A Research On The Motif Of The Myth About Breeding In Weishu Of Han Dynasty

The Myth about Breeding is one of the immemorial and universal Myth Motif. In the development of Chinese Myth Motif, except Myth-born stories of Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty, most of Myth-born stories appeared during Han Dynasty, especially so intensively and systematically in Weishu(纬书). The appearance of this phenomenon, was the outcome of the development Chinese Myth, as well as related closely with the social context of Han Dynasty. Consequently, this thesis targets the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories in Weishu(纬书),and reveal it's beliefs headstream as well as influence over posterity diachronically and synchronically.This paper consists of five parts.The first part is a preface, which has two sections. The first one states precisely the definition of Weishu(纬书),Myth, Belief and Motif; The second one combs current researchs on the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories in Weishu(纬书).The second part focuses on the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories of ancient China. Ater tracing the headstream of the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories of ancient China, the paper points out that the primogenitor Myth of Xia clan and shang clan as the its source, witness a switch from totem's beliefs to ancestor worship and faith of fate.The third part unscrambles Weishu(纬书)of Han Dynasty, from two perspectives of its characters and plots. There are mainly two kinds of characters, the hero of Myth-born stories and their mothers. There are six kinds of plots of supernatural birth, such as swallowing something supernatural, tramping mysterious footprints, touching dragon intimately, astronomical phenomena and dream omens.The fourth part discourses the context in which the the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories in Weishu(纬书)was generated. In the point view of paper, there were two reasons: The first one is the influence of the cultures mixture of pre-Qin days of, one is Chu state's romantic Myth——witchcraft culture, the other was Qi state's——Yin and Yang principle and Five Element theory; The second one is Dong Zhong-shu's Confucian which was based on the "interaction between heaven and mankind"(天人感应)as well as "San-tong" t heory(三统三正)。The fifth part analysis the functions of the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories in Weishu(纬书).The paper points out that as kind of power discourse, the Myth Motif about Myth-born stories in Weishu(纬书)have a long term influence on the political struggles of Han Dynasty and posterity.