What is the relationship between China myth and literature?

Myth is the mother of literature. The relationship between myth and literature is just like the relationship between Pangu and the sun, the moon, the river and the sea as seen in the myth of Shan Hai Jing. According to the myth, after Pangu's death, his head turned into four mountains, his eyes turned into the sun and the moon, his fat turned into rivers and seas, and his hair turned into vegetation. Although Pangu is dead, the sun, the moon, rivers and seas, and everything in the world all have the shadow of Pangu. After myth is transformed into other literary forms, although it often disappears its own mythological significance, it is active in literature as an artistic impact. For example, the Book of Songs and Songs of the South, two representatives of pre-Qin literature, all have traces of ancient myths, especially Songs of the South, which have preserved a large number of ancient myths. Taoism in Laozi, Zhuangzi and Huainanzi also absorbed a lot of ancient myths and philosophized them. Zuo Zhuan, Historical Records and Shangshu absorbed myths and made them history. Shan Hai Jing is a written record of ancient oral literature, which retains the oldest myth in China and has a great influence on later literature. Example: Kuafu's fairy tales are recorded in Shan Hai Jing, Huai Nan Zi and Liezi, all of which are based on Shan Hai Jing. Judging from the sound and meaning of "Divine Classic" and "Southeast Wild Giant" Park Fu, this Park Fu is suspected to be an evolved giant. According to Mao Dun's ABC on the Study of China Myth, the story of Yugong moving mountains in Liezi Tang Wen was evolved from the myth of Kuafu day by day. According to Ming Taizu's second son, Kuafu probably evolved from Kuafu. The Yao grass in Gutuo Mountain, the soul of an unmarried female emperor who died young, has evolved into the graceful fable of the goddess visiting the mountain in Zhuangzi. Later, it became the Wushan goddess in Song Yu's Gao Tang Mi. It was transformed into Yao Ji, the twenty-third daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, in Du Guangting's Fairy Tale, and then into Lin Daiyu, a crimson fairy in Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions. In Shan Hai Jing, Yu Qiang, the sea god of Beihai, became a fengshen, which is the root of Kun Peng's change in the fable of Zhuangzi. "Zhuangzi Ying Di Pian" "Suddenly cutting seven holes into chaos" comes from Tianshan Mountain, a chaotic and faceless god in Beishan. Zhuang Zhoumeng's butterfly fable is the source of inspiration for the myth of Shan Hai Jing. There are many similarities between Qu Yuan's fairy tales such as Tian Wen, Evocation, Jiu Ge and Li Sao and Shan Hai Jing.

Tao Yuanming's poem Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a sentence derived from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Li Bai is a romantic poet, and his thoughts of wandering immortals are famous all over the world: Dream on Tianmu Mountain, Difficult Road to Shu, Fu Liangyin, Popular in the North, and even Qingpingdiao ... all originated from the myth of Shan Hai Jing. Li Heshi also used the myth of Shan Hai Jing. Li Shangyin is an outstanding figure who uses a lot of mythological symbols and metaphors in Shan Hai Jing. Novels in Wei and Jin Dynasties: The strange things in Wang Bo's Searching for the Gods are almost the birth of the myth of Shan Hai Jing. Legends of the Tang Dynasty, such as Liu Yichuan, evolved from the spiritual fish in Shan Hai Jing. The sacrificial songs of Su Dongpo, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, in the tablet of Chaozhou Hanwen Gongci: "Bai Yunxiang rode a dragon, dressed in splendor, and danced with the sun to recite the next move" are all directly derived from western classics at home and abroad.

Dou Eyuan, a Yuan zaju, Shen Feng Yi Yan, a Ming novel, and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Pu Songling in Qing Dynasty all come down in one continuous line with the changing myth of Shan Hai Jing. In the Ming Dynasty, Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West, the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie and others mixed gods and beasts, which was the application of variable myth in Shan Hai Jing. The anecdotes and forty-one mythical countries in Li Ruzhen's "The Garden of Mirrors" are the rewriting of foreign countries by Chinese and foreign countries. Example: The country of daughter and the country of Mao face are the country of daughter and the Republic of Mao in Shan Hai Jing respectively.

Modern dramas: The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, The Legend of the White Snake and the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon ... are all based on the myths in Shan Hai Jing. Ancient poems, novels, operas ... The mythical themes of Shan Hai Jing are everywhere and countless. In modern poetry, there are also many people who integrate the myth of Shan Hai Jing into poetry: Yang Mu, Yu Guangzhong, Guo Moruo, Qin Zihao, Wu Yingtao ... In poetry, myth often becomes an allegorical interpretation theme. In a word, the myth of Shan Hai Jing has shaped many literary motifs. Myth and literature are almost two sides of a whole, which are symbolic, imaginative, unpretentious, narrative, emotional and full of vitality. Compared with western myths, the ancient myths in Shan Hai Jing are too fragmentary and rough. However, although it is not a magnificent chapter, it is a piece of rough jade and beautiful stone that has been carefully excavated, which can be called "the treasure house of China literature".