Table Of ContentHandbook of
Chinese Mythology
TITLES IN ABC-CLIO’s
Handbooks of World Mythology
Handbook of Arab Mythology, Hasan El-Shamy
Handbook of Celtic Mythology, Joseph Falaky Nagy
Handbook of Classical Mythology, William Hansen
Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch
Handbook of Hindu Mythology, George Williams
Handbook of Inca Mythology, Catherine Allen
Handbook of Japanese Mythology, Michael Ashkenazi
Handbook of Native American Mythology,
Dawn Bastian and Judy Mitchell
Handbook of Norse Mythology, John Lindow
Handbook of Polynesian Mythology, Robert D. Craig
HANDBOOKS OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY
Handbook of
Chinese Mythology
Lihui Yang and Deming An,
with Jessica Anderson Turner
Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England
Copyright © 2005 by Lihui Yang and Deming An
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion
of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yang, Lihui.
Handbook of Chinese mythology / Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica
Anderson Turner.
p. cm. — (World mythology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57607-806-X (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-57607-807-8 (eBook)
1. Mythology, Chinese—Handbooks, Manuals, etc. I. An, Deming. II. Title.
III. Series.
BL1825.Y355 2005
299.5’1113—dc22
2005013851
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit
abc-clio.com for details.
ABC-CLIO, Inc.
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116–1911
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments, ix
1 Introduction, 1
What Is a Myth? 1
A General Introduction to Chinese Mythology, 4
Main Sources for the Myths of Ancient China, 4
Shanhaijing,6
Chuci,8
Huainanzi,10
Three Features of the Written Records, 12
Myths Orally Transmitted among Contemporary Han People, 14
The San Tao Jicheng Project, 14
A Myth-telling Performance in Renzu Temple, 16
Myths in Other Ethnic Groups, 20
The Richness of Myth in China’s Ethnic Minorities, 20
Flood Myths, 21
Contexts of Myth Telling in Ethnic Minorities, 24
Myth Tellers in Ethnic Minorities, 27
Myths within Chinese History and Society, 30
The Pre–Qin Dynasty Period (before 256 BC), 32
The Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 CE), 36
After Han through the Qing Dynasty (220–1911 CE), 39
Republic of China (1912–1949), 43
The People’s Republic of China (1949–Present), 45
Influence of Myth on Chinese Culture and Society, 48
Influence of Myth on Belief, 49
Influence of Myth on Literature and Art, 50
Influence of Myth on Daily Life, 52
Influence of Myth on the Chinese Spirit, 54
2 A Timeline of the Mythological World, 63
The Emergence of Gods, 63
Pangu Was Born from the Cosmic Egg, 64
The Gansheng Myths, 64
v
vi Contents
The Emergence of the Universe, 65
The Cosmos Came from an Egg, 65
The Universe Came from a Divine Corpse, 65
Parents of the Suns and the Moons, 66
The Separation of Heaven and the Earth, 66
The Emergence of Humans, 67
Humans Were Created by Nüwa Molding Mud, 68
Humans Were Re-created by the Brother-Sister Couple, 68
The Invention of Culture, 69
Inventing Agriculture, 70
Acquisition of Fire, 71
Discovery of Chinese Medicine, 71
Inventing Chinese Characters, 72
Inventing Musical Instruments, 72
Cosmic Disasters and Restorations, 73
The Flood and Its Control, 74
The Repair of the Broken Sky, 74
Shooting Down the Surplus Suns, 75
Circular Time, 76
3 Deities, Themes, and Concepts, 79
Ba, 79
Boyi, 80
Buzhou, Mount, 81
Cancong, 82
Cangjie, 84
Chang’e, 86
Changxi, 91
Chiyou, 92
Cords of the Earth, 94
Crow of the Sun, 95
Di Jun, 97
Di Ku, 98
Dragon, 100
Elixir of Immortality, 110
Fangfeng, 111
Feng Bo, 113
Floods, The, 114
Fusang, 117
Fuxi, 118
Contents vii
Gonggong, 124
Goumang, 126
Gun, 127
He Bo, 131
Houji, 131
Houtu, 135
Huang Di, 138
Hundun, 146
Jiandi, 148
Jiang Yuan, 150
Jingwei, 154
Kuafu, 155
Kui, 158
Kunlun Mountain, 160
Leizu, 164
Li, 167
Linglun, 169
Nüwa, 170
Pangu, 176
Pillars of the Sky, 181
Qi, 186
Shaohao, 187
Shennong, 190
Shentu, 200
Shujun, 201
Shun, 202
Sky Ladder, 205
Suirenshi, 208
Taihao, 211
Tang Valley, 212
Twelve Moons, 213
Xiangliu, 214
Xihe, 215
Xingtian, 217
Xirang, 218
Xiwangmu, 218
Yan Di, 225
Yao, 227
Yao Grass, 230
Yi, 230
viii Contents
Yinglong, 234
Youchaoshi, 235
Youdu, 236
Yu, 236
Yu Shi, 242
Yulü, 243
Yuqiang, 243
Zhong, 244
Zhuanxu, 245
Zhulong, 246
Zhurong, 248
4 Print and Nonprint Resources, 251
Print Resources, 251
General Works on Chinese History and Culture, 251
Books and Articles on Chinese Mythology and Relevant Culture, 252
Nonprint Resources, 258
Videos, 258
Web Sites, 259
Glossary, 261
Index, 267
About the Authors, 293
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On October 30, 2000, I received an e-mail from William Hansen, a mythologist
in classical studies at Indiana University. At the time my husband, Deming, and
I were visiting research fellows in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusi-
cology at Indiana University in Bloomington. Professor Hansen told me that an
editor at ABC-CLIO was looking for someone to write a handbook on Chinese
mythology as part of its World Mythology series. He wondered if I could write
this volume. I was pleased to hear the news of this opportunity. I responded to
him swiftly: “Yes, I want to try.” In fact, I had long hoped that someday I could
introduce Chinese mythology to the West. I was encouraged to accept this great
challenge.
I have studied Chinese myths for more than ten years. My PhD dissertation
and my postdoctoral research focused on Nüwa myths. I have been conducting
fieldwork on myths and relevant folk religion in Henan, Hebei, Gansu, and
Shaanxi provinces since 1992, and I currently direct three research projects on
mythology. For these reasons, I am familiar with ancient Chinese myths
recorded in written accounts and living myths transmitted orally in China
today. Additionally, I have learned how most Chinese mythologists think of
myths and what they have accomplished in the field.
Since 1996 I have been teaching mythology to undergraduate and graduate
students at Beijing Normal University. In this setting I have discussed mythol-
ogy with students and addressed their questions about Chinese myths. I also fre-
quently discussed Chinese mythology with American scholars and students in
classroom and colloquium settings while a research fellow at Indiana Univer-
sity. These experiences have given me an understanding of what nonspecialists
are interested in, and what might be the common misunderstandings of and bi-
ases toward Chinese myths.
To my knowledge, there are no Chinese mythology books written in En-
glish by Chinese mythologists. Although I am aware of several Chinese mythol-
ogy texts that were originally written in Chinese and then translated into En-
glish, these books are quite limited. Among them, perhaps the most notable is
Dragons and Dynasties: An Introduction to Chinese Mythology (Penguin
Books, 1993), which was written in the 1960s by Chinese mythologist Yuan Ke
(1916–2001). Because this book and others like it were written many years ago,
ix
x Handbook of Chinese Mythology
they do not reflect new achievements in Chinese mythology, especially those
occurring in the past twenty years.
Western scholars have made great contributions to the field of Chinese
mythology from as early as the middle of the nineteenth century. Among nu-
merous eminent books and papers, there are some that are exemplary, and thus
cited in this book. Derk Bodde’s article “Myths of Ancient China,” a short but
serious article, discusses many important issues pertaining to ancient Chinese
myth studies. Anne Birrell’s studies of Chinese mythology have been published
in several books and are cited within this volume. Her Chinese Mythology: An
Introduction is a valuable book that provides concise and insightful interpreta-
tions and reliable accounts that are translated from primary sources in ancient
Chinese writings into English. Anthony Christie’s book, Chinese Mythology,
presents many primary classical Chinese myths and numerous beautiful illus-
trations. Many of the illustrations are rarely seen in mainland China.
In spite of the important contributions that Western scholars have offered,
however, I have found problems with many of the English books on Chinese
mythology written by Western researchers. First, the Chinese myths discussed
in many of these books are usually limited to the ones recorded in ancient Chi-
nese writings. They seldom, if at all, mention the myths that are spread orally
among Han people (the majority of the country’s population) and other ethnic
groups in contemporary China.
Second, these books usually view Chinese myths from Western values and
cultural tradition by nature of being written within Western scholarly circles.
For example, these scholars often compare Chinese myths with the classical
mythology of Greece and Rome, using the latter as the criterion for comparison
and analysis. They sometimes ignore how myths are transmitted and function
within Chinese society and culture. Additionally, these scholars often overlook
how native Chinese mythologists view myth and what has been accomplished
in current research and collection.
Third, their entries and sources are less selective, often including legends,
folktales, historical anecdotes, and mythical figures of classical novels. Frequently
the sources used in these books are an indiscriminate mix of different (and often
historicized) classical documents. Two popular books about Chinese myths, for
instance, Myths and Legends of China and A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology,
both written by the English sinologist E. T. C. Werner (1864–1954), found their
sources by mixing heterogeneous texts from ancient classics, mythical novels
written by novelists in sixteenth-century Buddhist sutras, and classical Taoist
texts. Unfortunately, though these two books have been sharply criticized by Chi-
nese mythologists and other sinologists, they continue to be reprinted.
Fourth, an additional problem with many texts written by Westerners sim-
