In ancient times, due to the lack of cognition, under the influence of the theory of "animism", human beings regarded all phenomena that cannot be explained by common sense as the operation of God.
Thus, even across Eurasia, both China and ancient Greece tacitly accepted that mythology originated from the human worship of nature.
So there were sun gods, moon gods, water gods, wind gods, rain gods, etc. As an important branch of natural mythology, the moon has always been the "main coffee" in mythological stories.
The most famous is the moon god Artemis in ancient Greek mythology and the Chang'e fairy on the mainland, although the two are the same moon god, but the difference is quite large, today let's see what is the difference between them? How did this distinction come about?
1. Chang'e: Fall in love with someone you shouldn't
Chang'e first appeared in "Burial" in the early years of the Warring States: "Yi please immortal medicine to the Queen Mother of the West, and Concubine steals it to the moon." ”
In her first appearance, Chang'e was defined as a "drug thief". But if you look closely, the problem comes. The one who first asked the Queen Mother of the West for medicine was Chang'e's husband Yi, who was originally a heavenly god, why did he pursue immortality? The impression is that Chang'e and Yi are a couple of immortals, why did she steal medicine and go away now?
Tragic endings often come from a burst of heroism or hedonism, and ordinary people who take just one of them will be doomed, let alone both.
While working in the Heavenly Court, Yi's direct leader was Heavenly Emperor Dijun, and he and his wife Xihe gave birth to ten sons named "Ri".
The couple wanted ten people to take turns standing guard, but one day these ten bear children hung in the sky at the same time.
A large number of people died of overheating, and those who could survive could not escape the siege of the murderous ancient fierce beasts, and the world was like purgatory.
Seeing this, Di Jun gave Yi Shen a bow and several arrows, and asked him to come to the rescue. As a result, we all know that Houyi not only shot the ferocious beast, but also shot down nine suns.
The Heavenly Emperor, who lost his beloved son, had words of suffering, and every time he saw Yi, he thought of his son. So he cut off most of his divine power and drove him to the world. According to time calculations, his encounter with Chang'e began here.
The hero and the beauty should be a good match, but Chang'e and Yi are not happy, and the reason is not documented, which can only be seen from her desire to steal the immortal medicine and abandon Yi. The "last straw" that really broke the relationship between the two was Hebo's wife Roselle.
According to legend, she was the daughter of Fuxi and was promoted to the water god after Luoshui drowned. How beautiful is the concubine, Cao Zhi's "Luoshenfu" has already given the answer.
There are many people in the world who covet her beauty, but only Yi is the only one who really takes action.
Heber is a famous playboy who is amorous. Luoshen, who was once the proud daughter of heaven, could only watch him behave under his nose under the ancient marriage system.
The person in front of him was no longer the person at that time, and when the two looked at each other, Luoshen only had disappointment in his heart. At this time, Yi appeared, and he wounded Hebo with a bow and arrow given by the Heavenly Emperor, taking Luoshen for himself.
But now Yi is no different from mortals, so he asked the Queen Mother of the West for medicine and wanted to live with Luoshen.
This little abacus rattled so loudly that Chang'e couldn't pretend not to hear it. It turned out that the person he loved did not want to grow old with him.
Looking at the green grassland overhead, Chang'e flew to the Moon Palace alone with grievances and unwillingness.
As the injured party, she deserves the world's comfort. But in the context of a society where men are inferior to women, Chang'e's rebellious behavior was scolded to the fullest.
"Huainanzi" records that after Chang'e entered the Moon Palace, the white moon had a shadow, so people imagined that shadow as a toad, in contrast to the sacred bird in the sun.
Toads are not only ugly in the public impression, but also covered with pimples. Comparing beauty to a toad is not difficult to see the criticism.
Li Shangyin directly used the loneliness of the blue sea and blue sky to judge Chang'e's tragic and lonely life. Therefore, it is not so much that she ran to the moon to become an immortal, but that she was banished to the Guanghan Palace and lived alone in nothingness.
2. Artemis, the "second generation of Gods": My father is Zeus
Contrary to Chang'e's tragic fate, Artemis was extremely happy from birth. His father is Zeus, king of the gods, his mother is Leto, the goddess of titans, and his younger brother is Apollo, the sun god.
The "second generation of gods" not only has a noble status, but also the most favored daughter besides Athena, as long as any request she makes, Zeus agrees to it all.
On his third birthday, Artemis wanted a city as his place to live. With a wave of his hand, Zeus gave 30 cities directly, and the continent and islands were placed under Artemis.
Although there was no family pressure, Artemis continued to fulfill his divine obligations. As her favor deepened, so did her titles.
In addition to the moon god, she is also the goddess of hunting, the goddess of nature, the goddess of midwifery and pregnancy, the goddess of war, the goddess of recovery... Zeus gave her no less honor than her other brothers.
The happiness of her original family gave birth to her confident, beautiful, courageous and courageous character. It is in stark contrast to Chang'e's caution and loneliness.
The only thing that makes her feel unscrupulous is the absolute authority of men under the patriarchy. Many stories in Greek mythology use the silence of female gods to reflect women's inequality in society and family.
Rao is a woman who is loved by thousands of people, and she also understands that she can only live well if she relies on her father and brother.
3. The difference between Chinese and foreign moon gods
There is a saying that people are more angry than people. I don't know if Chang'e will feel more unfair when she sees Artemis who took the script of the big heroine.
Through the growth and life trajectory of the two, it is not difficult to find that the differences between Chinese and foreign immortals are mainly concentrated in the following points:
The difference in ascension. The gods in ancient Greek mythology, the family nature is very obvious, who is whose husband, who is whose wife is extremely clearly divided, and there is even a family tree for posterity to verify.
But most of the immortals in mainland mythology have gone through hardships and even paid their lives to be included in the immortal register, and the representative figures include the fighting saint Buddha Sun Wukong, Lv Dongbin, Mazu and so on.
Only a small number of people have their backs against big trees to enjoy the shade, such as Shun's daughter Meng Po, and the aforementioned Fuxi's daughter Luobin.
So on the mainland, becoming an immortal is more like a reward system.
Differences in personality. Although Chang'e is rebellious to the moon, after becoming an immortal, her personality becomes gentle and virtuous, and her movements are suitable, which is what divinity requires of her.
Moral restraint, holy image, and excesses that destroy human desires make her a yardstick for measuring women's character, which echoes the woman's virtue of sitting and lying down, maintaining fidelity and temperance.
Greek mythology pays more attention to the "similarity between gods and people", they are no different from human beings from appearance to personality, from emotions to morality.
They will fight because they are jealous of each other's beauty, and they will also tear green tea when their husbands are looking for a mistress. Goddesses make mistakes and ingest evil forces by satisfying desires; Will also clean up the mess themselves after making a mess of the world.
In contrast, oriental goddesses feel more rational, like molds carved by male power, ready to replicate more "women who meet the standards." The West, on the other hand, is more like another dimension of the human world, flesh and blood, lively and sensual.
Differences in divine functions. First of all, in terms of positions, the mainland adheres to the principle of "one turnip, one pit", and all immortals can only hold one position.
Although there are also "full-time gods" in Greek mythology, there are also many who wear many hats, such as Artemis, which has 12 positions.
Secondly, in terms of functions, the Chinese goddess takes on more role models and edifying functions, while the Greek goddess pays more attention to protection and help.
They will appear in life as guardians, whether it is nature, emotions, appearance or heart, there will be corresponding gods to protect them.
4. Look at the cause from the difference in the moon god
The above differences can go beyond the dimension of Artemis and Chang'e and extend to the entire divine realm of the East and the West. Now refocusing on the two, what is the reason for this difference?
In addition to the differences in political systems, ethical concepts, social customs and moral constraints, another point is the difference in the image of the moon in literature.
The Chinese moon is the thought of wanderers. Chinese has a unique "homesickness complex" for the moon, Du Fu admires the moon on the day of Bailu, obviously it is the same moon, but he just feels that his doorstep is brighter.
This unique aesthetic taste makes the moon form a clever connection with home, hometown and even the motherland, and become a kind of spiritual sustenance.
The Chinese moon is a yearning for reunion. When Su Shi was a taipunctual in Mizhou, he once expressed his infinite longing for his younger brother to the moon. Although they longed for reunion, the two were thousands of miles apart, and they could only send their most simple blessings through the moon: "May people be long-term and live together for thousands of miles."
The Chinese moon represents loneliness and frustration. Nine out of ten unsatisfactory ancient literary heroes, in order to relieve the bitterness in their hearts, they took the moon as the object of confiding.
Li Bai confronts the moon and his own shadow among the flowers; Bai Juyi listened to the pipa song on the boat, and the spring water of the river could not hide his loneliness; Wang Wei played the piano alone in the bamboo forest late at night, and only the bright moon was with him in the huge forest. If loneliness is graded, they should all be all kinds of superlatives.
The foreign moon is the embodiment of change and beauty. The artistic conception of the moon in Chinese literature is rich and diverse, while the image given to it by the West is relatively simple.
In Western literature, the moon often represents wife, lover, or holy love. Chekhov wanted a wife like the moon; Juliet once said to Romeo: "Please do not swear to the moon, the moon is cloudy and sunny, unless you want love to be as impermanent as it is".
Whether it represents the sadness and ethereal clarity of the East, or the pure love of the West, there is only one moon. The difference is what the person observing it thinks in their hearts, such as what do you think when you see it at this time?
Bibliography:
[1] Mao Dun: "Mao Dun Speaks of Chinese Mythology"
[2] Yuan Ke: "General Theory of Chinese Mythology"
[3] Liu Lin: "Comparison of the Differences in Moon Imagery in Chinese and Western Literature"
[4] Jiang Zhulang: "The Look of the Gods"