先秦史官与上古神话的口头传播

The role of pre-Qin Historical officials in the Oral Transmission of Ancient Myths

口头传播是上古神话早期传播的一种重要方式,但由于口头传播具有转瞬即逝的特点,因此,今天要考察先秦时期上古神话口头传播的情形并不容易。史官是先秦时期的一个特殊群体,由于特殊的身份和职能,他们成为上古神话的重要保存者,同时亦成为上古神话的传播者。史官对上古神话的传播,过去主要关注他们所著历史著作对神话故事的记载,因而认为他们对神话的传播是书面传播。实际上,先秦史官在上古神话口头传播中亦扮演重要角色。史官讲述上古神话往往从现实出发,其着眼点在现实政治,从中可以看出史官的现实关怀。

Oral transmission was an important way of early transmission of ancient myths,but because oral transmission has the characteristics of fleeting,it is not easy to investigate the oral transmission of ancient myths in the pre-Qin period today.Historical officials are a special group in the pre-Qin period.Because of their special identity and functions,they have become important keepers of ancient myths and the communicators of ancient myths at the same time.In the past,scholars mainly paid attention to the records of mythological stories in historical works,so they believed that historical officials spread of myths was written transmission.In fact,pre-Qin historians also played an important role in the oral dissemination of ancient myths.They often started from the reality,and their focus was on the realistic politics,from which we can see the realistic concern of the historian.