Similarities and differences between Hebrew, Greek, and Chinese flood myths

Not only these three countries, but almost all the peoples in the world have legends of ancient floods, and I am also very interested in these

2 foreign, 1 Chinese.

From my personal understanding of Chinese flood myths and Western flood myths: Chinese flood myths will emphasize the power of people, that is, individual heroes, such as Dayu's flood control, which will also reflect the spirit of dedication and struggle; Western flood myths will highlight the power of God, who will save the world and control everything, such as Noah's Ark.

The flood myth of Chinese civilization tells that a great flood broke out in the land of Kyushu, and after Dayu worked tirelessly to dredge the waterway, the flood level flowed into the sea. The flood myth of Western civilization tells that after the West suffered a rare flood, under God's instruction, Noah's Ark was built to carry the surviving people and animals, and after the flood receded, humans and animals multiplied again. The biggest difference between these two myths and stories is that they reflect the different ways of thinking of Chinese civilization and Western civilization, and when Chinese people are in trouble, they always believe that people will win the day, overcome difficulties by their own efforts, and make a fortune with their own hands when they have no money.

Westerners, on the other hand, want to rely on God to save themselves when they are in trouble, and when they have no money, they make a fortune by plundering the wealth of other countries and nations. Let's take the current United States, China has relied on more than 30 years of reform and opening up, and has relied on its own hard work and wisdom to rise to the second place in the world's gross domestic product, but the United States always wants to come to China's wool, and it can become the world's hegemon only by making war profits and plundering the wealth of other countries.

There is no difference in the flood itself, the difference is that the ancients dealt with it differently, our way of dealing with it is governance, while the West is to get on the boat and go with the flow, which may also have something to do with the Western maritime civilization.

It's all pretty much the same, basically because the gods punish the bad people on the earth and send floods, the difference is that the Chinese flood myth is generally saved by the appearance of a hero, such as Dayu's control of the water, while the Western mythology is based on a person who has been guided by the gods to make some slightly changed actions, such as Noah's Ark. Therefore, in this regard, Chinese myths and stories still believe in the truth that man will conquer heaven.

The myth of the Chinese flood is. Indomitable. Carry out. Vigorously transform, for example, Dayu to control the water. Jingwei reclamation. And the Western flood myth, he is riding Noah's ark away from the flood.

China's ancestors used their own means or wisdom to control floods, such as legends: the Kun thief and Dayu control the water, there is the spirit of the Chinese who are not afraid of hardships and dangers, and the West is to avoid the flood with the help of God, such as the story of Noah's Ark. Therefore, it can be seen that the biggest difference between them is that the Chinese flood myth has a strong personal heroism color, while the Western flood myth is full of divine brilliance.

It seems to be the same period, and the difference should be how to deal with the problem. When disaster strikes, the legend in the West is that Noah's Ark only saves those who deserve to be saved, leaving the seeds to multiply, leaving others to fend for themselves. The Chinese myth is the story of Dayu's water control, under the leadership of the sages, leading the big guys to tide over the difficulties, to solve the main problems, one generation does not work for two generations, one method does not work and another way, embodies the collective wisdom and collective strength, and the best result is to preserve more vitality for our Chinese nation.

This is the difference between Eastern and Western cultures.

The flood is a disaster for the East and the West, but in the legends of the East and the West, there are different correspondences about the flood, the West is through the Almighty and Wise God selected by the Noah's family through the Noah's Ark to escape the flood, and in the Eastern mythology, the flood is overcome through the wisdom of the people, Dayu controls the water, this is the fundamental difference.

The Chinese flood myth is mainly that Dayu controls the flood and the working people overcome the flood through their own efforts, while the Western flood myth is mainly that Noah's Ark made tools to escape the flood, or to avoid the flood.

There is a big difference between the Chinese flood myth and the Western flood myth. First of all, the cause is different, in Chinese mythology, it is the god of fire Zhu Rong and the god of water who fought together to knock down Buzhou Mountain. The sky was knocked through a large hole, and the water of the heavenly river poured down.

The reason for the flood in Western flood mythology is that the creator god punished mankind for his sins, and the creator god wanted to use the flood to destroy mankind. Another is that the response is different, in Chinese mythology, it was heavy rain that led the human race to solve the harm caused by the flood through unremitting efforts. And the Western myth is that Noah built an ark and saved their family.

The difference between Chinese mythology and Western mythology is that Chinese mythology is true. The so-called flood myth is that Dayu controlled the water back then, and he passed the door three times without entering. This is true in history.

It's just that people adapt it into mythology. There are no myths in the West. Western myths are all imaginary.

From ancient history, most of any ethnic group has one of the deepest memories of the flood. Whether he is real or imaginary, the power of nature's flood has a more or less profound ancient impression in every people.

Because the deterrent power of nature was unparalleled in ancient times, people often feared nature. Feeling that nature is uncontrollable, people will pin their thoughts on the gods, on the ethereal gods.

The biggest difference between the Chinese flood myth and the Western flood myth. That is, our interpretation of nature is different, and the Chinese pay attention to building bridges when encountering water and opening mountains when encountering mountains. Therefore, there is a very famous story in China called Yugong moving mountains and Dayu controlling the water, both of which express the desire of the ancient people for the transformation of nature.

In Western mythology, everything is attributed to the objectivity of one's own powerlessness, so there will be many things like Noah's Ark, pinning their hopes on the gods, which is also the origin of Western monotheism.

Therefore, Brother Jie mortgaged China to yearn for the transformation of nature and believe in the power of the collective, while the West is more of a struggle against nature, that is, if the sky wants to destroy me, I have to think of a savior to solve this problem, and he pins his hopes more on individual saviors, so they value people more than the collective.

Our Chinese myth about floods is that our Chinese ancients relied on their own industrious wisdom to control floods. And to guide the flood, that is, what we call the knowledge of the big fish, or to smoothly ask Dayu's father Kun to control the water, these are all a situation that reflects our ancient Chinese to control the water, to work hard, to restore their homeland, and the myth of the Western flood, they mean that there are difficulties. Then to escape the difficulties, and then come out after the difficulties have passed, this is the difference between our two countries, one is for the sake of man to conquer the heavens, and the other is to obey the will of heaven.

Same: Greek mythology and Hebrew mythology have a normative effect on morality and life, and people can better adapt to life through reverence for the gods. It is also the two major ** of the humanistic concept and artistic spirit of modern European literature.

Different: 1. Deify color.

There is a strong religious deification in Hebrew mythology.

In Greek mythology, such deification is relatively unprominent, and every god on Mount Olympus in mythology has certain flaws, not omniscient and omnipotent gods in the general sense who bring together the good qualities of human virtues, and these gods have all kinds of flaws like the people around us. In my opinion, the main reason for this difference is the difference in the geographical environment and social structure of the two civilizations.

2. The image of the appearance of God.

In Hebrew mythology, it is different, for example, in "The Battle of Troy", we can see that as the gods on Mount Olympus, each god has different choices, some help the Greeks, some choose to help Troy, and even Zeus also helped Troy first and then the Greeks in the process of watching the battle.

Greece is a country with a tangled concept of statehood, and as the god of the whole of Greece, the gods of Mount Olympus naturally do not help only one city-state to fight. Therefore, we can see in Greek mythology the uniqueness of the main god not only helping one side.

Deucalion and the Flood Pandora is old and dead. Her daughter, Pyrra, was married to Deucalion, the son of Prometheus. Because human beings are getting worse and worse, Zeus wants to destroy all human beings, so he goes to the mortal world to investigate, and finds that only his cousins and nephews Decalion and Pyra are good people among human beings (Prometheus is the son of Zeus's uncle Iapetus, so Decarion is Zeus's cousin, and Pyra is Zeus's cousin niece).

So Zeus prepared Deutcarion to destroy mankind with a great flood. Deucarion and Pyrrha were kind, so they built a large ship and brought with them all the creatures of the earth. Zeus sent a storm and storms, and Poseidon came to his aid with a storm and waves.

And so humanity was destroyed. Since Prometheus' son, Deucalion, had been warned by Prometheus in advance, he built a large wooden box in advance. When the flood came, he and his wife, Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, were able to escape the disaster by burrowing into a wooden box.

The two of them drifted ashore on Parnassus (the name of the southern Greek mountain), and after the flood, Deucarion and Pyra came ashore and were saddened to see that the flood had destroyed everything. At this time, Zeus asked him to make a wish, and Decalion said that he wanted to create humanity again. Zeus (or Themis, the goddess of justice) commanded them to take a stone from the ground and throw it backwards over their heads, so that the stone thrown by Decalion fell to the ground and became a man, and the stone thrown by Pyra became a woman.