Brief introduction of China myth

China myth is a story of ancient China people's understanding and imagination of natural and cultural phenomena. It is the product of China's childhood literature, mostly oral prose works. According to the regional system, China's myths are rich and colorful, which can be roughly divided into West Kunlun Myth, Oriental Penglai Myth, Southern Chu Myth and Central Plains Myth. From the content point of view, it has something to do with the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of mankind; Related to the moon, stars and everything in nature; About floods and tribal wars; There is also about craft culture. These myths explain the origin of the universe, the moon, the stars, mountains and rivers, vegetation, human beings and nations from many aspects in the fantastic interpretation of the ancients, and present the naive, beautiful and interesting artistic imagination of the ancients in China. China's myth has a strong fantasy in the literature. Nu Wa is the pioneer of northern mythology and Pangu is the pioneer of southern mythology. Nu Wa is the ancestor who created human beings from the earth, and Pangu transformed the universe with his huge body. Nu Wa tried to mend the sky by refining stones, saved a world that was about to be destroyed and became the god of human reconstruction. Around the myth of the goddess mending the sky, there are many touching plots such as * * * workers' anger not touching Zhoushan. China's flood myth was first recorded by the Han nationality, while the flood myth of ethnic minorities was relatively late, which can be roughly divided into two systems: north and south. There are many tripterygium wilfordii in the southern flood myth, and tripterygium wilfordii is the maker of the flood, so he often struggles with tripterygium wilfordii in the mythical plot. The northern flood myth is mostly associated with workers, and the anger of workers can't touch Zhoushan, which becomes the root of the flood. The flood myth recorded in the later period is often combined with the myth of brother and sister marriage. The brother and sister who got married after the flood are often said to be Fuxi, Nuwa and even Pangu in ancient times. The main idea of this kind of myth is to express the process of "flood survivors, rebuilding mankind". It combines flood stories with blood relatives, which has important cultural and historical significance. The myth of Gun and Yu created two ancient heroes of water control in China. During the flood, Gun stole the emperor's land to fight the flood. Before the emperor ordered, he was killed in the feather suburb. At the age of three, he did not rot and gave birth to Yu, who continued to control floods. With the help of Huanglong and Xuanzang, Yu successfully dredged rivers and leveled mountains, reflecting the great mind of ancient laborers to conquer nature. There are two theories about the myth of the moon and stars in ancient literature: the theory of giant metaplasia and the theory of moon deity. In the theory of God's life, xi is considered as the mother of Yue Yue; The sun is also imagined as bathing in a salty pool, climbing hibiscus and moving between water and trees. The sun is often associated with witches and the moon is often associated with toads. In terms of the relationship between the sun and the moon, myths are often explained by family relationships in human society, such as the relationship between father and mother or brothers and sisters. Other works such as Month by Month and Yi's Shooting Ten Mountains are all related to myths. China's ancient myths are scattered in Shan Hai Jing, Mu Zhuan, Lu Chunqiu, Mandarin, Huai Nan Zi, Du Yizhi and other ancient books. There are not only many kinds of early records, but also many ancient myths, which are still circulated orally among the people. Because of their long circulation, these myths are different from those recorded in ancient documents in specific plots, and there are many variations. What is particularly obvious is the fusion and localization between myths. Some have been integrated into some religious concepts of later generations. These myths, which are still circulating today, are naturally different from the original classical myths after evolution, but they can prove and subsidize the materials recorded in the literature, which is really beneficial to the study of China myths, especially to understand the ancient and modern forms of myth development.

China myth is the creation of many nationalities. Besides the Han nationality, there are 55 ethnic minorities in China. The myth of ethnic minorities is an important part of the myth of China. Due to the differences in the history, culture and economic development of all ethnic groups, most of these myths have distinctive national characteristics, showing many plots and twists and turns. The famous ethnic group has the characteristics of multiple sources. The myths of all ethnic groups are rich in imagination, such as the creation myth of western ethnic groups, the myth of Buluotuo and his sister Liu Jia, the myth of Yi people, the war between man and stone, and the creation of the world. In the moon myth, Miao people's gold and silver casting moon myth, as well as Zhuang people's shooting the sun in the afterfield, Yao people's shooting the sun, Buyi people's shooting the moon in Wang Jiang, Yi people's shooting the moon in Jizhi Gaul, and Bulang people's shooting the moon in Gumia have their own characteristics.

China myth occupies an important position in the history of people's oral creation and literary creation, and it is a genre that influenced China's various literary creations earlier. Its theme and various mythical figures have exerted various influences on the literary creation and the formation of national epics in past dynasties, especially its rich imagination and methods of visualizing natural things, which are directly related to the formation of artistic fiction and romantic creation methods of later writers. Its oral narrative form has also become a precedent for narrative literature genres such as novels. Many myths directly provide creative themes for writers and artists. Some famous myths have become allusions that people often quote. The aesthetic value, historical value and cognitive function of myth are closely linked, which is the key to understand human childhood life and psychology. It is of great reference value to the study of marriage, family system, primitive religion and customs in ancient society. In ancient China, the myth of China attracted the attention of some outstanding figures, historians and scholars. They not only described and quoted it in their works, but also put forward some fragmentary opinions, explanations and explanations on the myth. But it is more influenced by Confucianism, which excludes its illusory imagination and attempts to find historical basis from it. Therefore, some ancient books tend to historicize myths. Modern scholars in China have done a lot of sorting and research on ancient myths, and discussed them by using the mythological viewpoint of western anthropology school, and achieved considerable results, such as Mao Dun's Introduction to China Mythology and Wen Yiduo's Fuxi Kao, which are all worthy of attention in this field. There are also many ethnic scholars, folk literature scholars and literary historians who have written many papers and monographs, which have promoted the development of mythology in China. Yuan Ke's Selected Ancient Myths of China and Selected Ancient Myths of China annotated and sorted out the ancient myths of China respectively. With the development of social science and folk literature, the myths and epics of ethnic minorities in China have also been concerned and studied, and some gratifying achievements have appeared.