The creation of myths is closely related to the ancient people's struggle for survival and natural forces, and to ancient life and history, which often shows the ancient people's struggle with natural forces and their desire to improve their own abilities. Marx said: "Any myth uses imagination to conquer, dominate and visualize the forces of nature." Myth is "the natural and social form itself processed by people's fantasy in an unconscious artistic way".
Ancient people lived together, and in collective labor and common life, they created primitive tools, woodcut symbols, pictures and characters, primitive music and dance, and also created primitive myths. Myth originated from primitive clan society and was constantly created and developed in the long historical process. China started the creation of stone culture as early as the primitive group and blood commune. In the middle and late Paleolithic period, people's ability to conquer nature was enhanced, and their activities were also expanding. They learned to increase natural products through human activities. Archaeological discoveries have repeatedly proved that in the long Paleolithic period, there were traces of ancient activities in the northwest plateau, the North China Plain, the Yangtze River basin and the southeast coast of China. In the middle and late Neolithic period, matriarchal clan society entered a highly developed stage. In the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins of China, this matriarchal clan commune, which is maintained by matriarchal descent, has reached its peak. Therefore, many female mythological figures appeared in China ancient mythology, such as Nu Wa and Queen Mother of the West. In matriarchal clan society, women not only play a major role in production, but also become the axis of phratries in primitive settlements. They are often said to be the creators of human beings and everything. After the establishment of patriarchal society, male mythical figures appeared in primitive art, and among many mythical figures, generations and pedigrees appeared accordingly. Tribes or tribes appear in the settlement and merger between clans. The emergence of tribes, tribes and joint tribes has brought wars between tribes and formed the basis of the myth of relations between different tribes or tribes. Parental slavery, tribal military democracy and wars between tribes provide important materials and artistic imagination for ancient myths and heroic epics. In China mythology, most wars between workers and Chiyou, Huangdi and Chiyou, Huangdi Group and Yan Di Group belong to this nature. Its performance is based on the naive imagination and understanding of natural and social phenomena in the early days of mankind. It constitutes a fantasy plot and is considered to be a real existence that has ever happened.
Myth is full of magical fantasy, which casts a strange color on the understanding of the ancients and the growth and change of everything in the world. Most of the characters in mythology have superhuman strength, which is imagined according to the image, production situation, understanding of natural forces and the requirements of improving their own abilities of primitive people. It can be clearly seen from some myths that most of the mythical figures created by tribes in the hunting economy are related to hunting; The mythical figures of tribes in primitive farming period were mostly related to agriculture.
At that time, people used bows, arrows, knives and axes as weapons, and mythical figures became experts in creating and using these tools to arm themselves.
Although mythical heroes (gods) are often the creators of human miracles, they often encounter setbacks and bad luck. It reflects the realistic constraints of myth and fantasy.
Primitive myth is the product of unique historical conditions in human childhood, and it is a form for primitive people to understand nature and society. It reflects the early thinking activities of human beings. The ancients in the age of ignorance, their level of understanding of the objective world, could not surpass their low productivity and inability to fight against nature. Therefore, in the observation of natural and social phenomena, most of them are intuition, speculation and conjecture. With the development of social productive forces and human intelligence, primitive myths generally no longer appear. However, due to the development of society and the imbalance of people's cultural knowledge, myths and fantasies are still inevitable or unavoidable in some regions and nations that cannot effectively control nature in practice and scientifically explain the origin of the world and the changes of natural phenomena in their understanding. But these works are different from the original myth.
There are various naive thoughts and pursuits of the ancients in the myth, which reflect the original world outlook in many ways. It often includes primitive science, primitive philosophy and primitive religion. Believing in supernatural masters, believing in animism, believing in the existence of souls and gods and other primitive concepts and consciousness, as well as totem worship, witchcraft belief, nature worship, ancestor worship and other factors that constitute the ancient world outlook. In mythology, all natural phenomena and even some social people are considered to be alive and endowed with human characteristics and supernatural abilities. The mythical forms of exaggerated imagination, such as rare birds and animals, strange gods, clan gods, tribal gods, Raytheon and rain gods, are inseparable from these concepts. The understanding and imagination of some causal relationships between man and animals, man and nature, and nature and nature in mythology exist as various manifestations of people's ideology in the mythical era.
As early as the pre-Qin ancient books before BC, such as Shan Hai Jing, Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu, Chu Ci, Shilu Chunqiu and so on, China's famous classical myths have been recorded. Huai Nan Zi, Historical Records, Hanshu, Wu Yue Chun Qiu, and San Li Wu Ji also have many records about classical myths. In the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, and in the search for Ji Shen and Yi Shu, it was recorded in the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. Among them, the myth of Shan Hai Jing is the most abundant, which is close to the original appearance of ancient myths. Such as the myths of Nu Wa, Chang, Kuafu, Jingwei, Yi, Kun, Yu, Huangdi, Chiyou, Xingtian, Dijun, Queen Mother of the West, and descriptions of Sun Moon Mountain, Kunlun ruins, various natural gods and exotic nation-states. In these records, there are many hero gods, ancestor gods, creator gods and
Natural gods, ruling gods, rebellious gods and other colorful mythical figures. They have their own personalities and are colorful, and they are active in the world of ancient fantasy art. The classical myths recorded in these documents in different periods are mainly tribal myths, with regional and tribal differences, different origins and inheritance ranges. According to the regional system, it can be roughly divided into western Kunlun myth, oriental Penglai myth, southern Chu myth and central plains myth. From the content point of view, it has something to do with the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of mankind; It is related to the sun, moon, stars and everything in nature; About floods and tribal wars; There is also about craft culture. These myths explain the origin of the universe, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains and rivers, the vegetation, the human beings and the nation from many aspects in the fantastic interpretation of the ancients, and present the naive, beautiful and interesting artistic imagination of the ancient people in China.
China's myth has a strong fantasy in the literature. Nu Wa is the pioneer of northern mythology and Pangu is the pioneer of southern mythology. Nu Wa is the ancestor who created human beings from the earth, and Pangu transformed the universe with his huge body. In the past, the four poles were abandoned, Kyushu was cracked, the sky was not restored, the land was not abundant, the flame was not extinguished, and the water was endless. Under the circumstances, Nu Wa also "refined the five-color stone to make up the sky, broken the claw enough to set up four poles, killed the black dragon to help Jizhou, and accumulated reed ash to stop lewd water", which saved a world that was about to be destroyed and became human. Around the myth of the goddess mending the sky, there are many touching plots such as * * * workers' anger not touching Zhoushan. China's flood myth was first recorded by the Han nationality, while the flood myth of ethnic minorities was relatively late, which can be roughly divided into two systems: north and south. There are many tripterygium wilfordii in the southern flood myth, and tripterygium wilfordii is the maker of the flood, so he often struggles with tripterygium wilfordii in the mythical plot. The northern flood myth is mostly associated with workers, and the anger of workers can't touch Zhoushan, which becomes the root of the flood. The flood myth recorded in the later period is often combined with the myth of brother and sister marriage. The brother and sister who got married after the flood are often said to be Fuxi, Nuwa and even Pangu in ancient times. There seems to be no criticism of brother and sister's marriage in early mythology, but there are many reasons to explain brother and sister's marriage in later mythology to show that it is out of necessity or God's permission. This reflects that the brother-sister marriage that existed in history has lost its legal status. The main idea of this kind of myth is to express the process of "flood survivors, rebuilding mankind". It combines flood stories with blood relatives, which has important cultural and historical significance. The myth of China's brother-sister marriage type was recorded earlier in Li Kang's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio in the Tang Dynasty. For example, "At the beginning of the universe, there were only two brothers and sisters in Kunlun Mountain, and there was no one in the world. They thought they were husband and wife and were ashamed. My brother and sister went to Kunlun Mountain and cursed:' If Heaven sends my brother and sister as husband and wife, it will disappear; If not, let the smoke disperse. As soon as the smoke hits, her sister is her brother, but she uses grass as a fan to cover her face. "Its form has not been combined with the flood myth.
The myth of gun and Yu recorded in Shan Hai Jing, Kaijian and Guoyu has shaped two ancient heroes of water control in China. During the flood, Gun stole the emperor's land to fight the flood. Before the emperor ordered, he was killed in the feather suburb. At the age of three, he did not rot and gave birth to Yu, who continued to control floods. With the help of Huanglong and Xuanzang, Yu successfully dredged rivers and leveled mountains, reflecting the great mind of ancient laborers to conquer nature. There are two myths about the sun, the moon and the stars: the giant metaplasia theory and the god's birthday moon theory. In God's life theory, xi is considered as the mother of the sun and the moon; The sun is also imagined as bathing in a salty pool, climbing hibiscus and moving between water and trees. The sun is often associated with witches and the moon is often associated with toads. In terms of the relationship between the sun and the moon, myths are often explained by family relationships in human society, such as the relationship between father and mother or brothers and sisters. Others, such as Kuafu's Daily Shooting and Ten-Day Shooting, are all related to the myth of the sun and the moon.
China ancient myths have a long history. They are not only recorded early, but also have many ancient myths, which are still circulated orally among the people. Especially in the Central Plains, some famous ancient China myths, such as Dayu, Huangdi, Nvwa 、 Fuxi, Pangu, Kuafu, etc., are still circulated orally in Henan and other regions. There are also myths about Shun, Chiyou, Houyi and Qi, which are still circulating in Henan, Hebei and some southern provinces. Because of their long circulation, these myths are different from those recorded in ancient documents in specific plots, and there are many variations. What is particularly obvious is the fusion and localization between myths. For example, combining the myth of "Survive the flood and rebuild mankind" with the pioneering myth, it points out the local remains of some ancient mythological figures. Some have been integrated into some religious concepts of later generations. These myths, which are still circulating today, are naturally different from the original classical myths after evolution, but they can prove and subsidize the materials recorded in the literature, which is really beneficial to the study of China myths, especially to understand the ancient and modern forms of myth development.
China myth is the creation of many nationalities. In ancient times, the ancestors of all ethnic groups in China began their life, reproduction and production activities. Xia people in the Yellow River valley of the Central Plains, Dongyi people in the Huaihe River valley in the east, Sanmiao people in the Yangtze River valley in the south, people in the northwest and people in the meat porridge (Shanrong and Yaoxian) in the north and south of the desert are all participants in creating the ancient history and culture of the Chinese nation. Today, besides the Han nationality, there are 55 ethnic minorities in China. The myths of these ethnic groups are rich and colorful, which constitute an important part of the myths of China. Some of them are recorded in national historical classics, such as Dongba Jing, Southwest Annals, Secret History of Mongolia, etc. Some of them are preserved in the memories of people of all ethnic groups and are still passed down orally. There are many myths about ethnic minorities in China, such as the myth of land reclamation, the myth of floods, the myth of the sun and the moon, the origin of animals and plants, and some myths about the origin of ethnic surnames. Due to the differences in the history, culture and economic development of all ethnic groups, most of these myths have distinct ethnic characteristics, showing the characteristics of multi-ethnic and multi-source.
The creation myths of all ethnic groups are rich in imagination and the plot is quite tortuous. The famous ones are the creation myth of Naxi nationality, the Lian of Manchu nationality, the myth of Buluotuo and Liu Jia sisters of Zhuang nationality, the myth of □ nationality, the war between man and stone and the creation of the world. In Creating the Earth, four creative gods hold up the sky with four copper pillars, and sweep the four sides of the sky with four brooms, so that the world is thousands of miles apart. In addition, there is a Buyi myth that rhinoceros horns are used to support the sky and sapphires are used to fill the sky (Naxi). In the myth of recreating human beings, apart from brother and sister getting married and reproducing human beings, there are many pioneering gods who tear off their own flesh and throw them into the sea to become human beings (Gaoshan people), strangers with their knees rubbing against each other (Yamei people in Taiwan Province Province), stone people and bamboo people. Some myths often have the content of national origin, and regard national origin and human origin as the same time.
Among the sun and moon myths, Miao people's gold and silver casting the sun and Zhuang people's "back leaf shooting the sun", Yao people's "Wang Jiang shooting the sun", Buyi people's "Jizhi Gaul shooting the sun and the moon" and Bulang people's "Gumia shooting the sun and the moon" all have their own characteristics. In addition, there are beautiful plots such as hanging the sun and the moon with a golden hook and inviting the sun by a rooster.
Due to the unbalanced development of ethnic groups in the past, the myths of China's ethnic minorities have different forms. Some are ancient and primitive, while others have infiltrated the consciousness of slavery and feudalism, reflecting the understanding and imagination of people of all ethnic groups at different stages of social development. These myths have been recorded and collected in recent years. Some of them are of considerable value in mythology.
China myth occupies an important position in human oral creation and literary history. Myth occupies an important position in the history of literature. It is a genre that influenced China's various literary creations earlier. Its theme and various mythical figures have exerted various influences on the literary creation and the formation of national epics in past dynasties, especially its rich imagination and methods of visualizing natural things, which are directly related to the formation of artistic fiction and romantic creation methods of later writers. Its oral narrative form has also become a precedent for narrative literature genres such as novels. Many myths directly provide creative themes for writers and artists. Some famous myths have become allusions that people often quote. The aesthetic value, historical value and cognitive function of myth are closely linked, which is the key to understand human childhood life and psychology. It is of great reference value to the study of marriage, family system, primitive religion and customs in ancient society.
In ancient China, the myth of China attracted the attention of some philosophers, historians and scholars. They not only described and quoted it in their works, but also put forward some fragmentary opinions, explanations and explanations on the myth. But it is more influenced by Confucianism, which excludes its illusory imagination and attempts to find historical basis from it. Therefore, some ancient books tend to historicize myths. Modern scholars in China have done a lot of sorting and research on ancient myths, and discussed them by using the mythological viewpoint of western anthropology school, and achieved considerable results. For example, China Myth Research ABC by Mao Dun and Fuxi Kao by Wen Yiduo are both noteworthy works in this field. There are also many ethnic scholars, folk literature scholars and literary historians who have written many papers and monographs, which have promoted the development of mythology in China. Yuan Ke's Selected Ancient Myths of China and Selected Ancient Myths of China annotated and sorted out the ancient myths of China respectively. With the development of social science and folk literature, the myths and epics of ethnic minorities in China have also been concerned and studied, and some gratifying achievements have emerged. The oral inheritance and evolution of Central Plains myths are also investigated and explored. The construction of China myth is under way.