Chinese Mythology Study And Cultural Elements Analysis

As a cultural phenomenon, mythology relates with such studies closely as history, philosophy, religion, literature, archaeology, arts and folklore. They complement each other so much that the study in mythology may influence on the subjects correlated with mythology. In addition, mythology is a sign of cultural property in a certain nation. So study in mythology attaches great importance academically.Set up in early 20^th century for almost 100 years, Chinese mythological study develops mostly with the conduction of the Evolution Theory which prevailed in the West in 19^th century. It all bears a band of the Evolution Theory that the work from documents collecting to a single case, and from establishment of mythology to the general study has been done. Being a school of anthropology, the theoretical defect in the Evolution Theory is mainly in ignoring the variety of human cultural development which is wrongly concluded into a supposed model. One of its important supposition is that "mythological age" is necessarily the earliest period in each nation all over the world. The given cultural elements including religious emotion in early history of each nation differ from each other, so the mythology making is different each other in times and intense. It is inappropriate to explain others in one model of a certain nation. The Evolution Theory had been challenged by western anthropology such as the communicative school, the functional school, historical critics school early in 1920's and 1930's, and even abandoned wholly. It is a pity that we are not aware of the western academic transformation for the difference in idealism. Today the treatise and works on Chinese mythology under Evolution Theory are still being found everywhere , in which many conclusions do not accord with the facts, giving negative understanding on the Chinese history and culture. It is necessary to wholly reflect on the 20^th century Chinese mythology from theory to practice in early 21th century, to set up new mythological system and to put it forward.The thesis includes three parts:â…  . (1) Reviewing the establishment of the-Evolution-Theory-based mythology theory in 20^th century and showing great influence from the Evolution-Theory-based mythology theory. (2)Showing the defects of the theory and practical effects on Chinese mythology study. (3) Introducing some of the Chinese scholars' reflection on theEvolution-Theory-based mythology theory, focusing on our new theory on Chinese mythology and cultural elements analytical approach.â…¡. Chinese mythology is classified into nine kinds: Creation, the hero, the nature, the geographic, the fable, the etymology, the nature-born, the nether world, the living and the minority groups. The author tries to explain Chinese myths in cultural elements analysis. The conclusions: (1) "Pangu Creates Universe, the only preserved Chinese Creation myths is not thinking sediments of prehistoric being as called by the evolutionists, but a mixture of "Sanhuang legends", "Huntian theory" and Daoist theology, which was formed with cosmological theory in Three-State period. The prototype of the Creation God Pangu is "Dao", "Taiji", "Yuanqi". The Chinese Creation myths are actually impoverished. It is in vain for us to trace back the Chinese Creation myths by means of archaeology and philology. Chinese philosophy is not from legends, but from the strong pre-historic awareness. (2) The images of Yu and Houyi are not pre-historical mythological figure, but the historical figure in early times. The legends about them account for people's worships towards culture heroes, being mythologized history, not historicalzed mythology. The heroic myths are majority, caused by stong worship towards ancestors. (3) Chinese nature myths are less developed in huge contrast with some other ancient nations like Egypt and Greece. The sun, moon and many natural powers appears in early people's genealogical trees, but humanized process begins much incompletely in Chunqin Period without systemic story. The lower religious emotion and strong factualism are main reason for the cultural difference. (4) Myths of "Gonggong", "Nuwa", "Dahe", "Jingwei" are a system and explanation of universe and nature. It is a mixture of many cultural elements, not a work created by pre-historical being. (5) The nature-born myths of Shang and Zhou period are not for totems worship, but for the ruling purpose politically. Totemism is a generalized anthropological theory and is not proper in Chinese myths study. (6) "Kua Fu's race with the sun" mythology that was formed during the Warring States Period evolved from Taoist fable. The moral lies in ridiculing Kua Fu's foolish behavior of violating the nature overestimating one's own strength. The conclusion of responses to the patriarchy establishment of primitive society and the natural phenomena, which came from the explanation of evolutionism mythical theory, are untenable. (7) "Kuiyizu" and Shun's brother "Xiang" myths are caused by false change in language, and not created by pre-historical being. (8) The less developed kind is the nether world myths in ancient China, in distinctive contrast with ancient Egypt. It is strongly caused by pre-historical factualism. (9) The living myth of Central Plains in China and Shennongjia area in...