РефератыИностранный языкThThe Chinese Culture Essay Research Paper The

The Chinese Culture Essay Research Paper The

The Chinese Culture Essay, Research Paper


The Chinese Culture


James Walker


Mr.Johnson E3


December 20, 1996


This report is about the myths and beliefs of the Chinese culture. It’s about


the stories the Chinese created to explain the world around them, and generally


how they perceived their surrounding environment. This report deals with


ancient myths and the people who believed them, and what the current believes of


these people are.


The Southwest Creation Story


The Southwest creation story is a myth which explains why people are different.


The myth begins by saying that there were people on earth who were all alike,


meaning there weren’t people who were black, white, oriental, etc.. It states


that the humans on earth all generally were the same. There were also gods who


lived above the clouds in the heavens. And there was a huge heavenly ladder


which started on a mountain and reached all the way up to heaven’s door. It


goes on to tell a story of a man who had two children. One was a girl and the


other was a boy.


They lived in a house which had a huge very thick roof. The man had built the


roof so thick because it rained almost every day. He hated the rain. He knew


it had its benefits but too much of it ruined his crops, destroyed his livestock


and every time it rained the roof of the house was destroyed. And every time


the man rebuilt it, he made it thicker and thicker. He blamed all his


misfortune on the Duke of Thunder. The Duke of Thunder was one of the gods who


lived in the heavens. He was the god of rain and thunder. The man dispised the


Duke very much and had a pure hatred of him.


Every time it rained the Duke would descend from the heavens and stand on a


hilltop. There he would watch with pure delight as the rains and thunder came


down harder and harder. Finally the man had had enough. One day he took his


axe and waited on the hilltop for the Duke to arrive. When the rains came so did


the Duke, and the man slashed him in the back. The Duke was


hurt but not killed because he was a god. The man caged him and brought him


home. He put him in a corner and warned the kids not to go near him. And to


especially not give him water. The next morning was a beautiful sunny one, but


the Duke looked horrible almost as if he was dehydrating. The man told the


children he had to go to the market and said again not to go near the Duke no


matter what he does and don’t give him water. After the man left the Duke


started moaning. He begged the children to give him some water but they refused


following their father’s orders. The Duke pretended he was dead with his mouth


hung open and he had his lips very dry.


The girl was worried, she thought he was dying so she gave him one drop of


water. The Duke instantly jumped back up and tore apart the cage. The


children were terrified. He came over to them and promised them that they


will be rewarded for their deed. He gave them a small egg and told them to


plant it in the ground and then he left. When the man came back he was


shocked by what had happened. He knew the Duke would be very angry and would


punish him. So he didn’t waste any time and started to build a ship. After


a month’s time the ship was finished. It was built out of the strongest


material known to him.


Meanwhile the egg the children planted had grown to a size of about two small


people. Then one day what the man had anticipated came. Huge torrential


downpours of rain started and there were tremendous floods. The man jumped into


the ship he built, in his panic he had forgotten about the children. They had


ran into the egg which had become soft. The floods were so great that the man


in his ship reached all the way to the door of the heavens. He banged the doors


and yelled let me in! The gods didn’t want mortals in the heavens, so the Duke


was ordered to recede the floods. He took the floods back so fast that the man


fell back to the earth and was crushed by his ship.


The children in the soft egg bounced back to the ground safely. When they came


out, they saw everything was destroyed. They were the only ones left. They


lived happily for a while and after some time they had a child. Because they


were brother and sister the child was defor

med and died a short time later. The


two kids chopped up the baby into tiny pieces and put him in a bag, and they


started climbing up the heavenly ladder.


The bag ripped before they could reach to the top and all the pieces


fell back to earth. They fell all over the continents, and from them the new


people developed. They were different in appearance from each other depending


on where they lived. This myth explains why there are people who look so much


different from each other. This myth suggests that man was more responsible for


the creation of the new humans than the gods. Because of the actions of the man


the people were created.


The Heritage of a King


This is a myth about fate. In this myth a man named Zoa chi who is a king tries


to find out his fate. Zoa was a survivor. When he was little his parents were


assassinated. An attempt at his life was also made but his older brother


protected him. The murderer was his uncle who betrayed his father and overthrew


his power. He stayed in exile with his brother until he was older. Over the


years his hatred of his uncle had made Zoa a very stern man. He had wowed to


get his revenge. He became a great fighter and started a group of followers who


also were against the king. Then finally the day he had been waiting for had


arrived. With his small army he overpowered the kings army. Growing up on


the streets had made Zoa a great strategy leader, so he was able to defeat


the huge overconfident king’s army. He killed the king and took over the


throne. Years went by and he himself became overconfident and selfish. He


created a fantasy image of himself as a great man. He thought that nothing


on this planet could defeat him. As time went by he became just like his


uncle. Absolute power had corrupted him.


Then one day he declared to all his subjects that he was a god and expected to


be worshipped. This was too much for the people, they rebelled but Zoa crushed


all their resistance. One of his advisors told Zoa that he knew a magician who


could greatly help him in keeping down further rebellions. He said that this


man could see the future and help him stop protesters before they could organise


and challenged him. The king immediately called the man to his castle. The


man’s name was Hou. He told the king that there will be a man who will kill him


soon. And that man would be a close relative of his.


The king knew exactly whom Hou was talking about. Zoa’s son Zhuan was almost


the age where he could become king if something happened to his father.


Immediately Zoa ordered Zhuan to be imprisoned. He said this was another


example of how clever he was, he said he saw the future and beat fate’s


destiny. He even said that he was better than any other god the people


believed in. When he went to see Zhuan his older brother went with him.


Zhuan pleaded with Zoa and said he would never even think of killing his own


father. But Zoa didn’t believe him.


He sentenced Zhuan to death. But before Zhuan could be killed older Zoa’s


brother beheaded him when he facing his son. Zoa was killed by his own


brother who was ashamed of what his younger sibling had become. What the


magician didn’t tell Zoa was which close relative would kill him. Zoa who


had become overconfident wasn’t as great as he thought he was. And he was


too arrogant to not know that the gods should not be challenged. This myth


tells that becoming overconfident will eventually hurt you and that no one


could beat their destiny. The Chinese in this story believed in the gods,


they were very religious people and this myth tells that the gods should not


be challenged.


Both of these myths were written a long time ago and I don’t think that the


people today still believe in these myths as strongly as the people who wrote


them did. I think it’s like Halloween in our culture. We still practice the


custom as the ancient people did but we don’t have as much as a strong believe


in ghosts and goblins as our ancestors did.


Bibliography


Birch, Cyril. Chinese Myths And Fantasies. Great Britain: London, 1992.


Fei, Charles. Strange Creatures. New York, 1990


Ke, Yuan. Dragons And Dynasties. China: Beijing, 1993


*Chinese Myths.* Grolier Encyclopaedia, 12th ed. 1996.


32d

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