Differences Between Chinese And Western Cultural Flood Myths

Flood myth is a common theme of all ethnic groups in the world. Flood myth consists of extinct mythology and renewable mythology. The renewable mythology is the basic theme of flood myth. So flood myth is classified into the renewable mythology and was the most widely popular mythology, the greatest impact category. Flood myth is a global object of study, with a specific meaning.Water myth is widespread. The basic structure of the nation's flood myths is similar, but there are many different places of specific details. For the past, the research on the western myth of the flood was particularly in the comparison study of the basic structure and the story contrast. On the one hand, they pointed out the universality of flood myths; on the other hand, they pointed out there are also some differences between the western flood myth and Chinese flood myth, mainly details and different reflect facing the human flood disasters. But why there will be such a difference? How these differences create the cultural impact of future generations?Myth arises from the original clan society, which is the process of" imagination or with imagination to conquer the forces of nature, to control the natural forces and to symbolize the forces of nature" and the stories on the verbal, God, God half by recording the previous myth. Just as other cultural phenomena, myths are gradually integrated in the accidental situation of the long history of cultural factors. The important significance of studying the myth lies in rehabilitation history and tapping its deep cultural connotations by using the way of primitive people. As Cassirer said:" From the history that any great culture is controlled and dominated by the flood myth."This article holds that the myth of different countries displayed their different national spirits and cultural values. From the point of view of sociology, our analysis based on myths must determine the nature and values of the community. Seemingly the same things in the world often have different connotations. To make clear the conditions of forming western flood myth, we should obtain a comprehensive explanation from the historical and cultural factors.Comparing the countries around the world, the Chinese myth of the flood is not solitary. It belongs to a very structured, ongoing event. Different from the western flood myth, the Chinese flood myths are emphasis on a complete event. God and the various experiences are the various reasons only to explain the incident occurred and that their meanings are much richer than other countries' flood myths.In this paper, I study the development of Chinese and western system according to the historical order and investigate the differences of cultural heritage root from the functional point of the cultural.Flood stories have a big similarity in western and Chinese flood myths. Overall, the creation - made the sin - correctional impunity of the flood - creation again, as the more common myths flood program. Flood myth of Chinese and in the west can be embodied in the story of the god of punishment as the cause of floods, reflecting the original people's awareness of the early relationship between mankind and nature. After the floods, the recycling world reflected the awareness of the relationship of the original people. They expressed the aspirations of civilization. In addition, the similarity is that flood myth also manifested in most water areas.However, the flood myths of Chinese and in the west have a marked difference. The theme of western flood myth is asylum, which did not reflect the spirits of protest. On the contrary, Chinese flood myths take the "harnessing water" as a theme, which mainly reflected the use and control of flood. The people who are in harnessing water, the west flood myth was God-centered and embodied a strong sense of religion while the Chinese flood myths is people-oriented. Yu and his son became the representatives of the floods and become heroes of the Chinese nation.In shaping the image of God, the Chinese mythology is not deliberately landscaping gods. The spirits are more important. Western gods are the ideal embodiments, each robust physique, good-looking and beyond mortal edge. That shows that the Chinese who were being detained in the land are pragmatic and rational. The western people are romantic fantasy and advocating risk characteristics.This paper further explored the differences of these historical and cultural factors. Finding the Chinese and western myths rooted cultural soil and lifestyle is the main factor. Flood found in the western myth rooted cultural soil 1 is a war, risk and liquidity, as well as its basis in the commercial civilization; Chinese flood myths and cultural heritage for advocating war and stability of the collective consciousness, agriculture-based production, as well as in the agriculture on the basis of civilization.It is this huge difference that created the ecological history of Chinese civilization - water is king, and the heroism and optimism spirits of Chinese nation formed in in the process of harnessing floods.