Reading Of The Flood Myth Among The Ethnic Group Of Yi-Language

"The myth of human reproduce after the flood"( flood myth) is a type of myth that spreads worldwide. It includes two basic parts: one is that only a few people survive after the flood that exterminates the world; the other is that the reproduce of the survival.The flood myth goes round in 41 ethnic groups of the 56 as a whole in China. For oral passing is the most important way of preserving the flood myth, thus it is significant for studies of Chinese flood myth to distinguish flood myths of different ethnic groups according to language family, language group and language branch from linguistic angle. The flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language is large in amount and great in importance of the Tibeto-Burman languages, especially the flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language kept in their Genesis epic that not only has great literary and artistic value but also contains large amount ancient historical and cultural information. Many arguments about the flood myth in the preceeding studies actually only acord with the ethnic group of Yi-Language and the ethnic groups around. Thus, to distinct the flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language from other ethnic groups and focus on it would be more objective and crucial to expore the causes of its characters.The first chapter introduces the nowdays studies situation in this field and articulates the significance of this studies and its methdology. The second chapter defines "the flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language" and gives a survay to language group and ethnic groups around. The third chapter analyzes several forms of human origins before the flood. Though discussing the human reproduce after the flood, including the cause of flood, the apocalypse to it, tool, marrigae of suvivals, and the explanation to human origin in it, the forth chapter induces the characters of flood myth and explores the formation cause of them and the variation of flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language. The fifth chapter does a comparison between the flood myth among the ethnic group of Yi-Language and ones of other language groups, and gives a retrospection and conclusion to the previous chapters.