论楚文化对蛇的信仰和恐惧

中国的古代文化与蛇有着密切的关系，蛇崇拜有着十分丰富的文化涵义。蛇的象征符号功能往往足对立的、二元的，如：1．水神／旱神；2．男性／女性；3．地主和社神；4．冥神／邪祟；5．飞升／入地；6．重牛／死亡；7．智慧／阴险；8．祥瑞／灾异。蛇崇拜也是楚文化的重要内容之一，楚文化的文献记载和出土文物有很多蛇的资料。从四个方面阐述了楚文化对蛇的信仰和恐惧。楚文化中的蛇崇拜具有以下特色：1．楚人先祖与蛇有着密切的关系；2．蛇为冥神——保护神；3．蛇为邪祟——破坏者；4．蛇与鸟——死与生。蛇在楚文化系统中散发出独具魅力的风采，也让我们对楚先民的智慧产生了由衷的敬意。

On the Faith and Fear of Snake in Chu Culture

The ancient Chinese culture is closely related with snake and the worship of sake has an abundant cul- tural denotation. The symbolic sign of snake is always binary, for example, 1. water God vs. dry God; 2. male vs. female ; 3. land lord vs. land God ; 4. Pluto vs. the evil ; 5. fly up to heaven vs. go into earth ; 6. renascence vs. death; 7. wisdom vs. insidious; 8. auspicious sigh vs. calamity. The worship of snake is an important content of Chu culture. There are many records about snake in the documents and historical relics. This paper presents Chu culture＇ s faith and fear of snake from four aspects. The faith and fear has following features ： 1. the ancestors of Chu have close relation with snake; 2. snake is Pluto as the Patron; 3. sake is the evil as the destroyer; 4. snake and bird separately stand for death and birth. Snake has unique charmer in Chu culture and then inspires us to give our respect to wisdom of ancestors in Chu.