Chinese Mythology Essay Example

Introduction

Chinese mythology is a mythology which has been passing down from generation to generation through oral form and documented literature. This Chinese mythology consists of different myths from cultural traditions and regions. Indeed, myths and legends are traditional stories which are not found on historical facts; however, they only tell takes about supernatural beings like gods and goddesses like the things which happen after death and the creation of the world. Individuals have been discussing these stories from time immemorial as a way to help make sense regarding the lives as well as the world surrounding them. For Chinese people, they have a gigantic collection of myths most of which tell stories about immortals, gods, and goddesses sin attempt to describe different events like how the world came into being (Ganeri). This report will discuss various Chinese mythology such as the Chinese religions, myths and legends, and cultural traditions.

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The Landscape of Religions in China

The religion setting in China is entirely different as compared to the monotheistic religion exhibited by the Western models of worship. The Chinese religious culture only allowed Chinese rulers to perform rituals and not any other mortal. The emperor is the only individual who was allowed to offer sacrifices to Heaven which is considered as the highest ancestors. In China state religions primarily comprised ceremonies and sacrifices that were performed by the emperor who had the responsibility to secure the well-being as well as the harmony of comic and the numinous as well as socio-political powers. Heaven is identified with God on High (Shangdi), to which only the emperor was given the responsibility to offer great sacrifices. While the emperor is the only individual that was tasked with the responsibility of providing a sacrifice to Shangdi this relationship was not professional.

The God on High was not worshiped in the temple and worship was not personal; hence no one ever had a hint of Shangdi. Therefore, the responsibility of organizing Heaven was left under control of the emperor which was referred to as "All under Heaven (tianxia)." In this sense, both political and religious matters were conducted together where religious rituals were part of the emperor's responsibility under control of the Ministry of Rites (libu). On the same note, similar tasks were conducted at the lower leadership levels where leaders in charge of prefectures, cities, and districts also were able to address gods positions at similar levels at the celestial chain of command. Certainly, this order of duties continued to the clan and family level where various ancestors' levels are addressed through clan and family rituals by the heads of the social units in respect to the ancestral halls. In Chinese state religion, officials worship gods following a supernatural hierarchy which related to the authority of their political positions. Consequently, the political, administrative structures echo the celestial structures. In this light terms like "inclusivism" and "exclusivism" do not have a place in the Chinese religious cultures.

Chinese Religion

In China, the ancient religion was built on the reconstruction of religious practices, ideas, institutions as well as beliefs from various selected sources into religious cultures. Therefore, several archaeological remnants from Neolithic periods have been interpreted as reflections of early religious culture. Some of these remains include temples, figurines which are believed to have been objects of worship, images that resemble later mythical figures such as dragon and tigers. For example, some of the images that are interpreted in religious terms include the use of red hematite powder and valuable burial products. Consequently, these interpretations remain considerably speculative and reliant on the present religion theories because they are built on archaeological remnants which do not speak. Some of the archaeological relics which depict the Chinese religion include Shan oracle texts and Zhou religion.

Shang Oracle Texts

Shang oracle texts are among the earliest archaeological artifacts which provide insight about the Chinese religious culture where oracle texts were inscribed on animal bones and turtle shells that records divinations practices of the Shang kings. Indeed, numerous fragments containing these texts have been excavated to allow individuals to reconstruct one of the initial Chinese divination strategies, orientation, and cosmos and religious ideologies like time for ritual, animal worship, and sacrifice, and numerology. Zhou religion strongly believes in animal sacrifice. As a result, Zhou religion organized a temple cult which was performed in accordance with ten Heavenly stems (gan). There are ancestors to whom the Chinese people used to offer sacrifices regularly; these ancestors were made in the ten-day Shang week where they were assigned one of the ten stems which were a temple title and worshiped on these respective days. Indeed, the recording of these days in the oracle texts is an indication of the numinous powers in control of the day of the divination. Similarly, Chinese people used to record the daily sacrifices which used to be executed in order to which the divination preparation. During the era of Shang, powers were part of a highly diversified structural pantheon.

Nonetheless, apart from these hierarchical powers of the lineal Shang powers of the pre-dynastic and dynastic emperors and their heir ancestral consorts that their spirits were worshiped in temples in ritual centers of the Shang. Moreover, Shang had mythical and historical culture heroes who were not members of the lineage of Shang. These powers are nature powers like the winds, the sun, the rivers, the soil, mountains and the cardinal directions that used to play critical roles. Importantly, is that Shangdi was the supreme ruler of the high who was positioned at the top of the pantheon (Guo band Kenneth). Therefore, due to Shangdi's supreme position, he received no cult as he was considered the most powerful thus people could not be allowed to sacrifice directly to him. As a result of this, people could only sacrifice to Shangdi the Supreme Being indirectly through ancestors and other deities.

In Shang religion, both deities and ancestors were considered more posts as compared to humans. Consequently, the pantheon was structured strictly based on a hierarchy in line with seniority; their functions were differentiated sand controlled through command structures. The pantheon enhanced rationalization, depersonalization in addition to making divination a routine process is an aspect that echoed bureaucracy in Shang religion. Accordingly, a similar character is depicted through the Chinese imperial cult in which sacrifices were only undertaken at distinct points like kings and princes and also divination topics and objects used to be different based on the status (Guo band Kenneth). For instance, sacrifice performed by Shang prince was limited to only Shang ancestors; hence they could not find just divine on any matters such as state concerns.

Zhou religion

The concept of Zhou came into existence in the middle of religious matters where heaven (tian) was regarded as the greatest power which results in the legitimization of a new rule of the Zhou. With Heaven being considered as the highest power it is given the mandate to rule the Central States. Indeed, Zhou was unique from other numinous powers of the Shang which had to be appeased by performing regular sacrifices and rituals (Liu). Heaven is considered the overall protector of all these other rulers by behaving according to the moral standards. Importantly, the development of ethical standards by Zhou rulers helped to ensure that all Chinese rulers and their generations to rule by morals. Indeed, Heavenly power had a decisive outcome which led to a moral cosmology that organized the religious and philosophical backgrounds as well as the relationship between religions and philosophy within the Chinese state.

Chinese Myths and Legends

The world is big with unpredictable and uncontrollable things which makes it difficult for people to understand it. At some point, bad things happen to good people while good things happen to bad people. Indeed, such occurrences make it challenging for individuals to understand how things happen on earth. Therefore, individuals from all walks of life across the world have experienced challenging things in life; hence to be able to deal with such hardships in life they tend to tell stories (Ganeri). It is believed that stories play a major role in aiding people to understand that difficult times make them stronger. Regarding this statement in China, various myths existed to help individuals cope with all kinds of life. Therefore, myths are just stories which help individuals to make sense out of difficult conditions by making life understandable. Chinese myths and legends are based on supernatural beings, gods and goddesses like the creation of the world and things that happen after death. In this sense, Chinese myths originate from three key regions of China that is Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. As a result, most of the Chinese legends are a mixture of the three religions. For instance, in accordance with Chinese mythology, the universe was a vast square piece of land bordered by four seas the North Sea, East Sea, South Sea, and West Sea. The corners of this land were held by a big tortoise foot and above the ground was the sky divided into nine regions subdivided into nine layers (Ollhoff). The topmost layer that is the ninth layer is where the Jade Emperor lived.

Chinese Creation Myths

There are several Chinese mythologies about creation. For instance the story of the comic egg and Pan Ku. Pan Ku is a god who at one time he was locked in a huge egg which in the long run break open and Pan Ku emerge. After breaking of the egg, the light part of the egg floats up to become heaven while the heavier part of the egg formed the Earth. However, after Pan Ku's emergence, he becomes afraid that the sky will fall to the Earth; hence he holds it up in the sky (Gentz). Accordingly, Pan Ku keep on pushing the sky to keep it away from the Earth. On working all this period, it leaves pan Ku exhausted which results in his death after falling. Consequently, the body of Pan Ku becomes part of the Earth where his body become likes and rivers, and his breath becomes wind. The eyes of Pan Ku becomes the sun and the moon respectively while his hair becomes grass and his bones become the rock, and the fleas on his body become people.

Honoring ancestors

In the ancient Chinese culture honoring of ancestors was quite a common incident. The most significant parts of Confucianism which are regarded as being loyal to parents. Indeed, the Chinese people believed that parents were supposed to be honored even after death. However, Chinese people never used to worship their ancestors but only honored them by venerating them. Subsequently, it was common among the Chinese culture to set up small alters for the dead parents. When parents died, the survivors could cook their ancestors the most favorite meals and also pray to them. Similarly, the dead people could be buried with their materials as a way to make sure that the ancestors could take care of their selves after life on Earth. The Chinse people did not believe that life ended after one dies. Although the Chinese cultured used to venerate their ancestors, this does not mean that they worshiped ancestors as gods (Ollhoff). Nonetheless, Chinse people believed that ancestor took an interest in individuals who were still living and that these ancestors had the power to influence things in life. Consequently, even in the modern day, Chinese people...