Legend is a common phenomenon in the early stage of civilization development. In the eyes of modern people, myths and legends are absurd and irrational symbols, but in the eyes of ancient people, they used to be symbols of truth. The word "myth" originated in ancient Greece, and the change of its status in ancient Greece is also the most telling. 1940, the German classicist Nestel pointed out in his book From Myth to Logos that both the myth representing myth and logos representing reason mean "talk" and "talk". However, mythos is "storytelling", which is concrete and has plots; And logos is "reasonable", which is directly expressed and theoretical. In form, myths generally appear in the form of "poems", which are often spread by word of mouth and heart to heart; Logos generally exists in the form of "prose" and is easier to spread in the form of words. The transition from myth to logos took place in the 5th century BC. At that time, fables, anthropomorphic stories, poems and religions gradually gave way to logic, abstract concepts, eloquence and philosophy. This is an important symbol of the formation of western civilization. ② Miao Lei, a British historical linguist, pointed out that the absurdity of myths and legends is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Since then, Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Xia Cengyou, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren and Zhang Taiyan have all introduced the concept of "myth" into the field of literature and historical research as a new enlightenment tool. Ma Changyi: An Outline of the Development of China Mythology, edited by Ma Changyi: Selected Theories of China Mythology and Literature, China Radio and Television Press, 1994. (2) William nestle, The Myth of Reason: Self-denial of Ancient Greek Philosophers and Sosocrates, Stuttgart: Kr? 0? 2 ner. 1940。 Sex is an "unavoidable fact". Not only that, when we open the dictionary today, we can still see that myth refers not only to "miraculous stories created collectively by ancient human beings", but also to "untrue and absurd statements". ② However, in 1996, American religious historian Lincoln questioned the relationship between myth and logic representing rationality. The transformation from myth to logos should not be simply regarded as the transformation from superstitious stories to rational propositions. Myth and logos are just "strategies" of two kinds of words, and they are the means to express different aspects of truth. (3) So, from the need of historical research, do myths and legends contain historical truth? In order to facilitate the discussion, this paper sets two premises to simplify and clarify the problem. First, we distinguish between "truth" and "historical truth" and only discuss "historical truth". False stories can also reflect the truth. In other words, "whether myths and legends contain truth" and "whether myths and legends contain historical truth" are two questions that need to be answered independently. This article only tries to discuss the latter. ④ Premise 2: We regard "myth" and "legend" as "unknown items" and "history" as "known items" for the time being, that is, only "loyalty to history" can be regarded as "history". Under these two premises, the previous answers to the relationship between myths and legends and history can be roughly divided into three categories. One view holds that myths and legends are history. For example, Italian religious historian Bettazzoni believes that myths tell about "those unforgettable creative processes", such as the origin of things, the origin of the world, the origin of human beings, the origin of life and death, and the origin of animals and plants (including vegetables). All these events happened in very ancient times, but now the source and foundation of people's lives come from this, and the structure of the whole society is also based on this. ⑤ In recent years, Liu Zongdi, a China scholar who studied Shan Hai Jing, also advocated drawing an equal sign between legend and history. Another view is that myths and legends contain historical facts, or historical records contain myths and legends. As early as the 3rd century BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Omedrus suggested that Greek mythology actually has a history. In the only remnant of the Holy History, he made an index textual research on gods and heroes, pointing out that every god can be implemented to a person who once existed in ancient times. Sima Qian, the father of China's historiography, also pointed out that although many records handed down from ancient times seem unreasonable due to the age, they are not completely out of thin air. His attitude towards these myths and legends is: on the one hand, compare various records of predecessors; On the other hand, on-the-spot investigation in the areas where the Five Emperors lived found that many customs and habits were similar to those recorded in the literature, which proved that the previous records were not completely fabricated. So, he chose those more credible records and compiled the Biography of Five Emperors. Of course, there are also many mythologists who believe that the historical books that have been handed down to this day contain myths and legends. This view is very close to the former one, but it emphasizes that many handed down documents are largely a form of expression of myths and legends. In a word, historians tend to regard ancient documents mixed with myths and historical facts as history containing myths and legends, while mythologists tend to regard them as myths and legends containing history. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ① Max Miao Lei: Comparative Mythology, translated by Jin Ze, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1 1. ② Xinhua Dictionary, Commercial Press, 2004, p. 235. (3) Bruce Lincoln, "gender discourse; The Early History of "Myth" and "Logos", History of Religion, Volume 36, pp. 1, 1996, 1- 12. Therefore, this paper does not directly discuss whether myths and legends contain truth, but our conclusion is that. ⑤ Rafer Bettazzoni: The Truth of Myth, edited by Allen Dundis: Selected Papers on Western Mythology, translated by Jin et al., Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1994, pp.1,137. ⑥ Liu Zongdi: Ancient History Story History, Reading,No. 1 issue, 2003,No. 15 ... ⑥ Sima Qian: Historical Records of the Five Emperors, Zhonghua Book Company, 1959, p. 46. The third view holds that myths and legends are not history or have nothing to do with history at all. American folklorist Laagland believes that myths come from rituals and have nothing to do with real history. According to his own experience, Laagland pointed out that there is no written record and no fact can be remembered by people after 150 years. In other words, oral tradition cannot preserve history, and history can only rely on written records. Primitive people have no words, so they have no history. "Of course, most people who have no words have traditional stories, which may look like memories of historical events. ..... but these stories are actually myths. " (1) The China School of Ancient History, which rose in the 1920s and 1930s, also believes that the records of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors in the pre-Qin classics are actually not history, but myths and legends fabricated by people from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. Gu Jiegang, a historian of ancient history school, strongly advocated "looking at ancient history from the perspective of stories". ② Although the view that myths and legends are not history still has a great influence, most scholars still admit that myths and legends have a certain relationship with history. Just how to treat this relationship concretely, there are often only some empirical practices, and few scholars summarize and generalize it from the theoretical point of view, especially from the perspective of historical research. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss this issue. However, due to the complex form of myths and legends, how to define "myths" has become a long-term debate in academic circles. Bascom, an American anthropologist, distinguished myths, legends and folktales from the aspects of time and space, credibility, sacredness and human nature, and his views were accepted by most folklorists. Although his distinguishing method is aimed at folklore research, it can also be used for reference by historians. First of all, compared with fictional stories, myths and legends are considered to be true from the beginning (the "first" here refers to the era when myths and legends were created and celebrated, which is not accurate). (3) Secondly, compared with fictional stories, myths and legends all happen in a specific time and space, and the protagonists are also people. In other words, the above two points show that there seems to be no fundamental difference between myths and legends and history, that is, they all tell about "human activities that really occur in a specific time and space." Of course, Bascom thinks that the difference between myths and legends lies in their different time and space. However, because this paper mainly discusses how to treat the faithfulness of myths and legends, in many cases we compare myths and legends indiscriminately. However, when discussing the mythical age, we will find that this distinction is also enlightening. ④ Besides Bascom, many scholars have defined "myth" or studied it from their own perspective. Miao Lei first interprets myths from the perspective of historical linguistics and studies the mythological origins of various civilizations. He believes that only through the method of language analysis can we unveil the historical veil at that time and prove that there is such an era full of myths in history, which cannot be revealed through historical research, that is, the history of civilization. ⑤ The British anthropologist Fraser investigated the primitive sacrifices and myths in the world culture in The Golden Branches, and put forward that sympathy witchcraft was used by Indo-Europeans _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (1) Lord raglan, Hero, London, 1949. 8. Quoted from William Bascom's Myth-Ritual Theory, published in American Journal of Folklore, Vol.70, No.276, 1957, pp. 103- 1 14. ② Gu Jiegang: Preface, Hebei Education Press, 2000, p. 4. (3) This point is very important for the discussion of this paper. Because in the eyes of modern people, myths and legends are largely fictional and untrue, that is to say, we are concerned about whether myths and legends are reliable according to the standards of contemporary historical research. Because primitive people believed in the truth of myths and legends, there was no doubt that we accepted Bascom's point of view for a long time. (4) See the discussion about "mythical age" and "historical age" later in this article. If the content of myth happened in the myth era, then the content of legend often didn't happen in a specific time and space that can be called "the legend era". On the contrary, legends often occur in the "historical era", and many real historical events and historical figures become the background and elements of these legends. ⑤ Max Miao Lei: Comparative Mythology, p. 23. An important role in the origin of family myths. Psychologist Freud regarded myths as psychological abnormalities similar to dreams and thought that they were the result of the interaction between human consciousness and subconscious mind. (2) Freud's student, German psychologist Jung, developed the tutor's research and put forward that myth is a reflection of the collective unconscious. For example, he thinks that the image of Christ in Revelation is the prototype of heroic life, which reflects the unconscious collective life of individuals. In addition, there are many anthropologists who associate myths with rituals and explain myths by studying rituals. This is the so-called "myth-ritual theory". For example, Ms. Harrison, a British scholar, believes that myth and ritual are a set of parallel expressions, and the meaning or function of myth all stems from its sociality and is closely related to ritual. On the contrary, Levi-Strauss, a French anthropologist, does not pay attention to various mythological motives or themes, but to the structure that combines various factors. 1955 published the study of myth structuralism, pointing out that all myths can be attributed to some kind of antagonistic relationship, such as nature/culture, ego/other, etc. In his conclusion, he even pointed out that "the purpose of myth is to provide a logical model for explaining plot contradictions" and that "the logic used in myth thinking is as precise and rigorous as that used in modern science, and there is no qualitative difference between the logic of myth and the logic of modern science in the process of thinking. The only difference is that the objects of this logic are different." ⑤ This paper later became a theoretical guide for structuralism to study myths. In addition, since 1950s, Roland Barthes, a French thinker, used the basic concepts of semiotics to analyze the information contained in modern things and their expression media, and founded a new mythology theory. 6. He thinks that "myth is a kind of speech". We can discuss anything, so anything can become a myth. Barthes has greatly expanded the meaning of mythological concepts in modern times. Myth is no longer just created and praised by primitive people, but has become a part of our daily life in modern society. ⑦ As for the relationship between myth and history, Barthes thinks that modern myth is just "a depoliticized statement". The so-called "depoliticization" is the process of simplifying historical memory or real events and evacuating the complexity of meaning. Therefore, people don't care whether the myth is true or not, but whether it is useful or not. In other words, people just create myths according to their own needs. Today, it can be seen from the main achievements of the above-mentioned mythology research that although scholars from different disciplines have studied or explained myths or legends from their own perspectives, most of them hold a negative attitude towards the relationship between myths and legends and history. Some people don't advocate studying myths by historical methods, thinking that it can only be futile. Some people think that myth itself is an evacuation of history, and studying myth does not help to obtain the historical truth. Some people think that the authenticity of myths is insignificant to those who make and spread them. So, is this really the case? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The first kind of myths and legends contains a part of history, and you can find the exact evidence of the age. For example, the lineage of Xia and Shang emperors in China recorded by Sima Qian has long been regarded as a legend, which is not generally accepted by academic circles. However, since the first half of the 20th century, due to the discovery and identification of Oracle bone inscriptions, the lineage of Shang emperors in many historical books has been confirmed in Oracle bone inscriptions. Wang Guowei's textual research in the article "An Examination of the Oracle Inscriptions in Yin Ruins" shows that Di Ku in Records of the Five Emperors is true and the inheritance of Shang Dynasty recorded in Historical Records is also credible. (1) In this way, the legend of Xia-Shang lineage, which was once overthrown by the ancient historians, has regained credible evidence. It can be said that since then, few scholars have doubted the authenticity of the existence of the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, Mr. Qian Mu pointed out that since Sima Qian's record of Shang Dynasty is true, the lineage of Xia Dynasty is likely to be true. ② In addition, there is a myth in the ancient edition of Annals of Bamboo Books: "The King of Yi rises in Zheng on the first day", which means "the sun rises twice a day". According to literature research, the land of "Zheng" is in hua county or Fengxiang near the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty (Jin 'an). Astronomers who participated in the dating project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties established a ground area to describe the sky reappearance caused by the solar eclipse at sunrise through theoretical research, and comprehensively calculated the solar eclipses from BC 1000 to BC 840, and concluded that the solar eclipse in April of 2 1 year BC could cause the sky reappearance in the Western Zhou Dynasty. 1March 9, 997, the phenomenon of "the sky is hanging by a thread" was actually observed in northern Xinjiang, and the theoretical hypothesis was actually confirmed. (3) The above two examples about China myths show that ancient literature does contain such myths and legends, which may show the face of history or be covered up by myths, but they all contain reliable information. Using the methods of archaeology, ancient philology and astronomy, we can restore historical facts from the original myths and legends that are half true and half false or absurd. The second kind of myths and legends also contain historical facts to some extent. We can't find the year or event directly corresponding to them in history, but we can find a lot of physical evidence or ancient records of China related to them. As we all know, the legend of the "great flood" is circulated in many parts of the world. In the 1920s and 1930s, when British archaeologist Woolley excavated the royal cemetery in Ur, the capital of Sumerian Kingdom, he found a silt layer about 10 feet thick, which was once considered as the archaeological relic most likely to prove the existence of the "Great Flood". However, further research shows that due to the relatively limited time and scope, Ur's "flood pit" cannot directly correspond to the flood recorded in the Bible, but it provides a possible explanation for the origin of the flood myth. /kloc-In the middle of the 0/9th century, British archaeologists excavated a clay tablet document recording Sumerian epic A Forgotten One in Nineveh, which recorded the flood story of Babylon. /kloc-At the end of 0/9, archaeologists discovered fragments related to floods in Sipal, a city in Babylonia, Cuba. According to the date at the end of the article, the age was around 2000 BC. At the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, fragments of earlier flood stories were unearthed in niebuhr, an ancient Sumerian city, at least around 3000 BC. Today, although there is no direct proof of the existence of the "great flood", more and more evidence reveals the formation and spread of this legend. In a word, we have a deeper understanding of the living conditions of human beings in the era when the myth was born because of the archaeological and historical research on the myth of "flood". _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ① Wang Guowei: Viewing the Hall and Gathering Forests, Hebei Education Press, 200 1, pp. 278, 282-283. (2) Gu Jiegang: Appendix to Qian Zhi Cui Dongbi's suicide note, Shanghai Yadong Library, 1936 edition, p. 1048. (3) Editor-in-Chief of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Engineering Expert Group: Simplified Edition of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Engineering 1996—2000, Beijing Company of World Book Publishing Company, 2000. ④ John Bright, "Is there any evidence of flood in archaeology?" , in Biblical Archaeology, Volume 5, No.4, 1942, pp. 55-62, p. 72. The third kind of myths and legends can't be accepted as the history of belief because of the lack of existing evidence, but even so, they can provide some reference for archaeological cultures with similar ages or cultural categories. Take the records of the Xia Dynasty in the ancient history of China as an example. As early as 1960, the archaeologist Xu proposed that there were two interpretations of Xia culture. First, it can refer to the Xia culture recorded in historical books, which has a wide geographical scope and a relatively definite time span, starting from danger and ending in Jie. Second, it refers to Xia culture, whose geographical scope is relatively limited, and the time should also include before Yu and after Jie. There are two areas in the Central Plains that are particularly closely related to summer. One is the yi river, Luohe and Shui Ying river basins in western Henan; Second, Fenhe, Yuehe and Sushui river basins in the south of Shanxi. (1) In order to make up for the archaeological blank of Xia culture, in the 1960s, he personally visited Erlitou and other important sites in the legendary "Xia Site" in western Henan. Under his influence, Erlitou culture named after Erlitou site in Yanshi was excavated. (2) Although it is still controversial whether Erlitou culture is Xia culture, as the archaeologist Zhu said, it is arbitrary to completely deny the relationship between Erlitou culture and Xia culture because of the overlap of time and space. In the future, with the increasing research results, it is not entirely impossible to guess that Erlitou culture is related to Xia culture. (3) The fourth kind of myths and legends, from the rational point of view of modern people, can be considered to be mostly composed of absurd plots. Although such myths and legends lack the reliability of directly proving historical facts, they may contain descriptions of the customs and habits of primitive times, or reflect the thinking concepts or living conditions of primitive people in some way. They also help us understand the times when they were created, celebrated and recorded. For example, the ancient Japanese historian Tsuda Zuoyouer sharply criticized the earliest records of Japanese myths and legends, The Story of Ancient History and The History of Japan, in order to oppose the traditional "imperial history view" which regards the myth of the founding of Japan as a historical fact. He pointed out that scholars in the Tokugawa era either held a superficial rationalism and regarded non-existent or unreasonable records as false and absurd and considered them worthless; Others hold an attitude of worshipping the past and are full of reverence for the above records, believing that there is nothing false and absurd in them. ④ From the anthropological point of view, Tsuda Zuoyou-er pointed out that the legends about the mythical world of Takada Yuan and the capital city of Evil Matai in Japanese history were "not actual facts, but ideological or psychological facts", which reflected people's thoughts in the times when these ideas were formed. He stressed that if people realized this, they would not think that Takada was originally somewhere overseas. ⑤ Similarly, Stolcers, an American scientist, made a similar study on the legends of "dragons" which were widely circulated in the Middle Ages, and thought that they were images produced by the combination of real animals, pythons and whales living in classical times and myths in primitive times. In particular, he found that Alexander's expedition to India in 327-325 BC and the encounter of giant reptiles by Roman troops in Bagradas River valley in North Africa in 256 BC played an important role in the formation of the legend of "Dragon". Zoological evidence not only proves that the legend of "dragon" is not completely true, but also reveals the collective psychological process of the legend. According to the above analysis, it can be seen that some myths and legends are closely related to history, while others are far from it, but this connection exists more or less. First of all, in this relationship, the history of faith is at the center, surrounded by myths and legends at different levels. This shows that we examine the relationship between myths and legends and history from a historical perspective, and trusting history is our starting point and purpose. At the same time, it also shows that we advocate that any myth and legend contains the core of history. Secondly, the closer myths and legends are to the category of real history, the higher their credibility. On the contrary, the farther away from the category of real history, the lower its credibility in historical research. This shows that we believe that loyalty is the standard to measure the relationship between myths and legends and history. Thirdly, from the outside to the inside, myths and legends and history constitute an inclusive relationship. In other words, we believe that most myths and legends contain historical truth to some extent. With the diversification of research methods and the improvement of research level, more and more evidence will be found, and the myths and legends located in the outer circle may go to the inner circle and approach the true face of history step by step. This is the author's answer to the question raised at the beginning of the article. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ① Xu: On Xia Culture Research, New Construction, No.3, 1960. (2) Huang Shilin: Biography of Mr. Xu, Xu: Chronology of China Ancient History Legends, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2003, p. 6. ③ Zhu: On the Relationship between Archaeology and History in China, Historical Research,No. 1, 2003. ④ Tsuda Zuoyouji: Ancient Stories and New Theories on Japanese Calligraphy, Luoyang Hall, 19 19 Edition, pp. 7-9. ⑤ Tsuda Zuo Ji You: Ancient Stories and New Theories on Japanese Calligraphy, Page 7, 14, 19. ⑥ Richard B. Stothers, "Looking at the Ancient Scientific Basis of the' serpent' from Historical Evidence", Journal of Social Science History, vol. 95, No.2, 2004, pp. 220-238.