The essence of myth is that 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. Production at that time was based on primitive and unpredictable natural forces, which 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 guarantee 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, but 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, is a realistic ideological form, and is 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 are still some superstitions about disasters, deformed fantasies and new ghosts and gods among the people, but superstitions and general fantasies are not equal to myths. 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. However, due to the changes in production and living conditions, the popular trend has gradually weakened; 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. However, due to the frequent wars in the slave society and the early feudal society in China, a large number of books were often lost, which led to the deification of some lucky books and could not be 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. At present, 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.
Myth is full of magical fantasy, which casts a strange color on the wishes of primitive workers and the growth and change of everything in the world. Most of the mythical images of gods have superhuman strength and are the idealization of primitive human knowledge and wishes. It is imagined according to the image of primitive workers, their production conditions and their understanding of natural forces. Most mythical figures created by tribes with relatively developed hunting economy are related to hunting. Most of the mythical figures created by tribes with developed agriculture are related to agriculture. People use knives, axes, bows and arrows as weapons, and mythical characters become heroes armed with such tools. The hero in the myth is imagined as superman, but sometimes he will encounter setbacks and bad luck. It reflects the realistic constraints of myth and fantasy. Through the refraction of myth and fantasy, we can see the actions and struggles of people at that time from the actions and struggles of mythical characters.