Митске слике старе Кине
Mythical Images In Ancient China

Summary/Abstract: Myth is an extremely complex cultural reality, which can be approached and interpreted from various and complementary viewpoints. Myth, then, is always an account of a "creation"; it relates how something was produced, began to be. Myth tells only of that which really happened, which manifested itself completely. The most important function of myth was to store the paradigms for all rituals and significant human activities. Myth is the most important textual reference to shamanism in ancient China, and it provides the crucial clue to understanding the central role of shamanism in ancient Chinese politics. Heaven is where all the wisdom of human affairs lies. In this context, wen appears to have originally had the sense of 'striped' or 'adorned,' and it may be by extension from this that wen came to mean 'accomplished,' 'accomplishments,' and even 'civilization'; based on analysis of ancient characters, wu "shaman", wu "not have; without", and wu "dance", "can all be traced back to one primitive figure of a man displaying by the gestures of his arms and legs the thauma-turgic powers of his inspired personality", and qi literally means "air" or "breath," but as a concept it refers to the energy flow or life force that is said to pervade all things. In early China this mythical images perceived the world mythologically, and each mythical images brings with it different worldview and values.

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