''Hong'' or ''jiang'' () is a two-headed

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of t ...

, comparable with

rainbow serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...

legends in various cultures and mythologies.

Chinese "rainbow" names

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

has three "

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

" words, regular ''hong'' , literary ''didong'' , and ''ni'' "secondary rainbow". Note that all these

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

share a graphic element of ''hui'' "insect; worm; reptile; etc." (cf. tripled ''chong'' ), known in Chinese as Kangxi radical number 142 and loosely translated in English as the "insect radical". In traditional

Chinese character classification All Chinese characters are logograms, but several different types can be identified, based on the manner in which they are formed or derived. There are a handful which derive from pictographs () and a number which are ideographic () in origin, i ...

, "radical-phonetic" or "phono-semantic" characters are statistically the most common category, and they combine a " radical" or

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may ...

that suggests

semantic field In linguistics, a semantic field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in ...

with a "

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

" element that roughly indicates

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...

. Words written with this radical typically name not only insects, but also reptiles, and other miscellaneous creatures, including some

s such as '' shen'' "aquatic dragon" and ''

jiao Jiao may refer to: *Horn (Chinese constellation), or Jiao (角宿), a Chinese constellation *Jiaolong, or Jiao (蛟), a Chinese dragon *Jiao (currency) (角), a unit of currency in China, one-tenth of a Chinese yuan or dollar *Jiao (surname) (� ...

'' "flood dragon". Linguistic anthropologists studying

folk taxonomy A folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, as distinct from scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way people traditionally describe and organize their natural surroundings/the world around them, typically making generou ...

discovered many languages have zoological categories similar to ''hui'' , and Brown coined the

portmanteau word A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

Hong

The

regular script Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...

Chinese character for ''hong'' or ''jiang'' "rainbow" combines the "wug radical" with a ''gong'' "work" phonetic. Both

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

seal script Seal script, also sigillary script () is an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty bronze script. The Qin variant of seal ...

and

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

bronze script elaborated this same radical-phonetic combination. However, the oldest characters for "rainbow" in

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

oracle bone script Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or Turtle shell#Plastron, turtle plastrons used in pyromancy, pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millen ...

were

pictograph A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and g ...

s of an arched dragon or serpent with open-mouthed heads at both ends. Eberhard notes, "In early reliefs, the rainbow is shown as a snake or a dragon with two heads. In West China they give it the head of a donkey, and it rates as a lucky symbol." The (121 CE) ''

Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...

'' dictionary, the first Chinese character dictionary, described the seal character for ''hong'' "rainbow" as "shaped like a wug". Over 18 centuries later, Hopkins described the recently discovered oracle character for .

What should we see in this simple but striking image? We should, I now feel sure, discern a Rainbow terminating in two animal heads. But of what animal? Certainly of the Dragon, must be the answer. For the design of the character is, in the main, naturalistic, in so far as it is clearly modeled on the semi-circular Bow in the sky, but symbolistic through the addition of two heads, for where the Rainbow ends, there the Dragon begins!

Hopkins elucidated.

It is the belief of the Chinese that the appearance of the Rainbow is at once the herald and the cause of the cessation of rain and the return of clear skies. … Now, if by his own volition, when mounting to the upper air, the Dragon could beget the rolling thunder and the drenching rain-storm, how should he not be able also, in descending, the cause the rain to cease, and the face of the blue sky to clear? And that is why I conjecture and suggest that the early Chinese must have seen in the Rainbow one avatar of the wonder-working Dragon as conceived by their animistic mentality. That would likewise explain why to the arching bow seen with their bodily eyes they added the Dragon heads beheld only by the eye of faith.

''Jiang'' is an uncommon pronunciation of 虹, limited to colloquial or dialectal usage, and unlike ''hong'' not normally found in compounds. For instance, ''caihong'' (with "color") "rainbow", ''hongcai'' "rainbow colors; iridescence; the iris; banners", ''hongqiao'' (with "bridge") "arch bridge", and ''hongxi'' (with "absorb; suck up") "siphon".

Didong

''Didong'' or is a

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

word for "rainbow", now usually restricted to literary or historical usage. These three characters combine the "wug radical" with phonetics of ''zhuo'' "connect" or ''dai'' "girdle; sash" in ''di'' or and ''dong'' "east" in ''dong'' .

Ni

''Ni'' or means "secondary rainbow" or "supernumerary rainbow", which results from double reflection of sunlight, with colors inverted from a primary rainbow (see

Alexander's band Alexander's band or Alexander's dark band is an optical phenomenon associated with rainbows which was named after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described this phenomenon in Aphrodisias, ''Commentary on Book IV of Aristotle's'' Meteoro ...

). These characters combine a phonetic of ''er'' "child" with either the "wug radical" or the " rain radical" . ''Ni'' can also mean ''hanchan'' "winter cicada", which is a "silent, mute" metaphor. While ''hongni'' means "primary and secondary rainbows; rainbows", ''nihong'' is a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

from English

neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

in expressions like ''nihongdeng'' "neon light", compare the chemical loanword ''nai'' "neon; Ne". ''Fuhong'' (with "second; subsidiary") means "secondary rainbow" in Chinese meteorological terminology.

Early textual references

Chinese classic texts Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucia ...

dating from the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

(8th–5th centuries BCE) and

Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...

(5th–3rd centuries BCE) referred to ''hong'', ''didong'', and ''ni'' rainbows. The ''

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'' has the oldest known textual usages of ''hong'' and ''didong'', and both are bad omens. One poem uses , which is interpreted as a loan character for ''hong'' (with the "speech radical" ) "disorder; conflict; quarrel": "That kid with horns was truly a portent of disaster, my son!" Another poem begins with ''didong'' : "There is a girdle in the east; No one dares point at it. A girl has run away, Far from father and mother, far from brothers young and old."

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were ...

explains translating ''zhuo'' "spider" as a loan for ''di'' "girdle".

The girdle is the rainbow. Its appearance announces that someone who ought not to is about to have a baby; for the arc of the rainbow typifies the swelling girdle of a pregnant woman. No one dares point at it, because pointing is disrespectful, and one must respect a warning sent by Heaven."

"Although many ancient cultures believed rainbows were good omens,"Carr explains, "the Chinese saw them as meteorological disasters. Unlike the auspicious [''long''] dragon symbolizing forthcoming rain, the two-headed [''hong''] was inauspicious because it appeared after a rain shower." The ''

Huainanzi The ''Huainanzi'' is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139. The ''Huainanzi'' blends Daoist, Confuci ...

'' says both rainbows and comets were warnings from ''

tian ''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their supreme god as '' Shàngdì'' (, "Lor ...

'' "heaven; god". Several classic texts (e.g., Liu Xiang's ''Shuoyuan'' and ''Xinxu'') use the phrase ''baihong guan ri'' "bright rainbow threads the sun". For example, it is a portent of assassination in the ''

Zhanguoce The ''Zhan Guo Ce'', ( W-G: Chan-kuo T'se) also known in English as the ''Strategies of the Warring States'' or ''Annals of the Warring States'', is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political manipulation and warfare during the ...

'' "a white halo pierced the sun." One notable exception is the '' Mengzi'' using ''yunni'' "cloud and rainbow" to describe the legendary

Tang of Shang Cheng Tang (), personal name Zi Lü (), recorded on oracle bones as Da Yi (大乙), was the first king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. Traditionally considered a virtuous ruler, he overthrew Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty. Ris ...

: "the people looked to him, as we look in a time of great drought to the clouds and rainbows." The oldest Chinese dictionary, the ca. 3rd century BCE '' Erya'' says ''didong'' was called ''yu'' "rain sacrifice", defines it as ''hong'' "rainbow", and says ''ni'' "secondary rainbow" was called ''qie'er'' "lift/carry two." The commentary of

Guo Pu Guo Pu (; AD 276–324), courtesy name Jingchun () was a Chinese historian, poet, and writer during the Eastern Jin period, and is best known as one of China's foremost commentators on ancient texts. Guo was a Taoist mystic, geomancer, collector ...

notes rainbows were called ''yu'' in Jiangdong (present day

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

), and gives additional names of ''meiren'' "beautiful woman" and ''xiyi'' "split cover/screen". The ''

Chuci The ''Chu ci'', variously translated as ''Verses of Chu,'' ''Songs of Chu'', or ''Elegies of Chu'', is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period ...

'' has more rainbow occurrences (8 , 10 , and 5 ) than any other early text. It graphically interchanges ''ni'' and ''ni'' except the latter is exclusively used in ''yunni'' "clouds and rainbows" (both with the "cloud radical"). Many rainbows occur in ''Chuci'' descriptions of

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

"flights" through the skies, frequently in contexts with other dragons, for instance: "To hang at my girdle the coiling Green Dragon, To wear at my belt the sinuous [] rainbow serpent ... A great [] rainbow flag Iike an awning above me, And pennants dyed in the hues of the sunset." This mythical Green or Azure Dragon ruling the eastern sky and the

Vermilion Bird The Vermilion Bird ( zh, c=朱雀, p=Zhūquè) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( C ...

ruling the southern sky reoccur with ''baini'' "Bright rainbows darting swiftly in the traces". The ''Yueling'' "Monthly Ordinances" section of the ''

Liji The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Book ...

'' Legge claims ''hong'' rainbows only appear during half the year. In the last month of spring, "Moles are transformed into quails. Rainbows begin to appear." In the first month of winter, "Pheasants enter the great water and become ['' shen''] large mollusks. Rainbows are hidden and do not appear." Along with the rainbow, the ''shen'' is considered to be a dragon.

Yin and Yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

cosmology dichotomized between primary ''hong'' "Yang/male rainbow" and secondary ''ni'' "Yin/female rainbow". Granet analyzed ancient Chinese beliefs about rainbows, which were believed to emanate from interchanges between earthly Yin ''qi'' and heavenly Yang ''qi'' (see ''Shiming'' below). Rainbows thus symbolized a sexual union of Yin-Yang (''Shijing'' 51 above) and a competition between male and female river gods or dragons. Eberhard explains the Chinese symbolism.

The rainbow is seen as a resplendent symbol of the union of ''yang'' and ''yin''; it serves therefore as an emblem of a marriage. You should never point your finger at a rainbow. But the rainbow can have another meaning, in that it may appear when either husband or wife is more handsome and attractive than the other, and therefore enters upon an adulterous relationship. The rainbow is then an emblem of fornication or sexual abuse, and forebodes ill.

Like rainbows, dragons were explained in Yin-Yang theory. Rain-dragons supposedly had Yin powers since they controlled water.

Edward H. Schafer Edward Hetsel Schafer (23 August 1913 – 9 February 1991) was an American historian, sinologist, and writer noted for his expertise on the Tang Dynasty, and was a professor of Chinese at University of California, Berkeley for 35 years. Sc ...

says.

In China, dragon essence is woman essence. The connection is through the mysterious powers of fertilizing rain, and its extensions in running streams, lakes, and marshes. In common belief as in literature, the dark, wet side of nature showed itself alternately in women and in dragons. The great water deities of Chinese antiquity were therefore snake queens and dragon ladies: they were avatars of dragons precisely because they were equally spirits of the meres and mists and nimbus clouds.

Etymologies

The ca. 200 CE ''

Shiming The ''Shiming'' (), also known as the ''Yìyǎ'' (逸雅; ''I-ya''; ''Lost Erya''), is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and "is believed to date from ''c''. 200 E. This dictionary is linguistically invaluable because it ...

'' dictionary (1, ''Shitian'' "Explaining Heaven"), which defines words through phono-semantic glosses, gave the oldest Chinese "etymologies" for rainbows. *''Hong'' "rainbow" is ''gong'' [same phonetic with the "beat radical" ] "attack; assault", [rainbows result from] pure Yang '' qi'' attacking Yin ''qi''. *Also called ''didong'' , which always appears in the east when the sun is in the west, a [rainbow] ''chuoyin'' [same phonetic with the "mouth radical" ] "sucks" the ''qi'' from easterly water. It is called ''sheng'' "rise; ascend" when seen in the west, [rainbows] appear when the morning sun begins to "rise". *Also called ''meiren'' "beautiful person", named after times when disharmony between Yin and Yang, marital disorder, rampant immorality, men and women considering one another "beautiful", constantly chasing after each other, and such overbearing behaviors are flourishing. Using "

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

" in the usual Western sense of

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

Joseph Edkins Joseph Edkins (19 December 1823 – 23 April 1905) was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a Sinologue, he specialised in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philolo ...

first proposed Chinese ''hong'' "rainbow" was "doubtless a variant" of ''gung'' "bow" and compared it with "Siamese" ''lung'' "rainbow". Carr compares Proto-

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

and Proto-

Austro-Tai The Austro-Tai languages, sometimes also Austro-Thai languages, are a proposed language family that comprises the Austronesian languages and the Kra–Dai languages. Related proposals include Austric ( Wilhelm Schmidt in 1906) and Sino-Austrone ...

etymological proposals for ''hong'' and ''didong''. Boodberg thought *''g'ung'' < *''glung'' "rainbow (dragon)" and *''lyung-t'lia'' "dragon" descended from a Proto-Sino-Tibetan *''s-brong'' "wug" root. first thought *''lyung'' and *''g'ung'' were early Chinese borrowings from Proto-Austro-Tai *''ruŋ'' "dragon; rainbow"; but laterBoodberg, 1986, p. 58. saw *''g'ung'' < *''g'[l]uŋ'' or *''k[l]ung'' "rainbow" and *''tiadtung'' < *''tiad-[skl]ung'' "rainbow" (with a *''tung'' "east" phonetic signifying "red part of the sky") as semantically related with *''g'ung'' < *''g[l]ung'' "red". For ''hong'' "rainbow", Schuessler reconstructs Old Chinese *''gôŋ'' < *''gloŋ'' and compares "very irregular" dialect forms such as Proto-

Min Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Am ...

''ghioŋ^B'' and

Gan The word Gan or the initials GAN may refer to: Places *Gan, a component of Hebrew placenames literally meaning "garden" China * Gan River (Jiangxi) * Gan River (Inner Mongolia), * Gan County, in Jiangxi province * Gansu, abbreviated ''Gā ...

Shanggao dialect ''lɑn^B-luŋ^H''. He lists etymological proposals of ''hong'' from Proto- Miao–Yao *''kluŋ^A'' or Chinese ''long'' "dragon" and ''hong'' "red".( For ''jiang'' "rainbow", Schuessler reconstructs *''krôŋh'' and notes the survival in Gan Wuning dialect ''kɔŋ^C1''. He concludes the "wide range of forms" including ''didong'' < *''tê(t)s-tôŋ'' < *''tê(t)s-tlôŋ'' suggests a non-Sino-Tibetan "source for this etymon", possibly include Kam–Tai and Zhuang words like ''tu²-tuŋ²'' or Proto-

Tai Tai or TAI may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain *Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless'' *Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon'' Businesses and organisations ...

*''Druŋ'' (cf.

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

''ruŋ^C2'' "rainbow".)

Mythological parallels

"''Hong'' < *''g'ung'' 'rainbow' has always represented a dragon to the Chinese," says Carr, "from Shang oracle pictographs of dicephalous sky-serpents to the modern graph with the 'wug' radical." The mythic Chinese ''hong'' "rainbow" dragon has a few parallels in the natural world ( two-headed snake, Rainbow Snake Farancia erytrogramma, and Rainbow Boa

Epicrates cenchria The rainbow boa (''Epicrates cenchria'') is a Boinae, boa species Endemism, endemic to Central America, Central and South America. A semi-arboreal species (not only do they climb in they wild but also proven in captivity), it is known for its a ...

) and many in

comparative mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...

(see

rainbows in mythology The rainbow has been a favorite component of mythology throughout history. Rainbows are part of the myths of many cultures around the world. The Norse saw it as Bifrost; Abrahamic traditions see it as a covenant with God not to destroy the worl ...

and

snakes in mythology Snakes are a common occurrence in myths for a multitude of cultures. The Hopi people of North America viewed snakes as symbols of healing, transformation, and fertility. In other cultures snakes symbolized the umbilical cord, joining all humans t ...

). Loewenstein compares rainbow-serpent legends throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Australia, Africa, and South America; and concludes:

Myths of a giant rainbow-serpent are common among primitive tribes inhabiting the tropics. Outside the tropical belt the rainbow-serpent concept is hardly to be found. This points to the fact that the myth must be intimately connected with the occurrence and geographic distribution of a particular family of snakes, the Boidae, which includes the largest specimens in existence, namely the Pythons and the Boas.

The well-known

Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...

is central to

creation myth A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop ...

s of the

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

(translated as Chinese ''hongshe'' and Japanese ''nijihebi'' "rainbow snake"). Some other examples include: *

Ayida-Weddo Ayida-Weddo is a loa of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, and snakes in Vodou, especially in Benin and Haiti. Ayida-Weddo is known as the "Rainbow Serpent". Variants of Ayida-Weddo's name include Aida-Weddo, Ayida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, and A ...

is a rainbow serpent

loa ( ), also called loa or loi, are spirits in the African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou. They have also been incorporated into some revivalist forms of Louisiana Voodoo. Many of the lwa derive their identities in part from deities venerat ...

of rainbows and fertility in Haitian Vodou *

Nehebkau Nehebkau (also spelled Nehebu-Kau) is the primordial snake god in ancient Egyptian mythology. Although originally considered an evil spirit, he later functions as a funerary god associated with the afterlife. As one of the forty-two assessors ...

is a two-headed snake in

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyp ...

Sisiutl The sisiutl is a legendary creature found in many cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, notably the Kwakwakaʼwakw people group. Typically, it is depicted as a double-headed sea serpent. Sometimes, the symbol feat ...

is a three-headed sea serpent, with one anthropomorphic and two reptilian heads, in Kwakwaka'wakw mythology *

Oshunmare Oshunmare (known as Ochumaré or Oxumaré in Latin America) is an Orisha. Osumare is the spirit of the rainbow, and Osumare also means rainbow in the Yoruba language Yoruba (, ; Yor. '; Ajami: ) is a language spoken in West Africa, primaril ...

is a male and female rainbow serpent in

Yoruba mythology The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitu ...

Lastly, another Chinese rainbow myth involves the creator

Nüwa Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In the Huainanzi ...

repairing a crack in the sky caused by the water deity

Gong Gong Gonggong () is a Chinese water god who is depicted in Chinese mythology and folktales as having a copper human head with an iron forehead, red hair, and the body of a serpent, or sometimes the head and torso are human, with the tail of a serpe ...

(cf. ). She supposedly created the first rainbow by melting stones of 5 or 7 different colors to patch the sky. Nüwa and her brother-consort

Fuxi Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as wel ...

are represented as having the upper body of a human and the tail of a dragon or serpent. They are associated with ''yin'' and ''yang'', like secondary and primary rainbows.

References

* * * * * Footnotes

External links

Etymology
ancient characters for
{{lang, zh-hant, 虹 entry page
1716 CE

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

Cai Guo-Qiang
Dragon or Rainbow Serpent Project,

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...

Rainbow Serpent
Circle of the Dragon Chinese dragons