On The Evolvement Of Snake Images In Ancient Chinese And Indian Literature

The snake images is a world-wide topic in literature. This thesis talks about the evolvement of snake images in ancient Chinese and Indian literature, and tries to find out the differences and similarities, as well as the causes among the various snake images in the referred two different countries. Three parts have been divided as follow:In China, In the stage of "Deity", snakes are always described as deities or their guardians, who could control the destinies of countries or a individual and also bring fortune; in the period of "Beast", snakes are merciless things to threaten or kill human beings; in the period of "Semi-Human and Beast", although cruel nature still retaines, the characteristic of personification of snakes is more and more obvious; and in the period of "Human", snake represents the liberation of human nature and resistance of the feudal control of ethics and morality.In India, in the early Indian Mythology, snakes, on behalf of "God", have been usually described as Snake God, God's Guardian and God's weapon, which are the most popular three of various images in literature works. In the Late of Mythology, snakes mainly appears as "human being", or the combination of humans and Gods.Thirdly, the causes of those differences in China and India literature and the culture causes of the image differences between those two countries. The Chinese culture is based on ethics and morality, while Indian culture is based on religious beliefs, the cultural discrepancies cause images of snake in ancient Chinese literature periodically evolve in different stages of history, while the snake images in Indian is still staying in the period of the combination of humans and Gods.