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Unit 1
Reading A
A General Introduction to Chine Mythology
Yang Lihui, An Deming
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By Chine mythology, we mean the body of myths historically recorded and currently transmitted within the prent geographic boundaries of China. It should include not only myths transmitted by people of the Han ethnic group but also tho by the other fifty-five ethnic groups living in this broad area. Since almost every ethnic group has its own mythical gods and stories about their creative actions, there is not a systematic, integrated, and homogeneous “Chine mythology” held and transmitted by all the Chine people. Even among Han people, there is not an integrated system of myths.
The earliest written records of ancient myths can be traced back to about 3,000 years ago, though other forms of designs and paintings on shells, bones, and bronzes probably relatin
商务英语专业排名g to myth appeared earlier than this. Recently, rearchers found a bronze vesl named “Suigongxu” (Suigong was a duke of the Sui State, now belonging to modern Shandong Province; “Xu” is an ancient bronze vesl that has a cover and two ears; it functions as a food container), which can date back to the 9th or 8th century BC, the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The inscription on the inside bottom of the vesl consists of 98 Chine characters, praising the achievements of the mythic hero Yu. It tells the story that heaven ordered Yu to scatter earth, so Yu went around all the mountains, cutting down the trees in the forests and deepening the as and rivers to drain all the water on earth into the a. This inscription shows that the technique of recording myth in Chine characters had become relatively mature nearly 3,000 years ago. Additionally, it illustrates that at least as late as the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the myth about Yu controlling the flood had already been spread, and it had been historicized into a legend about a great hero or a great king in the upper class of society.
But the inscriptions recorded myths very simply. Sometimes the mythological stories they illustrate are hard to understand. Therefore, Chine scholars rely primarily on acco
unts of myths recorded in later ancient writings after the Western Zhou Dynasty to study the myths.
In China, there is no sacred canon recording myths, beliefs, or sacred history like the Bible or the Koran, nor were there any literati, troubadours, or shamans (sorcerer or sorceress) who collected myths from oral tradition and compiled them into a systematic and integrated mythology, like the Greek collections attributed to Homer and Hesiod. Rather, myths in ancient China were usually spread in scattered and fragmented forms in various written material. The sources contain information about archaeology, literature, philosophy, geography, history, witchcraft, ethnography, religion, folklore, and so on. Many of them prerve only a few myths, but some of them hold a comparatively large number of myths and thus become treasures of ancient Chine myths. Among them, Shanhaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), Chuci (The Songs of Chu) and Huainanzi are thought to be the major repositories of Chine ancient myths.
Myths are neither static nor parate from society. Rather, their existence and transmissi
on are deeply influenced by their social and cultural contexts. On the other side, tho myths that have been handed down for thousands of years and contain Chine people’s philosophy, art, beliefs, customs, and value systems also have had a great influence on Chine society and culture.
宁波外国语学校网站Reading 按劳分配C
主持人培训课程The Chine Dragon vs. The Western Dragon
The Chine dragon is a far different beast from its Western counterpart. Smaug from J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is perhaps the most widely known dragon from recent Western fiction, a cruel, avaricious and bloodthirsty creature who lair under the Lonely Mountain identifies him as a creature of the earth. Tolkien drew much of his inspiration for Smaug from the dragon in the Old English epic of “Beowulf”, penned more than a thousand years earlier, which gives some indication of the depth of the European tradition of portraying dragons as bad news.
By contrast, the Chine dragon is an auspicious creature, symbolizing strength, wisdom, good luck and power over the elements of wind and water. As such, Chine people proudly claim they are the descendants of the dragon, a story that is firmly rooted in national folklore and history. For example, an anecdote in the “Records of the Grand Historian” (什么是djShiji) traces the birth of Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD): One day, his mother falls asleep at a riverside and dreams of a dragon lying on her body, only to wake up and find herlf pregnant. Traces of the anecdote survived in the belief that a dragon appearing in a pregnant mother’s dream was an auspicious sign indicating she would give birth to a future emperor.
Indeed, China’s feudal rulers did everything they could to maintain this mythic association, surrounding themlves with dragon-related ornamentation, ruling from a Dragon Throne and waging war under a dragon flag. Pretty much everything related to the emperor would be tagged with the character “”, for example, “” (imperial robes embroidered with curling dragons), “” (the emperor’s at), “” (the emperor’s bed) and “” (the look of an emperor).
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While Smaug and other European dragons have a solid, rpentine connection to the earth, Chine dragons are indisputably rulers of the sky. The dragon was worshiped as the God of Rain, and in times of drought or flooding, locals would visit a dragon-king temple (）and burn incen to pray for more favorable conditions. It is also said that natural disasters such as floods or tornados (, literally, the dragon rolls up the wind) indicate the dragon king is in bad temper.
mipsDragons’ association with thunder, lightning and rain may have prompted the widespread belief that there are more likely to be a flurry of natural disasters in a Dragon year, and Chine New Year celebrations the world over will include ceremonies and prayers dedicated to warding off the possibility of such a calamity striking people’s homes.
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