The Golden Bough VS The Jade Leaf A Chinese Perspective of Comparative Mythology by Ye Shuxian

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shuxian, Ye., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comparative literature.

Anthropology.

Digital humanities.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st edition 2025

Contained In:

Springer Nature eBook

Place of Publication:

Singapore Springer Nature Singapore Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan 2025

Summary:

This landmark volume offers a bold response from the East to the Western classic The Golden Bough, bringing Chinese perspectives into the global conversation on comparative mythology. Through a close examination of the culturally distinctive motif of the "Jade Leaf", the author reinterprets the foundational narratives of ancient China and highlights the symbolic and civilizational role of jade in shaping East Asian identity. By bridging disciplines such as mythology, literature, history, philosophy, religion, art, and anthropology, the book constructs a uniquely Chinese mythological coding system-one that challenges conventional boundaries and offers fresh insight into the spiritual and cultural imagination of ancient China. Ye Shuxian, a Ph.D. holder in Comparative Literature, is a senior professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. He is the chairman of the Chinese Mythology Association and Chinese Comparative Literature Association. He was a visiting professor at the Yale University from 1999 to 2000 and the director of Comparative Literature in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 2004 to 2012. His main areas of research include comparative literature, mythology and literary anthropology. He has published more than 300 journal articles and over 40 books.

Contents:

Part One: The Encoding and Decoding of Mythological History

Chapter 1: Jade Myths and Chinese Identity

Chapter 2: The "Big Tradition" and the "Small Tradition" of Chinese Culture

Chapter 3: The Chinese Mythistory: From "Chinese Myths" to "Mythological China"

Chapter 4: From Nüwa to the Female Frog: The Creation Myth and the Background of the Frog God in China

Chapter 5: New Origins of Daoist Thought: New Archaeological Materials Reveal Updated Mythological Origins of Daoist Thought

Chapter 6: The Mythology of Xi Wangmu (the Queen Mother of the West): The Legacy of Goddess Civilization in China

Chapter 7: The Bear Totem and Prehistoric Mythology in Northeast Asia

Chapter 8: Chinese Tiger Culture: An Illustration

Chapter 9: The Globalization of the Lion God and the Metamorphosis of the Bear God: A Visual Diary from a Study Trip in Europe

Part Two Jade Age and Jade Myths

Chapter 10: Examining the Sorcerous Roots of Confucian and Daoist Thought from the Mythological Perspective of the Jade Worship

Chapter 11: From Youxiong to Taiyi: Exploring the Origins of Confucian Mythology through the Quadruple-Evidence Method

Chapter 12: Sumerian Lapis Lazuli Myths

Chapter 13: A Comparative Study of the Prototypes of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, the Auspicious Tree in India, and Liuli in China: the Significance of Sumerian Lapis Lazuli Myths in the Origins of Civilization

Chapter 14: Golden Sound and Jade Vibration: Re-discovery of Confucian Mythology

Chapter 15: The Origins and Symbolism of Jade Burial Suit

Chapter 16: Jade Stool, Jade Table and Jade Pillow

Part Three Literary Anthropology and Cultural Re-Enlightenment

Chapter 17: Disaster and Salvation in Literature

Chapter 18: From World Literature to Literary Anthropology: The Contemporary Transformation of Literary Concepts

Chapter 19: Revisiting Neo-Mythologism: A Critique of Academic Neglect in the Reinterpretation of Mythology in China

Chapter 20: Avatar and the Quest for Cultural Roots

Chapter 21: Cultural Re-Enlightenment: The Need for a Discipline Providing a Theoretical Foundation for the Cultural Industry

Notes:

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Printed edition:

ISBN:

9789819523511

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Restricted for use by site license