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There are some phenomena in China's early thoughts that deserve our great attention. A careful analysis of China's prehistoric materials reveals that an important feature of China's prehistoric thinking is the early establishment of the principle of identity. The so-called principle of identity contains a series of truth propositions, such as "one thing cannot exist at the same time but does not exist", "one thing cannot be another thing at the same time" and "one thing cannot be multiple things at the same time", which was once regarded as "natural concept" by rationalist philosophers in mainland China. However, this so-called "innate concept" has been repeatedly violated in Indian mythology, and the violation of the principle of identity is often one of the important reasons for the vagaries of Indian mythology. In Vedic Sanskrit, the cloud is a snake, an ox, a castle fortress and a place to hide evil people and practices. Fire is both hope and love, Indra is varuna. Rama in Dali is the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, and it is also the incarnation of Vishnu's bed-the serpent Sheshi, and so on. As Dana pointed out, "the external nature has never encountered such a weak thinking, which can appear in various ever-changing performance images." No matter how changeable nature is, this kind of imagination can improvise. It has no fixed god at all, and its gods can improvise and confuse each other. "[vii] The gods in Indian mythology are both one and many, both material and spiritual, and they can be divided indefinitely without losing any characteristics that constitute them. Not only Indian mythology, it can be said that violating the principle of identity is a common phenomenon of mythological thinking, but it is most obvious in Indian mythology.
But in China mythology, the principle of identity is strictly observed. Indeed, in China's myths and ancient books, the concept of "culture" often exists. For example, in The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of Western Hills, "The son of Zhongshan is a drum, which is shaped like a dragon with a human face. It was with Qin Kun that he killed Baojiang in the Kunlun sun. The emperor killed it in the east of Zhongshan, saying it was a stone, and Qin Kun became a big owl. "Beishan Jing" has a cloud: "There are many trees and birds on the Lushan Mountain ... It is called Jingwei, and ... it is called Miss Yan Di. The girl swam around the East China Sea and didn't come back, so she is Jingwei. She often drags her to the East China Sea with the title of Xishan wood and stone. "Sun Yat-sen Classic" has a saying that "when an aunt dies in a mountain, an emperor dies, and a woman corpse turns into grass. "There is a famous myth in Zhuangzi Xiaoyao that" Kun "turns into" Peng ",that is, fish turns into birds. Although these changes are varied and bizarre, people can become animals, plants, and even inanimate things can also become living things, and the mutual transformation between animals is more common, but obviously, the transformation of one thing into another in China mythology does not happen at the same time. In particular, several myths in Shan Hai Jing are all dying or dying, and their similarities all show that "only when you die can you live", that is, the end of this life is continued by another life, and things are cyclical. [viii] This not only does not violate the principle of identity, but also shows the identity of life. As Allen pointed out, although the Greek god appeared in the same image as man, he was a superman, and his way of doing things was fundamentally different from that of man. " He's not alone, he's just like a person. Myth is placed in the infinite past, telling the relationship between gods who are similar to human beings but not human beings. China's gods are different from people. They are people who are dead but still exist in an invisible form. "[ix] It is hard for China people to imagine that there will be inhuman or superhuman behavior after the death of the deceased. It is the principle of identity that plays a deep-rooted role.
Another feature of China's ancient thinking is the lack of personification. Compared with Indian and Greek mythology, personification in China mythology is quite naive. Especially in India, personalization is very common. Not only the names of rivers and mountains can be personalized, but also specific objects and phenomena can be personalized. For example, sumo is the embodiment of plants and drinks, Ayani is the embodiment of fire, and Wudi is the embodiment of Xia Guang. Some basic cosmic behaviors have also been personified or deified. For example, Devitoli is the personification producer of production, while Tuo Shi is the personification creator of creation. The personification of "creation of all things" forms the karma of Vishnu, the creator god. Even abstract concepts can be personified, and they are generally personified: for example, the personification of "faith"-Sloto, the personification of "anger"-Manier, the personification of "language"-Cape, and so on. Of course, personification in Indian mythology is still in a relatively naive stage in art. Unlike personification as a universal means in Indian mythology, personification is not a universal means in China's early mythology. Even the supreme god of China, Shen, did not go through a clear personification process from Shang Dynasty to Eastern Han Dynasty, and its divinity and miracles were not clearly manifested. Even if the so-called Chu God-Dong Huang Taiyi appeared in Nine Songs of Chu, his personality image is quite vague. It seems that only when Taoism appears can the supreme god be truly personified [x]. Correspondingly, "Tao", the origin of the universe in China's thought, is not personified, whether it is material or spiritual. This is an obvious fact, which makes the Han nationality always lack the real myth of the origin of the universe. Deified rivers and mountains are very common in China, such as the Yellow River and Xiangshui. The personification of concrete objects and phenomena, behaviors and even abstract concepts is extremely rare in China's thought. And like Indian mythology, personification in China's mythology is formal and superficial, with pure general strength and natural activities as its content. Individualization is not mainly manifested in people's personality and feelings, but only in some characteristics of people's words, thinking, certain actions and behaviors. This is also one of the important reasons why China's myths are not rich.
Third, the degree of concreteness in the cognitive process is low. Both Levi-Brewer and Levi-Strauss have noticed that primitive people have an extraordinary ability to correctly remember and reproduce the perceptual impressions of specific details. Such as "Ortssinn" and "richtsinnn" based on countless details of memory [Xi]; Accurately identifying the subtle differences between plants and animals, carefully observing the relationships and connections between things, and systematically classifying them [xii] are important features of mythical thinking. This ability to observe concrete things carefully has basically disappeared in China's early culture. Take the observation and discrimination of plants as an ancestor who grew up in an agricultural society, which should be said to be our specialty. However, according to my statistics, there are about 147 woody words (including the generic names of "tree" and "wood") in Shuowenjiezi, and about 249 words (including the generic names) representing herbs. In other words, the ancients could distinguish less than 249 kinds of herbs. Add up to less than 400 species, while the Sabanon people in the South Philippines have more than 1000 plant nouns, and the Hanuno people have nearly 2,000 value nouns. In Gabon, there are about 8,000 ethnic plant words [xiii]. Compared with these ethnic groups, we are greatly inferior in the specific degree of observation. If these primitive peoples are too far away from the social development stage where our ancients lived and lack comparability, we will take India, which is similar to our civilization, to illustrate this feature. A similar project is physiognomy. The premise of the establishment of physiognomy is the observation of the appearance of the characters, from which we can see the concrete and meticulous degree of observation between the two countries. Before the Han Dynasty, the ancient physiognomy mainly observed the five senses, forehead, back, otherness and so on, and there were no more than ten parts observed. Let's take a look at India's description of the Buddha's so-called 32 phases, including foot, finger, toe, heel, foot, arm length, height, body width, shoulders, nape of neck, skin, teeth, tongue, eyebrows, voice, nape of neck, throat and even body hair. In addition to the 32 phases, there are so-called signs. The low level of concreteness in observation indicates the improvement of generalization and abstraction ability, but the improvement of generalization and abstraction ability is the enemy of mythical thinking.
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The reasons for these differences are naturally the combination of culture-history, race-language, world outlook, time and space, etc. But I prefer to point out that the use of hieroglyphics has a great influence on the way of thinking. By analyzing the similarities and differences between Persia, India, Egypt and China, it can be found that the similarities between China and Egypt are, firstly, the mode of production, which is an agricultural society based on rivers, and secondly, the characters, which all use hieroglyphics; These two points are just different from Persia and India, or not exactly the same; This is an important reason why the symbolic art of the two countries is maturing.
Hegel analyzed why the agricultural society that relies on the irrigation of big rivers leads to the maturity of symbolic art. In his view, the phenomena that have attracted much attention in agricultural society, namely birth, growth, death and rebirth from death, provide appropriate content for the real symbolic form. Because there are some phenomena based on this dialectical process in all fields of natural life and spiritual life, which can be used to clarify and imply this meaning. In other words, people living in an agricultural society can easily find some connection between phenomenon and meaning. For example, germination, germination, flowering and fruiting of plants; The fruit rotted and new seeds appeared. The sun rises very low in winter, higher in spring, reaches the zenith in summer, and then goes down. People's various life stages, such as childhood, infancy, prime of life and old age, also show this universal process. These phenomena that people are most concerned about in agricultural society have some similar characteristics. "Only through the correlation between these basic features and the close consistency between the meaning and its expression form, the pure fantasy expression form will be abandoned, and then there will be consideration and thoughtful choice on whether to combine symbolic images ... Therefore, the unity that is more harmonious than what was seen in the initial stage will reappear." [14]
But hieroglyphics have a greater influence on the formation of symbolic art, because a large part of hieroglyphics is symbolic in itself, that is, the shape of an object is used to express meaning, which is not the object itself but the universal meaning associated with it. Among the six ways of creating Chinese characters, knowing Chinese characters is undoubtedly an example of symbolism, such as symbolizing a universal meaning with the image of the sun rising from the earth-in the morning, symbolizing an abstract moral attribute-"martial arts" with the image of "stop brother" and so on. Even a pictogram is a symbol, because the shape it draws does not refer to a specific object, but an abstract general name of the object. Another way is to use words with the same pronunciation as physical names to express meaning. This is also common in China's written language. For example, silk stands for thinking, monument stands for sadness and bat stands for joy.
The invention and application of hieroglyphics greatly improved the requirements of thinking logic. The invention of hieroglyphics needs to establish the principle of identity of things. If a thing can be infinitely deformed, it can be this or that, and it can exist or not at the same time, it will seriously destroy the certainty of the meaning of words, people will not be able to communicate, and the meaning of inventing words will be lost. Therefore, a prerequisite for using hieroglyphics is that the principle of identity of thinking must be established. In addition, several main word-making methods in China hieroglyphics, such as pictographs, knowing words and indicating words, must have a clear understanding and grasp of the meaning of things, and the images indicating these meanings must be certain. A hieroglyph is often a true combination of qualitative meaning and clear image. Even pictophonetic characters must have a clear understanding and grasp of the attributes and classification of the things they express, such as "holes" belonging to water, "sticks" belonging to wood and "tracks" belonging to cars. , all show a clear understanding of the properties of these things. Therefore, the invention and application of hieroglyphics can only be produced on the basis of certain thinking logic. However, the qualitative and coincidence of image and meaning, to some extent, weakened the ever-changing imagination, broke the wings of the unconstrained fantasy, and thus hindered the emergence of myth.
In addition, the invention and use of hieroglyphics undoubtedly cultivated the observation method of grasping the characteristics of things and ignoring the details, which greatly improved the generalization ability. Because hieroglyphics must express things in the simplest and most general way, this requires the creator to get rid of complicated branches and forks, ignore details that have nothing to do with the overall situation, and grasp the roots and characteristics of things most quickly, so that this thing can be distinguished from other things and people can know what it means at a glance. This trains people to grasp the characteristics, the core and even the essence, improves the generalization ability of things, and correspondingly reduces the concrete degree in observation. Since then, a series of propositions in China's philosophy and aesthetics, such as "get carried away" in China's philosophy, "take the spirit with form" and "make the finishing point" legend, are all products of this thinking feature.
Fourthly, compared with phonography, hieroglyphics undoubtedly have a negative impact on the widespread use of personification. Recording can easily personify anything. For example, in Sanskrit, s means "generation", which is personalized by adding a suffix after Savitr to represent the generator; Dha means "establishment", the suffix is Dhartar, which means "defender", it is transformed into Tratar, which means "defender", and so on. Such a convenient conversion is particularly easy to cause what Marx and Miao Lei called "language disease", and the personalization process is completed unconsciously. For hieroglyphics, once the meaning is determined, it is relatively more difficult to change in the process of text inheritance. In particular, there is no specific personification grammar phenomenon in Chinese, which hinders the universal application of personification.
To sum up, the emergence and application of hieroglyphics is the enemy of mythical thinking. Since hieroglyphics appeared, the inheritance of words replaced the inheritance of language, and the myth inevitably began its extinction process. Because people who have been trained in writing have greatly changed and improved their thinking, this makes the myth inevitably selected, changed and finally rationalized in the process of recording. To prove this, we can look at the situation in Egypt. There are indications that Egypt was originally a mythical country, but the existing Egyptian mythology has become very scarce and fragmented in the literature records, and we can only reconstruct its mythological system according to some fragmentary records. Why? Because Egypt also uses hieroglyphics. It can be seen that the invention of hieroglyphics is one of the most important reasons, if not the decisive reason for the extinction of myths.
Precautions:
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[i] See Son of the Sun: Myth and Totem Worship in Ancient China, in Early History, Thought and Culture of China, translated by Yang Min, Shenyang, Liaoning Education Press 1999, p. 1 p. Of course, the myth of China here mainly refers to the ancient myth of the Han nationality.
[2] See the preface of China's Early History, Thought and Culture (page 4), The Son of the Sun: Myth and Totem Worship in Ancient China (page 1) and the Shang Dynasty Foundation of Modern Folk Religion in China (page 76-9 1).
[iii] This view originated from Zhang Guangzhi's Continuity and Fracture: A New Draft on the Origin of Civilization, which was included in China Bronze Age, Beijing, Joint Publishing Company, 1999, pp. 492-493.
[4] See my book The Way of China Myth Formation-Historical Mythization, Southeast Culture, No.3,1996; It is also included in Local Religion and Myth in Han Dynasty, Taipei, Hongye Culture Company 1998, pp. 54-69.
[v] You can refer to Miao's Primitive Thinking, Shanghai, Shanghai People's Publishing House 1993. ; Liu Wenying's The Mechanism of Primitive Thinking and the Mystery of Primitive Culture, Jinan, Wen Shizhe,No. 1988,No. 1; Guo Qiyao's Thinking Structure of China Myth, Chongqing, Chongqing Publishing House1992; Chen Menglin, On the Germination of China's Ancient Logic Thought and the Establishment of Logic Science from the Generation and Development of Category Concept, China Social Sciences, No.4, 1985. Liu Wenying's How Primitive Thinking Goes to Logic, published in Philosophical Research No.7, 1987. On the logical structure and cognitive function of analogical reasoning, Journal of Seeking Truth, No.3,1984; Liu Wenying, On the Classified Image of Primitive Thinking, social sciences in yunnan 1986 No.6, Liu Weihua, Evolution of Primitive Thinking, Qilu Journal 1985 No.6, Systematic Analysis of the Development of Human Consciousness, Philosophical Research No.5, 1982. Ye Shuxian's Symbol: Language and Art, Shanghai People's Publishing House, Introduction to the Study of Primitive Thinking Genesis, No.2 Philosophical Research, 1988. Mysterious Numbers in Toporov, Folk Literature Forum, No.4, 1985. Number: Language of Science, Commercial Press, 1985.
[vi] Hegel, translated by Zhu Guangqian, Aesthetics, Volume II, Beijing, Commercial Press, 1979, p. 10.
[vii] Quoted from Li Bo's Diffusion Imagination, included in Jiang Kongyang's Selected Works of Western Aesthetics in the 19th Century [English, French and American Volumes], Shanghai, Fudan University Press 1990, p. 555.
[viii] Peng Yi collected eight examples of "change" in Shan Hai Jing, and summarized the above conclusions. See "God's Manifestation-Everything in the Mythological Materials of Shan Hai Jing", Taipei, Literature and History Philosophy, No.46, June 1997, pp. 24-25.
[ix] Early History, Thought and Culture of China, Shang Dynasty Basis of Modern Folk Religion in China, pp. 77-78.
[x] For the development history of Supreme God before the Western Han Dynasty, please refer to my book Local Religion and Myth in the Han Dynasty, Hongye Culture Company, 1998, page 8 1- 130.
[xi] For specific examples, see Levi Brewer's Primitive Thinking, translated by Ding You, Beijing, Commercial Press, 198 1 year, p. 106- 109.
[xii] For specific examples, see Levi-Strauss's Wild Thinking, translated by Li, Beijing, Commercial Press, 1987, p. 6- 15.
[xiii] See Wild Thinking, pp. 8-9.
[xiv] Aesthetics, Volume II, pp. 64-65.