Ancient Chinese myths. ancient chinese mythology

Ancient Chinese mythology is reconstructed from fragments of ancient historical and philosophical writings("Shujing", the oldest parts of the 14th-11th century BC; "Yijing", the oldest parts of the 8th-7th centuries BC; "Zhuanzi", 4th-3rd centuries BC; "Letsi", "Huainanzi").

The greatest amount of information on mythology is contained in the ancient treatise "Shan hai jing" ("The Book of Mountains and Seas", 4-2 centuries BC), as well as in the poetry of Qu Yuan (4th century BC). One of distinguishing features In ancient Chinese mythology, the historicization (euhemerization) of mythical characters, who, under the influence of the rationalistic Confucian worldview, began to be interpreted very early as real figures of ancient times. The main characters turned into rulers and emperors, and minor characters - into dignitaries, officials, etc. Big role played totemic performances.

Thus, the Yin tribes considered the swallow as their totem, the Xia tribes considered the snake. Gradually, the snake transformed into a dragon (moons), commanding rain, thunderstorms, water elements and connected simultaneously with underground forces, and the bird, probably, into fenghuang - a mythical bird - a symbol of the sovereign (the dragon became a symbol of the sovereign). The myth of chaos (Huntun), which was a formless mass, apparently, is one of the most ancient (judging by the inscription of hun and tun hieroglyphs, this image is based on the idea of ​​water chaos). According to the Huainanzi treatise, when there was still neither heaven nor earth, and formless images wandered in pitch darkness, two deities emerged from chaos. The idea of ​​primordial chaos and darkness was also reflected in the term "kaipi" (lit. "separation" - "the beginning of the world", which was understood as the separation of heaven from earth).

The myth of Pangu testifies to the presence in China of the assimilation of the cosmos to the human body, which is characteristic of a number of ancient cosmogonic systems, and, accordingly, the unity of the macro- and microcosm (in the period of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, these mythological representations were also fixed in other areas of knowledge related to man: medicine, physiognomy , portrait theory, etc.). More archaic in terms of stages should be recognized, apparently, the reconstructed cycle of myths about the progenitor Nuwa, who was presented as a half-human, half-snake, was considered the creator of all things and people. According to one of the myths, she fashioned people from loess and clay. Later variants of the myth also associate the establishment of a marriage ritual with her.

If Pangu does not create the world, but develops along with the separation of heaven from earth (only medieval engravings depict him with a chisel and a hammer in his hands, separating heaven from earth), then Nuwa also appears as a kind of demiurge. She repairs the collapsed part of the sky, cuts off the legs of a giant tortoise and props up the four limits of the sky with them, collects reed ash and blocks the way for the overflow of waters (“Huainanzi”). It can be assumed that Pangu and Nuwa were originally part of various tribal mythological systems, the image of Nuwa arose either in the southeastern regions of ancient Chinese lands (German researcher W. Müncke), or in the area of ​​the Ba culture in the southwestern province of Sichuan (American scientist W. Eberhard), and the image of Pangu - in the southern Chinese regions.

More widespread were the legends about the cultural hero Fuxi, apparently the ancestor of the tribes and (Eastern China, the lower reaches of the Yellow River), who was credited with the invention of fishing nets, divinatory trigrams. God Fuxi taught people how to hunt, fish, cook food (meat) on fire. Originally a tribal cultural hero whose totem was a bird, Fuxi may have been represented as a bird-man. Subsequently, most likely by the turn of our era, in the process of the formation of the common Chinese mythological system, he began to appear in tandem with Nuwa. On the grave reliefs of the first centuries AD. e. in the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fuxi and Nuwa are depicted as a pair of similar creatures with human bodies and intertwined tails of a snake (dragon), which symbolizes marital intimacy.

According to the myths about Fuxi and Nuwa, recorded in the early 60s of the 20th century in oral existence among the Chinese of Sichuan, they are brother and sister who escaped the flood and then married to revive the lost humanity. There are only fragmentary references in written monuments that Nuwa was the sister of Fuxi (since the 2nd century AD), she was first named his wife only by the 9th century poet Lu Tong. The myth of the flood was recorded in the literature earlier than other myths ("Shujing", "Shijing", 11-7 centuries BC).

It is believed that flood myths originated among Chinese tribes in the area of ​​the Huang He and Zhejiang rivers, and then spread to the areas of modern Sichuan. As noted by the American sinologist D. Bodde, the flood in Chinese mythology is not a punishment sent to people for sins (as it is considered only in modern versions of the myth of Fuxi and Nuwa), but rather a generalized idea of ​​some kind of watery chaos. This is a story about the struggle of farmers with floods in order to manage land and create irrigation. According to the entry in Shujing, Gun, who is trying to stop the waters with the help of a wonderful self-growing land (sizhan) stolen from the supreme ruler, enters the fight against the flood.

Presumably, this image is based on the archaic idea of ​​the expansion of the earth in the process of creating the cosmos, which was included in the legend about curbing the flood, which in myths usually marks the beginning of a new stage in the development of the world and life on earth. But his son Yu wins the flood. He is engaged in digging channels, land management, rids the earth of all evil spirits (a cleansing function characteristic of a cultural hero), and creates conditions for agriculture.

Since the ancient Chinese imagined the creation of the world as a gradual separation of the sky from the earth, there are references in the myths that at first one could climb the sky using special celestial ladders.

In later times, a different interpretation of the archaic idea of ​​the separation of heaven from earth appeared. According to this version, the supreme ruler Zhuanxu ordered his grandsons Li and Chun to cut the path between heaven and earth (the first raised the sky up, and the second pressed the earth down).

Along with the idea of ​​heavenly ladders and the path to heaven, there were also myths about Mount Kunlun (the Chinese version of the so-called world mountain), which, as it were, connected earth and sky: the lower capital of the supreme heavenly ruler (Shandi) was located on it.

These myths are based on the idea of ​​a certain "world axis", which takes the form of not just a mountain, but also a capital towering on it - a palace. Another idea of ​​the cosmic vertical is embodied in the image of a solar tree - fusan (lit. "supporting mulberry tree"), which is based on the idea of ​​a world tree. On the Fusan tree live the suns - ten golden ravens. All of them are the children of Mother Xihe, who lives beyond the Southeast Sea.

According to the Huainanzi, the sun first bathes in the backwaters, and then rises to the fusang and travels across the sky. According to some versions, the sun is driven across the sky in a chariot by Xihe herself. Gradually, it comes to the extreme west, where it sits on another sunny jo tree, the flowers of which illuminate the earth (presumably an image of the evening dawn). The idea of ​​a plurality of suns is associated with the myth of the violation of cosmic balance as a result of the simultaneous appearance of ten suns: a terrible drought sets in. A shooter sent from heaven And strikes an extra nine suns from a bow. Lunar myths are clearly poorer than solar ones. If the sun was associated with a three-legged raven, then the moon was originally, apparently, with a toad (three-legged in later representations) (“Huainanzi”). believed to live on the moon white hare, crushing the potion of immortality in a mortar (medieval authors considered the toad as the embodiment of the light beginning of yang, and the hare - the dark beginning of yin). The earliest fixation of images of a lunar hare and a toad is an image on a funeral banner (2nd century BC) found in 1971 near Changsha in Hunan.

If the solar myths are associated with the shooter Hou Yi, then the lunar myths are associated with his wife Chang E (or Heng E), who steals the potion of immortality from the shooter Yi and, having taken it, ascends to the moon, where she lives alone. According to another version, a certain Wu Gan lives on the moon, sent there to cut down a huge cinnamon tree, the traces of ax blows on which immediately grow back. This myth was formed, apparently, already in the Middle Ages in the Taoist environment, but the idea of ​​a lunar tree was recorded in antiquity (“Huainanzi”). Important for understanding Chinese mythology are the ideas about the five star palaces (guns): middle, eastern, southern, western and northern, which correlate with the symbols of these directions: Tai Yi (“great unit”), Qinglong (“green dragon”), Zhuqiao ("red bird"), Baihu ("white tiger") and Xuan Wu ("dark militancy").

Each of these concepts was both a constellation and a symbol with a graphic image. So, on ancient reliefs, the stars of the constellation Qinglong were depicted in circles and a green dragon was immediately drawn, Xuan Wu was depicted in the form of a turtle intertwined (copulating?) with a snake. Some stars were considered the embodiment of gods, spirits, or their habitat. The Big Dipper (Beidou) and the spirits inhabiting it were in charge of life and death, fate, etc. However, not these constellations appear in the plot mythological legends, but individual stars, for example, Shang in the eastern part of the sky and Shen in the western.

Among the deities of the elements and natural phenomena, the most archaic god of thunder Leygun. Perhaps he was considered the father of the first ancestor Fuxi. In the ancient Chinese language, the very concept of “thunderbolt” (zhen) is etymologically connected with the concept of “getting pregnant”, in which one can see relics of ancient ideas, according to which the birth of the first ancestors was associated with thunder or thunder, “thunder dragon”.

The hieroglyph zhen also meant "eldest son" in the family. At the turn of our era, there were also ideas about Leigong as a heavenly dragon. In the guise of a curved dragon with heads at the ends, the Chinese also represented a rainbow. Such images are known from Han reliefs. Judging by written sources, there was a division into a rainbow-hun - a male dragon (with a predominance of light tones) and a rainbow-ni - a female dragon (with a predominance of dark tones).

There were legends about the miraculous conception of the mythical sovereign Shun from the meeting of his mother with a large rainbow hun (dragon?). Wind and rain were also personified as the spirit of the wind (Fengbo) and the lord of rain (Yushi). Fengbo was represented as a dog with a human face (“Shan hai jing”), according to other versions, it was associated with a bird, maybe with a comet, as well as with another mythical creature Feilian, resembling a deer with a bird's head, a snake tail, spotted like a leopard (poet Jin Zhuo, 4th century AD).

The earthly world in Chinese mythology is primarily mountains and rivers (the medieval word jiangshan - "rivers - mountains", meaning "country", shanshui - "mountains - waters" - "landscape"); forests, plains, steppes or deserts practically do not play any role.

The graphic representation of the concept of "earth" in ancient writing was a pictogram of "heaps of earth", that is, it was based on the identity of the earth and the mountain. The spirits of the mountains were characterized by asymmetry (one-legged, one-eyed, three-legged), doubling the usual human features (for example, two-headed) or a combination of animal and human features. The terrible appearance of most mountain spirits testifies to their possible connection with the chthonic element. An indirect confirmation of this can be the idea of ​​Mount Taishan (modern Shandong Province) as the habitat of the ruler of life and death (a kind of prototype of the owner of the afterlife), of the lower world under the earth, in deep caves, the entrance to which is located on the mountain peaks.

The spirits of the waters are presented for the most part as creatures having the traits of a dragon, fish, turtle. Among the spirits of the rivers there are male (the spirit of the Yellow River - Hebo) and female (the goddess of the Luo River - Loshen, fairies of the Xiangshui River, etc.). Various drowned people were revered as spirits of the rivers; thus, Fufei, the daughter of the mythical Fuxi, who drowned in it, was considered a fairy of the Luo River.

The main characters of ancient Chinese mythology are cultural heroes - the first ancestors, presented in ancient historical monuments as real rulers and dignitaries of ancient times. They act as the creators of cultural goods and objects: Fuxi invented fishing nets, Suizhen - fire, Shennong - a spade, he laid the foundation for agriculture, digging the first wells, determined the healing properties of herbs, organized barter; Huangdi invented means of transportation - boats and chariots, as well as garments made of cloth, and began the construction of public roads. His name is associated with the beginning of counting years (calendar), and sometimes writing (according to another version, it was created by the four-eyed Cangjie).

All mythical first ancestors were usually credited with the manufacture of various clay vessels, as well as musical instruments, which was considered an extremely important cultural act in antiquity. AT different options myth, the same act is attributed to different characters. This shows that the connection between a certain hero and the corresponding cultural act was not immediately clear, that different ethnic groups could attribute inventions to their heroes. In the ancient treatise "Guanzi", Huangdi produces fire by rubbing wood against wood, in the ancient work "He Tu" ("Plan of the River") - Fuxi, and in the comments "Xiqizhuan" to the "Book of Changes" and in philosophical treatises ("Han Feizi" , “Huainanzi”) - Suiren (lit. “a man who made fire by friction”), to whom this most important cultural feat is assigned in the subsequent tradition.

All these cultural inventions, no matter to which of the first ancestors they are attributed, reflect far from the earliest ideas, since the heroes of myths themselves manufacture these objects. A more archaic way of acquiring them is considered to be stealing or receiving miraculous items as a gift from their owners from another world. Only a relic of one myth of this kind has survived - the story of the acquisition of the shooter And the potion of immortality from Xi Wangmu.

A visit by the shooter and the mistress of the west, which in Chinese mythology was associated with the land of the dead, can be interpreted as receiving a wonderful drug in the afterlife. This is in agreement with the nature of Chinese mythological thinking and later with the Taoist teaching, which aimed to find ways to prolong life and achieve longevity. Already in Shan Hai Jing there are a number of entries about immortals living in distant amazing countries.

The mistress of the west Xi Wangmu herself, unlike other characters who have bright pronounced features cultural heroes, is a completely different type of mythical character, initially, apparently, of a demonic character. In archaic texts, she has obvious features of zoomorphism - the tail of a leopard, the fangs of a tiger ("Shan hai jing"), she knows heavenly punishments, according to other sources, she sends pestilence and disease. The traits of a leopard and a tiger, as well as her dwelling in a mountain cave, suggest that she is a mountain chthonic creature.

Another demonic variant of the mythical hero is the destroyer of cosmic and social balance, the water spirit Gungun and the rebel Chi Yu. Depicted as an antagonist - the destroyer of cosmic foundations, the zooanthropomorphic water spirit Gungun fought with the spirit of fire Zhzhuzhong. (the struggle of two opposite elements is one of the popular themes of archaic mythology).

In a later myth, the battle of the many-armed and many-legged (in which one can see a figurative reflection of archaic ideas about chaos) Chi Yu with the sovereign Huangdi, the personification of harmony and order, is no longer depicted as a duel of two mythical heroes symbolizing opposite elements, but as a struggle for the power of the leaders various tribes, described as a kind of competition in the power of the lords of the elements in the spirit of a shamanic duel (in particular, the spirit of the wind Fengbo and the lord of the rain Yushi on the side of Chi Yu and the demon of drought Ba, Huangdi's daughter, on the father's side). Drought conquers rain, wind, fog, and Huangdi, as the supreme deity, takes over Chi Yu. In general, the war between Huangdi and Chi Yu, typologically similar to the struggle of Zeus with the titans in Greek mythology, can be represented as a struggle between the heavenly (Huangdi) and the chthonic ( Chi Yu).

A special place in ancient Chinese mythology is occupied by the images of the ideal rulers of antiquity, especially Yao and his successor Shun. Yao, as the Japanese scientist Mitarai Masaru suggests, was originally one of the solar deities and was thought in the form of a bird, later he turned into an earthly ruler.

Initially scattered images of the mythology of individual ancient Chinese tribes and tribal groups gradually formed into single system, which was facilitated by the development of natural-philosophical ideas and, in particular, various classification systems, among which the five-fold system - according to the five elements - was of the greatest importance. Under its influence, the four-member model of the world turns into a five-member one, corresponding to five landmarks in space (four cardinal points + middle or center), the supreme heavenly ruler is now realized as a deity of the center.

In the inscriptions on fortune-telling bones of the ShangYin era (16-11 centuries BC), we find the sign “di”, which was a kind of “title” for the souls of deceased rulers and corresponded to the concept of “divine ancestor”, “sacred ancestor”. (Etymologically, the grapheme "di" itself, as the Japanese scholar Kato Tsunekata suggests, is an image of an altar for sacrifices to heaven.) With the epithet "shan" - "upper", "supreme", "di" meant the supreme heavenly lord (Shandi).

In the Zhou era (11-3 centuries BC) in ancient China, the cult of Tian (heaven) was also formed as a kind of higher principle that guided everything that happens on earth. However, the concepts of Shandi and Tian were very abstract and could easily be replaced by images of specific mythical characters, which is what happens with the design of the idea of ​​five mythical sovereigns. It can be assumed that the idea of ​​sanhuang, three mythical sovereigns — Fuxi, Suizhen and Shennong (there are other options) recorded in written monuments in parallel with it, is a reflection of a different (ternary) classification system, which led in the Middle Ages to the appearance of images of three mythical sovereigns — heaven (Tianhuang), earth (Dihuang) and people (Renhuang).

The five mythical sovereigns included: the supreme ruler of the center - Huangdi, his assistant - the god of the earth Houtu, his color is yellow, under his patronage there was a temple of the sun, many constellations of the central part of the sky, as well as Ursa Major, the planet Tianxing ( Saturn); the lord of the east is Taihao (aka Fuxi), his assistant is the green spirit of the Gouman tree, the thunderer Leigong and the spirit of the wind Fengbo, the constellations in the eastern part of the sky and the planet Suixin (Jupiter), he corresponds to spring and green color; the lord of the south is Yandi (aka Shennong), his assistant is the red spirit of fire Zhurong, he corresponds to various constellations in the southern part of the sky, as well as the planet Inhosin (); the deity of the west is Shaohao (his name “small light” is opposed to the name of the ruler of the east - “great light”), his assistant is the white spirit Zhushou, the constellations in the western part of the sky and the planet Taibai (Venus) are correlated with him; the lord of the north is Zhuanxu, his assistant is the black spirit Xuanming, under his patronage were the temples of the moon and the lord of rain Yushi, the constellations in the northern part of the sky, as well as the planet Chenxing (Mercury).

In accordance with the fivefold classification, each of the mythical lords, as the ruler of the cardinal direction, also corresponded to a certain primary element, as well as a season, color, animal, body part, for example Fusi - a tree, from animals - a dragon, from flowers - green, from seasons - spring , from parts of the body - the spleen, from weapons - an ax; Zhuanxu - water, black color, winter, turtle, guts, shield, etc. All this indicates the emergence of a rather complex hierarchical system, where all elements are in constant interaction, and the possibility of transmitting the same ideas using different codes ("spatial", "calendar", "animal", "color", "anatomical", etc.). It is possible that this system of views is based on ideas about the origin of people and the cosmos from the primordial being.

The ordering of ancient mythological ideas simultaneously proceeded in terms of genealogical classification. Fuxi began to be considered the oldest ruler, followed by Yandi (Shennong), Huangdi, Shaohao, Zhuanxu. This hierarchical system was borrowed by historiographers and contributed to further euhemerization mythological heroes, especially after the formation of the Han Empire, when genealogical myths began to be used to justify the right to the throne and prove the antiquity of individual genera.

Majority mythological stories reconstructed according to the monuments of the 4th century BC and later. This is evidenced by Qu Yuan's "Questions to Heaven" ("Tian wen"), full of bewilderment about the plots of ancient myths and contradictions in them.

Subsequently, in the 1st century AD, the controversial philosopher Wang Chun gave a detailed critique of mytho-poetic thinking from the standpoint of naive rationalism. The withering away and oblivion of ancient mythological plots, however, did not mean the end of myth-making in the oral tradition. folk tradition and the appearance of new mythical heroes and legends about them. At the same time, there was a process of active anthropomorphization of ancient heroes. So, Xi Wangmu from a zoo-anthropomorphic creature in art and literature turns into an anthropomorphic figure, even, apparently, a beauty (in literature). Next to her, on the Yinan relief (Shandong, 2nd century AD), a tiger is depicted - the spirit of the West, which took on its bestial features (similarly in Huan Lin's "Biography of Xi Wangmu", 2nd century AD). In the Han era, the mistress of the west has a husband - the lord of the east - Dongwanggong. His figure is modeled on the model of a more ancient female deity, this is especially noticeable in his description in the “Book of the Divine and Amazing” (“Shen and Ching”), created in imitation of the “Book of Mountains and Seas”, where, unlike the reliefs, he has a zooanthropomorphic view (bird face, tiger tail).

Chinese myths about the origin of man have several variants.

The first Chinese myth of the origin of man

The beginning of the beginnings was laid in the primitive water chaos of Hun-tun, which looked like a chicken egg. And around in impenetrable darkness wandered images, devoid of any form. It was in this egg-shaped structure that Pan-gu was born. For a long time he slept soundly, and when he woke up, he saw only darkness around him, and then Pan-gu became so sad. Wanting to get out, he broke the shell. Part of the fragments rose up and became the sky, called Yang, the other part of the coarser and heavier fragments sank down and turned into the earth - Yin. Pan-gu used five components to create the Universe: water, wood, earth, fire and metal. When the creator of the universe took a breath, it began to rain and the wind howled; exhaled - immediately a thunderstorm began, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. When Pan-gu's eyes were open - it was day on the planet, when he closed them - everything around became dark, and night fell.

Pan-gu really liked his creation own hands and he was very afraid of losing it all again. The mighty Pan-gu stood firmly on his feet, raised his hands up and rested against the sky, now the earth and sky could not unite again and create primeval chaos. So he stood for eighteen thousand years, and every day the distance between the earth and the sky increased. Now they will no longer be able to connect in any way, and Pan-gu's duty is fulfilled. He lowered his hands helplessly, lay down on the ground and fell into an eternal sleep. According to legend, his eyes turned into the moon and the sky, his blood gave rise to large rivers, his bones turned into huge stones. People on earth appeared from those insects that crawled over the dead body of Pan-gu.

Second Chinese origin myth also beautiful and a bit sad. According to its plot, the son and daughter of the majestic Shen Nong, the god of the seas and water, are considered the creators of people. Fu-si and Nyu-wu lived on the top of the sacred mountain Kun-lun and had the appearance of a half-snake and half-man. Moreover, the upper part was similar to a human form, but the torso and legs were similar to a sea snake. Of these two twins, Noi-va is considered the progenitor of all people on earth. The first version of the legend tells that Noi-va was able to give birth to a lump that had no shape at all. Then she took this lump in her hands and divided it into many small lumps. She threw these small particles so that they scattered all over the earth. In place of each fallen lump, people appeared. The second version says that one day, sitting on the shore of a pond, Noi-va, in her own image and likeness, molded a small clay figurine, which came to life and turned out to be very welcoming and friendly. And then Noi-va came up with a wonderful idea: to mold a lot of such figures. She really wanted these friendly creatures to populate the whole earth. It was very slow to sculpt such figures, and Noi-va found a solution: she took a long vine in her hands, lowered it into wet clay, and shook it above the ground. In an instant, the clay shattered into small lumps, and a person appeared from each small piece. But the earth is very large and Noi-va could not stick so many little men to populate the entire territory. Then she decided to give the little men a feminine and a masculine beginning, separate them in pairs and order them to live in peace and harmony and give birth to children. Fu-hsi, in turn, taught the human race useful things: get their own food, kindle a fire, cook food. Gave musical instrument, gave the first basics of science, or rather eight trigrams. And people lived happily: no one was at enmity, animals and people lived in peace, nature endowed them in full with its riches. But one day the spirits of water and fire quarreled and started a war. The victory was for the spirit of fire, Ju-jun, and the spirit of water, Gong-gun, became so desperate that he hit his head with all his strength on the mountain, which was a support for the sky. The sky broke in several places, and water poured out of the resulting holes, which swept away everything in its path. Noi-va rushed with all her might to save the earth from disaster. She melted the pebbles and filled the hole in the sky with them. The pebbles froze and turned into stars. Noi-va was able to restore order and tranquility to the earth. Now she deserves a rest. Someone says that Noi-va died, and someone that she flew away to heaven and from there keeps order on earth.

The history of the ancient civilization of China or the birth of the universe

The ancient myths of China describe the history of China's ancient civilization since the birth of the universe. It could be said that since big bang, but this is part of modern scientific mythology, and in the ancient myths of China, the universe is described as a kind of egg that was broken from the inside. Perhaps, if at that moment there was some external observer, for him it would look like an explosion. After all, the egg was filled with Chaos.

From this Chaos, Pangu was born with the help of the forces of the Yin and Yang Universe. This part of the ancient myths of China is quite compatible with the modern scientific myth about how from chaos chemical elements a DNA molecule was accidentally created on Earth. So, according to the theory of the origin of life accepted in the ancient Chinese civilization, it all began with the first ancestor Pangu, who broke the egg. According to one version of this ancient myth In China, Pangu used an ax, with which he was often depicted on antiquities. It can be assumed that this tool was created from the surrounding chaos, thus becoming the first material object.

Pangu separates Heaven and Earth Chaos broke out of the egg, splitting into light and heavy elements. More precisely, the light elements rose up and formed the Sky - a bright beginning, protein (yang), and the heavy ones went down and created the Earth - muddy, yolk (yin). Here it is difficult not to notice a certain relationship between the ancient myths of China and scientific explanation creation solar system. According to which our planetary system was formed from a rotating chaotic cloud of gases and heavy elements. Under the action of rotation, heavy elements accumulated closer to the center, around the Sun that appeared in the course of natural causes (which we will not discuss here). They formed solid planets, and light elements that accumulated closer to the edge are gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune ...)

Life on Earth in the ancient myths of China

But let us return to the theory of the origin of life adopted in the ancient civilization of China, to what our self-confident science calls mythology. So, the ancient myths of China tell how Pangu, being the first and only inhabitant of the new universe, put his feet on the ground, his head on the sky and began to grow.

For 18,000 years, the distance between heaven and earth increased by 3 meters every day until it reached today's scale. Finally, seeing that the earth and sky would no longer unite, his body reincarnated into the whole world. According to the ancient myths of China - Pangu's breath became wind and clouds, the body with arms and legs - huge mountains and four cardinal directions, blood - rivers, flesh - soil, skin - grass and trees ... The ancient civilization of China thereby confirms the myths of other peoples, in which our planet is assigned the role of a living being or organism.

According to the ancient myths of China, when the Earth had already separated from the sky, majestic mountains rose high, rivers full of fish flowed to the seas, forests and steppes were overflowing with wild animals, the world still remained incomplete without the human race. And then the history of the creation of mankind begins. As in other religious versions, the religions of the ancient civilization of China believed that people were created from clay. In the treatise of the II century "The General Meaning of Customs", the creator of people was Nuwa - the great female spirit. In the ancient myths of China, Nu Wu was seen as a beautician of the world, and therefore she was depicted with a measuring square in her hand or, as the personification of the feminine Yin, with the disk of the Moon in her hands. Nuwa was depicted with a human body, bird legs and a snake tail. She took a handful of clay and began to sculpt figures, they came to life and became people. Nuwa understood that she did not have enough strength or time to blind all the people who could populate the earth.

And then Nuwa stretched a rope through the liquid clay. When the goddess shook the rope, pieces of clay flew in all directions. Falling to the ground, they turned into people. But either because they were not molded by hand, or because the swamp clay still differed in composition from the one from which the first people were molded, but the ancient myths of China claim that people are more fast way production was significantly different from those created by hand. That is why the rich and noble are people made by the gods with their own hands from yellow earth, while the poor and insignificant people are made with a rope.

Further, Nuwa gave her creatures the opportunity to reproduce on their own. True, before that, she handed over to them the law on the obligations of both parties in marriage, which was strictly observed in the ancient civilization of China. Since then, for the Chinese, who honor the ancient myths of China, Nuwa is considered the patroness of marriages, in whose power to save a woman from infertility. Nuwa's divinity was so strong that even 10 deities were born from her entrails. But Nuwa's merits do not end there.

Ancestor Nuwa Protects Humanity

People then lived happily ever after - this is how fairy tales usually end in European tradition, but this is not a fairy tale, but the ancient myths of China, so they lived happily for the time being. Until the first war of the gods began. Between the spirit of fire Zhurong and the spirit of water Gonggun.

Nuwa lived calmly for some time, not knowing worries. But the land already inhabited by the people she had created was engulfed in great calamities. In some places, the sky collapsed, and huge black holes appeared there. The spirit of fire Zhurong gave birth to the spirit of the waters of Gungong, the struggle with which took, great place in ancient mythology. The ancient myths of China describe the incredible fire and heat that seeped through them, as well as the fire that engulfed the forests on Earth. Depressions formed in the Earth, through which gushed The groundwater. Two opposites that characterize the ancient civilization of China, two elements hostile to each other, Water and Fire joined forces to destroy people.

Seeing how they suffer human creatures, Nuwa, as a true beautifier of the world, set to work to “patch” the leaky firmament. She collected multi-colored stones and, melting them on fire, filled the celestial holes with the resulting mass. To strengthen the sky, Nu Wa cut off four legs from a giant tortoise and placed them on four parts of the earth as props that support the sky. The firmament strengthened, but did not return to its former state. According to the ancient myths of China, he squinted a little, but in reality this can be seen from the movement of the sun, moon and stars. In addition, a huge depression formed to the southeast of the Celestial Empire, which became the Ocean.

The mythical period in the history of any country, in my opinion, is of the greatest interest. Many millennia have passed since then, but each time the scale of the activity of the ancient goddesses and gods, as well as the similarity of many of their exploits among the peoples living on opposite ends of the Earth, strikes the imagination.

According to the Chinese version, the divine Pangu created the world. At first, he slept in a huge egg in the midst of universal Chaos, the state of the Great Infinity, in the Taoist tradition of Wu-tzu (無極, Wújí). This is reminiscent of the Indian legends about the Night of Brahma, when there is no day, no night, no sky, no earth, the Universe is sleeping. Then Pangu woke up, got up and separated Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang, initiating Tai Chi (太极, tàijí). The world became dual, polarities began to interact. Having accomplished this great deed, Pangu immediately died, and our visible Universe appeared from his body, and rivers, lakes, mountains, plants and many creatures arose on Earth, among which was the giant Hua Xu. Apparently, he was asexual, but gave birth to two children, a brother and sister, Fuxi (伏羲) and Nuwe (女媧), creatures with a human face and torso, but a snake tail, like Indian ones. Here, of course, I would like to screw in theories about the arrival of reptilians to Earth, but we will leave that for another article.

Nuwa (女媧), is undoubtedly a much older character than her brother. Even chronologically, Chinese historians begin to mention Fuxi with her only from the 1st century AD. Obviously, in tribute to the progressive patriarchy, when it is already inconvenient to attribute all the merits for saving the Earth and creating the human race to one woman. Before that, according to chronicles, Nuiva plowed for two, and a galloping horse, and in a burning hut.

As it should be for the mother goddess, she fashioned human figures from yellow clay, and then brought them to life. At first, I tried very hard, sculpted every detail, these figures turned out to be emperors, high-ranking officials, generals and scientists. But then, like a real woman, she got tired and decided to speed up the process at the expense of quality. She dipped the rope in the mud and shook it off. Craftsmen and peasants emerged from these lumps.

When the four pillars supporting the sky were broken, and the vault did not completely cover the earth, global flood. But the goddess, having melted stones of five colors (representing the five sacred elements, metal, water, wood, fire and earth), plugged the heavenly holes with them, and, cutting off four legs from a giant tortoise, made new pillars of them. Humanity has been saved. True, the design is slightly slanted (after all, this is not a woman's work), so all the rivers in China flow to the southeast.

Being half a snake, Nu Wa retained the ability to renew herself by shedding her old skin. Therefore, she remained forever young and beautiful. Her body was so divine that it continually produced new living beings. Therefore, she became the patroness of marriage, wealth and fertility. Her semi-serpentine essence is reminiscent of the powerful force of Kundalini, a fiery spiral of energy rising up along the spine.

Fuxi (伏羲), brother and husband of the almighty Nuwa, became one of first three rulers of China. Its appearance marks the transition from matriarchy to a patriarchal society. He is credited with introducing the institution of marriage. As the historian Bang Gu writes in the second half of the 1st century AD, before Fuxi, people did not know their father, they only knew their mother, greedily ate raw food without making supplies, were dirty and had no laws. Like Prometheus in Greek mythology, Fusi taught people how to farm, fish, hunt, crafts, and also invented writing after seeing the first eight trigrams on the shell of a huge divine turtle.

He developed the first laws, and obliged everyone to comply with them, and also taught people to follow the will of the gods, asking for a blessing. According to legend, when there were no people on Earth yet, he wanted to marry his sister (remember Isis and Osiris), but Nuwa initially resisted. Then they decided to receive a sign from above, dispersed to different mountains and lit fires. Their smoke combined, this was interpreted as an auspicious omen. Nuwa and Fuxi got married and were depicted together, with woven snake tails, as a symbol of the union of male and female. Agree, it is very reminiscent of the Caduceus of Hermes, a rod that can reconcile. Or the Uraeus of the Egyptian pharaohs.

Fuxi is said to have ruled from 2852 to 2737 BC. He died in Henan province, where there is a monument to him.

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Myths of ancient China

Each nation creates a unique mythology, in which, like in a mirror, its way of thinking is reflected. AT Chinese myths ancient beliefs and legends, the philosophical teachings of Buddhism and Taoism, folk tales and legendary events intertwined, because the ancient Chinese assumed that mythical events actually took place many, many centuries ago.

In this section, we will meet with the mythical characters of Chinese history. Some of them are already familiar to us: the snake woman Nuwa, the emperors Fuxi and Huangdi. However, if until now mythology has interested us as a reflection of possible historical events, now we will try to look at it from a different point of view. After all, with the help of myths, you can see how the Chinese are similar to other peoples and what makes them absolutely unique. Let's start from the very beginning - from the creation of the world.

Every nation has a myth about the creation of the world. Such myths are often attempts by an inquisitive mind to imagine what was before everything appeared. But there is another point of view on the myths about the creation of the world. According to the works of the orientalist and writer Mircea Eliade, myths about the creation of the world were used in the rituals of the New Year celebration. Man, says Eliade, is afraid of time, behind him are the mistakes of the past, in front of him is an unclear and dangerous future. To get rid of the fear of time, a person created a New Year's ritual in which the old world was destroyed, and then recreated again with the help of special magical formulas. Thus, a person was freed from the sins and mistakes of the past and could not be afraid of the dangers that await him in the future, because each subsequent year is completely similar to the previous one, which means that he will live like the previous ones.

According to Chinese beliefs, the world was created from the initial chaos of water, which in Chinese is called huntun. This water chaos was filled scary monsters, whose appearance alone evoked horror: these monsters had fused legs, teeth and fingers. Interestingly, according to the Chinese, some of their mythical ancestors looked similar.

The collection of sayings of philosophers from Huainan (Huainanzi) tells about those times when there was still neither heaven nor earth, and only formless images wandered in pitch darkness. In those distant times, two deities emerged from chaos.

Another myth tells that the first event of the creation of the world was the separation of the sky from the earth (in Chinese - kaipi). Written in the 3rd century the philosopher Xuzheng treatise "Chronological Records of the Three and Five Rulers" ("San Wu Lizi") tells that heaven and earth were in chaos, like the contents of a chicken egg. From this chicken egg, the first man Pangu was born: “Suddenly, heaven and earth separated from each other: yang, light and pure, became the sky, yin, dark and impure, became the earth. The sky began to rise every day by one zhang, and the earth per day became thicker by one zhang, and Pangu grew by one zhang per day. Eighteen thousand years passed, and the sky rose high, high, and the earth became dense and thick. And Pangu himself became tall, tall.” As it grew in the watery chaos, the sky moved further and further away from the earth. Each act of Pangu gave rise to natural phenomena: with his breath, wind and rain were born, with his exhalation - thunder and lightning, he opened his eyes - day came, closed - night came. After Pangu's death, his elbows, knees, and head became five sacred mountain peaks, and his body hair became modern humans.

This version of the myth became the most popular in China, which was reflected in traditional Chinese medicine, physiognomy, and even in the theory of Chinese portraiture - artists sought to depict real people and mythical characters in such a way that they are more or less similar to the mythological first man Pangu.

The Taoist legend contained in the Notes on the First Immortals tells a different story about Pangu: “When earth and sky were not yet separated, Pangu, the first to call himself a heavenly king, wandered among chaos. When heaven and earth separated, Pangu began to live in a palace that stood on the Mountain of the Jasper Capital (Yujingshan), where he ate heavenly dew and drank spring water. A few years later, in a mountain gorge, from the blood collected there, a girl of unprecedented beauty named Taiyuan Yunyu (the first jasper maiden) appeared. She became the wife of Pangu, and their first-born son Tianhuang (Heavenly Emperor) and daughter Jiuguangxuannuy (Pure Maiden of Nine Rays) and many other children were born.

Comparing these texts, we see how myths have changed and been rethought over time. The fact is that every myth, unlike historical fact or official document, allows for multiple interpretations and interpretations, so it can be understood by different people in different ways.

The next myth tells about the already familiar half-woman half-snake Nyuwe. She did not create the Universe, but created all things and was the mother of all people whom she fashioned from wood and clay. Seeing that the creatures she created die without leaving offspring, and the earth is quickly emptying, she taught people about sex and created special mating rituals for them. As we have already mentioned, the Chinese portrayed Nu Wa as a figure with the head and hands of a man and with the body of a snake. Her name means "snail-like woman". The ancient Chinese believed that certain molluscs, insects and reptiles that could change their skin or shell (house) had the power of rejuvenation and even immortality. Therefore, Nuwa, having been reborn 70 times, transformed the Universe 70 times, and the forms that she took in her rebirths gave rise to all beings living on earth. It was believed that Nuwa's divine magical power was so great that even 10 deities were born from her entrails (intestines). But the main merit of Nyuwa is that she created humanity and divided people into higher and lower: those whom the goddess fashioned from yellow clay ( yellow in China - the color of heavenly and earthly emperors) and their descendants subsequently formed the ruling elite of the empire; and those who emerged from the pieces of clay and mud scattered by Nuwa with a rope are peasants, slaves and other subordinates.

According to other myths, Nuwa saved the Earth from death during a catastrophe, when heavenly fire and a flood could destroy all life. The goddess collected multi-colored stones, melted them and closed up the heavenly holes through which water and fire poured onto the earth. Then she chopped off the legs of a giant tortoise and with these legs, like pillars, she strengthened the firmament. Nevertheless, the firmament squinted a little, the earth went to the right, and the sky to the left. Therefore, the rivers in the Celestial Empire flow to the southeast. Nuwa's husband is considered to be her brother Fuxi (it is he who is identified with one of the first emperors). They are often depicted with intertwined snake tails facing each other or turned away. Nuwa's sign, which she holds in her hands, is a compass. Temples were built in her honor, where in the second month of spring plentiful sacrifices were made and holidays were held in her part, as the goddess of love and marriages. In late China, images of Nuwa and Fuxi were also carved on tombstones to protect graves.

Historians suggest that in ancient times Pangu and Nuwa were the deities of various tribes that later merged into the Han nation, and therefore their images are so different from each other. Thus, it is known that the cult of Nuwa was widespread in Sichuan and the southeastern outskirts of the Chinese empire, and the cult of Pangu was spread in the south. In history, it often happens that two images similar in their functions merge into marriage or closely related (mother - son, father - daughter, brother - sister) pairs of deities, but this did not happen in the case of Pangu and Nyuwa, most likely because they were too different from each other.

The created world for the Chinese was not a list of natural objects located at different distances from each other, but was inhabited by numerous spirits. In every mountain, in every stream and in every forest, good or evil spirits lived, with which legendary events took place. The Chinese believed that such events really happened in ancient times, and therefore historians recorded these legends in the chronicles along with real historical events. But in neighboring settlements the same legend could be told in different ways, and the writers, having heard it from different people, entered various legends into their records. In addition, historians often reworked ancient myths, trying to present them from the right angle. So legends were woven into historical events, and incidents that took place in a distant mythical time became modern for the great dynasties of China.

There were a great many spirits worshiped by the Chinese. Among them were many ancestral spirits, that is, the spirits of people who once lived on earth and helped their relatives and fellow villagers after their death. In principle, any person after death could become a deity, enter the local pantheon and receive honors and sacrifices due to spirits. To do this, he must have certain magical powers and spiritual qualities. The Chinese were convinced that after death, all the evil that was in a person goes away when the body decays, and the cleansed bones serve as a receptacle for the strength of the deceased. So, when the meat on the bones decayed, the dead turned into spirits. People believed that they often met them wandering along the roads or in places they loved in life, and they looked the same as before when they were alive. Such spirits could come to fellow villagers and ask, and often even demand, that they make sacrifices to them. If the inhabitants of this area refused to make sacrifices, the spirits could cause a lot of trouble to the living: send a flood or drought, ruin crops, overtake clouds with heavy hail, snow or rain, deprive livestock and local women of fertility, cause an earthquake. When people made the necessary sacrifices, the spirits had to treat the living favorably and stop harming people.

Often people arranged for spirits to be tested, asking them to perform some kind of magical assignment. different levels"difficulties" - to ensure the fertility of livestock and crops, victory in the war, a successful marriage of children. If after the sacrifices to the spirits the desired events did not occur, the spirits were called impostors and no more sacrifices were made to them.

The ancient Chinese worshiped many gods, whose cults have survived to this day. Until now, the most revered goddess of China is the goddess of mercy Guanyin, also called Guanshiyin or Guanzizai. The Chinese proverb "Amitofo in every place, Guanyin in every home" testifies to the huge popularity of Guanyin among the people. Representatives of all religious movements of the country revere her, and the Buddhists of China consider her the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara. According to the Buddhist pictorial canon, she is depicted as a bodhisattva in a female guise, which, in general, contradicts religious tenets Buddhism, which states that bodhisattvas are sexless. Buddhists believe that the divine essence of a bodhisattva can manifest itself in the form of any creature or even an object. Its purpose is to help living beings comprehend the universal law (Dharma), which means that there is no reason to depict bodhisattvas in a female form. Buddhists believe that the main purpose of the Bodhisattva Guanshiyin is to teach all people about their true nature and how they can be realized in the world around them in order to follow the path of enlightenment. But the popularity of this goddess was so great that the Buddhists went to a direct violation of their own canon.

The Buddhist name Guanyin - Avalokiteshvara - comes from the Indian (Pali) verb "look down, explore, inspect" and means "Mistress of the world, who looks at the world with pity and compassion." The Chinese name of the goddess is close to this: "guan" means "to consider", "shi" - "world", "yin" - "sounds". Thus, her name means "contemplating the sounds of the world." Tibetan name of the goddess Spryanraz-Gzigs - “The mistress contemplating with her eyes” - also draws attention to the visual, visual aspect of the goddess.

Traditional Chinese Wedding Dress silk

According to the Buddhist treatise Manikabum, Avalokiteshvara is a man, not a woman. He was born in the pure sacred land of Padmavati created by the Buddha, which was ruled by an ideal ruler named Tsangpokhog. This ruler had everything one could wish for, but he did not have a son, and he passionately desired to have an heir. For this, he made many offerings to the Shrine of the Three Jewels, but his desire was not fulfilled, although for each offering he ordered lotus flowers to be collected. One day, his servant told his master that he had found a giant lotus on the lake, the petals of which were like the wingspan of a kite. the flower was about to bloom. The ruler considered this a good omen and assumed that the deities supported him in his desire to have a son. Zangpohog gathered his ministers, associates and servants and went with them to the lake. There they saw the blossoming of a wonderful lotus. And something unusual happened: among its petals sat a boy of about sixteen, dressed in white clothes. The wise men examined the boy and found on his body the main physical signs Buddha. When it got dark, it turned out that a glow emanated from him. After a while, the boy said, "I feel sorry for all sentient beings who are immersed in suffering!" the king and his subjects brought gifts to the boy, fell to the ground before him and invited him to live in the palace. the king gave him the name "Lotus-Born", or "Lotus Essence", because of his amazing birth. Buddha Amitabha, who appeared in a dream, told the king that this boy is a manifestation of the virtues of all Buddhas and the essence of the hearts of all Buddhas, and he also said that the heavenly name of the boy is Avalokiteshvara and his mission is to help all living beings in their troubles and sufferings no matter how innumerable they might be.

According to ancient legend, the daughter of the king of one of the Chinese states named Miaoshan was so righteous in her earthly life that she received the nickname “Yes Tsy da bei ju ku ju nan na mo ling gan Guan shi yin pusa” (the most merciful, saving from torment and disaster, the refuge of the resorting , miraculous lord of the world of bodhisattvas). It is believed that Miaoshan was one of the first incarnations of Kuan-yin on earth.

The appearances of Guanshiyin were numerous in China, but it appeared to people especially often in the 10th century, during the reign of the Five Dynasties. During this period, she appeared either in the form of a bodhisattva, or in the form of a Buddhist or Taoist monk, but never in the form of a woman. But in earlier times, she assumed her original female form. This is how she was depicted in early paintings. So portrayed her, for example, Udaozzi, famous artist Tang Emperor Xuanzong (713-756).

In China, it is believed that Guanyin has a miraculous power that allows you to get rid of bonds and fetters, as well as from execution. According to legend, one has only to pronounce the name Guanyin, as the shackles and bonds themselves fall off, swords and other instruments of execution break, and this happens every time, regardless of whether the convicted criminal or an innocent person. She also frees from suffering from weapons, fire and fire, demons and water. And, of course, women who wish to give birth to a child pray to Guanyin, and the child they can give birth to at the appointed time will be provided with the blessings of good deities, virtues and wisdom. The female qualities of Guanshiyin are manifested in her qualities of the “great sadness”, the giver of children, the savior; as well as in the guise of a warrior actively fighting evil. In this case, she is often depicted with the deity Erlanshen.

The functions of the deity, as well as its appearance, could change over time. An example is the goddess Sivanma, the mistress of the West, the keeper of the source and fruits of immortality. In more ancient myths, she acts as a formidable mistress of the land of the Dead, located in the West, and the mistress of heavenly punishments and diseases, primarily the plague, as well as natural disasters that she sends to people. The artists depicted her as a woman with long disheveled hair, a leopard's tail and tiger claws, sitting on a tripod in a cave. Three blue (or green) three-legged sacred birds brought her food. At a later time, Xiwangmu turns into a heavenly beauty living in the far West, in the Kunlun mountains in a jade palace on the shores of Jasper Lake, near which a peach tree grows with fruits that give immortality. She is always accompanied by a tiger. The goddess here is the patroness of the "immortal" Taoist saints. Her palace and the nearby garden with a peach tree and the source of immortality are surrounded by a golden rampart guarded by magical creatures and monsters.

The Chinese often mythologized real people. One of them is Guanyu, the commander of the Shu kingdom of the Three Kingdoms era. Subsequently, he became one of the main characters of the medieval novel "Three Kingdoms", in which he is presented as an ideal of nobility. Historians Chinese literature they even call him the Eastern Robin Hood. According to legend, he and his two friends (Zhangfei and Lubei) swore to stand up for each other after the straw sandal maker Lubei broke up a fight between Guanyu and the butcher Zhangfei in a peach orchard. When fate lifted Lubei high and he founded the kingdom of Shu, he made Guanyu his supreme commander. However, the relationship between the real Guanyu and Lubei was not so idyllic. Around 200, the first fought in the army of Caotsao, and Lubei was on the side of his main enemy (Yuanshao). Nineteen years later, the real Guanyu, along with his son and squire, was captured by Sunquan and executed. After the execution, Sun Quan sent Guanyu's head to Emperor Caocao, who buried it with honors. Soon after the burial of the head, legends appeared that said that after the murder of an unscrupulous judge, Guanyu managed to pass unrecognized past the guards, as his face changed color in a fantastic way. Since the 17th century Guanyu began to be revered in Korea. According to local legends, Guanyu allegedly defended the country from the Japanese invasion. Later it began to be revered in Japan.

From the time of the Sui Dynasty, Guanyu was revered not so much as real person, how much as a god of war, and in 1594 he was officially deified under the name of Guandi. Since then, thousands of temples have been dedicated to him in China. In addition to military functions, Guangdi-Guanyu also performed judicial functions So, in his temples a sword was kept, with which criminals were executed. And besides, it was believed that the spirit of the deceased would not dare to take revenge on the executioner if he performed cleansing rites in the temple of Guandi.

Guandi is depicted accompanied by a squire and a son. His face is red, and he is dressed in a green vestment. Guandi holds in his hands the historical treatise Zuozhuan, supposedly memorized by him. Due to this, it is believed that Guandi patronizes not only warriors and executioners, but also writers. It is possible that the image of the warrior-writer was greatly influenced by the Tibetan god Geser (Gesar), who was both a deity and historical personality- The commander of the Ling region. Later image Geser was accepted by the Mongols and Buryats, for whom he became the main epic hero.

As in any ancient culture, the mythological representations of the Chinese are closely intertwined with the real and the fantastic. It is impossible to say what proportion of the real is in the myths about the creation and existence of the world. It is impossible to say what is the proportion of the fantastic in the descriptions of real rulers (if, of course, they are real). Most likely, what is told in many Chinese myths is an allegorical embodiment of power, courage, wealth, malice and destruction, etc.

Of course, in a book so small in volume, it is impossible to tell in any detail about the mythology of China. But even what we have managed to talk about allows us to assert that the Chinese civilization is unique in its attitude to mythology, to the relationship between myth and real history. Therefore, in the history of China, one can often see that the Chinese create a certain myth from real history and live in it, firmly believing that this is reality. Perhaps one can say that the Chinese live in myths and create myths about life. This myth-making of history and the historicity of myths is, in our opinion, the main difference between the Chinese and other peoples of the world.