It turns out that each tribe has its own totem. For example, the Bear clan in the Central Plains has a bear totem, and a tribe in the southwest has a tiger totem. After the Yellow Emperor unified China, he has been thinking about one question: What totem should be used? At that time, he did not think of a result, so he summoned all the princes to come to Juci Mountain to discuss.
Most generals proposed using the "bear" totem, but Huangdi did not agree because he was afraid of hurting the feelings of various clans and tribes. He finally proposed that a snake is used as the body, fish scales are used to protect the snake's body, the lion's head is used as the snake's head, the lion's tail is used as the snake's tail, the deer's antlers are used as the snake's antlers, and the eagle's claws are used as the snake's claws. When combined, they represent each totem, so the homophony is "Dragon Totem". It can fly, dive, and crawl. It represents the skills of various animals and the characteristics of many tribes. After hearing this, everyone was very satisfied.
After the agreement, the Yellow Emperor chose the second day of the second lunar month as an auspicious day to hold a ceremony on the top of Juci Mountain and raise the dragon flag. Since then, there has been a saying about the descendants of the dragon. Because the meaning of dragon represents the ideals of various tribes, dragon has naturally become the special name of emperors of all dynasties. The emperor is revered as the real dragon and the emperor, and the emperor's descendants are called dragon sons and grandsons.
In archaeological excavations, dragon patterns were also found. Dragons did exist as totems. In 1987, archaeologists unearthed a dragon pattern composed of clam shells in Xishuipo, west of Puyang County, Henan Province. Judging from the age, the unearthed clam shell dragon also belongs to the Yangshao Culture period.
A totem is a symbol of a group and is intended to distinguish the group. By using totems to explain myths, classical records and folk customs, we can often draw inferences from one instance to other cases. Totem is the primitive people's worship of a certain animal or natural object, so it is used as the emblem or symbol of the clan.
In ancient times, the land of China was full of swamps. People's productivity and weapons are very backward, and people are often attacked by ferocious beasts, so they use ferocious beasts as their totems to seek the blessing of the gods. At that time, wolves, bears, and crocodiles were used. Because there were many swamps, crocodiles often hurt people, so there were more tribes that used crocodiles.