(CFP)
The Chinese zodiac consists of 12 animals that record the years and reflect people's attributes. The Year of the Snake will begin on January 29, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
According to some experts, the snake was the inspiration for people’s imagination of the dragon and had become a mysterious totem since matrilineal societies in China.
Painting of Nuwa and Fuxi on a brick. (Handout via Xinhua Daily)
In ancient Chinese legends, Nuwa and Fuxi, ancestors of humanity, were depicted with human heads and snake bodies. This imagery was also found on artifacts from the Neolithic period.
In Nanjing Museum, visitors can explore artifacts unearthed from the tombs of the Yue state (2032 BC-333 BC), which was located in Wuxi.
This artifact, found in the tombs of the nobility of the Kingdom of Yue at Hongshan in Wuxi, features intertwined snake bodies with raised necks. (Photo provided by Nanjing Museum)
A delicate spherical device with intertwined snakes unearthed from the tombs of the nobility of the Kingdom of Yue at Hongshan in Wuxi.
Zhang Min, a researcher at Nanjing Museum, explains that the device was made up of eight snakes coiled into a circle, with one snake biting the tail of another. The snake heads and bodies were decorated with blue glazed dots and red colors, a very rare Yue ritual object.
Also unearthed from the tombs of the nobility of the Kingdom of Yue at Hongshan in Wuxi was this celadon drum pedestal with nine snakes piled up. The number “9” represents the tomb owner's supreme status or power, according to experts.
During the Shang and Zhou periods (approximately 1600-256 BC), bronze artifacts also featured snake decorations.
In Suzhou Museum, the main decoration of an artifact, unearthed from the Wu state of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC), consists of intertwined snakes. (Photo provided by Suzhou Museum)
A tomb guardian beast from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD) is among the collections in Nanjing Museum.
Nanjing Museum also houses several Eastern Han tomb guardian beasts, which typically feature a demonic face, horns on the head, one hand holding an axe, and the other grasping a snake. Experts explain that this design reflects the reverence for snakes and is imbued with strong shamanistic cultural influences.
A snake-shaped zodiac figurine in Yangzhou Museum. (Photo provided by Yangzhou Museum)
What would a snake look like in human clothes? Yangzhou Museum houses a figurine, with a snake head slightly raised and human body in a cross-collared, wide-sleeved long robe. It also features hands crossing at the chest, a waist belt, and a solemn and dignified look.
According to Zhuang Zhijun, head of the collection department at Yangzhou Museum, this figurine was unearthed in 1984 from a Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) tomb. "The relics also include multiple tri-colored zodiac figurines, including snake, dragon, horse, and monkey, all rare cultural relics found in Jiangsu," said Zhuang.
Archaeological documents showed that the placement of the twelve zodiac figurines in ancient tombs followed a strict clockwise order, starting with the rat and three figurines for each of the cardinal directions.
A double human-headed and snake-bodied figurine unearthed in Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City.
A double human-headed and snake-bodied figurine found in the tomb of Empress Xiao. (Photo taken by Zhang Jing)
During the archaeological excavation of the tomb of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) in 2013, this pottery figurine was discovered in Empress Xiao's tomb. It features two heads with
hair buns facing each other, hands propped on the ground, with their bodies connected at the back in a semicircular snake body.
A human-headed snake-bodied figurine from the Southern Tang period (937–975 AD), housed in Nanjing Museum. (Photo taken by Song Ning)
Some scholars believe that these human-headed and snake-bodied figurines symbolized the worship of creatures and human life in ancient times, serving to protect the tombs and pray for the coming back to life.
