In prehistoric Chinese myths and legends, Fu Xi and Nvwa were said to be the first humans, in the form of a human-head and snake-body combination, an illusive image created by later generations. The legend also goes that they created mankind through the act of brother-sister incest, and they were pictured as having human head and snake body with their tails interlocked, with the many variations.
Fu Xi and Nvwa were the Divine Consorts in the ancient Chinese mythology, whose legendary incest had huge symbolic significance in reproduction. The fact Nvwa being presented in a snake body was not only required by the mystery of the myths, but also because snake was considered to have strong vitality and fertility, an emblem of eternity. The presence and prevalence of the Fu Xi and Nvwa images was another way of snake worship in the prehistoric China, and the relevant mythology was, by and large, the condensed reflection of such worship mentality.
In China, snake was presented as the totem (the dragon) of the Chinese nation and was fondly worshiped as the ancestor god of all human beings. Snake was endowed with the symbolic significance of sex, leading to the gradual formation of snake-sex culture that finally grew into a reverence and worship towards snake. The snake image existing in the Chinese mythology was the reflection of a natural and social phenomenon during prehistoric China, and the emergence of the Fu Xi and Nvwa images was an event, an important one that occurred in the process of such transition.
What is noteworthy is that the tomb of Huang Junmeng dated to the early Spring and Autumn Period, whereas the presence of Fu Xi and Nvwa in written record was generally thought to be later than that. Deduction, therefore, may be safely made that the legendary tale of Fu Xi and Nvwa had already existed prior to that period. The sapphire ornaments found in the Huang Junmeng couple’s tomb showcased the snake or dragon worship by humans, a totem that was added with mystical air. By making the divine images on jadestone, the ancestral people expressed their memory of what the dual divinities had done for the benefit of mankind, and their expectations for happy life.
From a historical point of view, the images of Fu Xi and Nvwa never stayed unchanged, as evidenced in generations of cultural remains. In the following paragraphs a group of Fu Xi and Nvwa images belonging to different dynasties will be discussed to reveal the development of their images and the cultural elements and significance contained in the various forms.
This is a mural of Fu Xi and Nvwa discovered in an Eastern Han tomb at Mushanzi, Chulan Township, Su County, Anhui Province. Nvwa was depicted upside down, like a winged snake, flying elegantly around the flower of life that was in blossom in the center.
This mural of Fu Xi and Nvwa, a work of the Western Wei, originated from cave no. 285, Mogao Grottoes. On the picture, Fu Xi and Nvwa, both with human head and snake body, face each other from south to north, leaping cheerfully in a phantasy world brought out by the whirling heavenly flowers. A golden bird was painted in the wheel on Fu Xi’s chest, which represented the sun; a toad was depicted in the wheel on Nvwa’s chest, which symbolized the moon that was flying around the tree of life.
The images of Fu Xi and Nvwa were also found in the tomb mural of the late Koguryo Kingdom (corresponding to the Southern Dynasty of China) located at the Five Helmet Grave, Ji’an, Tonghua City, Jilin Province. East to the caisson at tomb no. 4 was an image of Fu Xi in flight, holding high above his head a red-edged plate that was painted with a three-legged bird, the emblem of the sun. The image of Nvwa was seen north of the caisson at tomb no. 4, symmetrical to Fu Xi, also flying, lifting a white plate painted with a toad that was symbolic of the moon. In between was a life tree outlined with ink and filled with the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue.
The anonymous Fu Xi and Nvwa scroll of the Tang Dynasty unearthed at Astana, Turpan, Xinjiang in 1969. On the picture were a man and a woman, both in human head and snake body, with their tails intertwined. Nvwa was holding something of a fork in her hand while Fu Xi grasping a hook, both of them surrounded by stars, a picture of evident Tang style in the use of approaches and colors. In the meantime, the plump face and hanging ears of the woman bore a clear resemblance to Bodhisattva as depicted in the Buddha murals; moreover, the color infiltration on the face and arms added to it certain traits of the Western Region paintings.
With an analysis of the differently modeled human-head, snake-body figures that have come down from the past, we may see these many images of Fu Xi and Nvwa have existed with great antiquity and spread over extensive areas, taking on different cultural look and artistic feature as influenced by time and space.
The widespread Fu Xi and Nvwa images may be summarized as having these elements in common -- a human-head, snake-body prototype, sometimes separate man and woman appearing to represent Yin and Yang metaphorically; combined use of the sun, the moon and tree of life as a metaphor for the harmonization of Yin and Yang, an expression of the ancestral people’s simple understanding of the reproduction and cycle of life; some images depicted holding props in hand, usually compass for Fu Xi and fork-shaped object for Nvwa.
Naturally, there are both common points and differences among the Fu Xi and Nvwa images of different places. No uniform understanding of the Fu Xi and Nvwa myth exists in the folk. People add characteristic to it that is indigenous to that location. So, the presence and continuity of the Fu Xi and Nvwa images are a good means of the accumulation and inheritance of the ancient culture, themselves being an epitome of the social morals of the times they were in.
This human-head, snake body sapphire ornaments, as the earliest known images of Fu Xi and Nvwa, were the embodiment of the ancient people’s expectations for good life.
In the murals of cave no. 285, Mogao Grottoes and the Fu Xi and Nvwa scroll unearthed at Astana, Turpan, Xinjiang, the figures each held something in hand, which are generally thought to be compass and rule. What is your opinion?
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In 1983, an ancient tomb was found at the Baoxiang Temple, Guangshan County, Xinyang City, Henan Province. The subsequent rescue excavation done by a professional archaeological team brought to light a large number of fine jadeware, with the mass of plaque-like jade ornaments. This uniquely modeled pair was one of them.
Appearing greenish yellow, either of the ornament pair is in a circular form composed of a human head and a curled-up snake body. The human heads are carved with sharp features – capsized-boat hair style, wide-opened eyes, and curled lips. The snake bodies are decorated with dragon motifs. On the front side of the left ornament, the human head is cut in relief while the snake body cut in a way similar to the flat relief technique that only came into existence in later generations. The back side is cut all in intaglio, with a bulbous nose that is emblematic of masculinity. The right ornament is carved in intaglio on both sides, with a Grecian nose in silhouette. The eye on the front side, shaped like the Chinese character chen (臣), as opposed to the round eye on the back side which appears to be of femininity.
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Close-ups of the human-head, snake-body sapphire ornaments
Line drawings of both front and back sides of the human-head,
snake-body sapphire ornaments (the right one)
Miniature in size yet unique in modeling, the pair is a rare treasure of art that displays the artistic creativity and jade making level of the ancient people.
By use of bas-relief and intaglio techniques, this pair of sapphire ornaments metaphorically differentiated the male and the female, which are, deductively, thought to be the images of Fu Xi and Nvwa. No earlier human-head, snake-body images in pairs being found, this duo stand as the oldest known physical images of Fuxi and Nvwa so far.
The Ancient Capital of State Huang and Huang Junmeng Couple’s Tomb
Located in the present-day Longgu Township, approximately 6km west of the seat of Huangchuan County, Xinyang City, Henan Province, the ancient capital of State Huang was built after King Cheng of Zhou crushed the uprising Eastern Barbarians. The State Huang was a vassal state in the Zhou Dynasty that was ruled by Ying clan, and had been a relatively strong one among the small states scattered in the Yangtze-Huai region before being defeated by the State Chu in 648 BC. The capital had an area of 2.8 square kilometers.
The capital was sited in a rectangular area between the south bank of the Huai River and the west bank of the Petite Huang Stream. There are three ruins that could be confirmed as the gates, of which the central one on the western wall had been found with increased thickness, which should be a result of the frequent warfare during the Spring and Autumn Period that demanded reinforced defense at the gate. The walls were built of rammed earth that contained remains of the late Western Zhou and the early Spring and Autumn Period. In 2006, the ancient capital of the State Huang was included in 6th batch of the Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.
The Huang Junmeng Couple’s Tomb was situated north of the Baoxiang Temple in the suburbs of the seat of Guangshan County, Henan Province, the occupants of which were Huang Junmeng, the monarch of the State Huang during the early Spring and Autumn Period, and his spouse. Excavated in 1983, the tomb was a rectangular vertical pit type from which about 200 items of bronzeware, jadeware, bamboo & wood lacquerware, and silk fabrics were found. The jadeware unearthed were a total of 185, all made of fine jadestone, mostly in plaque shape, with beautiful designs in modeling. These exquisite jadeware displayed the high caliber of the ancient State Huang in jade carving. The 6 pieces of purple silk fabrics were among the rarest material examples in the history of natural silk textile. As to the bamboo pan pipe, it was the earliest bamboo pipe musical instrument known to date.
The date of this tomb was somewhere not long before 648 BC. The ritual ware found from it are used as criterion reference in the archaeological excavation for the mid-Spring and Autumn Period.
With a master's degree in Chinese of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, she is a museuologist in the Information Administration Dept. of Henan Museum.