What is the Serpent?

The Serpent (also written 螣蛇, pronounced téng shé) is, in ancient Chinese mythology and legend, a kind of flying divine snake. It has no wings, yet can summon clouds and breathe mist, soaring freely through the sky.

In traditional Chinese culture, astronomy, mysticism (feng shui, Qi Men Dun Jia, Da Liu Ren), and Daoism, the Serpent occupies a very unique and important position. To fully understand “what is the Serpent,” we need to analyze it across multiple dimensions: its literary origins, mythological identity, astronomical star officials, and applications in mysticism.

The Serpent in classical texts: a metaphor for flying without feet

In the writings of pre-Qin and Han-dynasty thinkers, the Serpent appears frequently — the ancients often borrowed its unusual ability of “having no feet yet able to fly” to expound philosophical principles.

Xunzi’s “Encouraging Learning”: a symbol of single-minded dedication

This is the Serpent’s most famous literary reference:

“The Teng snake has no feet yet flies; the flying squirrel has five skills yet is at a loss.”

Here, Xunzi compares the Serpent to the flying squirrel (a large flying rodent). Although the flying squirrel can fly, climb trees, swim, dig burrows, and run, it masters none of these five skills well (“has five skills yet is at a loss”); while the Serpent, though it doesn’t even have a single foot, can ride the clouds and mist precisely because it focuses on the one thing of “flying.” Xunzi uses this to admonish later generations: one should study and conduct oneself with single-minded dedication, avoiding being broad but unrefined.

Han Feizi’s “The Difficulty of Power” and the Huainanzi: a symbol of positional power and timing

Han Feizi cites Shenzi’s view:

“The flying dragon rides the clouds, the Teng snake travels through mist; once the clouds disperse and the mist clears, the dragon and snake become no different from earthworms and ants — for they have lost what they relied upon.”

Here it’s held that the reason the Serpent can soar is that it can ride the “positional power” of thick mist. Once a strong wind disperses the mist, it falls to the ground, no different from an ordinary earthworm or ant. This is used to illustrate that a monarch or a worthy, capable person must rely on “power” and “position” to display their talent.

Mythology and totem: a split form of the Black Tortoise, or a central divine beast

In the mythological genealogy, the Serpent’s identity has two mainstream accounts:

A split form and companion beast of the Black Tortoise

In the system of the Four Symbols (the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the Black Tortoise of the North), the northern Black Tortoise is a spirit beast that is a “combination of turtle and snake.” In some derivative legends and Daoist mythology, this divine snake entwined around the divine turtle’s body was magnified into the Serpent.

• Cao Cao wrote in “Though the Tortoise Lives Long”: “Though the divine tortoise lives long, there yet comes an end. The Teng snake rides the mist, but in the end becomes dust and ash.”

Here the divine tortoise and Serpent are placed side by side, precisely because they often appear bound together in mythology.

• In the honor-guard ceremonies of Song-dynasty palaces, there was also a “True Warrior Team” (Zhenwu Dadi being the Black Tortoise), and beside its Black Tortoise banner would be a “Serpent banner” and “Divine Tortoise banner.”

An independent, central “Divine Beast of the Five Directions”

Another less common but equally ancient account holds that the Serpent, together with Gouchen, belongs to a spirit beast independent of the Four Symbols. It resides in the center, its Five Element Earth, its color favoring yellow — one of the Divine Beasts of the Five Directions alongside the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

The Serpent in astronomy: a cluster of stars in the northern dark heaven

Ancient China divided the starry sky into Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions. In the star-official system, the Serpent is not merely legend, but a real celestial constellation.

• Position: The Serpent belongs to a star official beneath the “Room Mansion” of the northern dark heaven, called “the Celestial Snake,” its main function being “governing water insects.”
• Scale: The Serpent star official is very vast, composed of 22 stars.
• Modern comparison: In modern international astronomy, these 22 stars span multiple constellations, distributed mainly across the border region of Andromeda, Lacerta, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus. It displays a winding, coiling snake shape in the night sky, extremely vivid.

The Serpent in divinatory science and mysticism: a fierce, Fire-element general of fear

In the “deity and inauspicious spirit” system of traditional Chinese divinatory science (such as Da Liu Ren, Qi Men Dun Jia, and Tai Yi Shen Shu), the Serpent’s image underwent a disruptive transformation — from a lofty, auspicious divine beast into a fierce general ranked among the “12 Heavenly Generals” or “8 Gods.”

| Dimension | The Serpent’s attribute in mysticism |

|—|—|

| Five Element attribute | Belongs to Fire (residing in the southern “Si” position) |

| Symbolic color | Red, reddish-yellow (because it is enveloped within flame) |

| Core meaning | Governs fear and dread, false alarm and strangeness, deception, and change |

In divination or feng shui, if a certain Palace or direction is accompanied by “the Serpent,” this usually means the following:

• False alarm and strangeness: something occurs unprovoked that frightens people, or one has nightmares or hallucinations.
• Entanglement and constant change: a snake’s nature is winding, representing that a matter repeats itself, changes unpredictably, is hard to grasp, or one falls into a complexly intertwined dispute.
• Deception and falsehood: the Serpent excels at disguise (traveling through mist), therefore in interpersonal relationships or business it represents falsehood, deception, and verbal disputes.

The Serpent in Daoist internal alchemy: the spleen’s qi

In Daoist internal cultivation (qigong, internal alchemy), the ancients liked to use divine beasts as metaphors for the body’s organs and primordial qi. Because the Serpent has the account of “residing in the center, belonging to Earth,” in some internal-alchemy schools, “the Serpent” is often used to refer to the body’s spleen’s “true Earth qi.” Regulating the Serpent’s qi means harmonizing the middle burner’s spleen and stomach, letting the body’s qi mechanism achieve balance.

Summary

In summary, “the Serpent” is a multifaceted cultural symbol in traditional Chinese culture:

In philosophy and literature, it is a positive model of single-minded dedication, rising by riding positional power;

In mythology and astronomy, it is the northern divine beast commanding cloud and mist, a winding cluster of stars in the night sky;

While in mysticism and divination, it transforms into an unpredictable, vigilance-inducing fiery inauspicious deity.

This evolution from “sacred spirit beast” to “mystical inauspicious general” precisely displays the complex, dialectical psychology of both reverence and wariness that traditional Chinese culture holds toward the image of “the snake.”