Snake 蛇
The little dragon
- Wise
- Private
- Elegant
- Watchful
The Snake is called 小龍, the little dragon, and being the dragon's understudy is not a demotion in Chinese: it is the sign of people who think before they speak, keep their own counsel, and are usually three steps further ahead than they let on. Wisdom, discretion, and a great deal of self-possession.
Nüwa, who made human beings out of yellow clay and mended the sky with smelted stone, is described in the earliest sources as having a woman's head and a serpent's body. The snake sits close to the origin of everything in Chinese myth.
Xiang Li crowns hers. It is a small joke with a straight face — the little dragon given the regalia of the big one — and the crown is painted with the same care as a piece of court jewelry in the Empresses collection.
The name in the corner
Top right, in black: the old form written for a serpent — the ancestor of 它, from which 蛇 was later built, a triangular head above a curving body.
Why oracle-bone script →Give the Year of the Snake
Canvas prints, scarves, puzzles and more — from $14.
Two full-color hardcovers — 217 empresses, 413 painted characters.
Questions? Write to xiangliart@gmail.com