Ancient Chinese mythology. Ancient myths of China. Creation of the world, gods and people

18.04.2019

IN ancient times humanity has developed civilizations. These were isolated nationalities that were formed under the influence certain factors and had their own culture, technology and were distinguished by a certain individuality. Due to the fact that they were not as technologically advanced as modern humanity, ancient people were largely dependent on the vagaries of nature. Then lightning, rain, earthquakes and others natural phenomena seemed to be a manifestation of divine powers. These forces, as it seemed then, could determine fate and personal qualities person. This is how the very first mythology was born.

What is a myth?

According to modern cultural definition, this is a narrative that reproduces the beliefs of ancient people about the structure of the world, about higher powers, about man, biographies of great heroes and gods in verbal form. In some way, they reflected the then level of human knowledge. These tales were recorded and passed down from generation to generation, thanks to which we can today find out how our ancestors thought. That is, then mythology was a certain form and also one of the ways of understanding natural and social reality, which reflected the views of man at a certain stage of development.

Among the many questions that worried humanity in those distant times, the problem of the emergence of the world and man in it was especially relevant. Due to their curiosity, people tried to explain and understand how they appeared and who created them. It is then that a separate myth about the origin of people appears.

Due to the fact that humanity, as already mentioned, developed in large isolated groups, the legends of each nationality were in some way unique, since they reflected not only the worldview of the people at that time, but were also an imprint of the cultural, social development, and also carried information about the land where the people lived. In this sense, myths have some historical value, since they allow us to make some logical judgments about a particular people. In addition, they were a bridge between the past and the future, a connection between generations, passing on the knowledge that was accumulated in stories from the old family to the new, thus teaching it.

Anthropogonic myths

Regardless of civilization, all ancient people had their own ideas about how man appeared in this world. They have some common features, but they also have significant differences, which are determined by the peculiarities of life and development of a particular civilization. All myths about the origin of man are called anthropogonic. This word comes from the Greek anthropos, which means man. Such a concept as a myth about the origin of people exists among absolutely all ancient peoples. The only difference is their perception of the world.

For comparison, we can consider individual myths about the origin of man and the world of two great nations, which significantly influenced the development of mankind in their time. These are civilizations Ancient Greece and Ancient China.

Chinese view of the creation of the world

The Chinese imagined our Universe in the form of a huge egg, which was filled with a certain matter - Chaos. From this Chaos, the first ancestor of all humanity, Pangu, was born. He used his ax to break the egg in which he was born. When he broke the egg, Chaos burst out and began to change. The sky (Yin) was formed - which is associated with the light principle, and the Earth (Yang) - the dark principle. This is how the world was formed in the beliefs of the Chinese. After that, Pangu placed his hands on the sky and his feet on the ground and began to grow. It grew continuously until the sky separated from the earth and became what we see it today. Pangu, when he grew up, fell into many parts, which became the basis of our world. His body became mountains and plains, his flesh became earth, his breath became air and wind, his blood became water, and his skin became vegetation.

Chinese mythology

As the Chinese myth about the origin of man says, a world was formed that was inhabited by animals, fish and birds, but people were still there. The Chinese believed that the creator of humanity was the great female spirit - Nuwa. The ancient Chinese revered her as the organizer of the world; she was depicted as a woman with a human body, the legs of a bird and the tail of a snake, who holds in her hand a lunar disk (the Yin symbol) and a measuring square.

Nuiva began to sculpt human figures from clay, which came to life and turned into people. She worked a lot of time and realized that her strength was not enough to create people who could populate the entire earth. Then Nuiva took the rope and passed it through the liquid clay, and then shook it. People appeared where lumps of wet clay fell. But still they were not as good as those that were molded by hand. This is how the existence of the nobility, whom Nuiva molded with her own hands, and people of the lower classes, created with the help of rope, was justified. The goddess gave her creations the opportunity to reproduce independently, and also introduced the concept of marriage, which in Ancient China was observed very strictly. Therefore, Nuiva can also be considered the patroness of marriage.

This is the Chinese myth about the origin of man. As you can see, it reflects not only traditional Chinese beliefs, but also some of the features and rules that guided the ancient Chinese in their lives.

Greek mythology about the emergence of man

The Greek myth about the origin of man tells how the titan Prometheus created people from clay. But the first people were very defenseless and did not know how to do anything. For this act greek gods became angry with Prometheus and planned to destroy the human race. However, Prometheus saved his children by stealing fire from Olympus and bringing it to man in an empty reed stalk. For this, Zeus imprisoned Prometheus in chains in the Caucasus, where the eagle was supposed to peck his liver.

In general, any myth about the origin of people does not provide specific information about the emergence of humanity, concentrating more on subsequent events. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Greeks considered man insignificant compared to the omnipotent gods, thus emphasizing their importance for the entire people. Indeed, almost all Greek legends are directly or indirectly related to the gods, who guide and help human heroes such as Odysseus or Jason.

Features of mythology

What features does mythological thinking have?

As can be seen above, myths and legends interpret and describe the origin of man absolutely in different ways. You need to understand that the need for them arose early. They arose from man’s need to explain the origin of man, nature, and the structure of the world. Of course, the method of explanation that mythology uses is quite primitive; it differs significantly from the interpretation of the world order supported by science. In myths, everything is quite concrete and isolated; there are no abstract concepts in them. Man, society and nature merge into one. The main type of mythological thinking is figurative. Every person, hero or god necessarily has a concept or phenomenon that follows him. This one denies any logical argument, based on faith rather than knowledge. It is unable to generate questions that are not creative.

In addition, mythology also has specific literary devices, which allow us to emphasize the significance of certain events. These are hyperboles that exaggerate, for example, the strength or other important characteristics of heroes (Pangu, who was able to lift the sky), metaphors that attribute certain characteristics to things or beings that do not actually possess them.

Common features and influence on world culture

In general, one can trace a certain pattern in exactly how myths explain the origin of man different nations. In almost all versions, there is some kind of divine essence that breathes life into lifeless matter, thus creating and shaping a person. This influence of ancient pagan beliefs can be traced in later religions, such as Christianity, where God creates man in his own image. However, if it is not entirely clear how Adam appeared, then God creates Eve from a rib, which only confirms this influence of ancient legends. This influence of mythology can be traced in almost any culture that existed later.

Ancient Turkic mythology about how man appeared

The ancient Turkic myth about the origin of man calls the goddess Umai the progenitor of the human race, as well as the creator of the earth. She's in the form white swan flew over the water, which had always existed, and looked for land, but did not find it. She laid the egg straight into the water, but the egg immediately sank. Then the goddess decided to make a nest on the water, but the feathers from which she made it turned out to be fragile, and the waves broke the nest. The goddess held her breath and dived to the very bottom. She carried out a piece of earth in her beak. Then the god Tengri saw her suffering and sent Umai three fish made of iron. She put the earth on the back of one of the fish, and it began to grow until the entire earth's land was formed. After which the goddess laid an egg, from which the entire human race, birds, animals, trees and everything else appeared.

What can be determined by reading this Turkic myth about the origin of man? One can see a general similarity with the legends of Ancient Greece and China already known to us. A certain divine force creates people, namely from an egg, which is very similar to the Chinese legend about Pangu. Thus, it is clear that initially people associated the creation of themselves by analogy with living beings that they could observe. There is also an incredible reverence for the maternal principle, for women as the continuer of life.

What can a child learn from these legends? What new things does he learn by reading the myths of peoples about the origin of man?

First of all, this will allow him to become familiar with the culture and life of the people who existed in prehistoric times. Since myth is characterized by a figurative type of thinking, a child will perceive it quite easily and will be able to assimilate the necessary information. For children, these are the same fairy tales, and, like fairy tales, they are filled with the same morals and information. When reading them, the child will learn to develop his thinking processes, learn to benefit from reading and draw conclusions.

The myth about the origin of people will give the child an answer to the exciting question - where did I come from? Of course, the answer will be incorrect, but children take everything on faith, and therefore it will satisfy the child’s interest. Reading the above greek myth about the origins of man, the child will also be able to understand why fire is so important for humanity and how it was discovered. This will be useful in the child’s subsequent education in primary school.

Variety and benefits for the child

Indeed, if we take examples of myths about the origin of man (and not only them) from Greek mythology, you can see that the colorfulness of the characters and their number are very large and interesting not only for young readers, but even for adults. However, you need to help the child figure it all out, otherwise he will simply get confused in events and their causes. It is necessary to explain to the child why God loves or does not love this or that hero, why he helps him. In this way, the child will learn to build logical chains and compare facts, drawing certain conclusions from them.

Myths of ancient China

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

In this section we will meet 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 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 came into existence. But there is another point of view on the myths about the creation of the world. According to the works of orientalist and writer Mircea Eliade, creation myths were used in New Year's celebration rituals. Man, Eliade argues, is afraid of time, the mistakes of the past remain behind him, and an unclear and dangerous future lies before him. To get rid of the fear of time, people created a New Year's ritual in which the old world was destroyed and then recreated again with the help of special magical formulas. In this way, a person was freed from the sins and mistakes of the past and could not be afraid of the dangers awaiting him in the future, because each subsequent year is completely similar to the previous one, which means that it will be lived like the previous ones.

According to Chinese beliefs, the world was created from the original water chaos, which in Chinese is called “huntun”. This watery chaos was filled with terrible monsters, the very appearance of which caused horror: these monsters had fused legs, teeth and fingers. It is interesting that, according to the Chinese, some of their mythical ancestors looked similar.

A collection of sayings of philosophers from Huainan (Huainanzi) talks about those times when there was 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 heaven from earth (in Chinese - kaipi). Written in the 3rd century. The philosopher Xuzheng’s treatise “Chronological Records of the Three and Five Rulers” (“San Wu Liji”) says that heaven and earth were in chaos, like the contents of a chicken egg. From this chicken egg the first man, Pangu, came into being: “Suddenly, heaven and earth separated from each other: yang, light and pure, became heaven, yin, dark and unclean, became earth. The sky began to rise up by one zhang every day, and the earth became thicker by one zhang per day, 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 and tall.” As he grew in the watery chaos, the sky moved further and further from the earth. Every action of Pangu gave rise to natural phenomena: with his sigh 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 turned into five sacred mountain peaks, and the hair on his body turned into modern people.

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 heaven were not yet separated, Pangu, the first who was called the 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 that had collected there, a girl of unprecedented beauty named Taiyuan Yunyu (the first jasper maiden) appeared. She became Pangu’s wife, and their first children were born - the son Tianhuang (Heavenly Emperor) and the daughter Jiuguangxuannyu (Pure Maiden of the Nine Rays) and many other children.”

Comparing these texts, we see how myths have changed and been reinterpreted over time. The fact is that every myth, unlike historical fact or an official document, is subject to multiple interpretations and interpretations, so it may be understood differently by different people.

The next myth tells about the half-woman-half-snake Nuiva, already familiar to us. She did not create the Universe, but created all things and was the foremother of all people whom she fashioned from wood and clay. Seeing that the creatures she created were dying without leaving offspring, and the earth was quickly becoming empty, she taught people about sex and created special mating rituals for them. As we have already mentioned, the Chinese depicted Nüwu as a figure with the head and arms of a man and the body of a snake. Her name means "woman - snail-like creature." The ancient Chinese believed that certain shellfish, insects and reptiles, capable of changing skin or shell (house), had the power of rejuvenation and even immortality. Therefore, Nuiva, having been reborn 70 times, transformed the Universe 70 times, and the forms that she took in her rebirths gave rise to all creatures living on earth. It was believed that divine magical power Nuiva was so great that even from her intestines (intestines) 10 deities were born. But Nüiva’s main merit is that she created humanity and divided people into higher and lower: those whom the goddess sculpted from yellow clay ( yellow in China - the color of the 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 Nüwa with the help of a rope are peasants, slaves and other subordinates.

According to other myths, Nuiva saved the Earth from destruction during a catastrophe, when heavenly fire and flood could destroy all life. The goddess collected multi-colored stones, melted them and sealed the heavenly holes through which water and fire poured onto the earth. Then she cut off the legs of the giant turtle and with these legs, like pillars, strengthened the firmament. Nevertheless, the sky tilted somewhat, 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 Fusi (it is he who is identified with one of the first emperors). They are often depicted with intertwined snake tails, facing each other or facing away. The sign of Nuiva, which she holds in her hands, is a compass. Temples were built in her honor, where in the second month of spring abundant sacrifices were made and holidays were held in her part, as the goddess of love and marriage. In late China, images of Nüwa and Fuxi were also carved on tombstones to protect graves.

Historians suggest that in ancient times Pangu and Nuwa were deities of different tribes, which later merged into the Han nation, and therefore their images are so different from each other. Thus, it is known that the Nuwa cult was widespread in Sichuan and the southeastern outskirts of the Chinese empire, and the Pangu cult was widespread 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 in the case of Pangu and Nyuwa this did not happen, most likely because they were too different from each other.

For the Chinese, the created world 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 there lived good or evil spirits with whom legendary events took place. The Chinese believed that such events actually happened in ancient times, and therefore historians chronicled these legends 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, recorded various legends in their records. In addition, historians have often reworked ancient myths, trying to present them at the desired angle. So the legends were woven into historical events, and incidents that took place in distant mythical times became modern for the great dynasties of China.

There were a great many spirits that the Chinese worshiped. Among them were many spirits of ancestors, that is, 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 the honors and sacrifices due to the spirits. To do this, he had to have certain magical abilities 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 container 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 during 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, spoil crops, bring 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 were supposed to treat the living favorably and stop harming people.

Often people tested the spirits, asking them to carry out some magical tasks of varying levels of “complexity” - to ensure the fertility of livestock and crops, victory in a war, a successful marriage of children. If after sacrifices to the spirits the desired events did not occur, the spirits were called impostors and sacrifices were no longer made to them.

The ancient Chinese worshiped many gods, whose cults have survived to this day. Until now, the most revered goddess in China is the goddess of mercy Guanyin, also called Guanshiyin or Guanzizai. Chinese proverb“Amitofo in every place, Guanyin in every home” indicates the enormous popularity of Guanyin among the people. She is revered by representatives of all religious movements of the country, and Chinese Buddhists consider her the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara. According to the Buddhist pictorial canon, she is depicted as a bodhisattva in a female form, which generally contradicts the religious tenets of Buddhism, which state that bodhisattvas are asexual. Buddhists believe that the divine essence of a bodhisattva can manifest itself in the form of any creature or even object. Its purpose is to help living beings comprehend the universal law (Dharma), which means there is no reason to depict bodhisattvas in female form. Buddhists believe that the main purpose of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva is to teach all people about their true nature and how they can realize themselves in the world around them in order to follow the path of enlightenment. But the popularity of this goddess was so great that Buddhists decided to directly violate their own canon.

Guanyin's Buddhist name, Avalokiteshvara, comes from the Indian (Pali) verb "to look down, explore, inspect" and means "Mistress of the world, who looks at the world with pity and compassion." Close to this and Chinese name goddesses: “guan” means “to consider”, “shi” means “world”, “yin” means “sounds”. Thus, her name means "Viewer of the Sounds of the World." The Tibetan name of the goddess Spryanraz-Gzigs - “The Lady who contemplates with the 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 on the pure sacred land of Padmavati, created by the Buddha, in which an ideal ruler named Tsangpohog reigned. This ruler had everything one could wish for, but he had no son, and he longed for an heir. For this purpose, he made many offerings to the Shrine of the Three Jewels, but his desire was not fulfilled, although for each offering he ordered the collection of lotus flowers. One day his servant informed his master that he had found a giant lotus on the lake, the petals of which were as large as 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. Tsangpohog gathered his ministers, confidants and servants and went with them to the lake. There they saw a wonderful lotus bloom. And something unusual happened: among its petals sat a boy of about sixteen, dressed in white clothes. The sages examined the boy and found the main physical signs Buddha. When it got dark, it turned out that there was a glow coming from it. A little later the boy said: “I feel pity for all sentient beings who are immersed in suffering!” the king and his subjects presented gifts to the boy, fell to the ground in front of him and invited him to live in the palace. the king gave him the name "Born of the Lotus", or "Essence of the Lotus", because of his miraculous birth. Buddha Amitabha, who appeared in a dream, told the king that this boy was the manifestation of the virtues of all Buddhas and the essence of the hearts of all Buddhas, and he also said that the boy’s heavenly name was Avalokitesvara and his purpose was to help all living beings in their troubles and sufferings , no matter how countless they would 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 “Da Ci da bei jiu ku jiu nan na mo ling gan Guan shi yin pusa” (the most merciful, saving from torment and disasters, a refuge for those who resort to , miraculous lord of the world of bodhisattvas). It is believed that Miaoshan was one of the first incarnations of Guan Yin on earth.

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

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

The functions of the deity, like his appearance, could change over time. An example is the goddess Sivanma - the queen of the West, keeper of the source and fruits of immortality. In more ancient myths, she acts as the 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 the natural disasters that she sends to people. Artists depicted her as a woman with long disheveled hair, a leopard tail and tiger claws, sitting on a tripod in a cave. Food was brought to her by three blue (or green) three-legged sacred birds. At a later time, Sivanmu 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 grows a peach tree with fruits that grant 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 military leader of the Shu kingdom of the Three Kingdoms era. Subsequently, he became one of the main characters in the medieval novel “The Three Kingdoms,” in which he is presented as the ideal of nobility. Historians of Chinese literature even call him the Eastern Robin Hood. According to legend, he and his two friends (Zhangfei and Liubei) swore to stand by each other after the straw sandal maker Liubei broke up a fight between Guanyu and the butcher Zhangfei in a peach orchard. When fate elevated Liubei highly and he founded the kingdom of Shu, he made Guanyu his supreme military leader. However, the relationship between the real Guanyu and Liubei was not so idyllic. Around 200, the first fought in the army of Caocao, and Liubei 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 Guanyu, after killing the unscrupulous judge, managed to pass by the guards unrecognized, since his face fantastically changed color. Since the 17th century Guanyu began to be revered in Korea as well. According to local legends, Guanyu allegedly protected the country from the Japanese invasion. Later he began to be revered in Japan.

Since the Sui Dynasty, Guanyu began to be revered not only as real person, as the god of war, and in 1594 he was officially deified under the name Guandi. Since then, thousands of temples have been dedicated to him in the Celestial Empire. In addition to military functions, Guandi-Guanyu also performed judicial functions; for example, a sword was kept in his temples, which was used to execute criminals. 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 Guandi Temple.

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

As in every ancient culture, in the mythological ideas of the Chinese, the real and the fantastic are closely intertwined. It is impossible to say what is the share of reality in the myths about the creation and existence of the world. It is impossible to say what is the share 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, anger and destruction, etc.

Of course, in a book so small in volume, it is impossible to talk in any detail about the mythology of China. But what we managed to talk about allows us to assert that Chinese civilization is unique in its attitude to mythology, to the relationship between myth and real story. Therefore, in the history of China you can often see that the Chinese create a kind of myth out of real history and live in it, firmly believing that this is reality. Perhaps we 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.

From the book From Cyrus the Great to Mao Zedong. South and East in questions and answers author Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich

Beliefs of Ancient China Question 7.1 Yin and Yang. Yin is chaos, darkness, earth, woman. Yang is order, light, sky, man. The world consists of the interaction and confrontation of these two cosmic principles. When does yang reach its maximum power and when is it at its apogee?

author

7.4. Hungarians of “ancient” China In the “ancient” history of China, the people of the HUNNA are well known. Famous historian L.N. Gumilyov even wrote an entire book called “HUNGS IN CHINA.” But at the beginning of our era, the same HUNNS - that is, the HUNKS, according to the Scaligerian version of history, act in