In one story from ancient Chinese folklore recounted by Gong Liang, director of the Nanjing Museum, rodents descend mercilessly upon the crops, threatening the harvest and spreading disease. It was the snake that bravely exterminated the rodents and gave up his gallbladder as medicine for the locals. As a reward for this sacrifice, the snake was named the sixth sign in the Chinese zodiac.
Another ancient folk tale describes a great race to determine the order of the zodiac, with the snake wrapping itself around the horse’s leg to sneak into sixth place.
Coming after dragon, the snake has big shoes to fill (the snake zodiac is affectionately referred to as 小龙, small dragon, in Chinese). It is not as popular as the dragon, which symbolizes power and victory, but the snake brings good omens too, representing longevity, luck, and eternal love.
In Western culture, snakes are often associated with evil and danger, as in Medusa’s alluring hair, or Satan masquerading as a snake to tempt Eve. In Islamic folklore, the Djinn, a spirit representing danger, appears in a serpentine form. Snakes are associated with longevity, fertility, and rebirth in different Western traditions, but death is the most common motif uniting them.
In China, the snake has fewer negative associations.
Nüwa and Fuxi, creator heroes in Chinese mythology, are depicted with human heads and an intertwined, snake-like body. They are brother and sister, but also husband and wife, representing the yin and the yang duality central to Chinese tradition. Nüwa is credited with creating humanity and society, and together the duo symbolizes fertility. In ancient China, imagery of the snake also appeared as a decorative element on vases, rings, and bronze tripods, or ding.
The snake also symbolizes the pursuit of love and happiness in Chinese popular culture. The 1992 TV series New Legend of Madame White Snake and the 1993 movie Green Snake are both adaptations of The Legend of the White Snake, one of China’s four great folktales. It tells the story of a forbidden romance between Xu Xian, a man, and Bai Suzhen, a snake spirit.
Snakes can be venomous, but snake gallbladder is a key ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. According to folklore, snakes possess the ability to identify healing herbs.
Within the Chinese zodiac, the snake is one of the more controversial animals, with a complex and nuanced cultural representation. It’s a figure of fertility and intelligence, but can also be cunning and mysterious.
For New Year’s festivities in China, many cities opted to make their snake installations look docile and cute, giving them big eyes, chubby bodies, and colorful scales, and losing the forked tongue. It’s a marketing campaign to minimize the negative connotations associated with the serpent, one RedNote user commented: “They are so cute, they don’t even look like snakes!”
Cover image via RedNote
