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58Исследование сходства между китайскими и греческими мифами
Лун Чжичао,
доцент, заместитель декана факультета иностранных языков Шэньянского политехнического университета E-mail: zclong2008@126.com
Миф зародился в первобытном родовом обществе и развивался на протяжении тысячелетий. Сегодня это стало своего рода культурным накоплением. Китай и Греция - две страны с древними цивилизациями. Мифы и легенды двух стран из-за их естественной среды, а также сходства в процессе эволюции и способах цивилизации демонстрируют национальный дух и идеологическую этику со схожими характеристиками. Китайские и греческие мифы и легенды возникли в начальную эпоху человечества, отражая процесс ранней человеческой жизни и познания. Благоговение перед природой и стремление к завоеванию - общие характеристики китайских и греческих мифов. В статье рассматриваются сходства ценных мифов двух народов. И цель этой статьи состоит в том, чтобы у любого, кто ее прочитает, сложилось общее, но глубокое впечатление о мифе, и он начал интересоваться его изучением. Благодаря одинаковой человечности греческие и китайские мифы имеют много общего. В этой статье делается попытка найти сходство двух мифов и продолжить те же этапы развития двух далеких стран, которые отразились в их мифах.
Ключевые слова: мифы, происхождение, бог, богиня.
I. General introduction
"Myth is a collective term denoting a kind of communication, specifically a symbolic narrative in religion, as distinguished from symbolic behavior (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons)". [1, p.36] Myths are specific accounts of gods or super human beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that is unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from ordinary human experiences with all religious symbolism, there is no attempt to justify mythic narratives or render them plausible. Every myth presents itself as an authoritative, factual account, no matter how much the narrated events are at variance with ordinary experience.
Myth has existed in every society. Indeed, it would seem to be a basic constituent of human culture. Because the variety is so great, it is difficult to generalize about the nature of myths. But it is clear that in their general characteristics and in their details a people's myths reflect, express, and explore the people's self-image. The study of myths is thus of central importance in the study both of individual societies and of human culture as a whole.
II. Myths and history
Статья издана в рамках фонда «Проект финансирования научных исследований Департамента образования провинции Ляонин в 2020 году», на теме «Исследование использования академической лексики при написании английского языка студентами научно-технических колледжей» № LG202017
Myth and history represent alternative ways of looking at the past. Defining history is hardly easier than defining myth, but a historical approach necessarily involves both establishing a chronological framework for events and comparing and contrasting rival traditions in order to produce a coherent account. The latter process, in particular, requires the presence of writing in order that conflicting versions of the past may be recorded and evaluated. "Where writing is absent, or where literacy is restricted, traditions embedded in myths through oral transmission may constitute the principal sources of authority for the past." [2, p.79] Hence, myths may be cited when a situation in the present is materially affected by what version of the past is accepted. Even in societies where literacy is widespread and where a considerable body of professional historians is at work, it may still be the case that a majority of the population form their views of the past on the basis of inherited myth like tradition. And similarities to myths may be present even in the work of those who are justifiably described as historians. Clear instance of this is the ancient Greek writer Herodotus, the so-called "Father of history". He had the radically original idea of writing an account of struggle between the Greek world and its "barbarian" neighbors during the Persian Wars, an account that combined and evaluated a range of disparate and often conflicting pieces of information. On these grounds he should certainly be described as a historian. Yet, his
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work is full of themes and story patterns that also occur in Greek myth. For example, transgression against the gods leads to retribution again; people who live at the margins of the Greek world are imagined as having customs that are the exact inverse of their Greek equivalents. In the work of Herodotus there is no incapability between myth and history, both historical events and the patterns into which such happenings are perceived as falling form part of his overall enterprise, namely, to conduct an inquiry (the meaning of the Greek word historic) into the past. As with the distinction between myth and science, then, that between myth and history is by no means a straightforward one.
Chinese mythical stories are entwined with history. The history of the long period before recorded history began is partly based on legend, which is interwoven with mythology. Such ancient heroes and leaders as Fuxi, Shennong. Hungdi (the Yellow Emperor) and Yu are both historical figures according to legend and important characters in mythical stories. "Even King Wen, King Wu and Jiang Taigong of the Zhou Dynasty are in some way connected with mythology, because they were said to have won their cause with the help of many gods." [3, p.55] As has been mentioned, ancient mythology was to a great extent made historical. On the other hand, ancient history was to a certain extent made mythical. So is the case with Greek myths. In Homer's epics, the heroes in the Trojan War were considered both as historical heroes and powerful gods, like the king of Agamemnon and the hero of Achilles.
III. Man or woman, who's the first?
Since Myth was about the life of ancient people, it necessarily described the differences between man and woman, the two essential elements that formed a society. Then the foremost issue was about their status or which one was more honorable than the other.
Looking into Greek myth we had no difficulty in finding that man was surely much more honorable than woman. We know the ruler of Greek gods was Zeus, a man-god, He did what he pleased to do. After he had forced and seduced his sister Hera to be his wife, he still wandered around and kept doing the same thing to other beautiful and innocent girls. Through all the amorous incidents, Zeus was depicted as an impartial and brave god with all the chanting hymn. It seemed that people who wrote the myths showed great sympathy for Zeus, a seducer. Yet, to Hera, the people gave most criticism. In their eyes, the most serious frailty of Hera was jealousy to them, Hera should not intervene those amorous interludes and even defy against Zeus because of them. Therefore, it was quite right for Zeus to seduce innocent girls by fair means or foul. The sons Zeus got from those girls all became heroes of mankind or even gods. For instance, the most remarkable hero of mankind, Hercules, was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, wife of king Amphitryon. And the sun god Apollo and moon-goddess Artemis were the offspring of Zeus and Latona, a goddess of darkness. Hera, the queen of Zeus only acted as an unreasonable jealous wife, who persecuted all Zeus' lovers without pity.
Another aspect of women's lower status in Greek myths could be seen from the poor sacrificed innocent girls in order to prevent disaster. The idiom of Pandora's Box was exactly the same expression of an old Chinese saying: women are the source of disaster. Pandora, recorded as the first woman in the world in Greek myths, was condemned as the carrier of a multitude of plagues for hapless man, such as gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body and envy, spite, and revenge for his mind. Accordingly the woman was considered inferior to the man. A seeming proof was that Cassiopeia, a queen, boasted her beauty too high, which roused the indignation of the sea-nymphs to such a degree that they sent a sea-monster to ravage the coast. To appease the deities, her daughter, Andromeda was directed by the oracle to be devoured by the monster. Despite the happy ending of the rescue of the girl by Perseus, we could deduce the custom existed in which the poor little girls were sacrificed in this way. And more seriously, we were sad to find how shamefully man put all the criticism and responsibility to woman. In ancient Greek's opinion, it was always the weak points of woman's character such as jealousy that caused all the disasters. In their minds, if a kingdom was ravaged by sea, the first possible reason was the wrong doings of their queen, not their ever respectable king. "Woman was to have no value of her own at all. She was fated only to be a piece of precious ornament of man." [4, p.126]
It was heart breaking to find people hold this prejudice against woman from even times immemorial and till even today in all over the world. Greek myths had treat influence to western civilization. This prejudice was inherited by the western countries without exception. Woman was considered as an inferior class to man through thousands of years that followed.
It was glad to find in Chinese myths the glorious deeds were performed by an ancient goddess NuWa who was the very creator and protector of man. Furthermore, instead of finding the ruling god, we discovered many stories of a powerful Queen of the West, who possessed some elixir that made Changer fly to the moon and who was also the ruler of the nether world. It suggested that woman was superior to man. Yet, from the fragments of later Chinese myths, it was really difficult to find a story of a goddess. Most myths were about some great deeds done by a god. "We had Hou Su and Yi Yin, who taught people essential skills for living; We had Gun and Yu, who controlled the overwhelming flood; And we had Chi You, Gonggong and Xing Tian, the defeated gods who tried to seize the thrones of their rulers." [5, p.78] Through these descriptions, we could hardly see the importance of women. Men dominated all the later myths. It had no room for a Woman to be regarded so highly as a goddess. They were merely required to take care of the households work.
Comparing Greek and Chinese myths, we could easily perceive that myths were the reflection of people's real life. Greek myth was systematically recorded in Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad". It loyally recorded ancient Greek people's spirit and their imagination of a
much happier world. They praised true love. Yet though they gave much freedom to the goddesses, they had heavy prejudice against them. We know Greek myth started from the patriarchal society, which means men were administering the community. Hence, from the very beginning of Greek myth woman was considered as inferior to man and till the very last piece. China had a much longer civilization than Greece. Therefore, Chinese myth reflected much more stages of human development. Despite the fact that ancient Chinese people became less and less fanciful due to the hard natural conditions, we still had some wonderful fragments of Chinese myths about nearly all stages of human development. Nuwa and the Queen of the West, reflected woman's superiority to man. It must have been the production of the matriarchal society, in which woman possessed the power and responsibility of protecting human being from perishing. The long absence of goddess in the later myths, clearly reflected the marching into the next long stage, the patriarchal society, Chinese women at that time seemed much more miserable than Greek women. They had no position in society. Their freedom was limited in their bedroom and could learn and do what men permitted. Their greatest merit was to make their husbands comfortable and bear clever and brave sons. Thus, how could they do anything worth remembering long? And, consequently woman had degraded into an inferior class to man. Even today in many parts of the world, women are still not regarded as men's equal.
IV. Incest, a stage for human beings
In primordial time, people didn't have many moral principles about their own activities. Their behavior was based on their instinct and under the pressure of the strict situation. The average life span of them was less than thirty. It is reasonable to regard sisters and brothers or even parents and children as natural couples. Therefore, the myths they invented included many descriptions about incestuous practice.
In Greek myths, Hera was both Zeus' sister and wife. Even the many lovers of Zeus included his brothers' daughters or some other blood-kins. There were no remorse or embarrassment in these stories and there were even no attempts to criticize Zeus but only mild understanding. Yet the experience of Oedipus was another story. He was said to be doomed as the slayer of his father and husband of his mother before he was born. When he was grown-up, he accidentally completed the cruel oracle. The ancient Greek people surely had felt guilty towards his crimes. They arranged famine and pestilence to Oedipus kingdom in their myth. Although Oedipus had done the terrible things out of ignorance, they made his mother kill herself and madness seized him. He tore out his eyes and wandered away, from his kingdom, dreaded and abandoned by all, except his daughters, who faithfully adhered to him, till after a tedious period of miserable wandering, he found the termination of his wretched life.
The same change of the altitude toward incest could be found in Chinese myths. "In the most ancient
myths of China, it was simply recorded that Fuki and NuWa, brother and sister, were couples." [6, p.93] Nevertheless from the later replenishing versions, the stories had added a great part to explain and remedy the incorrectness of the marriage of a brother and sister. Though they couldn't falsity the original story, they provided many objective conditions to make their marriage seemed more reasonable. The change both ancient Greek and Chinese people had experienced was a clear proof of the improvement of human beings moral principles. "There had no principles for sexual activities at first. It was an animal characteristic of early human beings. In the long run of evolution, ancient people developed slowly generation after generation." [7, p.143] They had only practical knowledge taught by their fathers. It was hard for them to know what should be done and what should not. It was much easier to yield to instinctive desire. Thus sexual activities among the people within a small community or only passers-by were not the problem at all.
It was not easy to find the real cause of the ending of incest. Some people said that it was due to the familiarity between the blood-kins that they lost attraction to each other, so incest gradually stopped; some people suggested that with the development of communication different tribes usually used marriage as a good way to strengthen their relation and it greatly reduced the chance of incest; and most people, considered the disease it probably brought, favored the idea of putting an end to incest. "Men after another bitter experience, finally gave up the wrong activity and found the crucial principles of their sexual activity." [8, p.35] However, men never denied the existence of their ever wrong doing after they had successfully conquered it.
V. Conclusion
Although Greek and Chinese myths encompassed different patterns and had their own characteristics, there existed many similarities in their rich and colorful myths. Ancient people contributed their rich and colorful myths. Ancient people contributed their imagination, their philosophical thoughts and their wonderful dreams to the myths. It was the same desire to find the origin of all that brought about the myth of origin; it was the same stage of human development that man-god seemed superior and the emergence and ending of incest in both myths. From myths, we found the clue of the development of human body, human spirit, their society and the development of humanity. Some myths contributed so much to ancient civilization that they were inherited and greatly influenced in both western and eastern civilization. People today could find a number of traditional ideas, stemming from myths, still have their importance.
STUDY ON SIMILARITIES BETWEEN CHINESE AND GREEK MYTHS
Long Zhichao
Shenyang Ligong University
Myth originated from the primitive clan society, and has evolved for thousands of years. Today, it has become a kind of cultural accumulation. China and Greece are two countries with ancient civilizations. Due to their natural environment as well as the similarities in the
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evolution process and mode of civilization, the myths and legends of the two countries shows the national spirit and ideological ethics with similar characteristics. Chinese and Greek myths and legends originated in the initial era of mankind, reflecting the process of early human life and cognition. The awe of nature and the desire to conquer are the common characteristics of Chinese and Greek myths. This paper deals with the similarities of two nations' valuable myths. And the purpose of this paper is to let anyone who happens to read it have a general but deep impression of myth and begin to get interested in studying it. Due to the same humanity, Greek and Chinese myths have much in common. This paper tries to find the similarities of the two myths and further the same developing stages of two far away countries that reflected in their myths.
Keywords: myths, origin, god, goddess.
References
1. Wu Tianming. Research on Chinese mythology. Central Compilation and translation press, 2003
2. Switzer. Greek mythology and legend. Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 1984
3. Deng Qiyao. The Thinking Structure of Chinese Myths. Chongqing Publishing House, 2004.
4. Jaspers. The origin and goal of history. Beijing: Huaxia Publishing House, 1988.
5. Xie Xuanjun. Chinese Myths. Beijing: Lianjing Press, 1989.
6. Yuan Ke. Chinese myths and legends. Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 1998.
7. Frazer, James George. A Study in Magic and Religion. WordsworthEditions Ltd. 1993.
8. Ernst Cassirer. An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. Yale University Press, 1944.
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