I picked up a small book at the library today entitled, Chinese Mythology: Stories of Creation and Invention
. It tells of the hows and whys the earth and humanity were created from the ancient Chinese point of view. While it's not that much different than Greek or Roman mythology, it does provide a bit of background into the cultural aspects from which the Tao Te Ching, I Ching, and the Book of Chuang Tzu later came forth.
To be perfectly honest, while many of my compatriots loved studying Roman & Greek mythology in school, I found the entire topic a bit boring. I read just enough to pass the quizzes and tests, but I have retained very little of the information. If this book on the Chinese version of mythology had been large, I would have left it on the shelf. However, since it's less than 80 pages and only one-half the physical size of a normal book, I decided I could finish it off in a scant hour or two.
One of the things I really like about it is that the final three pages feature Chinese calligraphy replete with a pronunciation guide. I'm fascinated by this different form of written language. In fact, I recently changed my Blogger profile icon to the written form of the word, Tao.
. It tells of the hows and whys the earth and humanity were created from the ancient Chinese point of view. While it's not that much different than Greek or Roman mythology, it does provide a bit of background into the cultural aspects from which the Tao Te Ching, I Ching, and the Book of Chuang Tzu later came forth.To be perfectly honest, while many of my compatriots loved studying Roman & Greek mythology in school, I found the entire topic a bit boring. I read just enough to pass the quizzes and tests, but I have retained very little of the information. If this book on the Chinese version of mythology had been large, I would have left it on the shelf. However, since it's less than 80 pages and only one-half the physical size of a normal book, I decided I could finish it off in a scant hour or two.
One of the things I really like about it is that the final three pages feature Chinese calligraphy replete with a pronunciation guide. I'm fascinated by this different form of written language. In fact, I recently changed my Blogger profile icon to the written form of the word, Tao.
A study with western dyslexic children found that they could more easily learn to associate chinese symbols with items than they could english words.
ReplyDeletei.e. they could see the chinese squiggle for tree and recognise it as meaning tree more easily than they could "tree" written in roman letters.
- as i write i remember this was in one of Alan Watts books..
Interesting bit of info, Tao. Not that surprising either. : )
ReplyDeletei love mythology of all kinds. :) a culture's philosophy is often embedded in its myths... i have a great affection for stories. :)
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