A Study Of The Myths In The Legend Of Dark

The Legend of Dark,which is the pearl of Chinese literature hidden deeply in the northwest of Hubei province,has aroused wide concern of society in 1980s.However,due to many reasons,such as the obscure writing age,the form of folk songs,and the narrow geographical distribution,the current academic circles have focused on literature,culture,folklore and other peripheral research.Study The Legend of Dark from the perspective of mythology,based on the text,deeply explore the background of the mythical narrative generation,the origin of the material,the description of the typical mythological motif,the ideological culture and artistic features embodied in it,and then seek more accurate positioning for it.This is the first meaningful attempt to combine the external research with the internal research of of The Legend of Dark.According to the definition of mythology between China and the West,The Legend of Dark conforms to the multiple attributes of Chinese and foreign mythological definitions and belongs to the broad mythology category.This is the logical starting point for academic research in this article.As a long poem of the han nationality,the myth narration of The Legend of Dark was spread in the special context of funeral in northwestern Hubei.It undertook the entertainment function for god and enlightenment function for people as part of the funeral ceremony.Comparing The Legend of Dark with related historical texts,we can find that the source of the myth narrative material of The Legend of Dark is rather complicated.As a review of ancient history the original ceremony,such as the dark age,Pangu mythology," Three emperors",the name of the clan and its merits,legend of Shennong and later emperors,and so on,they were constituted by some material in folklore,eunuch wild history,religious allusions in the process of spreading.In addition,there are many connections between the myth narration of The Legend of Dark and Tianwen in Chuci,The imperial period since the opening of heaven and earth in Dunhuang Manuscripts of the Tang Dynasty,some historical romance novels and ghost novels in the Ming Dynasty in structural style,story content,telling details,narrative order and plot arrangement.Therefore,the mythical material in the narrative of The Legend of Dark comes from the accumulation of several generations of culture before its creation,especially the accumulated achievements of folk custom culture.In many original editions of the mythical narrative of The Legend of Dark,some typical mythological motifs have distinct regional characteristics and unique deductive forms.For example,to avoid floods in gourds,scarab matchmaker,triple test in the myth of the flood brother and sister marriage,were combinations of Miao people’s myth and central myth.The dying embodiment,not only rich in form,including the dying embodiment of Landdang,Xuanhuang,five dragons,Haotian Madonna,Pangu and Tushan’s,but also was a special present in the funeral.It shows the high respect for the dead and the enlightenment and comfort to the living.In terms of ideological and cultural connotations,the Confucian spirit of entry into the world,ethical requirements,Buddhism’s causal reincarnation,concept of robbery and buddhahood,Daoist cultivation of Taoism,and spiritual pursuit of seclusion in the mountains are all included in the specific content of the mythical narrative of The Legend of Dark.In addition,some folk religions have also left a very clear mark in them.In the long process of circulated,the ideological and cultural connotation of the ridiculousness of The Legend of Dark not only reflects some aspects of the noble culture,such as ancient poems in the passages and band regulation,shows the elegant spiritual pursuit formed by the influence of court aristocratic culture in the northwest of Hubei as an exile place,but also highlighted local characteristics,for example,the unrestricted identity of the singer makes it a national event in the mountains,which revealed the local people’s spiritual pursuit of natural wildness.On the artistic expression,the mythical narrative of The Legend of Dark is mainly based on the historical development sequence,Which has historic continuity in time.However,in the specific plot development,the location of the story appeared again from the south to the north.In mythical narrative style,it has typical oral literary features.It is embodied in three aspects:the use of formulas,the repetition of grammars,and the narrative mode.In the mythical narrative form,The Legend of Dark also imitated the classical literary form,the most typical is the question-answer sentences and imitation of epics from Tianwen.In short,based on the close reading of the text,we used the methods of motifs,literary studies,mythology,folklore,and cultural anthropology to examine in detail the mythical narratives of The Legend of Dark.We strive to seek as much as possible the original source of the text in The Legend of Dark,the mythical narrative,and its value and status in the Chu-Han mythology system.we hope to provide valuable insights for expanding the influence of Darkness in readership in the new century.