Myths and Legends of China

E.T.C. Werner

• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9788892658479
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the Li tai shên hsien t'ung chien, in thirty-two volumes, the Shên hsien lieh chuan, in eight volumes, the Fêng shên yen i, in eight volumes, and the Sou shên chi, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese Superstitions by Père Henri Doré, comprised in the valuable series Variétés Sinologiques, published by the Catholic Mission Press at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ss? K'u Ch'üan Shu, one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend Mr Mu Hsüeh-hsün, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, for permission to reprint from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio the fox legends given in Chapter XV. This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology in any non Chinese Language.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I. THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE CHINESE
• CHAPTER II. ON CHINESE MYTHOLOGY
• CHAPTER III. COSMOGONY-P’AN KU AND THE CREATION MYTH
• CHAPTER IV. THE GODS OF CHINA
• CHAPTER V. MYTHS OF THE STARS
• CHAPTER VI. MYTHS OF THUNDER, LIGHTNING, WIND, AND RAIN
• CHAPTER VII. MYTHS OF THE WATERS
• CHAPTER VIII. MYTHS OF FIRE
• CHAPTER IX. MYTHS OF EPIDEMICS, MEDICINE, EXORCISM, ETC.
• CHAPTER X. THE GODDESS OF MERCY
• CHAPTER XI. THE EIGHT IMMORTALS
• CHAPTER XII. THE GUARDIAN OF THE GATE OF HEAVEN
• CHAPTER XIII. A BATTLE OF THE GODS
• CHAPTER XIV. HOW THE MONKEY BECAME A GOD
• CHAPTER XV. FOX LEGENDS
• CHAPTER XVI. MISCELLANEOUS LEGENDS
• GLOSSARY