During the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, a great minority Ba people was born in the Qingjiang River valley and the Three Gorges area. As the birthplace of early Ba culture, Qingjiang River Basin is not only supported by the beautiful and moving legend of Lin Jun in Historical Records of Han Dynasty, but also supported by typical archaeological materials such as Xiang Shi on Changyang Road and the roof of Badongyan. The people who have lived in Qingjiang River valley for generations are all descendants of Ba people.
For a long time, we all think that Tujia people worship the white tiger. Every New Year, Wufeng Mountain is brightly lit at night, with various patterns on it, most of which are white tigers, running around and jumping around on the mountain. It's really amazing.
However, many scholars believe that the ancestors of Tujia nationality, Ba people, took snakes as their totems. I personally support this statement, because I am a snake. I have lived under the wall of Enshi old city since I was a child, and I can often see black Zaocys in front of and behind my house. It can be said that snakes are our friends since childhood. My mother said that she often dreamed about snakes when she was pregnant. Once, her pregnant mother saw a python in the middle of the road when she was walking, which scared her. She stood there and did not dare to move, but the python unhurriedly got into the grass.
As far as I can remember, the first close contact with snakes was six years ago. At that time, my family went to Baiyangping and Huangji to play, my husband was fishing by the river, and my daughter and I were sitting on the boulder by the river playing with our mobile phones. We also played crazy and forgot all the troubles in the world. The happy mood and scene at that time are still vivid in my mind. While we were having fun, we suddenly saw a black snake about 1.5 meters long and as thick as a child's wrist, about 30 centimeters away from me. God, I suddenly felt what a collapse was!
Fortunately, this Zaocys has a small frog in its mouth. It doesn't have time to bite me. If I had panicked and screamed, the snake would have been frightened, and I would have been bitten by it. So, I sat motionless on the stone. Because the snake was between my daughter and me, I gently told my daughter sitting next to me not to move. My husband calmly said to me, "Don't be afraid, it's Zaocys, harmless!" "
Maybe the snake liked the flowered skirt I was wearing better, but it was reluctant to leave and stayed with me for a while. You know, this short time is a thousand years for me! This shiny-eyed, apricot-spitting black guy looks scary, and I feel like I'm losing my soul.
Mr. Wang drove it away with his long fishing rod. At this time, I saw that the snakehead had stood up and spit out red apricots. I quickly told him not to move because we were right next to the snake. My daughter and I are too close to it. It may attack the people next to it at any time, and we may be injured by accident! So, Mr. Wang stopped taking risks. The serpent saw that Mr. Wang had no next move. After a while, it finally intends to leave.
I prayed in my heart never to cross my barefoot pole! I wore a skirt that day, but I didn't wear socks on my legs and feet. A lot of things are often like this. The more you don't want something to happen, the more it will suddenly come. Snakes treat me like nothing. It quickly slipped between my legs, and my cold body brushed my ankle. I fought back. I didn't move. I jumped up and screamed when the snake climbed to the grove above the rock like a sword. This is the first time I have been in such close contact with this terrible creature. It scared the shit out of me!
After the snake ran away for a long time, my heart was still pounding. I will never forget this shocking scene! In fact, it looks terrible. As long as you leave it alone, it won't take the initiative to attack you.
Last week, my husband went fishing in a big pond near my home. I was walking in the open field by the pond and saw a stout Zaocys gliding rapidly in the grass. Take a closer look at where the snake went in. This is actually an abandoned grave. There is nothing in the tomb, and it becomes bare, leaving only a complete tombstone. Suddenly, I remembered the story of snake essence. The owner under this cemetery seems to have become a psychic snake, and it seems that the legend of the black snake is going to be staged again.
When we used to live in an old house, snakes often appeared on the walls, drawers, balconies, stairwells and cracks in the walls of our house, but we never hit or catch them, just scaring them to leave quickly. This is because Tujia people also have a saying that "snakes entering the house can't be beaten", and we regard snakes as the embodiment of deceased relatives.
Our western Hubei belongs to subtropical monsoon climate, which is characterized by high temperature and rainy summer and mild and little rain in winter. This climate is suitable for the life of snakes. Snakes can be seen everywhere in the fields, and even on the stairs in the yard of the community where we live now, snakes can be seen crawling. Snakes are very common animals in mountainous areas. Therefore, it is not surprising that the ancient Ba people living here chose snakes, an ubiquitous animal, as a tribal totem.
In ancient times, Ba people worshipped snakes out of fear. In ancient times, human beings lived in very bad conditions and were threatened by all kinds of wild animals. Snakes used to be one of the most vicious enemies of mankind. In the eyes of the ancients, although the snake is not big, it can devour animals much bigger than itself and defeat powerful opponents. Snakes shed their skins and never died. They have no feet, but they can climb very fast. They can survive in water and land, and their vitality is extremely tenacious.
Ba people think that snakes have some mysterious power, and they wish they had this power. Moreover, the essence of snake worship is reproduction, which is the embodiment of human reproductive culture. In the eyes of early humans, Fuxi Nuwa was a huge snake. The ancestors of human beings appeared in this image because of the strong reproductive ability of snakes, in order to express their good wishes for the prosperity of the tribe. In ancient times, because of the difficult living conditions, we had to deal with the threats from nature at any time, especially to compete with other tribes around us, so only by constantly reproducing, the tribe could continue.