Myth is full of magical fantasy, which casts a strange color on the understanding of the ancients and the growth and change of everything in the world. Most of the characters in mythology have superhuman strength, which is imagined according to the image, production situation, understanding of natural forces and the requirements of improving their own abilities of primitive people. It can be clearly seen from some myths that most of the mythical figures created by tribes in the hunting economy are related to hunting; The mythical figures of tribes in primitive farming period were mostly related to agriculture. At that time, people used bows, arrows, knives and axes as weapons, and mythical figures became experts in creating and using these tools to arm themselves.
Although mythical heroes (gods) are often the creators of human miracles, they often encounter setbacks and bad luck. It reflects the realistic constraints of myth and fantasy.
Primitive myth is the product of unique historical conditions in human childhood, and it is a form for primitive people to understand nature and society. It reflects the early thinking activities of human beings. The ancients in the age of ignorance, their level of understanding of the objective world, could not surpass their low productivity and inability to fight against nature. Therefore, in the observation of natural and social phenomena, most of them are intuition, speculation and conjecture. With the development of social productive forces and human intelligence, primitive myths generally no longer appear. However, due to the development of society and the imbalance of people's cultural knowledge, myths and fantasies are still inevitable or unavoidable in some regions and nations that cannot effectively control nature in practice and scientifically explain the origin of the world and the changes of natural phenomena in their understanding. But these works are different from the original myth.
There are various naive thoughts and pursuits of the ancients in the myth, which reflect the original world outlook in many ways. It often includes primitive science, primitive philosophy and primitive religion. Believing in supernatural masters, believing in animism, believing in the existence of souls and gods and other primitive concepts and consciousness, as well as totem worship, witchcraft belief, nature worship, ancestor worship and other factors that constitute the ancient world outlook. In mythology, all natural phenomena and even some social people are considered to be alive and endowed with human characteristics and supernatural abilities. The mythical forms of exaggerated imagination, such as rare birds and animals, strange gods, clan gods, tribal gods, Raytheon and rain gods, are inseparable from these concepts. The understanding and imagination of some causal relationships between man and animals, man and nature, and nature and nature in mythology exist as various manifestations of people's ideology in the mythical era.
The literature of the Chinese nation is a literary community of all ethnic groups with China literature as the main body. China literature has a long history of thousands of years. It has its own characteristics, special content, form and style, its own aesthetic ideal, its own dominant ideological and cultural tradition and theoretical criticism system.
Poetry is one of the earliest artistic forms in China literature, and it is a new poetic style that appeared after Chu Ci. The national style in The Book of Songs and the Chu Ci represented by Li Sao are two typical examples of China's ancient poetry. In terms of creative methods, Guo Feng and Li Sao respectively created the poetic traditions of realism and romanticism in China literature. During the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, a new poetic style-Yuefu appeared, which has a strong sense of reality and is an important symbol of Yuefu. In China's traditional literary concept, prose is regarded as authentic literature with the same reputation as poetry. The first collection of narrative and argumentative essays in the history of China literature is Shangshu. Novels are often regarded as gossip; China's traditional opera is regarded as a work that cannot be elegant. Therefore, novels and operas started late and developed rapidly until the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Although China's ancient literature is developing continuously, it shows the characteristics of abnormal stability and solidification. Because most of China's literature was produced in the small production soil of feudal society, it has almost always been developed in a centralized and unified country, attaching importance to cultural thoughts and strictly controlling them. This formed the dignified and steady character of China ancient literature.
Fifth, the influence of ancient China myths on later literature.
China's ancient myths have a long history, which not only left precious spiritual wealth for the history of China, but also made certain contributions to the history of China literature. In other words, China's ancient myths occupy an important position in the history of people's oral creation, even in the history of literary creation.
Myth is a genre that influenced China's various literary creations earlier. Its theme and various mythical figures have exerted various influences on the literary creation and the formation of national epics in past dynasties, especially its rich imagination and methods of visualizing natural things, which are directly related to the formation of artistic fiction and romantic creation methods of later writers. The oral narrative form of ancient China myths has also become the first genre of narrative literature such as novels, and many myths directly provide creative themes for writers and artists. Some famous myths have also become allusions that people often quote, such as "Pangu created the world". The aesthetic value, historical value and cognitive function of myth are closely linked, which is the key to understand human childhood life and psychology. It is of great reference value to the study of marriage, family system, primitive religion and customs in ancient society. China myth was concerned by some philosophers, historians and scholars in ancient China. They not only described and quoted it in their works, but also put forward some fragmentary opinions, explanations and explanations on the myth. But it is more influenced by Confucianism, which excludes its illusory imagination and attempts to find historical basis from it.
In literature, we can see the continuation and development of mythical spirit. The influence of myth on literature is also reflected in two aspects, one is as the material of literary creation, and the other is directly affecting the way of thinking, expression and appreciation of literary creation.
Myths are not only directly recorded by later generations, but also provide materials for various literary works. For example, the change of Kun Peng in the carefree tour and the "breaking chaos" in the emperor give the full text a changeable and strange romantic color. As for Cao Zhi's use of the image of Fu Fei, the goddess of Luoshui, he created the well-known Ode to Luoshen, which is a successful creation using mythological materials. The phenomenon of putting myths into poetry can be found everywhere in the history of China literature. For example, The Book of Songs, Elegance and Living People describe various miracles in Hou Ji, and all kinds of immortals come in droves in Li Sao. Since then, poets, especially romantic poets, have often used myths in their poems. For example, Li Shangyin's poem "Yaochi" said: "The window of Yaochi's grandmother opened, and the song moved, and she went to Wan Li on the eighth day, never to return." It is the magical application of mythical images. There are also many novels and operas based on myth, which are mainly recreated by using the strange imagination of myth and the image or plot of myth. For example, Liu Yi, a novel by Li in the Tang Dynasty, created a beautiful love myth. The adoption and transformation of myths in ghost novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties reached the highest point of this kind of literature. As a representative of The Journey to the West, from the Monkey King, we can easily see the influence of Xia Qi, Chiyou, Xingtian and Huai Vortex, who are vying for the position with the emperor. In addition, there are many thought-provoking fairy tales in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Flowers in a Mirror, Romance of the Gods and Dream of Red Mansions. It can be said that ancient myths, as materials, are found in every corner of China's classical literature. After the author's excavation and transformation, he re-radiates light in new works, which makes literary works have unique artistic charm.
As a concentrated expression of primitive ancestors' ideology, myth condenses ancestors' thinking and feelings about themselves and the outside world, and contains rich emotional factors. These mythical images are fixed in history, flowing in the hearts of several generations through cultural accumulation, and always appear in the literary works of future generations in various forms. That is to say, the significance of myth to literature is not only that it is the source material for writers, but more importantly, those works that consciously or unconsciously use mythological archetypes can guide authors or readers into the deep emotional experience that our ancestors once had, thus alleviating the pressure of reality and the secularization of Paramore. The significance of myth as prototype is more important than its significance as material. When Qu Yuan was hit repeatedly in the real world and was helpless, he resolutely turned to the ancient myth: the dragon and the phoenix got married, traveled across the sea, and begged women everywhere. It is the great power of the mythical world, which makes him transcend from the real world, supports his personality and soothes his mental trauma. At the same time, some abstract and generalized images in Lisao have become solid mythological prototypes due to their profound mythological background and creative refinement by Qu Yuan, and have been handed down from generation to generation in the history of China literature. However, Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio regards myth not only as material, but as all spiritual sustenance, which is a rejection of this unfair world and a conversion to mythical feelings and mythical world. As jung said, "a person who speaks with the original image speaks with the voices of millions of people at the same time." He turned our personal destiny into the destiny of mankind, and he awakened all our benevolent forces. It is these forces that ensure that human beings can get out of danger at any time and spend a long night. " It can be said that Qu Yuan, Pu Songling and other works all embody the essence and strength of mythological archetypes.
To sum up, the characteristics of China myth in structure and basic consciousness have become the most fundamental factor that determines the structure and style of China's literature. The myth of China occupies an important position in the history of oral and literary creation of the broad masses of people in China. On the one hand, as the material of literary creation, on the other hand, through rich imagination and visualization of natural things, it directly affects the way of thinking, expression and appreciation of literary creation. Therefore, it can also be said that China literature originated from China myth, and the myth originated from labor production. Under the influence of China myth, China literature was sublimated. China literature, with its excellent history, diverse forms, rich works, unique style, distinctive personality and attractive charm, has created a brilliant and great chapter with unique China characteristics, becoming one of the oldest literature in the world history and occupying an important position in the history of world literature development.