Studying the Relationship between Heaven and Man: a Study of Mythology in "historical Records
by Yu Yurong
About This Novel
This book takes mythology as a research perspective and takes the "Shiji", the source of Chinese official history, as a whole research object to explore why there are a lot of myths in the official history and what Sima Qian's intention was in writing the history book in this way. The writing of "Historical Records" reflects the long-standing mythological narrative context in ancient classics and continues the tradition of witchcraft history in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Western Han Dynasty was at a time when "witchcraft" and "history" were gradually alternating, so it had a rational, rigorous, and systematic historical expression that was recognized by later generations. However, at the same time, the book also left a large number of myths, legends, dreams, spells, divination and other "indecent teachings" about the legacy of witchcraft. The two are not inconsistent with each other. This is the deep reason and cultural background for the use of myths as historical materials in "Historical Records". The Western Han Dynasty coincided with the establishment of a unified empire. Sima Shigong's use of myths not only continued the cultural context, but also had the intention of using it for the present. Therefore, there are two levels of interpretation of mythological narratives in "Historical Records": one is the subconscious level, which is the unconscious inheritance and development of mythological thinking; the other is the ideological level, which is based on the subconscious level, using the deep-rooted influence of mythical thinking on religious culture, academic thought and folk beliefs to organize and transform the myths and legends handed down from previous generations, so as to "set up Shinto teachings" and complete new historical expressions. In this era background and cultural atmosphere, the use of a large number of mythological materials in the official history "Historical Records" appeared.
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