Two water snakes wanted to move away from a marsh which was drying up.
”If you lead the way and I follow,” said a small to a large snake, “men will know we are moving away and someone will kill you. You had better carry me on your back, each holding the other’s tail in his mouth. Then men will think I am a god.”
So, each holding the other, they crossed the way. And everybody made way for them, crying out “This is a god!”
Allegorical Meaning
This fable by Han Feizi critiques the dangers of contrived authority. The snakes’ strategy—mimicking a supernatural entity by physically conjoining—succeeds in intimidating humans through manufactured awe.
The small snake’s scheme—simulating a mythical creature—exploits human psychology:
“People fear what they cannot categorize.”
By presenting an ambiguous spectacle (neither one snake nor two), they hijack the human instinct to sacralize the unfamiliar. The “serpent deity” illusion is born not from divine power, but calculated absurdity.
Humans worship what they fear; snakes manipulate that fear. True power lies not in being divine, but in convincing others you are.
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