Introduction to mythical meaning

Myth originated in ancient times. As one of the sources of folk literature, it strongly proves that the working people are always the creators of spiritual civilization, and also reveals that folk literature has a close relationship with people's life and history from the beginning.

The essence of myth: any myth uses imagination to conquer, dominate and visualize natural forces; Myth itself is a natural and social form, which is processed by people's fantasy in an unconscious artistic way.

Myth, as a form of folk literature, is an imaginative story created by ancient people to reflect nature, the relationship between man and nature and social formation.

The emergence of myth is combined with primitive human beings' struggle against nature for their own survival. At that time, the production tools were crude, and unpredictable natural forces posed a serious threat to mankind. At the same time, primitive people's understanding of the objective world is also in an extremely naive stage. They are puzzled, surprised and afraid of the movement of the sun and the moon, the change of day and night, the occurrence of floods and droughts, and the illness and death. Such a natural phenomenon is closely related to the production and life of primitive human beings, who are eager to know nature, so based on themselves, imagine that everything in the world has life and will like people. The process and causality of natural phenomena are also assumed and fantasized in human form, and everything in nature is dominated by the inspiration god. Under the domination of this thought, all natural objects and natural forces are deified. Primitive people are unwilling to give in. They have waged unremitting struggles with nature, eager to know and conquer nature, reduce labor and ensure their lives. They turned this will and desire into concrete images and vivid plots through unconscious imagination, so there was a myth. It can be seen that myth is a kind of spiritual activity that primitive people try to know and control nature under that extremely difficult condition.

The emergence of myth also depends on the social nature at that time. At that time, people had to rely on the collective to obtain means of subsistence and resist wild animals and enemies; The income from labor is limited and must be distributed equally. Under the primitive commune system, the main contradiction between man and nature has become the center of people's attention. Therefore, explaining and conquering nature has become the main content of myth. At the same time, because people's interests are consistent, the brave and strong figures emerging in collective production are revered by all members and endowed with the magical ability to become gods or demigods. On them, the primitive people's desire to conquer nature was pinned.

Some myths show wars between tribes. This part of the myth mainly came into being in the later period of primitive commune system. At that time, the commune system tended to collapse, and the struggle between tribes for the possession of means of subsistence was still the cause of the whole people. The victory of war and the achievements of leaders are regarded as symbols of collective strength and glory. Therefore, people spontaneously deify the war process and commanders through fantasy, making this part of the story an integral part of myth.

It can be seen that myth reflects primitive people's understanding of the objective world, it is a realistic ideological form, and it is also a superstructure produced on a certain economic basis. It is precisely because the myth reflects the objective world through the spontaneous and naive fantasy of human childhood that it presents a unique form.

Since the emergence of myth has its specific reality and ideological basis, it is decided that its prosperous period can only be human childhood. With the development of history, nature is gradually dominated, people's understanding is improved, stages are produced, and the center of attention is shifted; At this time, the deification of nature and society is no longer a feature of human consciousness, and folk literature, as a mirror of working people's lives and thoughts, will inevitably change greatly in content and expression. In this case, myths will die out sooner or later, while others will be transformed into other kinds of folk literature, such as legends and stories. Due to the remnants of mythical thinking mode, there will be some superstitions about disasters, deformed fantasies and new ghosts and gods among the people. Superstition and general fantasy are not equal to myth. Their appearance, on the other hand, proves that the flourishing age of myth is gone forever.

Of course, in a long historical period, myths are still circulating among the people. Due to the change of production and living conditions, the popular trend is gradually weakening; And word of mouth will not only change, but also be easily lost.

Myth is the product of ancient times, and its spread is deformed or extinct because of the change of social nature, so its preservation depends especially on the records of ancient documents. Because of the frequent wars in the slave society and the early feudal society in China, books were often lost, which led to some myths that were lucky enough to enter books, and they were not preserved. For example, Qin Shihuang burned books, Xiang Yu burned Xianyang, and even the turmoil at the turn of the Western Han Dynasty, Han Wei and Jin Dynasty caused a great loss of books. There are many myths in ancient books, such as Shan Hai Jing and Chu Ci, and fragments of materials are also preserved in books such as Guoyu, Zuo Zhuan and Lun Heng. Although there is not much information, we can still see that the primitive myth system in ancient China is huge and rich in content.