Analysis

Although serpents were considered supernatural beings both in the Medieval West and East, the depictions of this monster were significantly different in Iranian and Chinese cultures. In the text of Shahnameh, there is no detailed description of what the black snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders look like. However, in the miniature painting on the manuscript “Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Ms. or. fol. 4255”, the snakes were depicted in an abstract way: the snakes are small and the audience cannot see the details on them, although the details on the people, such as their eyes and facial expressions, are clear to see. In the manuscript Demotte Shahnameh, the eyes and motivations of the serpents on Zahhak’s shoulders are painted in more detail than those on “Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Ms. or. fol. 4255”, but the animals are still relatively small compared to their host, King Zahhak, whose fierce gaze can be easily seen by the audience and raise the sense of fear. Thus, the inferior position and the dependency of the serpents are obviously illustrated in both miniature paintings of the evil King Zahhak. The narrative of evil serpents has a long tradition in the Iranian culture:  the serpent king Zahhak originated from the three-head
serpentine monster, Azi Dahaka, in the pre-Islamic Iranian religion Zoroastrianism.[1] “Azi”
means serpent, and “Dahaka” is the name of the monster, which sounds similar to the serpent
king’s name “Zahhak”.[2] In the Zoroastrian classic text Avesta, Azi Dahaka was considered the most
horrible being that the Evil Spirit created.[3]

In the painting “Fuxi and Nyuwa”, the serpent couples are strong and thick: both of them are holding tools that draw the earth and heaven, which demonstrates their high position in the world: in traditional Chinese culture, the heaven is round and the earth is a square, and holding the tools that can be used to draw them symbolizes the serpents’ unchallenged power to control the whole universe: the word “gui-ju” in Chinese, which is formed by the names of the tools that the serpents hold, means “the rule”.[4] The sun, moon, and stars surrounding the serpents further prove the dignity of the siblings as human ancestors, and the depiction of the serpent couples in the center of the universe shows the Medieval Chinese people’s worship of the first parents of human beings.[5] The contrast is obvious between the depictions of serpents in Medieval Chinese and Iranian cultures: the Chinese serpent siblings are large and shown in detail on the silk painting, but the snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders are illustrated small and vague. Thus, Fuxi and Nyuwa were considered respectful figures in Medieval China who should be seen clearly by the audience of the painting, but the snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders are dependent evil beings to their host, the tyrant Zahhak, so they are appropriate to be unclear for the audience as they were unimportant and bad. According to Cohen’s “Monster Theory”, as the three-head serpent King Zahhak and the three-head serpentine monster Azi Dahaka are metaphors of evil, the strong serpentine form first parents surrounded by stars in the universe and holding the tools that can be used to draw the heaven and earth in the Chinese painting are metaphors of diginity.[6]

In conclusion, being different from that serpents were depicted as evil and inferior beings in Medieval Iranian and Greek Cultures, serpents were considered divine beings with a lot of glory in Medieval China: When the modern audience sees small snakes on a king’s shoulder which are depicted in the epic Shahnameh as human-brain-eating and appear on the tyrant’s shoulders after the devil kissed them, the audience will feel disgust about the serpents and connect them with badness and evil; but when the audience watches the strong serpents on the Medieval Chinese painting staying in the center of the universe and holding the tools that are used for drawing the heaven and earth, the sense of respect will arise from the people’s heart.

[1] Martin Schwartz, “Transformations of the Indo-Iranian Snake-Man: Myth, Language, Ethnoarcheology, and Iranian Identity,” Iranian Studies 45, no. 2 (2012): 275. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44860985.

[2] Schwartz, “Transformations of the Indo-Iranian Snake-Man,” 275-76.

[3] Schwartz, “Transformations of the Indo-Iranian Snake-Man,” 276-77.

[4] “Fuxi and Nyuwa,” The Palace Museum, accessed November 3, 2023, https://www.dpm.org.cn/collection/paint/230797.

[5] Lihui Yang and Deming An, Handbook of Chinese Mythology (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 68.

[6] Cohen, Monster Theory, 4.