What did God (神) look like in the eyes of ancient Chinese? We all know that dragon (god of rain, rivers, oceans, water) is an important symbol for the Chinese nowadays. However, people used to believe that dragon worship only began with the Zhou dynasty. Prior to that, Shang dynasty leaned more towards Fenghuang (Chinese Phoenix, god of wind) worship.
Taiwan’s National CCU professor 郭靜云, who by the way looks like below (Jewish Russian, Olga Gorodetskaya), proposed actually God is indeed the dragon to the ancient Chinese including people of Shang, and it’s not just any dragon, but a two headed dragon.
Professor 郭靜云
http://www.jianbo.org/admin3/2008/guojingyun002.htm
Link to the original report.
I think it all started with the simple observation that the Chinese character for God, 神, came from its original form 申. 申 Is written as below in Oracle script and other early Chinese scripts:
, 
Oracle script
Bronze script
Later scripts mistaken the two round shapes as the symbol for hand, resulting it to look like below.
Shuwen Jiezi’s Xu Shen went on to say the word is shaped like holding something with both hands. Well, Xu is wrong, but he’s wrong pretty often.
Recent archeology studies finds strong connection between the character of 申 to common bronze ware motifs dating back to the Xia dynasty.
In bronze ware found at Ertouli (二頭里) and Ertoukang (二頭崗), which represent artifacts of the Xia dynasty (pre-shang), bronze wares are often surrounded by this or similar, decorative motif:
the basic component of this motif is
Shang dynasty bronze wares contain the same, al beit more elaborate decorative motif:
the basic component of this motif is
Even well into the Zhou dynasty, this motif can still be found on bronze ware:
Basically, it’s an evolution of the double headed dragon motif. It basically depicts a dragon with heads on both sides of its body.
Similar but less abstract depiction of the double headed dragon can also be found on other bronze ware or jade ware:
As time went on, people seem to have forgotten the meaning of the double headed dragon, so they started to leave out the eyes at the tail end of their dragon decoration, however, a spiky tail end maintained the open-mouth shaped of the second head. These new form is referred to as 夔龍 (Kui Long)
Kuo proposed that the dragon’s mouths being open was the most significant part of the double headed dragon worship, therefore the new single head dragon derived from the original in the Zhou dynasty maintained that second head look, even though they thought of it as a tail.
These single headed dragons commonly come in pairs. Kuo concludes that the duality of two heads is important to ancient Chinese dragon worship, therefore if it isn’t a double headed dragon, it would be a single headed dragon in pairs.
Pairs of kui long is the basis of Shang and Zhou’s famous bronze motif 饕餮 (Tao Tie).
This debunks prevailing theories that Tao Tie markings is actually the face of a beast, and connect Taotie, Kuilong to the double headed dragon motif stemming back to Xia dynasty.
Actual bronze ware with Taotie on it.
Kuo then points out why it is important for the dragon to be depicted with open mouths. According to 呂氏春秋 (Lüshi Chunqiu), Taotie swallows people whole. Kuo compares this with other Shamanism traditions around the world. In Theory and History of Folklore Vladimir Propp’s study concludes the original form of a dragon is one with two heads on either end. It’s body forms a mythical passage, passing through would allow the person ascension to god like status.
Similar legends can be found in many cultures, but most people are probably familiar with Jonah and Kronos swallowing his children to make them gods. Another Greek legend has Cerberus (three heads of wild dogs, a dragon or serpent for a tail, and heads of snakes all over his back) bite Heracles with its tail which allowed Heracles to enter the underworld.
In the end, Kuo concludes God (神) in the eyes of the ancient Chinese is 申, which is a double headed snake.
