Chapter 9 Section 3 Human Regeneration

The myths and legends of human regeneration generally consist of the following parts: Human beings are subjected to a devastating flood disaster; Siblings get married and pass on human smoke, or human beings combine with celestial daughters to regenerate human beings.This kind of myth has been circulated by many nations in the world. The basic structure of the stories is similar, but the details are different. They all clearly refer to the birth and continuation of human beings, which are inseparable from the union of the sexes.There are many such works of various nationalities in our country, with similar content, and some of them are relatively long.Here we can only choose short and representative ones to comment on.

The story about Nuwa brothers and sisters: In ancient times, when the chaos first opened, there were two brothers and sisters Nuwa who lived on Kunlun Mountain.At that time, there were no other people on the earth.They married and felt ashamed.Brothers and sisters boarded the Kunlun Mountains and prayed to heaven: "If the sky wants us to be united, then let the two smokes of the firewood close together; if it doesn't want us to be united, then let the smoke disperse." So the smoke combined, The younger sister went to her brother.They made fans out of straw weaving to cover their faces.When modern people get married, some brides use fans to cover their faces, which is learned from Nuwa. (See "Duyizhi" below) It is not stated here who Nuwa's brother is.But we know from other ancient books that this man who is both Nuwa's brother and her husband is the famous Fuxi in myths and legends.Some said: "Nuwa, Fuxi's younger sister." ("Road History · Postscript II" notes "Fengsu Tong") Some said: "Nuwa was originally Fuxi's wife." ("Quan Tang Poetry" Volume 388 Lu Tong's poem "Friendship with Ma Yi") this Fuxi has a human head and a snake body, and belongs to the same snake clan as Nuwa. He was born of a strong wind, so he is also surnamed Feng.

This myth and legend about Nuwa and Fuxi's brother-sister marriage is actually an incomplete fragment modified by later generations. There is no content about the destruction of the world by the flood and the regeneration of human beings, but only recalls the close marriage of human blood.Covering the face with a fan is purely a concept of later generations.The influence of this ancient myth and legend is not small.In the Central Plains, local areas of the Han nationality and some ethnic minorities in the south continue to spread, and are connected with flood legends and human regeneration.Most of the water-avoiding tools they escape from are a big gourd.The "Fuxi Brothers and Sisters" of the Yao nationality is the living form of this myth and legend.The gist of the story is:

Zhang Tianshi, the father of the Fuxi brothers and sisters, blamed Leigong for the wind, thunder, and rain. When Leigong fell, he caught Leigong and handed over to the Fuxi brothers and sisters to guard.Lei Nv begged with kindness, and was rescued by her brother and sister, who escaped and fled back to the sky.Before leaving, give brother and sister a big gourd.In order to retaliate, Lei Gong poured downpours for seven days and seven nights, and all living things were drowned, leaving only the brother and sister in the gourd.Lei Gong persuaded them to get married, but they were unwilling, so they went to ask the bamboo and the turtle one after another.Both Bamboo and Turtle think they should get married.The siblings are still unwilling.They rolled the millstones from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain. The elder brother was on the east mountain, and the younger sister was on the west mountain. They each pushed a millstone, and they met unexpectedly, so they had to get married.After marriage, she gave birth to a sarcoid tumor, which was chopped into fine pieces and scattered in all directions, and the minced meat became individual people.These people plowed and sowed, and restored the original vitality of the earth.

Nuwa here has her surname hidden, only Fuxi's name.Fuxi's status is more important than that of Nuwa.Men's rights have surpassed women's rights.It is worth noting that, through the comparative study of the myths of various ethnic groups, it is found that they have long been the common ancestor gods of many ethnic groups. In this kind of myth, the disaster of the flood may be attached later, and the main body is the marriage of brothers and sisters and the regeneration of human beings.Because floods were only one of the uncontrollable natural disasters at that time, fires, earthquakes, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, etc., may cause a certain local area to suffer a devastating blow.Mythology often connects the flood with it. It is because of a vast ocean that the primitive people with narrow vision thought the whole world was destroyed.In fact, this clan was submerged, and many other clans did not necessarily have floods. A myth reflects the real life of a specific clan. If the myth of this nation is accepted by another nation, it must not only have many historical factors, but also a long-term integration. process of change.Because of the universality of floods, the floods in the arid north of our country are still vast and indistinct.Therefore, this kind of myth itself has the congenital condition of the world.

And in the myth of the rebirth of human beings through close marriages, there have also been marriages between two generations, or marriages between mothers and children, or marriages between fathers and daughters.Of course, their content is older and less accessible to evolved people.So there are very few of them handed down, and they are probably gradually replaced by brother-sister marriages that are closely related by blood.As mankind progresses, even brother-sister marriage is considered unreasonable. Therefore, brothers and sisters are usually added to each other without consent, or unilaterally stubbornly resist, and only after God's judgment are they reluctantly married.After that, they simply avoided talking about brothers and sisters, and vaguely said that they were a man and a woman.The myth of the Kucong people said: In ancient times, there was a sacred tree that grew taller and taller, covering the sky and the sun.A woman set fire to it, but a flood rose from the roots and drowned the humans.A man and a woman escaped the disaster.When they got married, human beings developed again.

The myths and legends about the rebirth of human beings by the survivors of the flood have high historical value: First, this is a work of the period when human society entered the era of farming.Hunting peoples are highly mobile, while agricultural peoples cannot migrate casually. People are particularly sensitive to natural changes, droughts and floods.In addition, the scope of human activities at that time was limited, the land was sparsely populated, and the ability to resist disasters was weak. Every time there was a flood, it would definitely leave a deep impression on people, and it would be continuously recounted in the form of myths.Second, according to ethnological data, human beings have indeed experienced the stage of consanguineous marriage.There are also scholars who deny that human beings have had blood marriages of the same generation, but it has not had a great impact.Marriage by blood of the same generation does not mean that a brother is fixedly matched with a sister, but brothers and sisters of the same generation can marry each other.In myths and legends, the marriage of a pair of brothers and sisters or sisters often appears, because the concept has been influenced by later generations. From an artistic point of view, it is nothing more than a symbol or generalization of intermarriage among peers.Third, when the works of human regeneration were produced, people not only realized the dangers of consanguineous marriage from experience, but also resolutely refused marriage from the perspective of ethics and morality, which shows that human beings have entered the stage of clan exogamy at this time.The myth of human regeneration can also be said to be the epitome of ancient people's progress in marriage and civilization step by step.