中国龙的形成与水神崇拜

The Formation of Chinese Dragon and Water Deity Worship

龙是由两种或多种动物和其他物组合而成的幻想中的动物。组合成龙的动物或其他物,并不是毫无选择的,它们都是民间信仰中具备兴云布雨或司水理水职司的神灵。由此可见,龙的形成与水神崇拜密切相关。人们为了有效或尽快解除水旱之灾,往往同时祭祀多种水神,即将多种水神放在一起祭祀。祭祀的对象往往不可能是实物,而多是象征物或图形。当人们将多种水神象征物或图形放在一起作为祭祀对象时,就很有可能将他们组装在一起。多种水神动物和其他物的组合便形成了幻想中的动物——龙。龙的形成发展过程是不同的水神动物由简单组合到复杂组合的历程。在这一漫长的组合历程中,留下了不同的组合体,因而也就形成了千奇百怪的龙。

The dragon is a fantastic animal which consists of two or more animals and other objects. These objects and animals are selective. In the folk belief, they are the deities that can control the clouds and the rain or water. Thus it can be seen that dragon formation have close relationships with worship of water deity. In order to relieve disaster of flood and drought in an quick and effective way, people always sacrifice various water deities, that is to say, they put various deities together and sacrifice them. The object of sacrifice is not a object but a symbol or figure. When people put various water deities symbols or the graphs together as the object of sacrifice, they probably combine them together. The combination of various water deities animals and other objects have formed the fantastic animal dragon. During this long combination course, it has left different assemblies. As a result, all sorts of dragons formed.