Why does Chinese culture have the legend of the dragon?

The dragon is really one of the oldest mysteries of Chinese culture.

Xu Shen, a scholar of the Han Dynasty, said in his Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "The dragon, the longest of the scaly insects, is able to be dark and bright, fine and huge, and short and long. It ascends to the sky at the spring equinox and dives into the abyss at the fall equinox." This depiction adds more mystery to the people who will never see the dragon.

About the origin of the dragon, from ancient times to the present, I do not know how many literati scholars have been examined. Today, people finally got a more consistent conclusion: the dragon originated in the primitive clan society totem worship, it is a synthesis of many kinds of animal totems. As a *** with the same concepts and ideologies, the dragon represents the entire Chinese nation's "totem", which is concentrated, deposited in the late primitive society to the beginning of the class society, people's strong feelings, ideas, beliefs and expectations, and even finally become the symbol of the Chinese nation.

So, what kind of totem is the dragon? Or from which kinds of totems did it emerge?

Some archaeologists believe that the dragon is a continuation and development of the primitive religious worship of reptiles, and the earliest dragons were horned snakes; some scholars point out that the origin of the dragon can be traced back as far as the lizard, and that there are realistic relief carvings of this animal on some pottery of the Neolithic period; others believe that the dragon body comes from the snake, and the dragon head comes from the head of the horse and the head of the ox; some ethnologists say that the earliest Some ethnologists say that the earliest dragon should be a crocodile rather than a snake, and that the legendary era of "raising dragons" is the artificial domestication of crocodiles in ancient times; more scholars agree with Mr. Wen Yiduo's early evidence: the dragon is a snake plus a variety of animals and the formation of the so-called serpent body, animal feet, horse mane, hyena tail, antlers, dog claws, fish scales and whiskers.

Archaeological discoveries in recent years, for the exploration of the origin of the dragon provides some materials, which are: Henan Puyang Yangshao culture layer of clamshells swinging out of the dragon; Shanxi Xiangfen Taosi village Longshan culture site unearthed dragon ceramic plate; Inner Mongolia, Wengniuote Banner three stars of the village of red mountain culture site unearthed the jade dragon; Henan Yanshi two Litou Shang dynasty before the dragon ceramic tablets; Inner Mongolia zhaowuda alliance of the Aohan Banner Dadianzi Shang culture unearthed dragon colored ceramics Culture unearthed dragon pattern pottery pots; Henan Anyang Yinxu Women's Tomb unearthed jade dragon and so on. Puyang Yangshao culture layer in the clam dragon, about six thousand years ago, that is, produced at the end of primitive society, before the birth of the Xia dynasty. This shows that the dragon originated in primitive society has been conclusive. And today people are familiar with the image of the dragon, roughly in the Han Dynasty has been formed. In the pre-Qin era, the dragon experienced countless man-made decorations. Based on archaeological findings, it seems reasonable to confirm that the main body of the dragon was a snake. In the late Neolithic period in China, primitive clans with snakes as their totems spread all over the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the north and south of the Great River. Snakes were one of the most prevalent animal totems in ancient China, depicted and inscribed on pottery from many sites.

We also see that there are many beautiful and touching myths and legends circulating in Chinese history, the Pangu Clan, the Nuwa Clan and the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors in the late primitive society, the ****workers, Xiangliu, and II Negi in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the Changlong Clan, the Subterranean Long Clan, the Tuolong Clan, the Subduing Long Clan, the Shanglong Clan, the Shuilong Clan, the Qinglong Clan, and the Chilong Clan, the Bailong Clan, all of which belonged to the Fuxi Clan's system, as seen in the Chronicle of the Bamboo Book. ...... This large group of human head and snake body or scales and horns of the dragons and snakes, and the ancient clan tribal totem worship has a close connection. To the Han Dynasty, a large number of portrait stones, portrait bricks and silk paintings on the performance of Fuxi Nuwa cross-tailed figure, some people believe that the origin of the dragon is a symbol. In fact, by the Spring and Autumn Period, or by the time Qu Yuan first described Nuwa in his "Heavenly Questions," the basic image of the dragon had already been formed. The legendary Fuxi Nuwa may have inherited some of the dragon's traditions, but did not further enrich the image of the dragon.

To date, there are still many opinions about the origin of the dragon in the academic world. The divergent views are both difficult to unify and the debate is no longer easy to continue. Now, people are counting on field archaeology new discoveries. Because, in the primitive society without documentary records, the only way to verify some kind of legend is to use archaeological discoveries to deduce. So we say, the mystery of the origin of the dragon may be able to find more answers in the future from the clans of the ancestors left behind in the material culture.