In the long-standing Chinese culture, the use of copper as a medium to shape the spirit snake has become an indispensable spiritual symbol of the Chinese nation due to its unique charm and profound heritage. I really want to use copper as a medium to integrate the essence of copper culture with the lively and auspicious zodiac signs, and create works that are loved by the public. In 2024, when the the Year of the Loong is coming, I created a set of 25 meter long installation works of "Dragon Walking on the Earth, Grain Harvesting" on the bustling Wangfujing Street in Beijing. This is a young dragon, with a modern and trendy image, symbolizing that if the youth is strong, China will be strong. On the Arrow Pavilion Square of the Palace Museum in Beijing, there is a set of five ox statues of equal size and dimensions. This group of statues originated from the Tang Dynasty painter Han Huang's "Five Bulls" painting. The painting 'Five Bulls' has had a great influence on me, and I have always wanted to use it as a model to preserve the charm of the original cow while giving it the warmth and luster of copper, so that more people can feel the vitality contained in the original work. This set of works, each cow is 2.1 meters high and weighs over 300 kilograms, took one year to complete. The Year of the Snake is approaching, how to create bronze sculptures with snakes as the theme? Snakes have been a mysterious and symbolic creature in Chinese culture since ancient times. It is both a symbol of wisdom, representing profound thinking and keen insight; It is also a symbol of vitality, showcasing the tenacity and resilience of life through its unique way of survival. We have re examined this ancient and mysterious zodiac sign, drawing strength and wisdom from the folk legend "The Legend of the White Snake", and created a cultural and creative sculpture called "The Spirit Snake Conquers the Universe". It is depicted as a pair of adorable spirit snakes, one green and one white, with their heads held high and their chests entwined, indicating that the snakes will turn the world around and welcome a bright future. In terms of production, the craftsmanship of the two small snakes is exquisite, not only integrating traditional intangible cultural heritage techniques, but also using unique high-temperature glaze coloring techniques for fine coloring on the surface. This makes the body of the little snake appear particularly round and lively. Holding it in the palm of your hand not only allows you to feel the delicate texture, but also deeply appreciate the strong artistic atmosphere. Since 2019, we have been producing one stamp book for each zodiac sign every year, and so far we have 7 volumes. From 'Tiger Blessing at the Door' to 'Heavenly Rabbit Blessing', from 'Bull Turning the Universe' to 'Dragon Leads to Spirit', they have all been well received by the public. This year's "Golden Snake Brings Fortune" not only includes six special stamps from the "Year of the Snake" titled "Snake Brings Prosperity" and "Blessings Bring Prosperity", but also carefully presents three snake year works: "Spirit Snake Settles the Universe", "Golden Snake Brings Wealth", and "Snake Flies". It not only carries the charm of postal culture, but also expresses deep blessings for the Year of the Snake in the Year of the Snake. We have opened over a hundred bronze cultural and creative museums nationwide. In these cultural and creative museums, special counters for bronze carvings of zodiac animals have been set up. They come in various shapes and are lifelike, with both traditional zodiac images and innovative interpretations of the zodiac. They are dazzling and bring everyone beautiful blessings year after year. The evolution of the character "snake" in modern Chinese characters, "snake" is a commonly used character, which has a different shape, sound, and meaning from "it", "insect", and "also". When placed in the history of the development of writing, it can be found that they are closely related to each other. The character 'snake' appeared very late and was first seen in the Qin script during the Warring States period. Where is the word 'snake' in the Shang and Zhou dynasties? This problem can be roughly solved by flipping through 'Shuowen Jiezi'. Among the 540 radicals in Shuowen Jiezi, there is one called "it", which means "snake" and "snake" is a variant of "it". Tracing back along this clue, the word "it" in Shang and Zhou scripts is very common, but they were long used as "it" for "other" or as a washbasin for washing hands. When a character 'it' records two or more commonly used words, a new character must be created to share the burden. The frequency of using "snake" in written language is much lower than that of the pronoun "it", so the word "it" that expresses the meaning of snake is squeezed out and replaced with a "worm" to form a "snake" shape. 'It' is very commonly used, although it was replaced by 'worm' as a signifier, it is still commonly used as a musical note, and later almost replaced by 'also'. The words' shi ',' he ',' di ', and' chi 'in ancient Chinese characters were originally pronounced as' it', but were gradually replaced by 'ye' during the Han Dynasty. Even the word 'snake' in the Song Dynasty's' Taiping Yulan 'is written as' oyster'. The reason is simple. "Ye" is very similar to "it" in ancient pronunciation, and its phonetic function is the same in its structure. "Ye" is simpler to write than "it", and people choose "Ye" to represent their pronunciation during the writing process. In the writing system, the fate of "snake" is full of twists and turns, both fortunate and unfortunate. 'It' is the original word for 'snake', meaning 'snake', and was not well formed in the early forms of writing. But 'it' was borrowed as a pronoun during the oracle bone script era to indicate the meaning of 'other', which has continued to this day. The more commonly used pronoun nowadays is' he ', as if' he 'and' it 'have the function of distinguishing people from other things. In terms of origin, the word' he 'appeared very late and is a variation of' tuo ', which is an accumulation of' it '. Ultimately, it all originates from' it '. The fate of each Chinese character is naturally constrained by the laws of its development and evolution, but there is also cultural psychology involved. Snakes intentionally or unintentionally avoid taboos in textual construction, so there is no longer a word meaning from "it". However, "it", when used as a pronoun, has a powerful function and a long life! From Han Dynasty portraits, we can see a large number of snake body and human face depictions, most of which are artistic portraits of Fuxi and N ü wa. In early human society, the gods worshipped and created by humans mainly came from the power and spirituality possessed by animals, and many of them were abilities that humans themselves did not possess. Snakes, precisely because of this background, entered people's belief system, and the serpent or serpent as a divine entity also appeared in mythology and ancient painting and sculpture art. In Han Dynasty portraits, there are frequent scenes of Fuxi and N ü wa, usually with snake bodies and human faces, holding the sun and moon in their hands, or holding the rules in their hands, with one yang and one yin, inseparable. N ü wa usually appears as a dual deity with Fuxi in Han Dynasty paintings, and often appears in compositions with Fuxi and Queen Mother of the West, symbolizing harmony between yin and yang and prosperity for future generations. There are many examples of the divine form of a human face and snake body in ancient myths and legends, which are recorded in documents such as the Shan Hai Jing, Huainanzi, Records of the Grand Historian, Tianzhong Ji, Xuanzhong Ji, and Shenyi Jing. The gods of human face and snake body mainly include Fuxi, N ü wa, Candle Dragon, Gonggong, etc., among which Fuxi and N ü wa are the most famous. Legend has it that Fuxi was the son of the Thunder God and was born from the "Great Trail" left by his mother, Hua Xushi, who trampled on the Thunder God. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Inner Sea and Eastern Sea, states that "there is a thunder god in the thunder and lightning, with a dragon body and a human head." In ancient times, the dragon body was often mixed with the snake body, and Fuxi inherited the snake body as a result. The form of N ü wa was described in the "Tian Wen" section of the Chu Ci, which asks, "N ü wa has a body, but who made it?" Wang Yi's annotation states, "It is rumored that N ü wa's head and snake body transform into seventy in a day." Wang Yanshou's "Lu Ling Guang Dian Fu" states, "Fuxi's scale body, N ü wa's snake body," indicating that the legend of Fuxi and N ü wa's human face and snake body was very popular during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Thus, we have a profound impression that the gods of the creation era were all human faced and snake shaped, and the shared snake shaped body was their common 'code'. Many abstract geometric compositions are actually extracted from realistic graphics, and once inspiration arises, half human, half animal statues are also created. The gods with human faces and snake bodies were created in this way. The artistic genes have been passed down, and the snake body has naturally become an artistic option for creating statues of gods. The "snake shaped" pattern of Yunnan bronze snake shaped utensils is widely present in Yunnan culture. According to incomplete statistics, there are over 100 bronze artifacts related to snakes unearthed from the Shizhai Mountain Cemetery in Kunming, Yunnan alone. There are also a large number of bronze artifacts related to snakes found in the Lijiashan Cemetery in Yuxi, Yunnan. The snake shaped figures in Dian bronze ware can be roughly divided into two types: one emphasizes solemnity, such as the carved copper decorations on houses and the coiled snake shaped patterns on shell storage columns. The second is to use serpents as decorative elements, such as serpents on various buttons. A copper mesh vessel unearthed from Tomb 51 of Lijiashan has a unique shape, with a body that opens up like a semi-circular ball and a three-dimensional snake like protrusion at the front (see Figure ⑤). A bronze fork in the shape of a snake head unearthed from Tomb 71 of Shizhai Mountain is a rare production tool with a snake pattern. These bronze artifacts are of great significance for studying the bronze culture, history, and social life of ancient Yunnan. How to make zodiac design more approachable? With the upcoming Lunar New Year, zodiac design is once again igniting a craze. Recently, the mascot "Si Sheng Sheng" for the CCTV Snake Year Spring Festival Gala was released, the United Nations Snake Year zodiac stamp was issued, and a series of Snake Year zodiac posters were launched, including the 2025 Global Lucky Zodiac Design Competition and the 2025 Chinese University Zodiac Design Exhibition. A prominent feature is that the zodiac image of "snake" has transformed from the ancient fierce and mysterious to today's cute and lovely, from solemn and awe inspiring to relaxed and pleasant, full of fun and modernity, reflecting the evolution and development, inheritance and innovation of social culture. The Spring Festival culture has gone global, and in the globally participated "snake" zodiac design, the cute and adorable characteristics are very prominent, including a round face with big eyes, smiling expressions, colorful and bright colors, simple and round lines, pure and innocent personality, warm and friendly style, etc. The "cute" snake "baby" is as cute as a child, easily and happily arousing the softest emotions in people's hearts. People pursue a warm and beautiful life, hoping to solve problems with a relaxed attitude, longing to return to their simple nature, and yearning for genuine and sincere communication. The "cute" zodiac design echoes people's deep emotional appeals with a simple style, friendly appearance, and the concept of simplicity and returning to simplicity, and is also more likely to form spiritual resonance. It can be said that the change in the zodiac image of "snake" is a representation of the development of modern society and culture. In the inheritance and innovation of zodiac culture, traditional cultural spirit and symbolic language are more cleverly integrated into zodiac design. The correspondence between "form" and "meaning" forms a cultural and aesthetic identity. The mascot of the CCTV Snake Year Spring Festival Gala, "Si Sheng Sheng", features a smiling face and overall design inspired by the auspicious clouds and the oracle bone script "Si" character, symbolizing "Si Si Ru Yi, endless life and vitality". The bat pattern, feather pattern, long life lock, entwined branch pattern, as well as the auspicious shape and longevity knot from beginning to end, symbolize "happiness starts from the beginning, follows the auspicious", and the saying "words must be intentional, meaning must be auspicious". Traditional symbolic language conveys the ancient spirit of festivals, familiar and familiar. Zodiac design integrates cultural traditions into today's life. The river of civilization surges, and the process of inheriting and innovating civilization is magnificent yet calm, with the unchanged pursuit of the word "beauty". From a scientific and cultural perspective, snakes in archaeology are ancient and mysterious creatures. The so-called ancient is because snakes have existed on Earth for billions of years. But from an evolutionary perspective, snakes are reptiles whose limbs have degenerated or even disappeared. As early as 118 million years ago, snakes had evolved from some kind of lizard. Snake remains are also very rare in archaeological sites. Fossils of reptiles in the snake aunt family (a transitional species between snakes and lizards) have been unearthed from the Zhoukoudian Ape Man Site in Beijing, indicating a long history of coexistence between ancient humans and snakes. The remains of snakes dating back 6000 years were unearthed at the Beiqiu site in the Zuojiang River Basin of Guangxi, including Burmese pythons, king cobras, and Baihua brocade snakes. Among them, the length of Burmese pythons can reach 4.58 meters, which is much larger than the body size of other snakes of the same kind that live today. Shaanxi