"The Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor were the leaders of two large tribes active in the Central Plains, rising from Jishui and Jiangshui not far apart, respectively, and the two emperors had serious conflicts in the process of developing eastward. The "princes" and "cultivators" mentioned in this myth are obviously from the association of later generations of Confucians. However, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor did have a brutal war in the field of Hanquan, and the battlefield at that time was described as "bloody and drifting" in the "New Book of Yiyang".

And the Yellow Emperor was able to drive bears, skews and other fierce beasts to participate in the battle, adding a magical color to this war. These beasts may have been the totems of certain tribes, representing different tribes who followed the Yellow Emperor into battle. The Battle of Hanquan ended with the victory of the Yellow Emperor, which led to the fusion of the Yan and Huang tribes, from which the Chinese nation was formally formed and developed into a major component of the Chinese nation. This myth is actually a record and explanation of a historical event.

After the convergence of Yan and Huang, another famous battle took place between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You. Chiyou belonged to the Miao tribe in the south, and he had 81 copper-headed and iron-fronted brothers, which may imply that their army was already equipped with metal armor, and some documents mention that Chiyou smelted metal as weapons, which is in line with the development of metallurgy at that time.

This battle was very fierce, involving the gods of the wind and rain, and the weathers such as wind, rain, drought, and fog also became sharp weapons for attacking each other. These two myths not only involve ancient prayers for rain and witchcraft to stop rain, but also involve some inventions of great cultural significance, which are rich in connotation.

It was in the two wars of internal annexation and external resistance that the Yellow Emperor showed his might and established the image of the Yellow Emperor as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. Out of love for the ancestors of the Chinese nation, later generations attributed many inventions and creations in cultural history, such as cars, pottery, wells, tripods, music, bronze mirrors, drums, etc., to the Yellow Emperor or the Yellow Emperor's courtiers. In mythology, the Yellow Emperor has become a humanistic ancestor who is good at invention and creation. ”

"Myths with flood themes or backgrounds are prevalent all over the world. Scholars have also come up with various explanations for the origin of the flood myth. Famous foreign flood myths can be found in the Babylonian epic "Gilgamesh", the Christian "Bible", etc., it can be said that the myths about floods are widespread in many parts of the world, and the popular flood myths among the Chinese ethnic minorities are also quite rich. The floods that have been there have been have been so tragic that they have left an indelible mark on the human psyche and become a collective representation, passed down from generation to generation along with myths, reminding people to be wary of natural disasters.

Most of the flood myths abroad show such a theme, that is, God's disappointment in the fall of mankind, the flood is a punishment for mankind, and the reinvention of human beings after the flood reflects the reflection and criticism of human nature. The myth of the flood preserved in the ancient documents of the Chinese people mainly regards the flood as a natural disaster, revealing the positive significance of fighting against the flood and saving the people, and valuing people's wisdom and fighting spirit. The most outstanding heroes in these flood myths are Kun and Yu.

In order to stop the flooding in the world, Kun did not hesitate to steal the Emperor's rest, causing the Emperor's anger and being killed. The tragic experience of the Kun has also won the deep sympathy and respect of the descendants, because of the unfinished ambition, the death of the blind eye, finally broke the belly to give birth to Yu, a new generation of water control heroes were born.

Yu inherited the will of Kun, and at first he also adopted the method of "堙" (blocking), but it was still difficult to stop the surging flood, so he switched to the method of channeling. In order to dredge the waterway, Yu worked tirelessly to control the river and terrain everywhere, according to the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period", Yu went east to the seaside, south to the land of the naked people of the feather people, west to the country of three dangers, and north to the country of Dog Rong. In the process of controlling the water, "Yu was outside for eight years, and he passed through his door three times without entering", "the river was dredged and the river was broken, and his family was not closed for ten years", "there was no strand, no shins, hair, calluses on the hands and feet, and his face was black, so he died outside", which can be said to have gone through a lot of hardships. In addition, Yu also has to carry out a hard struggle with many evil gods, such as killing Xiangliu. Yu's spirit has also touched many gods, legend has it that Hebo offered a river map, Fuxi helped him measure the land, and a dragon and a spirit turtle helped him to work.

In short, the flood that pervades the world and plagues the world has finally been subdued by Dayu, and a heroic image of tireless, people-free and full of wisdom has been established in the history of Chinese culture. The myth of the flood is a concentrated reflection of the experience and wisdom of our ancestors in their struggle against nature. ”

"Mythological thinking is closely related to the mental capacity of primitive ancestors. The level of mental development of the primitive ancestors is still at a relatively low stage, and the subject and object of thinking cannot be clearly distinguished, and there is a kind of interpenetration relationship between man and the outside world. Lucien Lévy-Bleuer argues: "In the collective representation of the primitive mind, objects, beings, phenomena can be at the same time themselves and something else in ways that we cannot imagine." They also emit and receive in almost as incredible ways the mysterious powers, abilities, natures, and functions that are felt outside of them and continue to remain within them. “

In the eyes of the primitive ancestors, all things in nature were the same as themselves, with a lively soul, will and emotion, and were able to interact with people mysteriously. Therefore, the world in the eyes of the primitive ancestors is a world full of strange colors and vitality. This method of feeling and understanding the world is the soil for the birth of mythology, and to a large extent, restricts the characteristics of ancient mythological thinking.

First of all, because the primitive ancestors had not yet completely separated themselves from the natural world in their thinking, people often unconsciously moved their own attributes to nature when they perceived nature, forming the mythical thinking characteristics of viewing and feeling things by themselves. This is even more remarkable when it comes to explaining natural phenomena. For example, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Overseas North Classic": The god of Zhongshan, known as Candle Yin, is regarded as day, blind as night, blowing as winter, calling as summer, not drinking, not eating, not resting, and breathing as wind. Thousands of miles long, in the east of Wuqi, it is a thing, the human face and the snake body are red, and they live under the Zhong Mountain.

This myth explains the formation of day and night, the seasons, and the formation of the wind in terms of some common human physiological behaviors. Another example is the myth of Pangea's incarnation of all things, which uses the various parts of the human body to infer the formation of things in heaven and earth. The primitive ancestors were accustomed to use the familiar human body itself as a reference system or standard to interpret all things in nature, and for this reason, people had to conceive some huge, initial gods, and thus created some very magnificent pioneering myths.

On this basis, the field of mythology is further expanded by expanding slightly from the human body to the human temperament and the environment familiar to the actor. For example, when explaining why the galaxies are mostly offset to the northwest and why China's geographical situation is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, a myth says: The former worked together to fight for the emperor, and the mountains that could not be touched in anger were broken, the earth was destroyed, and the sky was tilted to the northwest, so the sun, moon and stars shifted, and the earth was not satisfied with the southeast, so the water and dust returned. ("Huainanzi Yao Wenxun")

The characteristic of thinking about all things through the self permeates almost all myths, and its manifestations are also diverse. It is from their own life forms that people feel the existence of elves, which is why there is a myth. It can be said that this way of thinking was one of the most important ways for the ancestors to understand the mysterious world.

Second, mythological thinking is a concrete, figurative thinking. Since the abstract thinking ability of the primitive ancestors is still in the initial stage of development, thinking cannot be separated from concrete objects and concrete perceptual materials. For example, in order to grasp the changes in the time of the day, the primitive ancestors used the position of the sun in space to explain it, and thus created various myths about the sun, such as the sunrise Yanggu, as for the Menggu Valley (see "Huainanzi Tianwenxun" for details) and so on. The passage of time has become a series of concrete and tangible episodes in mythology. In the same way, in mythology, the four directions do not appear as purely geometric spaces, but are necessarily closely associated with certain content or even specific emotional experiences. For example, the east is represented as the god of spring, spring, cyan, wood, etc., while the north cannot be separated from the winter god of winter, winter, night, black, water, etc. This way of thinking is very closely related to the traditional Chinese concept of yin and yang and the five elements. A certain time and space often correspond to a certain deity, and concepts such as time and location cannot be abstracted from concrete content.

In mythological thinking, there is also a synthesis of things, and through a certain degree of generalization, certain mythological images are detached from concrete things. For example, the mythical image of the dragon and phoenix is formed after a long period of synthesis, but the synthesis of the myth is still inseparable from the concrete image, and it cannot reach the real abstraction. The predecessor of the dragon was nothing more than a tribal symbol with a snake as a totem, and it was only by "accepting the four legs of a beast, the hair of a horse, the tail of a hyena, the feet of a deer, the claws of a dog, and the scales and whiskers of a fish" that this majestic mythical image was finally formed. Obviously, this image is not a product of pure imagination, it is just a recombination of concrete objects, and it still has the characteristics of concreteness and imagery.

Again, mythological thinking is accompanied by a strong emotional experience. The mysterious nature caused emotions such as fear, awe or surprise in the hearts of the ancestors, and the ancestors believed that these emotions were also inherent attributes of the external objects themselves, so in the eyes of the ancestors, all things in nature were either mysterious, terrifying, or magical. These natural beings with wills and emotions, their interactions with each other and with human beings, are the fundamental reasons for the myths.

In the same way, in the process of spreading and retelling myths, it is also full of emotional experiences. For example, the passionate scenes in the performance of Chu Ci's "Nine Songs" are obviously related to the emotional stories of mythological images. For example, whenever the mythical image of the dragon and phoenix appears in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", it is always accompanied by singing and dancing music, showing the emotional experience of peace and happiness. The emotions contained in myths are the reason why myths are moving, but with the passage of time, it is often difficult for modern people to understand the emotional experiences attached to myths. ”