A Study Of The Archetypal Images Of "water" In Chinese And Western Cultures

Based on the theories of the archetype criticism, this thesis is to discuss the archetypal images of"water"in Chinese and western cultures."Water"is the basic substance of the universe and the primary building block of life. Without"water"there would be neither human life nor human society. Any kind of civilization, in the final analysis, is about"water"civilization. As far as any nationality is concerned,"water"is, without doubt, very important."Water"is a common body image hidden in Chinese and western cultures, and a concept originating from concrete experience. It is a concept usually highly charged with symbolism as a frequency of occurrence in various ancient classics. When"water"enters the artistic works with primitive cultural significance, it completely displays its unique idealistic and emotional features, getting rid of the oneness of natural objects. In human being's utterance system, the image of"water"already exceeds its ordinary natural meaning and becomes a kind of prototype with complicated deep intrinsic embodiment.The intention of this thesis is mainly to explore the archetypal images of"water"in Chinese and western cultures, finding that the archetypal images of"water"in Chinese and western cultures mainly manifest in the following aspects: the meaning of time, the meaning of morality, the meaning of the creator, and the meaning of destruction and regeneration. This thesis, also, gives a brief analysis, respectively in Chapter Two and in Chapter Four, to the representation of the meaning of the archetypal images of water by John Keats and T. S. Eliot. Through such an exploration, the thesis is an attempt to seek the mystery of human life and civilization, and to find the relationship between the modern civilization and the ancient one, as well as the similarities of the profound thinking ways in Chinese and western cultures; at the same time, the discussion of the thesis will be advantageous for us to understand our world better; and it will be significant to our trans-cultural human communication. This thesis is divided into seven chapters: the first chapter is the brief introduction of the archetype criticism, the research background, the objectives and significance of the thesis; Chapter Two is the literature review on the archetypal images of water; the third chapter is the elaboration of water's primitive time image in Chinese and western cultures, finding that the ancients usually compared the water to the elapse of time and life,and at the same time analyzing John Keats'viewpoint of the representation of the archetypal image of water; Chapter Four analyzes water's symbolic image of morality in Chinese and western cultures, holding that in the ancients'eyes, water not only is one kind of natural object, but also has all kinds of will and personal characters; Chapter Five is the discussion of water's symbolic image of life creator in Chinese and western cultures, disclosing that water is the symbol of life, as well as the creator of life, and this chapter also presents T. S. Eliot's viewpoint of the representation of the archetypal image of water; the sixth chapter analyzes water's primitive symbolic image of destruction and regeneration in Chinese and western cultures, finding that water can create life but also destroy life; the last chapter is a conclusion. The author hopes that the research of this thesis will bring the instructive enlightenment to the people under such an environment in which the natural water source has been seriously polluted.