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- Title
Prameny hanské mytologie: Výklad znaků.
- Authors
Uher, David
- Abstract
Chinese, but more accurately Han mythology depicts the oldest life experience of proper Chinese, i. e. Hans. It consists of the myths about the origin of the world, gods, natural disasters and heroes. However, it accentuates the stories of the heroes - the representatives of moral qualities. These figures constitute a significant group of the mythical inventors. Mostly for ideological reasons, Chinese mythology, unfortunately, does not have a coherent canon of myths. Therefore, the researcher transforms the myth of its fragments and variants scattered across Chinese philosophical and historical literature as well as fiction. Neglected resource of Chinese mythology is Shuowen, a colossal grammatological monograph composed at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD by Han scholar Xu Shen. Although it is largely a philological study, its encyclopedic character turns it into the source of Chinese mythology. It was found twenty-nine fragments in the Shuowen related to mythical pre-Shang inventors. Their inventions are dominated by work tools. Although the texts are stark, they are significant because of fragmental nature of the literary sources for Chinese mythology. Myth is not history, but it is a written information about the period when writing has not been invented yet. Therefore, it reflects certain characteristics of prehistory and it is not only a fiction. In this sense myth is an important source of anthropology and the Shuowen should be regarded as one of those as well.
- Publication
Far East / Dálný Východ, 2016, Vol 6, Issue 1, p109
- ISSN
1805-1049
- Publication type
Article