The Story of the Chinese Zodiac: Why are snakes called "Little Dragons"

Shuowen said that "dragons are as long as scale insects, and the vernal equinox reaches the sky and the autumn equinox dives." The scale insects here refer to water snakes, crocodiles and the like. In all kinds of movies or cartoons about dragons, it is not difficult to see the flexible and soft body of dragons rolling in the air or water. From this point of view, the dragon's body should be the embodiment of snakes, not other crocodiles, lizards and the like. Although they have scales, they are not as flexible, flexible and agile as snakes.

From historical records, stories and legends, it can be seen that the dragon patterns on ancient emperors originated from snakes of Vietnamese culture. Shan Hai Jing. "Yuan Ye" said: "Nu Wa, an ancient goddess and emperor, walked seventy miles a day with a snake face and a snake body." Shuowen: Naman, southeast Vietnam, snake species. History of the Road: Huang San's Snake Body. Tattooing is a custom in ancient Yue. Later emperors stopped tattooing, but the dragons in the yellow robes they wore were also slender snakes.

Mr. Wen Yiduo also agrees that the dragon is the keynote of the snake in his masterpiece Fuxi Kao. The dragon is a big snake and the snake is a little dragon. He believes that after the snake clan merged with other clans, it "absorbed many other totem clans (clans), and the serpent accepted the four feet of animals, the head of horses, the tail of raccoons, the horns of deer, the claws of dogs, the scales and whiskers of fish".

From the evolution of characters, people can see the origin of dragons and snakes more intuitively.