The figurative description of Nu Wa's image and appearance

Nu Wa, upper body person, lower body snake.

In the middle and late Warring States period, Nu Wa did not form a relatively fixed image of "snake head" as in the Han Dynasty, which can also be reflected from the record of "there are ten gods, the famous Nu Wa intestines, turning into gods and living in wild corridors" written in the middle and late Warring States period.

It involves the myth that Nu Wa created everything (including people, of course), but there is no specific explanation for the external image of Nu Wa. Especially in the description of Shan Hai Jing, there is no direct record about Fuxi. That is to say, "in most pre-Qin classics, people who speak Fuxi don't speak Nu Wa at the same time, and Nu Wa doesn't speak Fuxi at the same time".

Extended data:

Myth evolution

The earliest ancient books about the myth of Nuwa were Shan Hai Jing and Chu Ci in the pre-Qin period (although Shuo Wen Jie Zi recorded a word in the works written by Zhou Xuanwang Taishizhen at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it has been lost and only a rumor). Although the records in these two books are still vague, today many people are convinced of their divine intention to create mankind.

Mr. Yuan Ke interprets the record in Songs of the South: "Nu Wa made other people's bodies, who made her body?" . Mr. Ding Shan thought these two sentences clearly: "During the Warring States Period, the story of Nu Wa's creation of human beings has been widely circulated in China."

As for Nu Wa's statement in Shan Hai Jing Huang Da Xi Jing: "There are ten gods, named Nu Wa Chang, who turn into gods, in the field of Li Guang and cross the road." Yuan Ke interpreted Guo Pu's annotation as "or Nu Wa's abdomen", saying that "Nu Wa was a goddess and emperor in ancient times, with a snake face, and her abdomen turned into this god", and took the words of Han Chinese Xu Shen and Liu An as evidence.

Ding Shan also thinks that this is "obviously another fable of human pregnancy and childbirth". Even so, there is still no clear statement in these records that Nu Wa made man.