He Xin's New Theories on Archaeology: Talking about Dragons and Phoenixes: Talking about Dragons and Phoenixes

Author: He Xin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: In the earliest sense, the dragon and the phoenix represent the two most fundamental units of our ancient nation—the Xia and the Yin. This is because in the myths "[Gun died and transformed into a yellow dragon, giving rise to Yu]" and "[The divine mandate of the black bird descended and gave birth to the Shang]," we can vaguely discern that the dragon was the totem of the primitive Xia people, while the phoenix was the totem of the primitive Yin people (we say "primitive Xia people" and "primitive Yin people" because the Xia and Yin dynasties were already far removed from the era of totem culture, and the so-called totem was a system and belief of the Xia and Yin people long before the Xia and Yin dynasties). Therefore, considering the dragon and phoenix as symbols of the rise of our nation and the beginning of our culture can be said to be most appropriate.