中國龍母與越南蛇母故事初探

A Comparative Study between Chinese Mother Dragon and Vietnamese Mother Snake Stories

中國龍母故事源自南方流傳久遠的龍母信仰，具有卵生感生神話、誤斷龍尾、龍子探母報答和龍子守墓等情節，演化成後世各具主題之龍母故事群和禿尾龍故事群。越南的蛇母故事也有卵生和誤斷蛇尾情節，與中國龍母故事如出一轍，雖然越南稱其為蛇母和蛇子，與中國龍母龍子有著用語上的差異，但細究其信仰對象的特質和故事特徵，兩者間的關連性極為明確，在相似的龍蛇故事架構下，形成不同的水神崇拜對象，代表著中越兩國的歷史根源及民族認知。而本文的研究成果，不僅足為中國龍母故事在越南演變情形之佐證，對於中越信仰發展之流傳脈絡亦極具研究價值，並能作為中越崇水節俗文化之初步呈現。

Chinese mother dragon stories are originated from mother dragon belief in the south. They include plots such as mythology, mistakenly broken dragon tail, gratitude to mother dragon and tomb-watching by the dragon son. Those stories further develop into themes related to mother dragon stories and bald-tail-dragon ones. Similarly, Vietnamese mother snake stories have plots about mistakenly broken dragon tail. Though there are two types of animals, yet the beliefs and characteristics between both countries are highly related. That is, under similar structure between dragon or snake stories, there are different worship idols. Each represents historical roots and people cognition between China and Vietnam. This comparative study not only supports development of Chinese mother dragon stories in Vietnam, but also provides growth of Chinese-Vietnamese belief.