Discussing Dragons and Phoenixes: The Zoological Prototypes of Dragons and Phoenixes

Author: He Xin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-08
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 birth to Yu]" and "[The divine mandate of the black bird descended and gave birth to the Shang]," we can vaguely see that the dragon was the totem of the primitive Xia people, and the phoenix was the totem of the primitive Yin people (we say primitive Xia and Yin people because the two dynasties of Xia and Yin were already far removed from the totem culture period, and what is called totemism 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 and cultural inception of our nation can be said to be most appropriate.