Researches On The Stories Of "Pursuing Into The Netherworld"

As a global and ancient story style, the stories of "pursuing into the netherworld" are very common in mythology, epics and literary works all over the world. This kind of stories has a general plot, that is, a hero with a supernatural power, takes the initiative in entering the underworld for a certain purpose, and then receives certain predictions after a hard search process. This kind of stories has a relatively stable plot and expresses a relatively constant theme. This story style, preoccupied with the thinking on human nature, contains a deep cultural philosophy and reflects the common cultural psychology of human. In this paper, we collect 24 texts from ancient myths and epics around the world. Starting from these texts, we analyze the story structure, motif and culture connotation with a folk narrative research method, and then illustrate their culture value and social significance. The present paper includes three parts.The first part is a summary of the story on pursuing into the netherworld. In the first section, we draw a conclusion that this kind of story is a global and ancient story style from its distribution worldwide. In the second section, we divide the story into different plot units and list the backbone of the whole story by refining the narrative behavior of these stories. The stories of "pursuing into the netherworld" have the same plot elements, that is, a hero, with supernatural powers, pursues something in the netherworld. Based on these analyses, we derive four story types as follows:first, stories end in receiving predictions by meeting the soul; second, the hero searches for elixirs of life or peruses eternal life in some way; third, the hero saves souls in some way; fourth, the hero meets souls and saves souls in some way. In the third section, we suggest a further definition on the stories of pursuing into the netherworld for a number of controversial issues.The second part is an analysis of the motif of the story on "pursuing into the netherworld". We suggest a further understanding on the narrative characteristic of this story style to explore its cultural values, which is based on the analysis of the three representative motifs in the stories, that is, "netherworld", "heroes" and "pursuing".In the third part, we analyze the cultural connotations of "pursuing into the netherworld" stories as a whole. We firstly analyze the cultural background of the stories "pursuing into the netherworld", which indicates that the soul concept and thinking on the problem of death is the direct cause of generating underworld myth of eternal life. We find that the belief in eternal life and worship of the dead make the netherworld seem more mysterious and sacred, which is directly urging the exploration of the other side of the world. Secondly, we analyze cultural philosophy of the "pursuing into the netherworld" stories. These stories, reflecting the shore concept and original space, time mode, shape a second space which is different from the real world. The plot of resurrecting from the dead in the story ceremonially reflects the conception of the transmigration of the seasons.Finally, we illustrate its contemporary cultural value and practical significance by analyzing the adaptation and recreation of the "pursuing into the netherworld" story in later literary works.