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Title: Myths and Legends of China

Author: E. T. C. Werner

Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15250]

Language: English

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Confucius: Teacher and Philosopher

Myths & Legends of China

By

E.T.C. Werner

H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking Author of “Descriptive Sociology: Chinese” “China of the Chinese” Etc.

With Thirty-two Illustrations In Colours By Chinese Artists

George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.

London Bombay Sydney

In Memoriam

Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner Page 7

Preface

The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the Li tai shên hsien t’ung chien, in thirty-two volumes, the Shên hsien lieh chuan, in eight volumes, the Fêng shên yen i, in eight volumes, and the Sou shên chi, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese Superstitions by Père Henri Doré, comprised in the valuable series Variétés Sinologiques, published by the Catholic Mission Press at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssŭ K’u Ch’üan Shu, one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend Mr Mu Hsüeh-hsün, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, for permission to reprint from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio the fox legends given in Chapter XV.

This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths. Page 8

My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives of Chinese mythology—those which live in the minds of the people and are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which are merely diverting without being typical or instructive—in short, a true, not a distorted image.

Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner

Peking

February 1922 Page 9

Contents

Chapter

Page

I.

The Sociology of the Chinese

13

II.

On Chinese Mythology

60

III.

Cosmogony—P’an Ku and the Creation Myth

76

IV.

The Gods of China

93

V.

Myths of the Stars

176

VI.

Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain

198

VII.

Myths of the Waters

208

VIII.

Myths of Fire

236

IX.

Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc.

240

X.

The Goddess of Mercy

251

XI.

The Eight Immortals

288

XII.

The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven

305

XIII.

A Battle of the Gods

320

XIV.

How the Monkey Became a God

325

XV.

Fox Legends

370

XVI.

Miscellaneous Legends

386

Glossary and Index

425

Page 11

Illustrations

Page

Confucius: Teacher and Philosopher

Frontispiece

The Spirit that Clears the Way

44

Lao Tzŭ

72

Nü Kua Shih

82

Mencius

90

Wên Ch’ang, K’uei Hsing, and Chu I

110

The Buddhist Triad

120

The Taoist Triad

124

Hsi Wang Mu

136

Chang Tao-ling

138

Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star

144

Chiang Tzŭ-ya At K’un-lun

156

Chiang Tzŭ-ya Defeats Wên Chung

160

The Kitchen-god

166

The Gods of Happiness, Office, and Longevity

170

The Money-tree

172

The Door-gods, Civil and Military

174

Hêng Ò Flies to the Moon

184

Wên Chung, Minister of Thunder

198

Dragon-gods

208

Spirit of the Well

216

The Magic Umbrellas

242

P’an Kuan

248

Miao Shan Reaches the Nunnery

262

The Tiger Carries Off Miao Shan

266

The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea

302

The Birth of the Monkey

326

The Demons of Blackwater River Carry Away the Master

352

Buddhists as Slaves in Slow-carts Country

354

Sun Steals Clothing for His Master

364

The Return to China

368

Chia Tzŭ-lung Finds the Stone

382

Page 12

Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontières réelles?... Ces frontières sont d’une netteté qui ne permet aucune erreur. L’Asie est là où cesse la vulgarité, où naît la dignité, et où commence l’élégance intellectuelle. Et l’Orient est là où sont les sources débordantes de poésie.

Mardrus,

La Reine de Saba

Page 13

Chapter I

The Sociology of the Chinese

Racial Origin

In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were nor whence they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a tradition of a Western origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not a people behaving as if long settled in a land which was their home and that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts, clearing dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants.

Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese are autochthonous and their civilization indigenous) now regarded by the best authorities as untenable, the researches of sinologists seem to indicate an origin