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Oriental Mythology Free Encyclopedia

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Oriental Mythology Free Encyclopedia FREE ORIENTAL MYTHOLOGY PDF Joseph Campbell | 576 pages | 01 Sep 2011 | Souvenir Press Ltd | 9780285640566 | English | London, United Kingdom Chinese mythology - Wikipedia Salvation churches and sects :. Confucian churches and sects:. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and Oriental Mythology traditions. Chinese mythology is far from monolithic, Oriental Mythology being an integrated system, even among just Han people. Chinese mythology is encountered in the traditions of Oriental Mythology classes of people, geographic regions, historical periods including the present, and from various ethnic groups. China is the home of many mythological traditions, including that of Han Chinese and their Oriental Mythology predecessors, as well as Tibetan mythologyTurkic Oriental MythologyKorean mythologyJapanese mythology and many others. However, the study of Chinese mythology tends to focus upon material in Chinese language. Much of the mythology involves exciting stories full of fantastic people and beings, the use of magical powers, often taking place in an exotic mythological place or time. Like many mythologies, Chinese Oriental Mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history. Many Oriental Mythology involve the creation and cosmology of the universe and its deities and inhabitants. Some mythology involves creation myths, the origin of things, people and culture. Some Oriental Mythology the origin of the Chinese state. Some myths present a chronology of prehistoric times, many of these involve a culture hero who taught people how to build houses, or cook, or write, or was the ancestor of an ethnic group or dynastic family. Mythology is intimately related to ritual. Many myths are oral associations with ritual acts, such as dances, ceremonies, and sacrifices. There has been an extensive interaction between Chinese mythology and ConfucianismTaoismand Oriental Mythology. Elements of pre- Han dynasty mythology such as those in Classic of Mountains and Seas were adapted into these belief systems as they developed in the case of Taoismor were assimilated into Chinese culture in the case of Buddhism. Elements from the teachings and beliefs of these systems became incorporated into Chinese mythology. For example, the Taoist belief of a spiritual paradise became incorporated into mythology as the place where immortals and deities used to dwell. Sometimes mythological and religious ideas have become widespread across China's many regions and diverse ethnic societies. In other cases, beliefs are more limited to certain social groups, for example, the veneration of white stones by the Qiang. One mythological theme that has a long history and many variations involves a shamanic world view, for example in the cases Oriental Mythology Mongolian shamanism among the Mongols, Hmong shamanism among the Miao peopleand the shamanic beliefs of the Qing dynasty from toderived from the Manchus. Politically, mythology was often used to legitimize the dynasties of China, with the founding house of a dynasty claiming a divine descent. True mythology is distinguished from philosophical treatises and theories. Elaborations on the Wu Xing are not really part of mythology, although belief in five elements could appear. The Hundred Schools of Thought is a phrase suggesting the diversity of philosophical thought that developed during the Warring States of China. Then, and subsequently, philosophical movements had a complicated relationship with mythology. However, as far as they influence Oriental Mythology are influenced by mythology, Ferguson"Introduction" divides the philosophical camps into two rough halves, a Liberal group and a Conservative group. The liberal group being associated with the idea of individuality and change, for example as seen in the mythology of divination in China, such as the mythology of the dragon horse that delivered the eight bagua diagrams to Fu Xi, and methods of individual empowerment as seen in the Yi Jing Book of Changes. The Liberal tendency is towards individual freedom, Daoism, and Nature. The relationship of the Conservative philosophies to mythology is seen in the legendary Nine Tripod Cauldronsmythology about the emperors and central bureaucratic governance, Confucianism, written histories, ceremonial observances, subordination of the individual to the social groups of family and state, and a fixation on stability and enduring institutions. The distinction between the Liberal and Conservative is very general, but important in Oriental Mythology thought. Contradictions can be found in the details, however these are often traditional, such as the embrace by Confucius of the philosophical aspects of the Yi Jingand the back-and-forth about the Mandate of Heaven wherein one dynasty ends and another begins based according to accounts some of heavily mythological where the Way of Heaven results in change, Oriental Mythology then a new ethical stable dynasty becomes established. Mythology exists in relationship with other aspects of society and culture, such as ritual. Various rituals are explained by mythology. For example, the ritual burning of mortuary banknotes Hell Moneylighting fireworksand so on. A good example of the relationship of Chinese mythology and ritual is the Yubu, also known as the Steps or Paces of Yu. During the course of his activities in controlling the Great Flood, Yu was supposed to have so fatigued himself that he lost all the hair from his legs and developed a serious Oriental Mythology. Daoist practitioners sometimes incorporate a curiously choreographed pedal locomotion into various rituals. Oriental Mythology and practice, one explains the other: in these rituals, the sacred time of Yu merges with the sacral practice of the present. Gender is a significant phenomenon in Chinese mythology. Tu'er Shen is an example of a gender-oriented deity. The marking of gender in Chinese is different than in Oriental Mythology, especially Oriental Mythology Classical Chinesegender is not marked in the case of most nouns and Oriental Mythology, thus making gender often difficult to determine. This makes it difficult to write in, or to translate to, English. Where it is the case that specifying gender is generally obligatory, without at the same time implying or Oriental Mythology some viewpoint on the gender of the subject, which was not necessarily provided in the Chinese original. The same can be true in the cases of number of proper nouns versus common nouns. In any case, much of Chinese mythology is informed by an idea of gender duality and balance, Oriental Mythology exemplified in the idea of yin and yang. Various ideas about the nature of the earth, the universe, and their relationship to Oriental Mythology other have historically existed as either a background or a focus of mythologies. One typical view is of a square earth separated from a round sky by sky pillars mountains, trees, or undefined. Above the sky is the realm of Heaven, often viewed of as a vast area, with many inhabitants. Often the heavenly inhabitants are thought to be of an "as above so below" nature, their lives and social arrangements being parallel to those on earth, with a hierarchical government Oriental Mythology by a supreme emperor, many palaces and lesser dwellings, a vast bureaucracy of many functions, clerks, guards, and servants. Below was a vast under ground land, also known as DiyuYellow Springs, Hell, and other terms. As time progressed, the idea of an underground land in which the souls of the departed were punished for their misdeeds during life became explicit, related to developments in Daoism and Buddhism. The Oriental Mythology world also came to be conceived of as inhabited by a vast bureaucracy, with kings, judges, torturers, conductors of souls, minor bureaucrats, recording secretaries, similar to the structure of society in the Middle Kingdom earthly China. The mythology of China includes a Oriental Mythology geography describing individual mythological descriptions of places and the features; sometimes, this reaches to the level of a cosmological conception. Various features of mythological Oriental Mythology are described in myth, including a Heavenly world above the earth, a land of the dead beneath the earth, palaces beneath the sea, and various fantastic Oriental Mythology or features of the earth, located beyond the limits of the known earth. Such mythological features include mountains, rivers, forests or fantastic trees, and caves or grottoes. These then serve as the Oriental Mythology for the actions of various beings and creatures. One concept encountered in some myths is the idea of travel between Earth and Heaven by means of climbing up or down the pillars separating the Oriental Mythology, there usually being four or Eight Pillars or an unspecified number of these Sky Ladders. These totem animals represented the four cardinal Oriental Mythology, with a lot of associated symbolism and beliefs. A fifth cardinal direction was also postulated: the center, represented by the emperor of China, located in the middle of his Middle Kingdom Zhong Guo, or China. The real or mythological inhabitants making their dwellings at these cardinal points were numerous, as is associated mythology. The Heavenly realm could be known as Tian, Heavenor the sky. Sometimes this was personified into a deity sky god. In some descriptions, this was an elaborate place ruled over by a supreme deity, or a group of supreme deities. Jade Emperor being associated
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