The Ancient Chinese Myth

The myth is the product of human childhood and it is the memory of thoughts and senses of people in ancient time, which changes with the growth of human development. Through the myth we can return to the world where ancient people lived. In addition, we can feel how hard they explored the world and know how tough they knew themselves. In the face of their living environment, our ancestors felt confusion, curiosity, fear and reverence. They attempted to explore and explain the mystery of nature through their primitive thinking and generate the worship of nature further. Thus the myth came into being, which is the magnificent cultural treasures in the history of human development. The myth reflects the knowledge and psychology of early people in all aspects of philosophy, moral values, aesthetic sense, scientific attitude, religious consciousness, and so on.To understand the origin of a nation’s culture and national spirit, it can be traced back to the myth.This thesis tries to sort out and illustrate ancient Chinese mythology with the use of different research methods of literary psychology, cultural anthropology, aesthetic culture, religious studies, folklore and so on, trying to show the basic look of ancient Chinese mythology,the thought connotation and its academic value.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part mainly outlines the concept and theory of myth and sorts out the research background of Chinese mythology.The second part provides an overview of the contents of ancient Chinese myth. In contrast with Greek myth, this part further reveals the characteristics of the thought connotation of ancient Chinese mythology.The third part aims to explore the far-reaching influences of ancient Chinese myth in traditional Chinese culture. In the meantime, it does deep analysis about the origin between myth and national spirit and the generation of the culture of dragon and phoenix. Finally this chapter mainly discusses the myth’s influences on later literature, especially the influences on poetry and fiction.In modern society, people pursue material comforts and ignore the spiritual pursuit. As the spiritual treasure of China, the inheritance and development of the myth are worth to be discussed and further studied.