On Chinese Mythology
Mythology and Intellectual Progress
The Manichæst, _yin-yang_ (dualist), idea of existence, to which
further reference will be made in the next chapter, finds its
illustration in the dual life, real and imaginary, of all the
peoples of the earth. They have both real histories and mythological
histories. In the preceding chapter I have dealt briefly with the
first--the life of reality--in China from the earliest times to the
present day; the succeeding chapters are concerned with the second--the
life of imagination. A survey of the first was necessary for a complete
understanding of the second. The two react upon each other, affecting
the national character and through it the history of the world.
Mythology is the science of the unscientific man's explanation
of what we call the Otherworld--itself and its denizens, their
mysterious habits and surprising actions both there and here, usually
including the creation of this world also. By the Otherworld he does
not necessarily mean anything distant or even invisible, though the
things he explains would mostly be included by us under those terms. In
some countries myths are abundant, in others scarce. Why should this
be? Why should some peoples tell many and marvellous tales about their
gods and others say little about them, though they may say a great deal
to them? We recall the 'great' myths of Greece and Scandinavia. Other
races are 'poor' in myths. The difference is to be explained by the
mental characters of the peoples as moulded by their surroundings and
hereditary tendencies. The problem is of course a psychological one,
for it is, as already noted, in imagination that myths have their
root. Now imagination grows with each stage of intellectual progress,
for intellectual progress implies increasing representativeness of
thought. In the lower stages of human development imagination is feeble
and unproductive; in the highest stages it is strong and constructive.
The Chinese Intellect
The Chinese are not unimaginative, but their minds did not go on to the
construction of any myths which should be world-great and immortal;
and one reason why they did not construct such myths was that their
intellectual progress was arrested at a comparatively early stage. It
was arrested because there was not that contact and competition
with other peoples which demands brain-work of an active kind as the
alternative of subjugation, inferiority, or extinction, and because,
as we have already seen, the knowledge required of them was mainly
the parrot-like repetition of the old instead of the thinking-out of
the new [1]--a state of things rendered possible by the isolation
just referred to. Confucius discountenanced discussion about the
supernatural, and just as it is probable that the exhortations of Wên
Wang, the virtual founder of the Chou dynasty (1121-255 B.C.), against
drunkenness, in a time before tea was known to them, helped to make
the Chinese the sober people that they are, so it is probable--more
than probable--that this attitude of Confucius may have nipped in
the bud much that might have developed a vigorous mythology, though
for a reason to be stated later it may be doubted if he thereby
deprived the world of any beautiful and marvellous results of the
highest flights of poetical creativeness. There are times, such as
those of any great political upheaval, when human nature will assert
itself and break through its shackles in spite of all artificial
or conventional restraints. Considering the enormous influence of
Confucianism throughout the latter half of Chinese history--_i.e._
the last two thousand years--it is surprising that the Chinese dared
to think about supernatural matters at all, except in the matter of
propitiating their dead ancestors. That they did so is evidence not
only of human nature's inherent tendency to tell stories, but also
of the irrepressible strength of feeling which breaks all laws and
commandments under great stimulus. On the opposing unæsthetic side
this may be compared to the feeling which prompts the unpremeditated
assassination of a man who is guilty of great injustice, even though
it be certain that in due course he would have met his deserts at
the hands of the public executioner.
The Influence of Religion
Apart from this, the influence of Confucianism would have been even
greater than it was, but for the imperial partiality periodically
shown for rival doctrines, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which threw
their weight on the side of the supernatural, and which at times
were exalted to such great heights as to be officially recognized as
State religions. These, Buddhism especially, appealed to the popular
imagination and love of the marvellous. Buddhism spoke of the future
state and the nature of the gods in no uncertain tones. It showed
men how to reach the one and attain to the other. Its founder was
virtuous; his commandments pure and life-sustaining. It supplied in
great part what Confucianism lacked. And, as in the fifth and sixth
centuries A.D., when Buddhism and Taoism joined forces and a working
union existed between them, they practically excluded for the time
all the "chilly growth of Confucian classicism."
Other opponents of myth, including a critical philosopher of great
ability, we shall have occasion to notice presently.
History and Myth
The sobriety and accuracy of Chinese historians is proverbial. I
have dilated upon this in another work, and need add here only what
I inadvertently omitted there--a point hitherto unnoticed or at least
unremarked--that the very word for history in Chinese (_shih_) means
impartiality or an impartial annalist. It has been said that where
there is much myth there is little history, and _vice versa_, and
though this may not be universally true, undoubtedly the persistently
truthful recording of facts, events, and sayings, even at the risk
of loss, yea, and actual loss of life of the historian as the result
of his refusal to make false entries in his chronicle at the bidding
of the emperor (as in the case of the historiographers of Ch'i in
547 B.C.), indicates a type of mind which would require some very
strong stimulus to cause it to soar very far into the hazy realms of
fanciful imagination.
Chinese Rigidity
A further cause, already hinted at above, for the arrest of
intellectual progress is to be found in the growth of the nation
in size during many centuries of isolation from the main stream
of world-civilization, without that increase in heterogeneity
which comes from the moulding by forces external to itself. "As
iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend." Consequently we find China what is known to sociology as an
'aggregate of the first order,' which during its evolution has parted
with its internal life-heat without absorbing enough from external
sources to enable it to retain the plastic condition necessary to
further, or at least rapid, development. It is in a state of rigidity,
a state recognized and understood by the sociologist in his study of
the evolution of nations.
The Prerequisites to Myth
But the mere increase of constructive imagination is not sufficient
to produce myth. If it were, it would be reasonable to argue that
as intellectual progress goes on myths become more numerous, and the
greater the progress the greater the number of myths. This we do not
find. In fact, if constructive imagination went on increasing without
the intervention of any further factor, there need not necessarily be
any myth at all. We might almost say that the reverse is the case. We
connect myth with primitive folk, not with the greatest philosophers
or the most advanced nations--not, that is, with the most advanced
stages of national progress wherein constructive imagination makes
the nation great and strong. In these stages the philosopher studies
or criticizes myth, he does not make it.
In order that there may be myth, three further conditions must be
fulfilled. There must, as we have seen, be constructive imagination,
but, nevertheless, there must not be too much of it. As stated above,
mythology, or rather myth, is the _unscientific_ man's explanation. If
the constructive imagination is so great that it becomes self-critical,
if the story-teller doubts his own story, if, in short, his mind is
scientific enough to see that his explanation is no explanation at all,
then there can be no myth properly so called. As in religion, unless
the myth-maker believes in his myth with all his heart and soul and
strength, and each new disciple, as it is cared for and grows under
his hands during the course of years, holds that he must put his shoes
from off his feet because the place whereon he treads is holy ground,
the faith will not be propagated, for it will lack the vital spark
which alone can make it a living thing.
Stimulus Necessary
The next condition is that there must be a stimulus. It is not ideas,
but feelings, which govern the world, and in the history of mythology
where feeling is absent we find either weak imitation or repetition
of the myths of other peoples (though this must not be confused
with certain elements which seem to be common to the myths of all
races), or concoction, contamination, or "genealogical tree-making,"
or myths originated by "leisurely, peaceful tradition" and lacking
the essential qualities which appeal to the human soul and make their
possessors very careful to preserve them among their most loved and
valued treasures. But, on the other hand, where feeling is stirred,
where the requisite stimulus exists, where the people are in great
danger, or allured by the prize of some breathless adventure, the
contact produces the spark of divine poetry, the myths are full of
artistic, philosophic, and religious suggestiveness, and have abiding
significance and charm. They are the children, the poetic fruit, of
great labour and serious struggles, revealing the most fundamental
forces, hopes, and cravings of the human soul. Nations highly strung,
undergoing strenuous emotion, intensely energized by constant conflict
with other nations, have their imagination stimulated to exceptional
poetic creativeness. The background of the Danaïds is Egyptian,
not Greek, but it was the danger in which the Greeks were placed in
their wars with the sons of the land of the Pharaohs that stimulated
the Greek imagination to the creation of that great myth.
This explains why so many of the greatest myths have their staging,
not in the country itself whose treasured possessions they are, but
where that country is 'playing the great game,' is carrying on wars
decisive of far-reaching national events, which arouse to the greatest
pitch of excitement the feelings both of the combatants and of those
who are watching them from their homes. It is by such great events,
not by the romance-writer in his peaceful study, that mythology, like
literature, is "incisively determined." Imagination, we saw, goes
_pari passu_ with intellectual progress, and intellectual progress,
in early times, is furthered not so much by the mere contact as
by the actual conflict of nations. And we see also that myths may,
and very frequently do, have a character quite different from that
of the nation to which they appertain, for environment plays a most
important part both in their inception and subsequent growth--a truth
too obvious to need detailed elaboration.
Persistent Soul-expression
A third condition is that the type of imagination must be persistent
through fairly long periods of time, otherwise not only will there
be an absence of sufficient feeling or momentum to cause the myths
to be repeated and kept alive and transmitted to posterity, but the
inducement to add to them and so enable them to mature and become
complete and finished off and sufficiently attractive to appeal to
the human mind in spite of the foreign character they often bear will
be lacking. In other words, myths and legends grow. They resemble not
so much the narrative of the story-teller or novelist as a gradually
developing art like music, or a body of ideas like philosophy. They
are human and natural, though they express the thought not of any one
individual mind, but of the folk-soul, exemplifying in poetical form
some great psychological or physiographical truth.
The Character of Chinese Myth
The nature of the case thus forbids us to expect to find the Chinese
myths exhibiting the advanced state and brilliant heterogeneity of
those which have become part of the world's permanent literature. We
must expect them to be true to type and conditions, as we expect the
other ideas of the Chinese to be, and looking for them in the light
of this knowledge we shall find them just where we should expect to
find them.
The great sagas and eddas exalted among the world's literary
masterpieces, and forming part of the very life of a large number of
its inhabitants, are absent in China. "The Chinese people," says one
well-known sinologist, "are not prone to mythological invention." "He
who expects to find in Tibet," says another writer, "the poetical
charm of Greek or Germanic mythology will be disappointed. There is
a striking poverty of imagination in all the myths and legends. A
great monotony pervades them all. Many of their stories, taken from
the sacred texts, are quite puerile and insipid. It may be noted
that the Chinese mythology labours under the same defect." And
then there comes the crushing judgment of an over-zealous Christian
missionary sinologist: "There is no hierarchy of gods brought in to
rule and inhabit the world they made, no conclave on Mount Olympus,
nor judgment of the mortal soul by Osiris, no transfer of human love
and hate, passions and hopes, to the powers above; all here is ascribed
to disembodied agencies or principles, and their works are represented
as moving on in quiet order. There is no religion [!], no imagination;
all is impassible, passionless, uninteresting.... It has not, as in
Greece and Egypt, been explained in sublime poetry, shadowed forth in
gorgeous ritual and magnificent festivals, represented in exquisite
sculptures, nor preserved in faultless, imposing fanes and temples,
filled with ideal creations." Besides being incorrect as to many
of its alleged facts, this view would certainly be shown by further
study to be greatly exaggerated.
Periods Fertile in Myth
What we should expect, then, to find from our philosophical study of
the Chinese mind as affected by its surroundings would be barrenness of
constructive imagination, except when birth was given to myth through
the operation of some external agency. And this we do find. The period
of the overthrow of the Yin dynasty and the establishment of the
great house of Chou in 1122 B.C., or of the Wars of the Three States,
for example, in the third century after Christ, a time of terrible
anarchy, a medieval age of epic heroism, sung in a hundred forms of
prose and verse, which has entered as motive into a dozen dramas,
or the advent of Buddhism, which opened up a new world of thought and
life to the simple, sober, peace-loving agricultural folk of China,
were stimuli not by any means devoid of result. In China there are gods
many and heroes many, and the very fact of the existence of so great
a multitude of gods would logically imply a wealth of mythological
lore inseparable from their apotheosis. You cannot--and the Chinese
cannot--get behind reason. A man is not made a god without some
cause being assigned for so important and far-reaching a step; and
in matters of this sort the stated cause is apt to take the form of
a narrative more or less marvellous or miraculous. These resulting
myths may, of course, be born and grow at a later time than that
in which the circumstances giving rise to them took place, but,
if so, that merely proves the persistent power of the originating
stimulus. That in China these narratives always or often reach the
highest flights of constructive imagination is not maintained--the
maintenance of that argument would indeed be contradictory; but even
in those countries where the mythological garden has produced some of
the finest flowers millions of seeds must have been sown which either
did not spring up at all or at least failed to bring forth fruit. And
in the realm of mythology it is not only those gods who sit in the
highest seats--creators of the world or heads of great religions--who
dominate mankind; the humbler, though often no less powerful gods
or spirits--those even who run on all fours and live in holes in the
ground, or buzz through the air and have their thrones in the shadow
of a leaf--have often made a deeper impress on the minds and in the
hearts of the people, and through that impress, for good or evil, have,
in greater or less degree, modified the life of the visible universe.
Sources of Chinese Myth
"So, if we ask whence comes the heroic and the romantic, which supplies
the story-teller's stock-in-trade, the answer is easy. The legends and
history of early China furnish abundance of material for them. To the
Chinese mind their ancient world was crowded with heroes, fairies, and
devils, who played their part in the mixed-up drama, and left a name
and fame both remarkable and piquant. Every one who is familiar with
the ways and the language of the people knows that the country is full
of common objects to which poetic names have been given, and with many
of them there is associated a legend or a myth. A deep river's gorge is
called 'the Blind Man's Pass,' because a peculiar bit of rock, looked
at from a certain angle, assumes the outline of the human form, and
there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches
its climax in the petrifaction of the hero. A mountain's crest shaped
like a swooping eagle will from some one have received the name of
'Eagle Mountain,' whilst by its side another shaped like a couchant
lion will have a name to match. There is no lack of poetry among the
people, and most striking objects claim a poetic name, and not a few
of them are associated with curious legends. It is, however, to their
national history that the story-teller goes for his most interesting
subjects, and as the so-called history of China imperceptibly passes
into the legendary period, and this again fades into the mythical,
and as all this is assuredly believed by the masses of the people,
it is obvious that in the national life of China there is no dearth
of heroes whose deeds of prowess will command the rapt attention of
the crowds who listen." [2]
The soul in China is everywhere in evidence, and if myths have "first
and foremost to do with the life of the soul" it would appear strange
that the Chinese, having spiritualized everything from a stone to the
sky, have not been creative of myth. Why they have not the foregoing
considerations show us clearly enough. We must take them and their
myths as we find them. Let us, then, note briefly the result of their
mental workings as reacted on by their environment.
Phases of Chinese Myth
We cannot identify the earliest mythology of the Chinese with that of
any primitive race. The myths, if any, of their place of origin may
have faded and been forgotten in their slow migration eastward. We
cannot say that when they came from the West (which they probably
did) they brought their myths with them, for in spite of certain
conjectural derivations from Babylon we do not find them possessed
of any which we can identify as imported by them at that time. But
research seems to have gone at least as far as this--namely, that
while we cannot say that Chinese myth was derived from Indian myth,
there is good reason to believe that Chinese and Indian myth had a
common origin, which was of course outside of China.
To set forth in detail the various phases through which Chinese myth
has passed would involve a technical description foreign to the purpose
of a popular work. It will sufficiently serve our present purpose to
outline its most prominent features.
In the earliest times there was an 'age of magic' followed by an
'heroic age,' but myths were very rare before 800 B.C., and what is
known as primitive mythology is said to have been invented or imitated
from foreign sources after 820 B.C. In the eighth century B.C. myths
of an astrological character began to attract attention. In the age
of Lao Tzu (604 B.C.), the reputed founder of the Taoist religion,
fresh legends appear, though Lao Tzu himself, absorbed in the abstract,
records none. Neither did Confucius (551-479 B.C.) nor Mencius, who
lived two hundred years later, add any legends to history. But in the
Period of the Warring States (500-100 B.C.) fresh stimuli and great
emotion prompted to mythological creation.
Tso-ch'iu Ming and Lieh Tzu
Tso-ch'iu Ming, commentator on Confucius's _Annals_, frequently
introduced legend into his history. Lieh Tzu (fifth and fourth
centuries B.C.), a metaphysician, is one of the earliest authors who
deal in myths. He is the first to mention the story of Hsi Wang Mu, the
Western Queen, and from his day onward the fabulists have vied with one
another in fantastic descriptions of the wonders of her fairyland. He
was the first to mention the islands of the immortals in the ocean,
the kingdoms of the dwarfs and giants, the fruit of immortality, the
repairing of the heavens by Nü Kua Shih with five-coloured stones,
and the great tortoise which supports the universe.
The T'ang and Sung Epochs
Religious romance began at this time. The T'ang epoch (A.B. 618-907)
was one of the resurrection of the arts of peace after a long period of
dissension. A purer and more enduring form of intellect was gradually
overcoming the grosser but less solid superstition. Nevertheless the
intellectual movement which now manifested itself was not strong
enough to prevail against the powers of mythological darkness. It
was reserved for the scholars of the Sung Period (A.D. 960-1280)
to carry through to victory a strong and sustained offensive against
the spiritualistic obsessions which had weighed upon the Chinese mind
more or less persistently from the Han Period (206 B.C.-A.D. 221)
onward. The dogma of materialism was specially cultivated at this
time. The struggle of sober reason against superstition or imaginative
invention was largely a struggle of Confucianism against Taoism. Though
many centuries had elapsed since the great Master walked the earth,
the anti-myth movement of the T'ang and Sung Periods was in reality the
long arm and heavy fist of Confucius emphasizing a truer rationalism
than that of his opponents and denouncing the danger of leaving the
firm earth to soar into the unknown hazy regions of fantasy. It was
Sung scholarship that gave the death-blow to Chinese mythology.
It is unnecessary to labour the point further, because after the Sung
epoch we do not meet with any period of new mythological creation,
and its absence can be ascribed to no other cause than its defeat at
the hands of the Sung philosophers. After their time the tender plant
was always in danger of being stunted or killed by the withering blast
of philosophical criticism. Anything in the nature of myth ascribable
to post-Sung times can at best be regarded only as a late blossom
born when summer days are past.
Myth and Doubt
It will bear repetition to say that unless the myth-builder firmly
believes in his myth, be he the layer of the foundation-stone or one
of the raisers of the superstructure, he will hardly make it a living
thing. Once he believes in reincarnation and the suspension of natural
laws, the boundless vistas of space and the limitless æons of time are
opened to him. He can perform miracles which astound the world. But
if he allow his mind to inquire, for instance, why it should have been
necessary for Elijah to part the waters of the Jordan with his garment
in order that he and Elisha might pass over dryshod, or for Bodhidharma
to stand on a reed to cross the great Yangtzu River, or for innumerable
Immortals to sit on 'favourable clouds' to make their journeys through
space, he spoils myth--his child is stillborn or does not survive to
maturity. Though the growth of philosophy and decay of superstition
may be good for a nation, the process is certainly conducive to the
destruction of its myth and much of its poetry. The true mythologist
takes myth for myth, enters into its spirit, and enjoys it.
We may thus expect to find in the realm of Chinese mythology a large
number of little hills rather than a few great mountains, but the
little hills are very good ones after their kind; and the object of
this work is to present Chinese myth as it is, not as it might have
been had the universe been differently constituted. Nevertheless, if,
as we may rightly do, we judge of myth by the sentiments pervading
it and the ideals upheld and taught by it, we shall find that Chinese
myth must be ranked among the greatest.
Myth and Legend
The general principles considered above, while they explain the paucity
of myth in China, explain also the abundance of legend there. The six
hundred years during which the Mongols, Mings, and Manchus sat upon
the throne of China are barren of myth, but like all periods of the
Chinese national life are fertile in legend. And this chiefly for the
reason that myths are more general, national, divine, while legends are
more local, individual, human. And since, in China as elsewhere, the
lower classes are as a rule less educated and more superstitious than
the upper classes--have a certain amount of constructive imagination,
but not enough to be self-critical--legends, rejected or even ridiculed
by the scholarly class when their knowledge has become sufficiently
scientific, continue to be invented and believed in by the peasant and
the dweller in districts far from the madding crowd long after myth,
properly so called, has exhaled its last breath.