Because snakes and dragons are not two distinct species, to some extent they can be transformed into each other, with the same symbolic meaning.
(1) Fuxi Nuwa
We know that Nuwa and Fuxi are the ancestors of mankind, but there is great controversy about what these two great gods look like, and there are different versions in different periods. It is usually popular to say that these two gods are "human heads and snake bodies", but in fact, in Chinese paintings alone, Nuwa and Fuxi have various forms, basically the image of "human head dragon body", and in the sarcophagus portrait of the Three Kingdoms period in Xinjin, Sichuan, Nüwa Fuxi is a complete human form. The description of Nüwa in the Liezi is even more exaggerated: "The snake body of the Nüwa clan is human, the bull's head and tiger's nose, this has an inhuman form, and is born with the virtue of a great sage." ”
In the Tang Dynasty Sima Zhen's "Supplementary History of the Three Emperors", it is also said: "Fuxi: The head of the snake body and the head of the people, there is holy virtue. It can be seen that in different periods, the appearance of Nuwa and Fuxi is constantly changing and integrating with the development of history.
In the excavated cultural relics, not only the form of the two great gods has a very complex evolution process, the two of them are not the same in their forms, sometimes appearing in a single body, sometimes intertwined, and the objects held in their hands are not the same, basically representing the things of that era. For example, holding the sun and the moon in one's hand must be the meaning of creating heaven and earth and controlling yin and yang; if the two intertwined forms appear, it must represent reproduction and reproduction. In other places, both of them hold musical instruments, which is also the meaning of people giving credit for the invention of musical instruments to the gods, and the legend says that the gong was invented by Fuxi, and the inventors of Sheng and Huang were Nuwa. This is also a manifestation of cultural development and change and human worship of gods.
(2) Descendants of the Dragon
Regarding the dragon totem, there is a saying from Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Fu Xi Kao", which is still controversial. It is believed that the origin of the dragon totem is a combination of multiple tribal totems, after the union of the Yanhuang Emperor, each tribe has joined, but different tribes have their own totems, such as "horse totem", "deer totem", "fish totem", "sheep totem" and so on. Therefore, everyone added elements such as horse heads, antlers, fish scales, and goatee to the shape of the snake to form a "dragon totem".
In fact, regarding the relationship between dragons and snakes, snakes, in Chinese's heart, have always been small dragons. In many myths, it is said that snakes can transform into dragons after thousands of years of cultivation. Therefore, the dragon and the snake, and the snake and the dragon, are all in line with Chinese culture. We can understand in this way that the snake is the natural prototype of the dragon, and the dragon is the mythical image of the snake, in fact, the two are really one, and it is difficult to distinguish between each other, just as Fuxi Nuwa can be called both "human head snake body" or "human head dragon body". Of course, the evolution from snake to dragon must have undergone a process of continuous growth.
In fact, when we look at Pangu, the god who created the world, we can see that in his body, the combination of dragon and snake is epitomized, and the original image of Pangu is actually the body of the dragon's head and snake. In Xu Quan's other great work, the Chronicle of the Five Fortunes, it is recorded that the king of Pangu, the body of the dragon's head and snake, is booed for wind and rain, blowing for thunder and lightning, opening the eyes for day, and closing the eyes for night. After death, the bone joints are mountains and forests, the body is rivers and seas, the blood is Huaidu, and the hair is grass and trees. Therefore, from the myth to trace the ancestors of our Chinese nation, its appearance is basically the deformation of snakes and dragons, and the boundaries between snakes and dragons are not clear, but can be transformed into each other.