The Flood Myths Of Early China (S U N Y Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Explores how the flood myths of early China provided a template for that society’s major social and political institutions. 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. --book Jacket. Comparative Flood Myths 1 -- Chinese Flood Myths 16 -- Chapter 1 Flood Taming And Cosmogony 21 -- Cosmogonies And Social Divisions 21 -- Social Divisions And The Flood 28 -- The Flood And The Human-animal Divide 33 -- The Flood And Human Nature 38 -- The Flood And Local Cultures 43 -- Chapter 2 Flood Taming And Criminality 49 -- Criminality And The Collapse Of Social Divisions 50 -- Gong Gong As A Criminal 55 -- Gun As A Criminal 60 -- Criminality And Flood In The Shan Hai Jing 64 -- Criminality, Floods, And The Exile Of Sons 72 -- Chapter 3 Flood Taming And Lineages 79 -- The Sages As Bad Fathers And Sons 79 -- The Demon Child 85 -- Fathers, Sons, And The Collapse Of Social Divisions 99 -- Chapter 4 Flood Taming, Couples, And The Body 109 -- The Mythology Of Nu Gua And The Flood 110 -- The Mythology Of Nu Gua And Fu Xi 116 -- The Iconography Of Nu Gua And Fu Xi 125 -- Yu, Marriage, And The Body 134. Mark Edward Lewis. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 153-229) And Index. 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.