A Brief History of Chinese Mythology: From the Age of Shamans to the Gods-and-Demons Novel

Pangu split open chaos, Nüwa fashioned people from clay, Hou Yi shot down the suns... What are the great myths we've heard since childhood really about? Are they truly “superstition,” or a language the ancients used to explain the world and establish order?

A Brief History of Chinese Mythology: From the Age of Shamans to the Gods-and-Demons Novel traces Chinese mythology along a chronological timeline. It begins with the shamanic age, when humans and gods mingled, then moves through the dynastic legends of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the imagined landscapes of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the retellings of myth in the parables of the various schools of thought. It continues into the Han dynasty's belief in the interaction between Heaven and humanity and the craze for immortals, then follows the blending of Buddhism and Daoism in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the formation of the underworld and the cycle of reincarnation, before finally arriving at the vast divine realms of the Ming- and Qing-era gods-and-demons novels.

Perhaps the meaning of myth has never been to provide definitive answers, but to keep asking questions: What makes us believe in order, in our origins, and in tomorrow?