Many people will mistakenly think that myths are stories of ancient times, very far away from us, and most of the Chinese mythological stories are fragmented, the plot is inexplicable, and after reading it, they are completely confused. So people will wonder, what is the value of myths? As an adult of modern people, is it necessary to enter the vision of children to read myths? Further, what is the significance of myths for the spiritual life of modern people? These are the questions I want to answer one by one.
In contemporary cultural life, everywhere is full of mythical shadows. Take Hollywood movies, for example, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia, including Disney's Zootopia, all of which have grossed at the box office, are typical mythological stories. Chinese movies are not weak, and various versions of "Fengshen Yanyi", various versions of "Journey to the West", and "The Legend of the Demon Cat", which was released in 2017, are all myths. It can be seen that the entertainment life of contemporary human beings depends on the dream effect created by myths. Mythology is the preferred subject matter for DreamWorks to create dreams, and there is no second.
Due to the death of Jin Yong, people began to remembrance the golden years of martial arts novels. Chinese martial arts novels, the only narrative genre created by Chinese of all genres of literature and recognized by the whole world, belong to the generalized mythology, but also contain a large number of elements of narrow mythology. For example, "Tianlong Babu", which borrows the concept of Hindu mythology. "Tianlong Babu" refers to the eight tribes of the Celestial Realm, with the most heavens and dragons, so it is referred to as the Tianlong Babu, which was later incorporated by Buddhism and became the protector god. Mythological elements that make an important endorsement of this martial arts novel1.
The design of popular game programs on the market also relies entirely on mythological elements, such as Tencent's "Glory of the King", which swept China and the world, bringing together gods and heroes from different gods and rivers in the East and west, such as the descendants of Nuwa, Athena, and King Arthur, which can be said to be a smorgasbord of global god genealogy. Myth is the lifeblood of the game.
Why is there such a wave of mythical revival? That's because myth is so closely related to our real lives that it expresses our dreams and desires in an archetypal way. The so-called archetype is a certain solidified psychological-narrative-pictorial expression of primitive human desire, which Jung called the "collective unconscious." Desire is omnipresent, but requires a clear style of communication, a "story" with a fixed structure2.
As we all know, the popular global Cinderella archetype, its history is almost as long as the history of human spiritual activity, the most famous version of which is the 19th century Grimm fairy tale, which tells the story of a naturally beautiful girl, bullied by a vicious stepmother and two bad sisters, doing dirty and tired housework all day long, and being grayed by the smoke in the fireplace chimney, so it is called "Cinderella". One day, the prince of the city held a ball, at this time there appeared a fairy, looking at her pitiful, helped her to transform into a noble Miss Qianjin, and after the ball, she was fascinated by the prince, and Cinderella was able to get rid of the persecution of the family, change her fate, and live a happy life.
This story knows no borders, endures and is celebrated for generations. Why are modern people so fascinated by this counterattack plot? If we trace the counterattack of the poor child, where is its earliest prototype? As a result, we found highly similar stories from the ancient Chinese myths that have been circulating for two or three thousand years.
It is said that there was a great king in ancient times, he was Shun, he was a male version of Cinderella, who was persecuted by the stepmother and daughter from childhood, and the father, Xuan Shuo, that is, an old blind man, and the son elephant born to the old blind man and the stepmother, also joined the team of the persecutors. They repeatedly set traps to take his life, but they all escaped him.
Later, Shun ran to the foot of Alexandria to cultivate the land, and won the respect of the people for his diligence, tolerance, and kindness, which of course was also a unique moral magic. At that time, King Yao was old and wanted to choose a deputy to help him run the country. Everyone unanimously recommended Shun, saying that he was the best and most suitable candidate. Yao married his two daughters, Emperor E and Lady Ying, to this Shun, and then put him in charge of state affairs, and found that he was indeed very good, so after he retired, he ceded the throne to Shun. This is a very famous mythical story in ancient times 3.
The Shun story and the Cinderella story have basically the same structure and function, and from a mythological point of view, they belong to the same story archetype. This kind of plot that spans time and space expresses the collective unconscious of human beings who long for life to counterattack: we all originally have great genes, but because of bad luck, the family fell in the middle of the road, and we became ordinary people, but as long as we use some kind of "magic" and gain the trust and appreciation from a certain big person, we can change our destiny and become a big person with a noble status.
Whether ancient or modern, human beings have such a dream of changing their destiny, so myth has become a spiritual therapy, which cures people's mental illness and leads people to a brighter state of life. This is the central secret of mythology — the incredible healing function. No matter how harsh the reality of everyday life, archetypal mythology is an effective spiritual therapy that removes anxiety, sadness, and fear, inspires weak souls, and helps them survive temporary life difficulties.
concentrate:
1. Jin Yong, "Tianlong Babu Interpretation": The term "Tianlong Babu" comes from the Buddhist scriptures. When many Mahayana sutras describe the Buddha's teachings to bodhisattvas, bhikkhus, etc., there are often eight heavenly dragons involved in listening to the Dharma. For example, in the Lotus Sutra Devadatta: "The Eight Heavenly Dragons, both human and non-human, have all seen the female of The Dragon become Buddhas." "Non-human" are beings that look like people but are not actually human beings. The "Eight Heavenly Dragons" are all "non-human", including eight kinds of Shinto monsters, and are called "Heavenly Dragon Eight Parts" because they are headed by "Heaven" and "Dragon". The Eight Parts, one day, two dragons, three night forks, four gandharvas, five asuras, six kaluras, seven chanaras, eight mokharyas. ”
2. Jung's Collected Writings, Vol. 5, The Concept of the Collective Unconscious: "The collective unconscious is part of the spirit... The content of the collective unconscious never exists in consciousness and is therefore never learned by the individual, but instead reduces its existence entirely to heredity. Unlike the individual unconscious, which is largely structured by emotion, the content of the collective unconscious is basically composed of archetypes. The concept of archetypes is an indispensable association of the concept of the collective unconscious... Mythological studies call them 'themes'..."
3. "History of the Five Emperors": "Shun's father was blind, and Shun's mother died, and Shun's mother married his wife and gave birth to an elephant, an elephant." After loving his wife, shun often wanted to kill Shun, and Shun fled; and if he had a minor transgression, he suffered. Shunshi father and stepmother and brother... Shun cultivated The Mountain, Yu Lei Ze, Tao Hebin, made a tool in Shouqiu, and it was time to lose the summer. Shun's father is stubborn, his mother is stubborn, and his brother is proud, and they all want to kill Shun. Shun Shunshi did not lose his son, and his brother was filial piety. If you want to kill, you cannot get it; that is, you ask, taste it on the side. Shun's twenty years of filial piety. Thirty and Emperor Yao asked those available, and the four Yue Xian recommended Yu Shun, Yue Ke. ...... So Yao Nai tried shun's five canonical and hundred officials, and all of them ruled. ”
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