Aspects of Cyclic Myth in Chinese and Western Literature
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ASPECTS OF CYCLIC MYTH IN CHINESE AND WESTERN LITERATURE ROBERT SHAN-MU CHEN B.A., Soochow University, 1969 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Programme of Comparative Literature We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF. BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 197? Robert Shan-mu Chen, 1977 i In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Robert Shan-mu Chen Department of Comparative Literature The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Datp October 20, 1977- J /ABSTRACT This thesis is a comparative study of the history and literary form of the cyclic myth in Chinese and Western European culture. The cyclic myth is seen as a complex of discrete myths and rituals which tend to identify man with the periodic regeneration of nature and celestial bodies in order to ensure personal duration against the flux of time. By comparing the origins and transformations of the cyclic myth in both cultures the essential distinctions between Chinese and Western literature will be re• vealed as both cosmological and ontological. In order to bring the Chinese cyclic myth into a coherent perspective, efforts are devoted to the reconstruction and analysis of fifteen Chinese myths which concern temporal consciousness. The original cyclic myth is then traced through increasing levels of abstraction: ritual, natural religion, and finally philosophical speculation, for each has been incor• porated within the cyclic mentality of the homogeneous Chinese culture. With the abstraction of the cyclic myth broadly defined, the paper turns to a historical study of the presentation and function of archetypal cyclic images and patterns in Chinese literature, relating these insights to the Chinese world-view. A subsequent survey of the survival of the cyclic myth in Western literature, despite the dominant eschatology of Christianity, serves as the focus of comparison between East and West. By a general delineation of the cyclic myth's transmutation in Judaeo-Christian culture, the paper proposes a better discernment of the cyclic schema as an infonrting structure of literary works or an index of culture, and a further understanding of the cyclic myth as a whole. ill CONTENTS I. DTTRDDUCTION 1 II. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHINESE CYCLIC MYTH 11 A. The Temporal Envisagement in Chinese Mythology 12 B. The Cyclic Myth in Chinese Ritual and Primitive Religion 28 C. The Cyclic Myth in Chinese Philosophy 55 i. Yin Yang School 55 • ii. Confucianism 58 iii. Taoism 64 iv. Chinese Buddhism 69 D. Summary 76 III. THE CYCLIC MYTH IN CHINESE LITERATURE 86 A. The Cyclic Myth in Chinese Poetry 87 i. Li Sao 88 ii. Kuei Ch'u Lai Tz'u 100 B. The Cyclic Myth in Chinese Drama 106 i. Mu Tan T'ing 108 ii. Han Tan Chi 118 C. The Cyclic Myth in the Chinese Novel 124 i. Hsi Yu Chi 125 ii. Hung Lou Meng 137 D. Summary 145 IV. THE CYCLIC MYTH IN WESTERN LITERATURE 159 A. Historical Background 160 B. A Brief Survey of the Survival of the Cyclic Myth in Western Literature 166 V. CONCLUSION 200 VI. APPENDIXES 209 Appendix I: Abbreviation of Titles of Source Books of Chinese Mythology 210 Appendix II: Chronological Table of Chinese Classics and Legendary Sources 211 IV Appendix III: Constxuction of Some Chinese Myths 212 1. Myths of Creation 212 ii. The Myth of the Creation of Man 215 iii. The Myth of the Great Deluge 216 iv. The Myth of Paradise Rebuilt and the Golden Age 219 v. The Myth of the Silver Age 219 vi. The Myth of Passageways to Heaven 221 vii. The Myth of the Divine Conference and the Rebellion of Ch'ih Yu 224 viii. The Myth of the Estrangement of Earth From Heaven 228 ix. The Myth of Disasters on Earth After the Estrangement 229 x. The Myth of the God of Time and the Journey of the Sun 230 xi. The Myth of Titan P'eng Tsu's Sorrow Over the Ephemerality of Life 234 xii. The Myth of Titan K'ua Fu: One Who Chased the Sun 235' xiii. The Myth of Hou I: One Who Shot Down Nine Suns 236 xiv. The Myth of the Flight to the Moon 239 xv. The Myth of the Divine Administration 241 Appendix IV: The English Translation of Poems Cited 249 i. Li Sao. Tr. David Hawkes 249 ii. The Return. Tr. James Robert Hightower 256 iii. Homing. Tr. Lucien Miller 258 VTI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 260 V AC^OWLElX^EMEaSIT I should like to express my gratitude to Professor G. Good, Director of the Programme of Comparative Literature, and Professors Florence Chao and Jan Walls of the Department of Asian Studies, for their enthusiastic guidance throughout the research programme and helpful suggestions during the preparation of the thesis. Appreciation is extended to my families for their continuous encouragement over a period of two years; especially to my wife, Lissa, for her love and understanding during difficult times. My greatest debt is recorded in the dedication. INTRODUCTION 2 Whether the study of comparative literature is regarded as "the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression" or as "the study of literature beyond the.confines of one particular country,"1 a student comparing the literatures of China and Western Europe is in• evitably doomed to a solitude of uncertainty. The abysmal remoteness of the two cultures through history tends to magnify any perceived corres• pondence to the point of assured conclusions where only rough similarities may, in fact, exist. In the comparison of literature with other areas of knowledge the very homogeneity of Chinese culture poses a problem. The integration of philosophy and literature, the coherence of religion and philosophy, the correlation of philosophy and politics, and the similarities of various philosphic schools, and aesthetically the coalescence of lyric verse and music, and painting and poetry: these concerns present a united front, almost a barrier to the inquisitive Western mind. In the comparison of one literature to another, the student is faced with deciding which Chinese literature is the area of concern. Thus the May-Fourth Movement, a political protest which eventually became a cultural reformation in 1919, demarcates an integral traditional literature with an independent evolution of more than two thousand years from a heterogeneous modern literature with an intricate and pervasive Western influence or the barrenness of ideological dogma. In the above perspective, a comparative study of literary theme, especially that of archetypal image and pattern, that which is most funda• mental and most beyond temporal and spatial barriers, is likely to be the most urgent and constructive task for the student comparing Chinese and Western literature. As the ultimate expression of psychic truth and the most primordial yet autonomous form of the human spirit, the cyclic myth 3 as an archetypal pattern of mythology naturally arouses one's attention. Thus the task of this paper is to trace the origins, formation, and pre• sentation of that most pervasive mentality or schema known for ages in Chinese culture as "T'ien Jen Ho I," literally the unity of man and cosmos; and further, to engender insight into the cyclic myth as a whole by contrast and comparison to its Western counterpart. The first step is a simplifi• cation of terminology—the schema of "T'ien Jen Ho I" is hereafter to be rendered as "the Chinese cyclic myth" which immediately suggests the common importance of cyclicity to both cultures while allowing for more inclusive application in the relevant areas of study. Indeed, the uniqueness of the independence of Chinese literature and its remoteness to Western assumptions offers an opportunity to put the European-oriented New Criticism to a double test. And Arthur E. Kunst's conclusion on the ultimate object of the comparative study of Asian and European literatures as "the creation of a truly comprehensive theory of literature...based on a knowledge of independently evolved imaginative 2 traditions" serves as the best starting point of this paper. While such an ambitious scope is yet beyond realistic expectation at this time, our comparison will hopefully reveal areas of further study as well as illuminate a concept central to both literatures. Despite a labyrinth of various interpretations, most scholars would agree with Mircea Eliade that myth is a "complex system of coherent 3 affirmation about the ultimate reality of things," a system which consti• tutes a metaphysical validation of human existence, or a primitive ontology that asserts an intimate relationship between man and the cosmos. In its sociopoeic aspect, myth is a dramatization and a rationalization of the fundamental needs of the society. Here Malinowski's definition of myth as 4 "a narrative resurrection of a primeval reality, told in satisfaction of deep religious wants, moral cravings, social submissions, assertions, 4 even practical requirements" serves as the best description of its vital function in primitive society. Finally in its psychopoeic aspect we turn to the pioneering work of Carl Jung where "myths are original reve• lations of the preconscious psyche, involuntary statements about unconscious psychic happenings."5 Here myth is an expression of instinctual drives, repressed wishes, fears and conflicts, and remnants of the collective unconscious, whether in its mensopoeic, sociopoeic, or psychopoeic aspects, (and all are involved in apprehending the cyclic myth), myth is the original touchstone of culture.