A Study Of Chinese Solar And Lunar Eclipse Myths And Rescue Ritual

As a natural phenomenon,solar and lunar eclipses have been regarded as very important celestial phenomena by the public because of their unique and magical appearance.Around this phenomenon,solar and lunar eclipse myths and rescue rituals have been created all over the world,reflecting the logical identity of human beings under the influence of mythological thinking.On this basis,the myths and rescue rituals of solar and lunar eclipses in China show different attributes from those in other regions because of the richness of the myths and the standardization of the rituals.In terms of mythology,Chinese solar and lunar eclipse myths include simple mythological narratives that initially explain the disappearance of the sun and moon during solar and lunar eclipses,such as the solar crow eclipsing the sun,the toad eclipsing the moon,the kylin struggle lead solar and lunar eclipse,and etc;and the complete mythological narratives that fully explain the disappearance of the sun and the moon,such as the heavenly dog eating the sun and the moon as revenge for being punished.,the heavenly dog eating the son and the moon because they steal the elixir from human beings,and etc.In terms of ritual,the rescue rituals of solar and lunar eclipses in China was incorporated into the official traditional ritual system as early as in the pre-Qin period.Since then,a distinction has been formed between the official rescue rituals and the folk rescue rituals.This thesis takes the myths and rituals surrounding solar and lunar eclipses in China as the main research object to discuss their generation and development as well as the relationship between them.The article includes three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The introduction details the research object,research value,research ideas,research methods and research status of this paper,aiming at presenting the research status of solar and lunar eclipse myth and rescue rituals in academia.The first chapter of the text analyzes the formation of the core of Chinese solar and lunar eclipse mythological narrative and the evolution of simple mythological narrative from the perspective of diachronic analysis,and answers the questions such as why the ancient people’s cognition of solar and lunar eclipse phenomena is that the sun and moon are eaten,and why the creatures such as solar crow,toads,kylin and the heavenly dog can be the narrative subjects of solar and lunar eclipse myth.In the second chapter,in the narrative context,it analyzes the process of the story of Mu Lian saving his mother and the image of the immortal medicine being associated with the heavenly dog and becoming the mythical complete narrative of the solar and lunar eclipse,and analyzes the diversity of the narrative modes of the type of rescue rituals helping to restore the circular.The third chapter analyzes the different development of Chinese solar eclipse and lunar eclipse rescue rituals in official and folk,and the relationship between myth and rituals.Officials attach more importance to the rescue rituals of the solar eclipse than the rescue rituals of the lunar eclipse.Therefore,the rescue rituals of the solar eclipse has always been the tool of the ruling class to maintain its rule,while the rescue rituals of the lunar eclipse appears the situation of phased loss.However,the folk attaches great importance to both the rescue rituals of solar eclipse and the rescue rituals of lunar eclipse,hoping to eliminate their fear in the face of solar and lunar eclipses by holding the rescue rituals.Since the rescue rituals has the dual function of controlling the world and interpreting the world,myth and rituals are also dual conjugates.The conclusion combines the research on the myths of solar and lunar eclipse in China and the rescue rituals in the text,and puts forward the prospect of future research directions based on the research in this paper.