Manchu Shaman Myth Study

Manchu Shaman mythology is the treasure of national culture. It is a precious cultural heritage created by Manchu people and their ancestors during their lives in ancient times and passed on form generation. The study of Manchu Shaman mythology is not only the deepest probe into national culture, psychology and history, but also an exploitation and analysis to the root of national culture. The object of this thesis is not traditional "Shaman mythology" (the mythology of Shaman himself), but all the stories related to Shaman culture. This definition is more practical in the study of Shaman mythology and makes it easier to be launched.Manchu Shaman mythology came into being in different historical periods, reflecting the material and mental culture in different times. It is an intangible cultural heritage descended by words, which is emergent to be preserved, exploited, sorted and studied. There is no systematic and overall study toward it in the world, and the study of scholars towards this theme is still in collecting the stories, analyzing the type of the mythology and exploiting the meaning of single pieces and its features, so the study of Shaman mythology has a bright future.The reason why Manchu Shaman mythology can be passed on from generation to generation and spread widely is that it has original but abundant carriers. Shaman mythology is an essential part of Shaman culture, the transmission of shamanism, so the carriers of Manchu Shaman mythology are closely related to Shaman culture. Nowadays, except for a few literal works, stories ate still transmitted by the most original ways—material sacred figures, sacred containers, sacred clothes and other signal carriers, or by record and transmission of the Shaman culture inheritors. These are main forms of carriers of Shaman mythology and its cultural meaning is an initial condition for the study of Manchu Shaman mythology.Considering the limitation of the transmission of Shaman mythology, this thesis will lay emphasis on the stories that have been published. Many of the stories in Manchu novels, anecdotal works, literal materials through wild research and stories in academic works have lost their original visages, but they still contain high value for study. As for signal carriers, only several carrier forms closely related to Shaman mythology are mentioned to explain the relationship between mythology and those live carriers'influence on the mythology.The main part of this thesis is the study of the classification of Manchu Shaman mythology. Considering the mythology's religious feature and its development process, the classification of the study of traditional mythology is not used in classifying Shaman mythology. It is divided into five parts:nature mythology, animals and plants mythology, origin mythology, hero mythology and Shaman mythology. The study of each part mainly includes the origin, core thoughts, development, similarities and difference from other nations' mythology at the same level and other questions, exploiting mythology of same type on the feature and development of the same story in different historical times. It will not only show the special features of Manchu Shaman mythology, but also emphasize the harmony and conflict among different nations and religions. Although the content of different Manchu mythologies is totally different from each other, the original theme and the core thoughts of some stories are same. This is the result of different mythologies in the same cultural environment and under the influence of the same national spirit and religion culture.As a cultural phenomenon based on original beliefs, relying on the development of the nation as core content, Manchu Shaman mythology has become a unique mythology system through inheriting and reforming of times, showing its incomparable artistic charm in religion, nation and culture. As for the relationship between Shamanism and Manchu Shaman mythology, this thesis mainly mentions two aspects—Shaman mythology is the doctrine of Shamanism and Shaman mythology is the illustration of Shamanism ceremony. Shamanism and Shaman mythology were destined to be related to each other when they came into being: mythology makes the doctrine and ceremony of Shamanism clearer while Shamanism provides transmission ways and inheritors for mythology, affecting its development and evolution. As for the nationality of Manchu Shaman mythology, I think the environment a nation live in and the history of them affect the content, evolution of mythology at different degrees, making is a nation with special experience. From Sushenchu in ancient times to the national unity in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the social formation, political system changed greatly and at the same time national culture also evoluted abruptly. As a component of national culture, Manchu Shaman mythology shows geographic features in north China where they live all the time in content and traditional folk culture, emphasizing the nationality of mythology. It contains not only several thousand years'culture created by Manchu people and their ancestors, but also national cultures around them, such as Han and other nations, which shows the multiplication of national culture. Manchu is a national unity covering many nations including Jurchen, Mongol nationality, Han and so on. In the historical process of its formation, the harmonious combination of different nations didn't accomplish in one step, but finished gradually under the influence of the immigration, the evolution of living habits, the change in the way of thinking and many other factors. It is under such historical circumstances that Manchu Shaman mythology integrated with other nations'cultures and evolves gradually into this multiple mythology system today. As for the literature of mythology, the original theme of mythology, the structure of plot, the expressing ways, the description of characters, the features of language and other aspects will be described, representing the literal features and accomplishment of Manchu Shaman mythology vividly.The verbal transmission of Manchu Shaman mythology makes it not a closed, limited mythology system but a live one. With the development of future national culture work, Manchu Shaman mythology will be exploited more, so the related study will be in full swing with the outcome of new mythology works. The study of Manchu Shaman mythology in this thesis is just a small part of it and I just hope to exchange ideas with those friends who have the same interest with me and learn from them.