1. ancient myths in China
what is the myth? It is a story of ancient people's understanding and imagination of natural and cultural phenomena. It is an early unconscious artistic creation of human beings. Myth is not a scientific reflection of real life, but the result of anthropomorphizing natural forces and the objective world with the help of imagination and fantasy on the basis of their poor life experience because of the low level of productive forces in ancient times, and people can't scientifically explain the origin and changes of the world, natural phenomena and primitive social and cultural life.
Myth creation is closely combined with the activities of ancient people to strive for survival and fight against natural forces, which is closely related to ancient life and history, and often shows the ancient people's struggle against natural forces and their desire to improve human capabilities. Marx said: "Any myth uses imagination and with the help of imagination to conquer, dominate and visualize natural forces." Myth is "the natural and social form itself processed by people's fantasy in an unconscious artistic way".
Myth came into being in primitive clan society, and it was constantly created and developed with a long historical process. In the middle and late Neolithic period, matriarchal clan commune developed to its heyday, and many female mythological figures appeared, such as Nu Wa and Queen Mother of the West. After the establishment of the patriarchal clan society, the images of male mythical figures appeared in the original mythology, and among many mythical figures, there were corresponding generations and pedigrees. The emergence of generations and pedigrees provided favorable conditions and foundations for the emergence of subsequent mythological systems.
Myths are full of magical fantasies, which cast a strange color on the understanding of ancient people and the growth and changes of everything in the world. Most of the mythical characters also have superhuman strength, which are imagined according to the primitive people's own image, production situation, understanding of natural forces and the requirements of improving their own ability, and also make a good start for the creation of mythical novels in the future. However, we should also see that although the mythical hero (God) is often the creator of human miracles, they often encounter setbacks and bad luck. For example, the Jade Emperor in The Journey to the West, when fighting with the Tathagata in the Monkey King and the West, said this: "... He (the Jade Emperor) has been practicing since he was a child and has endured 1,55 robberies. Every 129,6 years. ..... "What the Tathagata said just shows that although the Jade Emperor is the ruler of heaven, he also suffered a lot. Therefore, this reflects the realistic constraints of myth and fantasy, and there is a kind of thought of suffering first and then sweet.
Primitive myth is the product of unique historical conditions in human childhood, and it is a form of primitive people's understanding of nature and society. It reflects the early thinking activities of human beings. However, with the continuous improvement of social productive forces and the high development of human intelligence, primitive myths are generally no longer produced, but some literary works based on myths and their forms of expression have emerged.
As early as BC, many myths have been recorded in ancient books of the pre-Qin period, such as Shan Hai Jing, Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu, Chu Ci and Lv Shi Chun Qiu. In the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, there were many records of classical myths in Huainanzi, Historical Records, Hanshu, Wuyue Chunqiu and so on, as well as Sou Shen Ji and Shu Yi Ji in the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. Among these, Shan Hai Jing has the most abundant myths, and it is close to the original appearance of ancient myths.
China's ancient myths have a long history. Not only are they recorded early, but many ancient myths are still circulated orally among the people. Especially in the Central Plains, some famous ancient myths in China, such as those about Dayu, Huangdi (Emperor Xuanyuan), Nvwa 、 Fuxi, Pangu and Kuafu, are still circulated orally in Henan and other regions. There are also myths about Shun, Chiyou, Houyi and Qi, which are still circulating in Henan, Hebei and some southern provinces. Due to the long time of circulation, these myths are different from those recorded in ancient documents in specific plots, and there are many variations. These myths, which are still circulating, 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 mythology, especially to clarify the ancient and modern forms of the development of myths.
second, myths and novels
myths have a very important position in the history of literature. It is a genre that influenced China's various literary creations earlier. Its theme content and deified characters have many influences on the literary creation and the formation of national epics in past dynasties, especially its rich imagination and vivid writing methods of natural things, which have a direct source relationship with the formation of artistic fiction and romantic writing methods of later writers. Its oral narrative form has also become a precedent for narrative literary genres such as novels. Many myths directly provide writers and artists with creative themes, and some famous myths have become allusions often quoted by the people. Therefore, there is a saying that myth is the "ancestor of novels". In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin said: "Shan Hai Jing" is the "ancestor of ancient and modern strange words"; It is also believed that Jizhong Suo Yu, which appeared in the atmosphere of myth and witchcraft at the same time, should be in front of Zhuang and Lie. "Biography of Shu Xi" says: all countries dream of divining monsters and writing a book to cover the ancestor of today's novels.
In the process of influencing novels, China myth is also a historical and religious process. The mythical characters are often included in the imperial genealogy and religious genealogy in the creation of novels. For example, in The Journey to the West, the Jade Emperor, as the ruler of heaven, rules the secular world of heaven, earth and ghosts, similar to the emperor on earth; The old gentleman in Taishang is the ancestor of Taoism. In management, he is not subordinate to the Jade Emperor, but he has a close relationship with the Jade Emperor, echoing each other and acting as a national teacher. The Tathagata and other western Buddhas, who are far away from the imperial court, are responsible for educating all sentient beings ideologically. This is an immortal structure with the imperial court as the core, supplemented by Buddhism and Taoism.
3. Myth and the characters in The Journey to the West
(1) The Journey to the West's re-creation of some characters
As we said above, myth has a great influence on the emergence and development of novels, so myth has also had a certain influence on The Journey to the West, a masterpiece of ghost novels in the history of Chinese literature. Here's a concrete analysis of its influence on the creation of some characters in The Journey to the West.
The Journey to the West is a famous ghost novel, and the whole book is a string of myths, big and small, through the line of learning from the West. As far as the handling of these myths is concerned, some of them only mention the names slightly, because they have little or no contact with the stories of Buddhist scriptures, or they are not in harmony with the stories of Buddhist scriptures after writing, so they just pass by. For example, in the first time "Spiritual Roots and Fertility Originated from Mind-cultivating Avenue Life", it was mentioned that "the feeling of Pangu opened the sky, san huang ruled the world, and the five emperors concluded that the world was divided into four major continents: ...".
another is that although the characters in the original myth appear in the book many times, they have changed to some extent, not as described in the legend or some words. For example, the description of the Western Queen Mother has greatly changed the image of the Western Queen Mother in The Journey to the West. The early Queen Mother of the West was a fierce, cruel, half-beast, half-human monster. Her original image was a human face, tiger's teeth and leopard's tail, and her living environment was extremely dangerous. The ugly and vicious goddess created by the dangerous environment brought endless disasters to the world. Since the Han Dynasty, the image of the Queen Mother of the West has changed greatly, and the Queen Mother of the West in The Journey to the West has inherited this change. She lives in the beautiful Yaochi; In the flat peach garden, we planted peaches that can prolong life and live forever: people who cooked once in 3, years became immortal, but their physical fitness was light; people who cooked once in 6, years rose and lived forever after eating Xia Ju; people who cooked once in 9, years lived as long as the world and the sun and the moon. These are all influenced by the right of the Queen Mother of the West to manage the elixir of life during the transformation of the Han Dynasty.
However, some characters in individual original myths are greatly exaggerated by their names according to the need of learning from the scriptures, but these rendered myths are not recorded in any other words or spread orally, such as the story of the Jade Rabbit becoming a princess of Tianzhu country described in the 93rd to 95th chapters. In some myths before The Journey to the West, the rabbit was just a kind of magic rabbit, but in The Journey to the West, it was written in an extraordinary way, good at conjuring up beautiful women, and someone's worldly desires was "full of passion and joy". Even its pestle was brought to Tianzhu, becoming its protective weapon, and was described as a treasure of "one golden light and four phases, no spirit and three yuan".
In The Journey to the West, we should also see that most of the monsters that hinder Tang Priest from learning Buddhist scriptures in the West are changed from fierce beasts, which are influenced by natural myths. In eighty-one difficult, the makers of these difficulties are mostly changed from wild animals. For example, in the thirteenth session, Tang Priest once met bison essence, bear essence and tiger essence, which opened the prelude to encountering all kinds of monsters on the way to learn from the scriptures. Some of these monsters are made up of other animals or plants. Such as carp essence encountered in Tongtian River; Several demons encountered in the Thorn Ridge were changed from juniper, cypress, pine, bamboo, Danfeng and other plants. These different changes are similar to reality. All kinds of wild animals are ferocious and eat people, while plants are much more elegant.
(2) Myths and the main figures in The Journey to the West
With the development of time and the change of people's aesthetic ideology, the myth of creation and the myth of natural forces have lost their position or lowered their taste, and instead they are myths depicting birds, animals, insects and fish. "And inspired by the achievements of Zhang Hui's novels and religious trends such as mind learning, Zen and Neidan, the works have enhanced the exploration of the personality of the gods and their inner vitality, thus becoming a mythological and cultural structure depicting personality gods and vitality." (2) In The Journey to the West, the author mainly organizes the story by describing individual mythical figures, but the description of these personality gods is carried out around such a great cause as learning from the scriptures.
the Monkey King is one of the main characters of The Journey to the West. The image of the Monkey King in the book is influenced by the legend of Wu Zhi Qi in Yue Du Jing of Tang Dynasty. The Huaihe river water god, which was buried when Dayu was in control of water, was attached to the flood myth; In The Journey to the West, the story of Dayu's water control is only that he can leave a "precious iron in Zhenhai" in the Dragon Palace in the East China Sea, and it has become a weapon in the hands of the Monkey King. Here, the ancient flood myth was degraded and attached to the myth of the Monkey King. In addition, the Monkey King's thought of "the emperors take turns to do it, and come to my house next year" has something in common with the rebellious thoughts of * * * workers fighting for the emperor, and Xingtian fighting for god with the emperor, which is the version of these myths in later generations.
The intricacies of heaven, forest and earth in the Monkey King's personality, as well as the fusion of divinity, animality and humanity, are not only manifested in daily behaviors. For example, after he stole the flat peach from the Queen Mother, he became a two-foot-long villain sleeping in the dense foliage, stealing the golden elixir from the old gentleman's gourd and tasting it, which is "like eating fried beans"; Moreover, it is manifested in his fighting against Buddha, and he did not change the monkey's temper, monkey's calculation, monkey's narrowness and monkey's chic in the dangerous fighting. In the disaster of the Lotus Cave in Pingdingshan, the Monkey King, after a lapse of twenty times, met the golden furnace lad and the silver furnace lad in front of the old gentleman in Taishang, who became the king of Jinjiao and the king of Yinjiao, and stole this golden gourd. In this time, Monkey didn't have the pride of eating elixir like fried beans, but as soon as he answered his name, he would be sucked into the gourd and turned into pus. He asked the Emperor of Heaven to close the sky for half an hour, pulled out a hair and pretended to be a "gourd" to cheat the baby. After being captured by demons, even if he changed his name to "Monkey Sun" and "Monkey Sun", he could not escape being sucked into the gourd. Later, the fake gourd was finally replaced with a hair, claiming that the real gourd in his hand was male and the demon was female, which made the demon stumble and beat his chest and said, "Oh, my God! Just say that the world will not change! Such a baby is also afraid of her husband. When a female sees a male, she dare not pretend! " The monkey god's scheming and parochialism are vividly displayed in this struggle between life and death: it is also "pretending to be a gourd", "being a grandson" and "being a grandson", and "the baby is afraid of her husband". It treats the fierce battle as a game, fantasizes and lifts the weight lightly, and it is permeated with strong folk humor in the incredible mythological changes.
Another major character image of The Journey to the West is Pig Bajie, which is also deeply loved by the people. His personality is distinct, and his advantages and disadvantages are outstanding: he is hardworking, simple, selfish and cunning. He has his own characteristics, of course, as a pig, he is greedy and eats like a bucket. Pig Bajie's gluttony has also brought certain disasters to their Buddhist team. For example, stealing ginseng fruit is a typical example. In addition to gluttony, Pig Bajie has another problem of being greedy for money. Back to the 38th time, the Monkey King coaxed him to steal the goblin's baby in order to salvage the body of the Wuji Emperor in the glass well, and at this time he also bargained with the Monkey King on the baby. At the same time, he had his own money, but it was confiscated by the Monkey King at once. Compared with the word "greed", Zhu Bajie is more greedy for "color". In ancient Chinese legends, there is a saying that black pigs are lewd. On the way to learn from the scriptures, all the plots involving men and women are mostly related to Zhu Bajie. He was the grand marshal of the canopy in heaven, but he was banished from heaven just because he molested Chang 'e. However, after he converted to Buddhism, he did not change his lewd habits.
The tendency of writing about God and attaching importance to individuality has profoundly influenced the combined structure of the four disciples. As a mythical culture of individuality, the most dynamic place of this group structure of learning from the scriptures lies in the different characteristics and complementary advantages of the four groups. There are hidden contradictions among them, but they can cooperate to the end in mutual restraint. Guanyin Bodhisattva was ordered to go from the Western Heaven to Chang 'an, and picked these four people and one ride among the thousands of waters in Qian Shan. Why did you choose these? There are reasons for this, and perhaps they are the best combination of the groups who learn from the scriptures. The reasons for this are: the Monkey King was chosen because he took a fancy to his "war". On the long road of learning from the scriptures, there were many hidden crises. With such a man who is good at fighting, Tang Priest can be better guaranteed to go to the Western Heaven; Pig Bajie, with the foolish strength of ordinary people, acted as a messenger to carry the burden on the whole journey to learn from the scriptures. When he met some places full of thorns, he always took the trouble to open the way, which was indeed a bit stupid for farmers. Friar Sand gives us the image of a simple and honest man. He is not only a good helper to subdue demons, but also good at dealing with, soothing and mediating the conflicts of senior brothers. He is an indispensable lubricant and cohesion in the whole team. In addition, we should also see that because the latter two are in close contact with water before or after demotion, they also have a close complementary relationship with walkers who are not good at water warfare. For example, when saving the king of Wuji, when fighting for the carp essence of Tongtian River, Bajie or Friar Sand acted as Depth Charge.
IV. Summary
Myth, as a special cultural form, has had a great influence on China's literary creation, and at the same time, it has been constantly enriched and developed in the process of promoting literary creation.