On the Similarities and Differences between China Myth and Ancient Greek Myth
Abstract: Eastern and Western cultures have their own characteristics, and they also gave birth to fairy tales of their own unique cultures. The cultural differences between the East and the West lead to the differences of their own myths, but they are all legends with the same theme, products of early human beings, and have similarities. There are both unity and differences between eastern and western myths. This paper mainly studies the origin of the world and God's "sex" from eastern and western myths. Myth also has great influence on the world and great research value.
Keywords: the influence of mythological similarities and differences
Text: After the appearance of human beings, due to the low productivity, the ability of early human beings to understand nature was extremely limited, and they could do nothing in the face of powerful natural forces. In order to survive, they have to fight against nature, but constrained by the low level of productivity, they can only rely on fantasy to understand and transform the objective world. "Any myth uses imagination and imagination to conquer, dominate and visualize the forces of nature. Thus, the myth was born.
Myth is a precious spiritual wealth created by human beings and the crystallization of ancient human wisdom. Every place has its own fairy tales with universal characteristics, but the national culture in different regions will cause its own myths to have unique local characteristics. China myth and ancient Greek myth represent the crystallization of different cultures in the East and the West. Studying the similarities and differences between them is of practical significance to our understanding of eastern and western cultures.
In human childhood, when productivity is low, people will feel fear and panic about natural forces. Therefore, in order to survive, people are eager to improve the production level to transform and dominate nature. People use imagination to conquer nature and visualize it. Therefore, a highly fantasy story, myth, was born.
Ancient Greece and China are located in the east and west of this region respectively, and they have many similarities and differences in mythology and culture.
(A) the similarities between ancient Greek and China myths
First of all, they have the same understanding of the origin of the world.
According to the ancient Greeks, the original universe was chaotic, and then the water between heaven and earth was separated. It was from the chaos that the earth goddesses Gaia and eros (abyss) and Tarta Luos (hell) were born, and then Ripas (darkness) and Nyx (night) appeared at the bottom of the earth, and the combination of them produced "light" and "sun". Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the sky) and Puntos (the sea). Gaia combined with his son Uranus and gave birth to twelve titans, three cyclops and three sentimani, who are the ancestors of all monsters in the world. Later, at the instigation of Gaia, kronos defeated Uranus, the master of the first generation of gods, and produced two giant gods from his blood. Later, he married his sister Rhea and gave birth to several gods. Cronus didn't want to make the same mistake as his father Uranus, so he ate every child born by Rhea. Later, when Rhea gave birth to her last child Zeus, Gaia ordered her to flee to Crete. Growing up in Crete, Zeus overthrew the rule of his father Cronus, and a new order was established in Olympus.
In China's mythology, the ancient chaos of heaven and earth was like a big egg, in which Pangu grew. 18000 years later, heaven and earth split, and the sky was clear and cloudy. Pangu is in the middle of heaven and earth, with wisdom greater than heaven and power greater than earth. God, it rises ten feet every day and thickens ten feet every day. Pangu's body also stretches ten feet every day. After another 18,000 years, the sky was extremely high, the earth was extremely thick, and Pangu's body was extremely long. Pangu died, his breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his left eye became the sun, his right eye became the moon, his limbs became the four poles and five mountains of the earth, his blood became rivers, his veins became roads, his skin became fields, his hair and beard became stars in the sky, his hair on his skin became grass and trees, and his teeth and bones became metal minerals and rocks.
As can be seen from the above, the myths of ancient Greece and China regard chaos as the initial form of the universe, and then God comes into being, and the body of God becomes everything in the world. This is consistent with their ideological level at that time. They connected themselves with nature through imagination.
In ancient Greek mythology, Prometheus stole divine fire from human beings and taught them skills, but was punished by Zeus. In China's mythology, there is an ingenious way to make a fire, which was also invented by Fu. All these reflect the improvement of human ability to understand nature, the strong desire to transform nature and the desire to conquer nature. Heraclos' twelve merits and deeds, and Houyi's praise for his father in the sun ... all reflect their adventurous spirit and heroism, and also express the strong desire of mankind to conquer nature.
In addition, the world of gods in Greek mythology is a microcosm of Homer's society, while the kingdom of heaven in China's mythology has a strong political color and is a reflection of the society at that time. There are many love stories in Greek mythology and China mythology: "Oedipus Complex", Zeus and Europa, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and Fairy Descent.
Both Greek mythology and China mythology show the existence of primitive society, while Gaia and Nu Wa played a decisive role in the birth of human beings, reflecting the matriarchal society in the early primitive society. And there are legends of heroes, which reflect the struggle between man and nature.
(B) the difference between Greek mythology and China mythology.
Different places breed different cultures and create different fairy tales. Culture is regional, so there are many differences.
China myth is the understanding and imagination of ancient people in China about natural and cultural phenomena, and it is the product of childhood China culture. It is mostly about the creation of the world, the origin of mankind, the sun, the moon, the stars, all things in nature, disasters and tribal wars. They present the naive and interesting artistic imagination of ancient China people about everything in the world. However, due to various factors, China's myths are rarely preserved and lack systematicness. The myths we see now are scattered in ancient books such as Shan Hai Jing, Huai Nan Zi, Mu Chuan, Lu Chunqiu, Guoyu, Lierwu Ji and Zhi, among which Shan Hai Jing and Huai Nan Zi. This is just the opposite of the way Greek mythology is recorded.
Greece, on the other hand, belongs to the third generation of inherited and derived civilization. Its culture did not originate from Greece, but from Minoan civilization in Crete, then developed in Asia Minor and finally returned to the Greek peninsula. As the cradle of ancient Greek civilization, the superior geographical position of the Aegean Sea (conducive to the development of navigation, overseas trade and overseas colonization) makes it easier for it to learn the cultural elements of other nationalities.
There is an essential difference between ancient Greek mythology and China mythology, which lies in the difference of "sex". The god in Greek mythology is a human being, and the god in China mythology is still a god. The gods in Greek mythology seem to be all human beings, except for magic and immortality.
God has secular desires, both the same body as human beings and human emotions, so God and human beings are one. God has feelings of happiness, sadness, pain and joy. Zeus, for example, is a family of people who have never appeared before. People create such images not for infinite beautification, but for arranging their own personalities and emotions. Zeus often trysts with other women behind Hera's back and has many illegitimate children. In it, God will be jealous, sow discord and gossip, and everything that happens to people will be experienced by God. The gods in Greek mythology are more emotional, while the gods in China mythology are more rational. The gods in China's mythology have been completely enshrined, and the gods inside can't make mistakes, which is the embodiment of justice. Once God does something bad, he is called possessed. When he is possessed, God stands for justice. Without worldly desires, it is impossible for immortals in China to fall in love, let alone get married and have children. It is against heaven to have love. I really don't know what the queen mother is. The gods in China's mythology represent the highest moral standards that people pursue. What the gods do can't satisfy individual desires, but for the collective interests of the country. For example, Dayu managed water for three times without entering the house, and Shennong tasted a hundred herbs. The control and suppression of lust by the gods in China mythology can be in sharp contrast with the opening of Greek mythology. It shows that the gods in China regard morality as the highest standard, while the Greek gods are brave enough to pursue what they want.
If we compare them carefully, there are many differences between China and Greek mythology. For example, in Greek mythology, the position of the king of the gods was seized by force, and most of them were sons who seized the position of their fathers. Cronus killed Uranus and Zeus killed Cronus. In China mythology, the status of Emperor Tiandi is relatively stable, and the replacement of Emperor Tiandi is rare. Even the Jade Emperor, who is famous for his cowardice and incompetence, has always sat well in the position of the Emperor of Heaven, and there has never been any rebellion from the Emperor of Heaven. For example, in Greek mythology, the treasures of God are mostly things, such as swords, tridents and thunder whips, while in China mythology, they are mostly living things. For example, in China mythology, there are Taoists, Taoists, Tathagata and Guanyin all living in the same sky. And religion. It can be a kind of ruling means of religion, so that the suffering people can not resist and learn to be patient. People have their own fantasies and indulge in the afterlife. Unlike Greek mythology, it is full of philosophy, pays attention to emotional monologues and makes unremitting efforts. From this perspective, China myth is beautiful, while Greek myth is magnificent.
For example, in ancient Greek mythology, Oedipus solved the mystery of the Sphinx (the Sphinx is a monster in Greek mythology that hurts people with hidden mysteries. It was the largest Sphinx in Egypt before pyramid of khufu. The question he asked Oedipus was: What walks on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon and three feet at night? Oedipus replied: it is a person. In the morning of life, he was a child, crawling on two legs and two hands; At the noon of his life, he became a mature man, walking only on two legs; In his later years, he was old and weak and had to walk with crutches, so he was called three feet. Oedipus was right. The sphinx fell off the cliff in shame and died. Mystery of the Sphinx: It is often used to describe a complex, mysterious and incomprehensible problem. )。 He was elected king by the people of Bismarck and married Queen Iokaster. Later, there was a plague and famine in Thebes, and people consulted Shen Yu before they knew Oedipus' crime of killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus gouged out his eyes, left Thebes and wandered around.
(C) the actual impact of two different myths
Greek mythology: Humanism contained in Greek mythology constitutes one of the spiritual pillars of western culture-humanism, which urges westerners to pursue and surpass the development of western culture in later generations. Only after the Renaissance. Encourage people to pursue and struggle bravely. In order to survive, the Greeks near the Mediterranean have a strong spirit of exploration, so they have formed a strong spiritual consciousness of exploration and pursuit in social practice, which is reflected in the characters in fairy tales, such as Prometheus who offended the king of gods for human beings. So far, it has inspired westerners to go forward bravely.
China Myth: Judging from the writing skills and language art of China Myth, China Myth has reached its peak. The introduction and rhythm of ancient Chinese are worth learning. Usually a few hundred words and dozens of crosses can describe a complete story. Although concise, it can still describe the gestures of the characters in detail. Take "Gong Yu Moves Mountains" for example: I heard that Gong Yu in Beishan began to dig the palace and Taihang Mountain, but he stopped laughing and said, "What a pity! With the strength of the remaining years, it is impossible to destroy a hair on this mountain. What are things like dirt and stones? " Yugong of Beishan took a long breath and said, "Your heart is solid and impenetrable. I am a widow and weak, but after I die, I have children, girls and grandchildren, grandchildren have children, girls and grandchildren have unlimited children. If the mountains don't increase, why bother? " Hequ knows the mistake and has no answer. There are so many vivid dialogues and so few descriptions, and the words "stop laughing" and "take a long breath" express the shape of the characters vividly. Another example is Kuafu's "Day by Day": Kuafu drove out of Japan and entered Japan; Thirst, desire to drink, drink in the river, Wei; He, Wei and Bei drink Ozawa. Before he arrived, he died of thirst. Abandoned his staff and became Deng Lin. In just 40 words, it describes the daily process of Kuafu in great detail.
I think we should learn from the spirit of not fearing authority, being objective and rational, believing in ourselves and surpassing ourselves in western mythology. And learn the morality of China myth and the rhythm of words.
However, although the original state of China ancient myths is rich and colorful, it has been washed away by the historical tide, and today it is mostly fragmentary fragments, far from being completely and systematically preserved like ancient Greek myths. This is a great regret of China literature.
(4) Summary
Myth, as an artistic treasure of human childhood, is a reflection of the life and psychology of the ancients. The differences between China mythology and ancient Greek mythology reflect the ideological differences between the East and the West. By comparing the causes of China and Greek mythology, we can understand the subjective and objective factors that cause the differences. The comparison between China and Greek myths reflects the ideological differences between the two peoples, which can point out the fundamental point that the West pays attention to people, while the ancient myths in China are more intimidating, mysterious, moralized and ethicized. This difference is the manifestation of the ideological differences between the East and the West.
Although we can't simply judge the advantages and disadvantages of different cultures, it is our goal to understand and analyze different cultures and get what we can learn from them. Therefore, comparing the myths of ancient Greece and China will help us to analyze the problems more comprehensively and improve ourselves.