Study On The Legends And Beliefs Of The Emperor Shun

The legend of Emperor Shun carries rich cultural connotations in the long-term evolution of time and space,and it is present in the present through multiple narrative structures.In terms of space,the transfer of legends and the formation of Emperor Shun's circle of legends reflect the diverse tribal relationships and cultural identities in the ancient history,and affect the construction of the spatial narrative of folk legends in local transitions.In terms of time,the evolution of the legend of Emperor Shun went through a process from the integration of Confucianism to the transformation of the folk narrative,which influenced the formation of the folk interpretation system of local historical memory and cultural characteristics based on the legend.At the same time,in the time and space evolution process of the legend of Emperor Shun,the belief system of Emperor Shun,with the belief of ancestor,the belief of holy king and the belief of filial piety and virtue as the main body,came into being gradually.This research takes the internal logic of the development and evolution of the legend of Emperor Shun as the clues,and extensively collects the documents of classical books,unearthed documents and ancient characters,living materials of folk and folk literature,archaeological excavations and handed down cultural relics,local Chronicles and stele inscriptions,images and other materials.Using multiple evidence method,interdisciplinary cross-research method and other research methods,this paper systematically studies the legend and belief of Emperor Shun in different topics.While exploring the deep cultural implication and ethical connotation of the legend,it establishes a relatively complete legend and belief system of Emperor Shun,and reveals the interactive relationship between the change of legend and the construction of belief.This paper is divided into five chapters:Chapter 1: Introduction,clarifies the purpose and significance of the research.The relevant research achievements of Shun in recent decades are systematically sorted out,the main research methods used in this study are introduced,and several important conceptual issues involved in the study are defined.Chapter 2: Interpreting the mythological qualities and archetypes contained in the legend of Emperor Shun,and classifying the main types of the legend of Emperor Shun.Myths and legends are the group reaction of two different ways of thinking to the reality,and they are the cognition and understanding of history itself by social groups in different historical stages.Emperor Shun is in the final stage of transformation from the reign of god to the reign of man.He has gone through the evolution from mythical image to historical legend character.His divinity features are mainly reflected in the status and rank of the Heavenly Emperor and the double-pupil morphology with bird totem as the prototype.Emperor Shun was in the final stage of transformation from the reign of god to the reign of man.He had gone through the evolution from mythical image to historical legend figure.Its divinity features are mainly reflected in the status and rank of the Heavenly Emperor and the double pupil deity with the bird totem as the prototype.Meanwhile,the myth prototype of the Two Concubines also makes the legend of Shun Emperor have the characteristics of the myth.After the historical transformation of the legend of Emperor Shun,the mythological elements became weaker and weaker,and the legend types tended to be fixed and integrated in the Qin and Han dynasties.The main types of legends can be roughly divided into:legends of life and deeds,legends of Yao,Shun and Yu's resignation,political legends of monarchs and ministers,musical legends and legends of descendants.The classification of the legend of Emperor Shun provides a main framework for the following special studies.Chapter 3: Discussing the tribal cultural implication of the legend of Emperor Shun and the formation and development of the belief of his ancestor.As the symbol carrier of tribal culture,legends carry the historical memory and cultural quality of ethnic groups.The stage deduce of the legend type and region of Emperor Shun reveals the migration track of the tribe of Emperor Shun.The evolution and integration of the totem belief system in the legend of Emperor Shun reflects the infiltration and integration of the clan's kinship and civilization.The interaction of folk culture among tribes in material production,system construction,mind and belief shows the deep integration of multiple tribes and the cultural identity of the Central Plains civilization,which directly promotes the formation of the Chinese nation and the evolution of the rudiments of the country.As a tribal leader and the ancestor of the Chinese nation,Emperor Shun in ancient legends became the object of clan ancestor worship and the focus of national ancestor belief,which is now manifested as the patriarchal belief centered on the family name and clan.Chapter 4: Analyzing the confucianization process of Emperor Shun's legend and the development and evolution of Emperor Shun's belief in the Holy King.Emperor Shun is one of the important members of the genealogy of the sacred king of Confucianism.The formation process of the legend system is the process of the Confucian legend of Emperor Shun.The legendary plot of legend of Yao and Shun's abdication and the political ideal of Yao and Shun became the typical symbol of Confucian political thought.The legend of the filial son of Emperor Shun embodies the Confucian concept of integrating morality and government.The legend of rites and music of Emperor Shun made him participate in the construction process of Confucian moral education.As a model of a Confucian holy king,Emperor Shun naturally became a key individual in the holy king belief system constructed by Confucian scholars and feudal ruling class.He has been passed down to this day in two forms,the official sacrificial offering to the saint king,which promotes morals and ethics,and the utilitarian belief in the saint king among the folks.Chapter 5: Discussing the multiple narrative structure of Emperor Shun's legend and the formation and inheritance of Emperor Shun's filial piety belief.As a kind of narrative style,legend has a variety of expression media beyond text in the process of diachronic and synchronic inheritance.Through diachronic inheritance media such as Han and Wei Dynasty portrait narrative and classical literature narrative,through the local transition of the synchronic narrative media presented by oral,text,landscape and other folk narrative,through the integration of life scenes,ritual performance narrative embodies the inheritance of belief and other behavioral narrative media blending time and space,the legend of Emperor Shun gradually penetrated into the deep belief space of the people from the surface legend narrative activities,which promoted the generation,development and contemporary performance of the folk belief of Emperor Shun with filial piety as the core.From the above research on the development and evolution of the legend of Emperor Shun and the formation process of the belief system,we can see the interactive relationship between the legend of Emperor Shun and the belief,that is,the two are mutually dependent and mutually promoting.The cultural connotation and moral spirit contained in the legend of Emperor Shun are the basis for the formation of the belief system of Emperor Shun.Meanwhile,the objective demand of belief provides the internal power for the development and inheritance of the legend.