The Relationship between Myth and Literary Works

The appearance of China literature can be traced back to ancient times before the appearance of writing. Because poetry in primitive society is the earliest literary style of human beings, which is produced from labor production. However, myths reflect the ancient people's original understanding of the origin of the world, natural phenomena and social life, and express stories and legends through supernatural images and fantasies. Myth shows the struggle between ancient people and natural forces and the pursuit of ideals. Myth is the premise of the origin of literature and the main content of the earliest fantasy oral prose works of mankind. In China, labor production, myths and legends are closely related to the origin of literature. Therefore, China literature comes from myths and legends, and myths and legends come from labor production. The origin of China literature is closely related to China's labor production and the origin of ancient myths, because the process of literature production is the accumulation of human knowledge and experience, the early activities of human beings around animals and plants, the gradual understanding of animals and plants, the early stage of human knowledge and experience and one of the sources of literary development. Primitive religious ideas have similar views. It is the development of human knowledge and experience by primitive people, and it is a method to deduce unknown knowledge from known knowledge. Therefore, the emergence of religion has gone through a long process of worshipping animals, demigods and people, and then worshipping the all-knowing and all-powerful soul. Soul worship is a qualitative leap of primitive religious ideas, another important process of production practice, and therefore another important process of literary development. First, the emergence and development of China literature. Legendary literature is an early fairy tale passed down orally, and it is a story that happened in production practice. After the writing came into being, China literature broke away from the period of word of mouth, and was recorded by writing (Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen) and written by literature (poetry, music and dance). It marks that China literature has entered the era of written records. For example, from the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, some long inscriptions on Zhong Ding appeared, indicating that there were words with literary factors. From then on, various literary forms began to branch and develop in the process of continuous maturity of language and writing. The original poetry was combined with music and dance. The close combination of poetry, music and dance is an important feature of China's poetry. After the Spring and Autumn Period, poetry gradually separated from music and dance and developed in the direction of literary meaning and rhythm. For example, the morphological changes of pre-Qin literature, the distinction between literature, history and philosophy, and the emergence of mature literary works. Therefore, the literature in the pre-Qin period presents a comprehensive form. Some literary works in the pre-Qin period are historical or philosophical works, and historical and philosophical works are also full of literary significance. Second, ancient myths are the reflection and projection of real life. In ancient mythology, people's resistance to natural forces and their pursuit of ideals are often manifested. Myth has different sayings in different regions or regions, and different civilizations or nations have different meanings. However, around the world, there have been myths with similar descriptions of the same phenomenon. For example, the myth of the global flood thousands of years ago has similar descriptions in many areas. Below, I will talk about the influence of China ancient myths on China literature from the classification and characteristics of myths. (1) Definition, classification and characteristics of myths Ancient myths are the earliest fantasy oral prose works of mankind. In the literary and artistic creation of past dynasties, analogical myths and works that reflect reality or satirize reality under the guise of legendary gods are usually called myths. Generally speaking, ancient myths are still the reflection of natural phenomena and social life in broad art generalization. Simply put, myth is a special reflection of objective facts in the human brain. Myths can be roughly divided into the following categories: first, creation myths, gods and buddhas, and heroic myths. Among them, the creation myth is the most important. Because the myth of creation is a myth that tells about the primitive period of mankind and records the origin of things and systems. The second is the myth of the origin of the world, the origin of mankind and the origin of culture; The myth of heroes of gods and buddhas mainly tells the story of heroes of gods and buddhas. Thirdly, it is subdivided into nine aspects: the myth of creation, the myth of the sun, the moon and the stars, the myth of the origin of animals and plants, the myth of floods, the myth of Nuwa, the myth of Fuxi, the myth of emperor and foreigners, also known as the myth of land reclamation. 1. The characteristics of ancient myths are (1), primitive and feminine. The image of God in China's mythology is primitive. Generally, it entered the matriarchal clan stage in the middle and late Neolithic period. Therefore, there are many female mythological figures in ancient mythology, such as Nu Wa and the Queen Mother of the West. (2) Regional differences. In China's mythology, many gods exist independently, but they lack the main god. 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. The Classic of Mountains and Seas contains the most abundant myths, such as those of Nuwa, Chang, Jing Wei, Yi, Gun, Yu, Huangdi, Chiyou, Xingtian, Dijun and Queen Mother of the West, as well as descriptions of Sun Moon Mountain, Kunlun ruins, various natural gods and exotic nation-states. In these records, there are many colorful mythical figures such as heroes, ancestors, creators, nature, rulers and rebels. (3) Clan tendency. China mythology is related by blood. 2. The characteristics of ancient myths in content: (1) People-oriented. In China mythology, especially in the myth of creation, people's central position is reflected from the content to the social roots. (2) The myth of the struggle between good and evil is dominant. Many China myths embody the idea of opposition between good and evil, and generally take the dispute between good and evil as the theme of the myth. (3) the form of positive optimism. China myth has the form of deformed myth, positive and optimistic-good at winning in the struggle.