Myths and Legends of China

Myths and Legends of China

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Title: Myths and Legends of China
Author: E. T. C. Werner
Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15250]
Language: English
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Myths & Legends of China
By
E.T.C. Werner
H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking Author of "Descriptive Sociology: Chinese" "China of the Chinese" Etc.
George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. London Bombay Sydney

In Memoriam
Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner
Preface
The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the _Li tai sh��n hsien t'ung chien_, in thirty-two volumes, the _Sh��n hsien lieh chuan_, in eight volumes, the _F��ng sh��n yen i_, in eight volumes, and the _Sou sh��n chi_, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese Superstitions by P��re Henri Dor��, comprised in the valuable series _Vari��t��s Sinologiques_, published by the Catholic Mission Press at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssu K'u Ch'��an Shu, one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend Mr Mu Hs��eh-hs��n, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, for permission to reprint from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio the fox legends given in


Chapter XV
.
This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths.
My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives of Chinese mythology--those which live in the minds of the people and are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which are merely diverting without being typical or instructive--in short, a true, not a distorted image.
Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner Peking February 1922

Contents



Chapter
I. The Sociology of the Chinese II. On Chinese Mythology III. Cosmogony--P'an Ku and the Creation Myth IV. The Gods of China V. Myths of the Stars VI. Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain VII. Myths of the Waters VIII. Myths of Fire IX. Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. X. The Goddess of Mercy XI. The Eight Immortals XII. The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven XIII. A Battle of the Gods XIV. How the Monkey Became a God XV. Fox Legends XVI. Miscellaneous Legends The Pronunciation of Chinese Words

_Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les fronti��res r��elles?... Ces fronti��res sont d'une nettet�� qui ne permet aucune erreur. L'Asie est l�� o�� cesse la vulgarit��, o�� na?t la dignit��, et o�� commence l'��l��gance intellectuelle. Et l'Orient est l�� o�� sont les sources d��bordantes de po��sie._
_Mardrus_, La Reine de Saba



CHAPTER I
The Sociology of the Chinese
Racial Origin
In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were nor whence they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a tradition of a Western origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not a people behaving as if long settled in a land which was their home and that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts, clearing dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants.
Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese are