Chinese Mythology
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Chinese mythology is a set of mythological systems: ancient Chinese, Taoist, Buddhist and late folk mythologies.
Content
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1 General overview 2 Myths of China 2.1 Creation and ordering of the world
3 References 4 Literature
General overview[edit / edit wiki text]
"The Gods of China", a Chinese engraving, reprinted by Athanasius Kircher in 1667
Ancient Chinese mythology rekonstruiruet the fragments of ancient historical and philosophical works ("Shutszin" is a Book of History, the oldest part XIV XI centuries BC; "Ching" is the Book of Changes, the most ancient part VIII VII centuries BC.
"Chuang Tzu", IV III centuries BC.
"Le zi", IV century BC IV century ad; "Huainan zi", II century BC.
"Critical judgment" Wang Chong, I century BC).
The greatest amount of information on mythology is contained in the ancient treatise "Shan hai jing" ("Book of Mountains and Seas", IV II centuries BC), as well as in the poetry of Qu Yuan (IV century BC).
One of the distinctive features of the ancient Chinese mythological historization is the (euhemerization) of mythical characters, who, under the influence of the rationalistic Confucian worldview, very early began to be interpreted as real figures of ancient times.
The main characters turned into rulers and emperors, and minor characters turned into dignitaries, officials, etc.
The euhemerization of myths also contributed to the process of anthropomorphization of heroes characteristic of Chinese mythology,which continued in folk mythology until late.
Totemistic ideas played an important role.
So, the Yin tribes considered the swallow as their totem, the Xia tribes considered the snake as their totem.
Gradually, the snake transformed into a dragon (lun), commanding rain, thunderstorms, water elements and connected simultaneously with underground forces, and the bird, probably, into a fenghuang a mythical bird a symbol of the sovereign (the dragon became the symbol of the sovereign).
See also: Symbolism in Chinese Poetry
Myths of China[edit / edit wiki text]
Creation and ordering of the world[edit / edit wiki text]
Fusi and Nyuva
The myth of chaos (hun dun), which is a shapeless mass, apparently belongs to the oldest (judging by the hieroglyphs of hun and tun, this image is based on the idea of water chaos).
Signs of undifferentiation (fused legs, teeth) are also found in a number of mythical first ancestors.
According to the treatise "Huainan Tzu", when there was still no heaven or earth and formless images wandered in pitch darkness, two deities emerged from chaos.
The idea of the original chaos and darkness is reflected in the term "kaipi" (lit. "separation" — "the beginning of the world", which was understood as the separation of heaven from earth).
In the "Chronological Records of the Three and Five Rulers" ("San wu li ji") Xu Zheng (3rd century AD) says that heaven and earth were in chaos, like the contents of a chicken egg.
The separation of the sky from the earth occurred with the growth of Pan gu, which is also associated with the origin of natural phenomena: with his sigh, wind and rain were born, with his exhalation — thunder and lightning, he opens his eyes day comes, closes night comes.
When Pan gu dies, his elbows, knees and head turn into five sacred mountain peaks, the insects on his body turn into people.
The myth of Pan gu testifies to the presence in China of the likening of the cosmos to the human body, which is characteristic of a number of ancient cosmogonic systems, and, accordingly, about the unity of the macro and microcosm (in the period of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, these mythical ideas were fixed in other areas of knowledge related to man: medicine, physiognomy, portrait theory, etc.).
Apparently, the reconstructed cycle of myths about the ancestor of Nyu Wa, who was represented as a half man, half snake (or dragon), was considered the creator of all things and people (but the myth of her creation of the universe is unknown), should be recognized as more archaic in the stadial respect.
According to one of the myths, she fashioned people out of loess and clay.
Later versions of the myth associate with it the establishment of a marriage ritual.
If Pan gu does not create the world, but develops himself along with the separation of heaven from earth, then Nu Wa also appears as a kind of demiurge.
She repairs the collapsed part of the sky, cuts off the legs of a giant turtle and supports the four limits of the sky with them, collects reed ash and blocks the way to the flood of waters ("Huainan Tzu").
It can be assumed that Pan Gu and Nyu wa were originally included in various tribal mythological systems, the image of Nyu wa appeared either in the southeastern regions of ancient Chinese lands, or in the Ba culture area in the southwestern province of Sichuan, and the image of Pan gu — in the south Chinese regions.
Links[edit / edit wiki text]
Chinese mythology.
Encyclopedia of mythology with illustrations.
Articles on Chinese mythology.
Literature[edit / edit wiki text]
Georgievsky S. M. Mythical views and myths of the Chinese.
St. Petersburg, 1892.
Bodde D. Myths of ancient China / / Mythology of the ancient world.
Translated from English M., 1977.
Ezhov V. V. "Myths of Ancient China", Moscow 2004 Evsyukov V. V. Mythology of the Chinese Neolithic.
Novosibirsk, 1988.
Kulikov D. E. Ornithological motifs in the Shang Yin culture and their connection with ancient Chinese mythology / / Society and the State in China.
XXXII Scientific Conference.
Moscow: Oriental Literature, 2002.
Kulikov D. E.
On solar elements in Yin religious and mythological representations / / Society and the State in China.
XXXIV scientific conference.
Moscow: Oriental literature, 2004.
- pp.
25-44.
Lisevich I. S. Modeling of the world in Chinese mythology and the doctrine of the five primary elements // Theoretical Problems of Oriental literatures.
M., 1969.
Lisevich I. S. Ancient myths through the eyes of a man of the space age / / Soviet ethnography.
1976.
No.
2. Riftin B. L., Mythology and the development of narrative prose in Ancient China — - in the collection "Literature of Ancient China", Moscow, 1969.
Spirina I. V.
New materials about the Chinese mythological tradition in the monuments of the "animal style" / / Society and the state in China.
XXII Scientific conference.
Moscow: Oriental literature, 1991.
Part 1.
- pp.
117-120.
Fedorenko N. T., Thematic originality of Chinese mythology — - in the collection " Historical and philological studies.
To the 75th anniversary of the academician N. I. Konrad", Moscow, 1967, p. 381—390.
Yuan Ke.
Myths of Ancient China.
Moscow, 1965.
Yanshina E. M. Formation and development of Ancient Chinese mythology.
Moscow, 1984.
Yanshina E. M., God fighting motives in ancient Chinese mythology — - "Brief reports of the Institute of Asian Peoples", No. 61, Moscow, 1963.
Allan S. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China.
New York,1991.
Birell A. Chinese Mythology.
An Introduction.
Baltimore and London, 1999.
Birrell Anne «Chinesische Mythen», Stuttgart 2002 Anthony Christie «Chinesische Mythologie», Wiesbaden 1969.
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Category: Chinese Mythology
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