Why are snakes called "Little Dragons"?

Snakes belong to the order Reptilia, which occurs in tropical and subtropical plains, hills, mountains and Shui Ze. Snakes have slender bodies, degenerated limbs and scales on their surfaces. The earliest snakes appeared in the Jurassic period 15 million years ago. Snakes have a strong vitality, their shapes are strange, their actions are secretive, and poisonous snakes can kill people. The worship of snakes in our country has always existed since ancient times.

The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poems in China, and its chapter Xiaoya contains the following words: "What about Ji Meng? Wei Xiong Wei Bi, Wei Bi Wei Snake ... Wei Xiong Wei Bi, the auspicious of men, Wei Bi Wei Snake, the auspicious of women ". "Bao Puzi": "There are dragons of nature, and there are dragons of snakes." "Hong Fan Wu Xing Zhuan" Zheng Xuan notes: "Snakes, dragons and the like." "The Story of Different Stories": "The cricket turns into a dumpling in five hundred years, and the dumpling turns into a dragon in one thousand years."

Moreover, in ancient times, the characters or gods in the records were sometimes referred to as "snake bodies" and sometimes as "dragon bodies". For example, as we all know, Nu Wa is a snake body with a human face, and it is also called "snake body with a human face" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and "dragon body with a human head" in Shuojiao.

And as we all know, the dragon was invented by our ancients. In shaping this kind of animal, the snake contributed its body covered with scales to the dragon, and its soft, bent, twisted and twisted body was also given to the dragon. It was also endowed with the characteristics of being invisible, moving and quiet, good and evil. It can be said that it is reasonable to call the snake a little dragon.