a symbol of evil, thus forming the custom of killing dragons. Many dragon slaying stories are popular in western countries, and some places now hold dragon stabbing performances regularly every year. This custom is in sharp contrast with the custom of worshipping dragons in China. Western countries are also taboo against poisonous snakes. The fundamental reason for the great difference between Chinese and western dragon customs lies in the different ways of thinking between China and the West.
Dragon is a great creation of people's imagination, dragon worship is an extremely important folk belief, and dragon worship custom is an excellent cultural heritage.