The flood myths of early China / Mark Edward Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Mark Edward, 1954-

Series:

SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture.

SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Floods--China--Folklore.

Floods.

Floods--China--Religious aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 248 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Early Chinese ideas about the construction of an ordered human space received narrative form in a set of stories dealing with the rescue of the world and its inhabitants from a universal flood. This book demonstrates how early Chinese stories of the re-creation of the world from a watery chaos provided principles underlying such fundamental units as the state, lineage, the married couple, and even the human body. These myths also supplied a charter for the major political and social institutions of Warring States (481–221 BC) and early imperial (220 BC–AD 220) China.In some versions of the tales, the flood was triggered by rebellion, while other versions linked the taming of the flood with the creation of the institution of a lineage, and still others linked the taming to the process in which the divided principles of the masculine and the feminine were joined in the married couple to produce an ordered household. While availing themselves of earlier stories and of central religious rituals of the period, these myths transformed earlier divinities or animal spirits into rulers or ministers and provided both etiologies and legitimation for the emerging political and social institutions that culminated in the creation of a unitary empire.

Contents:

Intro

The Flood Myths of Early China

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

COMPARATIVE FLOOD MYTHS

CHINESE FLOOD MYTHS

1. FLOOD TAMING AND COSMOGONY

COSMOGONIES AND SOCIAL DIVISIONS

SOCIAL DIVISIONS AND THE FLOOD

THE FLOOD AND THE HUMAN-ANIMAL DIVIDE

THE FLOOD AND HUMAN NATURE

THE FLOOD AND LOCAL CULTURES

CONCLUSION

2. FLOOD TAMING AND CRIMINALITY

CRIMINALITY AND THE COLLAPSE OF SOCIAL DIVISIONS

GONG GONG AS A CRIMINAL

GUN AS A CRIMINAL

CRIMINALITY AND FLOOD IN THE SHAN HAI JING

CRIMINALITY, FLOODS, AND THE EXILE OF SONS

3. FLOOD TAMING AND LINEAGES

THE SAGES AS BAD FATHERS AND SONS

THE DEMON CHILD

FATHERS, SONS, AND THE COLLAPSE OF SOCIAL DIVISIONS

4. FLOOD TAMING, COUPLES, AND THE BODY

THE MYTHOLOGY OF NÜ GUA AND THE FLOOD

THE MYTHOLOGY OF NÜ GUA AND FU XI

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF NÜ GUA AND FU XI

YU, MARRIAGE, AND THE BODY

NOTES

WORKS CITED

INDEX

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

V

W

X

Y

Z.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-229) and index.

ISBN:

9780791482223

0791482227

9781423766193

1423766199

OCLC:

461442976