The Snake in Chinese Belief (Denise Chao, 1979)

Notes:

p.193, snakes are present in the beliefs and legends of many cultures

“The snake is a common symbol in the religious beliefs, ceremonies and legends in many cultures. The odd appearance of the snake, its unwinking eye and its awe-inspiring ability to cause instant death, the fear, horror and loathing with which it is regarded by men, have all combined to bring about mythological stories in many different parts of the world. Man’s ideas of the snake have always been ambivalent; it is a creature crawling on the earth that also suggests rebirth in its ability to shed its skin and be revitalized every spring.”^[1]

p.193, symbolism of the tail-eating snake as related to Time, ‘the divine principle of eternal and inexhaustible creativeness’

“The tail-eating snake stood for the world with the ancient Egyptians; it was accepted by the Alexandrian alchemists and reappeared in the Scandinavian Prose Edda as Midgardsorm, the snake lying in the middle of the ocean which surrounds the world. The use of the emblem should be related to the use of the circle form to symbolize eternity and to the traditional way of representing Time, the divine principle of eternal and inexhaustible creativeness, as a divine figure with a serpent round him.”^[1:1]

p.194, Pan Ku as the most ancient ancestor and creator of the world; with a dragon’s head and a serpent’s body; and eventually he became the weather, lands, and world

“Pan Ku was the most ancient ancestor and the creator of the world. In the very beginning, the universe was dark and looked like an ‘egg’. Pan Ku was asleep in its centre for eighteen thousand years. When he awoke, he saw nothing. Filled with anger at this awkward condition, he broke the ‘egg’ with a hammer: its light element was floating in the air and became Heaven, while its heavy element descended and became Earth. Because he was afraid that Heaven and Earth would come together, he prevented their coalescing by interposing his head and feet. In proportion as Heaven went up and Earth thickened daily, he himself grew ten feet taller every day. After eighteen thousand years, he was eighteen thousand feet tall, so that Heaven and Earth were eighteen thousand feet apart. When he revelled in something, there was a sunny day; when he was dispirited, there was a rainy day. It is said that he had a dragon’s head and a serpent’s body. After innumerable years in this station of life, he died, or rather his whole body became metamorphosed.

Pan Ku’s breath was transformed into wind and storm, while his voice became the thunder. His left eye became the sun, while he right eye became the moon. His hands, feet and his chest became the four ends of the universe and famous mountains. His blood made up rivers; his nerves, the roads, and his muscles, the fields; his hair and moustache, the stars of Heaven. His down turned into flowers, grasses and trees; his teeth, bones and marrows, into meadows, stones, pearls and jewels. His sweat became rain and dew.”^[2]