The totem, a symbol of the relatives, ancestors or patron saints of a group, mainly in order to distinguish one group from another, is the earliest phenomenon of cultural history. Due to the underdeveloped nature of early civilization, ignorant, primitive people believed that certain natural objects or animated creatures with a blood connection to their ethnic heritage could be selected as totems. Thus, using totems to explain or to record myths, ethnic customs and historical affairs became acceptable in primitive times.

In the ancient culture and folklore of China, there are countless materials pertaining to totems. “Kirin, Phoenix, Turtle, Dragon,” which was recorded in “The Book of Rites,” are actually the most famous totems used by our ancestors. ”Phoenix is the totem of Yin and Dragon is the counterpart of Xia” said by Guo Moruo (A famous writer and palywriter in modern China) in his passage --- “The Research of paintings in Late Zhou (770B.C.-256B.C).” However, as the symbol of one group and the worshiped object of one Nation, totem has a big impact on the culture and the psychology of one Nation. Chinese, the descendents of Xia, choose the powerful Dragon as its totem. So there are many words and idioms and stories related to Dragon, what’s more, emperor was believed as the avatar of Dragon during the ancient times, for instance, Qin Shihuang (The first emperor in the Qin Dynasty) boasted that he was the “Ancestor of Dragon.”

Qin Shihuang

Besides, there are many totems that derived from the origin of clans. There is a legend within Hun which is about wolf, according to ”Wei Guo Records,” the king of Hun had two daughters whom were quite gracious and pretty and even been regarded as the Gods of Hun. One day, the King said: “How can I get such beautiful daughters married with human being? I will let them go with God,” so he constructed a high-profile and let his daughters stand on it. “God, please come and take them away!” he shouted at the heaven. Four years later, an old wolf came here, waiting and howling day and night. The younger girl said to it: “My father got us here and marry us with Gods. It must be the God’s intention to send the wolf here.” Then she got down the profile and married with it. Afterwards, the descendents became more and more and were all good at singing and howling in the way that the wolf did. Consequently, wolf becomes the totem of Hun.