People's interest in the unknown universe has always existed, and before there was no science or even a clear view of the universe, the cosmic flood had long been endowed with an incomparably brilliant life by our ancient ancestors. Although human beings have no chance to witness the birth of cosmic celestial bodies, people still give various myths to the origin of heaven and earth as they do to the origin of civilization. These beautiful myths are full of the ancients' mysterious thoughts on the origin of heaven and earth, in the ancient period without writing, relying on oral transmission and transmission to the present day, although many of the inner essences today have been lost, but thanks to the development of archaeology, those cultural relics that have been buried by history for thousands of years have once again truly reproduced many details about the creation myth that we cannot ask for. Among them is a book of the Chu kingdom dating back more than 2,300 years.
This painting was found in the tomb of Changsha Bullet Kuchu, which is now the area of Maple Shore Lane on the South Middle Road of Changsha City, but unfortunately, when it was sleeping for a thousand years and seeing the light of day, it was a group of thieves, and was taken away from the land of Shenzhou and exiled to a foreign land. According to local historical evidence, the excavation occurred for 42 years, and after excavation, it has been circulating in the black market until it was discovered by an American who taught at Yali Middle School in Changsha in 1946 and taken away from Shanghai, and after several twists and turns, finally met the world as the "treasure of the town hall" of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Their own national treasures have been occupied by others, and now they have to go abroad to see them, which undoubtedly makes people angry. As the earliest and most complete preserved ancient book unearthed, its value can be said to be unparalleled in the world.
The height and width of the Chu Shu book are 38.5 centimeters and 46.2 centimeters, respectively, and the two passages of text written upside down are distributed on both sides of the center, with 8 lines on one side and 13 lines on the other, which scholars divide into A and B parts. There are also 12 short passages at the edges of the book, which are rotated in three-paragraph intervals on each side, with mysterious graphics between each paragraph. The four corners are separated by four trees of blue, red, white and black, and the chapters are divided by vermilion filled boxes.
As the earliest book unearthed in mainland China, although the number of words is only more than 900, its content is extremely rich and complex, and the details of myths and stories involved are very rare in traditional mythology. Therefore, although they are far away, our scholars still travel far and wide to interpret and study them. Through their efforts, the contents of the book were finally able to circulate in their own country.
The long text on the left and right sides is set as two articles A and B, and the short text on the edge 12 is set as part C. The most written is the first part, which emphasizes the theme of "respecting the heavens and the times", and depicts the heavenly emperor as the master of the fate of the world to punish the human world, one of which is "only the heavens are blessed, and the gods are qualified; only the heavens are demons, and the gods are beneficial" embody the idea of "five executions of punishment" in the Warring States period. Part B is like the background of the mythological content of Part A, depicting the relationship between the gods and gods in the legend. The 12 short essays in chapter C correspond to the twelve months of the year and deal with various superstitious ideas that should be avoided every month. In summary, he tells a creation story that is both familiar and unfamiliar to us.
When the heavens and the earth were chaotic, the two gods Fuxi and Nuwa were born and married, and then four children were born in charge of the four hours, and the four sons were born for the gods to understand the yin and yang and opened up the world. After the opening of heaven and earth, Yu and Qi were arranged to be responsible for the management and civilization of the earth, and the two of them formulated a calendar with the help of the gods, rules the stars, dredged the world's rivers and mountains, and made the mountains and rivers circulate yin and yang. Since the sun and moon were not born, the four gods took turns to guard the four seasons. Their names are Qinggan, Zhu Sitan, Bai Daqiu, and Mogan according to their elders and youngest.
After more than a thousand years, The Heavenly God Emperor Jun and his wives Xi He and Chang Xi gave birth to the sun and the moon respectively. The land of Kyushu has been peaceful ever since. The four gods also built a canopy that could be rotated, and reinforced it with five-colored wood. Emperor Yan then sent Zhu Rong to lay the four poles for three days. Since then, the human world has been worshipped for nine days, and peace has been sought, and no one dares to despise the gods. The rules of the operation of the sun and the moon were later formulated by Emperor Jun, and later the Gonggong clan formulated a more accurate calendar of ten stems and leap months, dividing the time period of the day by xiao, chao, day and sunset.
This is more or less the case with the mythological stories of the Book of Books, many of which differ greatly from the traditional myths we know. Among them, the Heavenly God Emperor Jun almost does not appear in the pre-Qin classics, and only the "Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the East Classic" has a detailed record of him. In addition to the story, the short texts on the edges and the images of gods and monsters vividly reproduce the concept of heaven and man in the ideological culture of the Chu State at that time. Its pen work and depiction are also well-deserved artistic treasures among the cultural relics such as books, and it is expected that it can return to the motherland to feel the breath of the Chinese dragon.