The Cultural Connotation And Contemporary Performance Of The Yu Myths And Legends In Shanxi,Shaanxi And Henan Province

Yu is a hero of taming flood,who confronted the natural forces in ancient Chinese mythology system,and the ancestor of the people in Xia Dynasty.He is a legendary character assembled heroes,emperors,saints and other multiple roles in humanity.Shanxi,Shaanxi and Henan have a long history,profound humanities,broad distribution of cultural relics and historic sites with "ancient China" signs,and are also full of Yu legends.Through the collection of texts of ancient books and records of Shanxi,Shaanxi and Henan province,we found that the contemporary inheritance of the myths and legends of Yu is not accomplished overnight.Its formation and development is a dynamic construction process,including not only the original mythological elements,historical and cultural marks,but also the construction of the characteristics of the times,forming a life history and a life cycle with myths and legends.This article will analyze Yu legends from three aspects,the original,the historical and the reality layer.In the original level of the myth,the primitive human social and cultural forms can be spied;in the historical layer how politics dominated by written records and mainstream culture influence the image construction of Yu are analyzed;from the reality layer,the formation of the myths and legends with local characteristics,and the new form of inheritance of the mythology of Yu could be figured out.The paper is divided into the following five parts,The introduction part presents the reason and significance of the topic,the research summary and the research method at home and abroad one by one.Chapter 1 analyzes the original layers of the myths and legends of Yu.Through the interpretation of the original image and plot of the myths and legends of Yu,the cultural structure of the primitive society,the development level of human cognition and the thinking characteristics of primitive people are reviewed to further interpret the deep cultural structure of the legends of Yu.This chapter attempts to reconstruct the original level of the mythology of Yu to show some of the original images of the human childhood.Chapter 2 analyzes the historical layer of the myths and legends of Yu.The historical process of the myths of Yu is mainly manifested as how Yu transformed from the gods to a human emperor.This process is gradually written into ancient books and records.This chapter,after combing through the pre-Qin classics,explores the gradual development of the image of Yu from a single character to a multi-dimensional character,displays how the cultural background of different times influence and construct his godhead,personality,and holiness.Chapter 3 works over the type of local formulation of the myths and legends of Yu in the reality layer.A very important factor of myths in the process of localization is the influence wielded by the natural environment and cultural environment.This chapter will first analyze the historical evolution,social system,folk customs and literati groups of the survey spots of the myths in Shanxi,Shaanxi and Henan Province,and then summarize the texts of the myths and legends circulated in the folk,forming a “mythology core” of legends of Yu tamed the flood,a “historical core "of myths of Yu founded a capital," and a “ narrative imagination" of legends of Yu' family affairs.Chapter 4 analyzes the way of contemporary construction of the myths and legends of Yu in the reality layer.The recreation of folk cultural resources is the manifestation of the contemporary construction of the myths and legends of Yu.This chapter uses the deep drawing method of folklore to deeply depict the cultural relics,landscapes and festivals of the field investigation points,and further analyze the economic,social and cultural significance of different construction modes.This article mainly uses the classical literature and the local legends,ritual performances and solid-state landscapes in Shanxi,Shaanxi and Henan Province as the object to integrate these existing resources,and clear the thoughts of the original,the historical and the reality layer included in Yu myths and legends.Meanwhile the paper further analyzes the myths and legends at all levels by using the methods of cultural restoration,historical evolution,type analysis and cultural deep drawing,so as to interpret the cultural implication.