从奥德修斯和孙悟空的冥府之旅看古希腊与儒道佛的生死观差异

A Comparison of Different Views on Life and Death between Ancient Greek Culture and Chinese Culture of Confucianism,Taoism and Buddhism Based on the Underworld Wandering of Odysseus and Sun Wukong

冥府游历是东西方文学中常见的神话母题。无论是在古希腊人天真的叙事中,还是东方人古老的传说中,英雄上穷碧落下黄泉的故事俯首可拾。古希腊神话史诗《奥德赛》和中国明代神魔小说《西游记》中都有相似的英雄冥府游历情节,通过对东西方英雄相似的冥府游历故事进行跨文化比较,可以看出中华文化海纳百川,从来就不是闭关自守、故步自封的,我们也能更加深刻地认识到五千年生生不息的中华文化的精髓。

A study on ancient Greek epic Odyssey and the Chinese Ming Dynasty magic novel A Journey to the West from the cross-cultural perspective is both a time-honored subject and a brand-new one. It is time-honored because these two works are famous classic literary works that are widely spread on the occidental and the oriental nations. Researches on these two works present a splendid sight, yet the cross-cultural study areas still need to be explored. It is brand- new because we want to study the subject from a new perspective, by setting up a communicative bridge between Chinese ancient culture and that of ancient Greek. Odyssey and A Journey to the West are two great literary works written in different times by people from different nations, yet they demonstrate striking similarities in various themes including the heroes＇ overseas wanderings and underworld wanderings. From the horizontal view, the two works own similar circuit narrative style and plot. The heroes of the stories made mistakes, they need to do the meritorious deeds to atone for his crime. With the arrangements and guidance of the Gods and Goddesses, the heroes travel abroad and fight for their lives, and can always narrowly escape death and finally return home. From the vertical view, these two works present us the life of the Gods, Man and spirits and three divisions of the heaven, the human world and the underworld. The two works are also based on some historical facts, with strong flavor of fairy tales. Both of them had their script stories settled after many years of word of mouth and correction. Underworld wandering is a popular myth motif in the worldwide literature. Through comparative research of underworld wanderings of Odysseus and Sun Wukong, we endeavor to explore the huge gaps behind the surface, the different views towards life and death between ancient Greek culture and Chinese culture of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. We can see from this comparison that under many circumstances the literary typology and literature interactions of different nations are interwoven with each other. The development of all nations＇ literature has never been closed and self-content with old practice, but rather a process of constantly taking in the essence of all other foreign cultures like a big sea embracing hundreds of small creeks. The Eastern and the Western civilizations have been in close contact with each other ever since the medieval times. Not totally imitating the other but rather absorbing its culture＇s highlights, the two civilizations during the contact created their own national features. Our ultimate purpose of studying the ancient cultures is to serve the needs of today＇s cultures. Through such study and research, we can deeply understand the essence of the Chinese culture with 5000 years＇ constant development. As literary workers, we should get deeply spirit of life into the modern society, while absorbing the rooted in our tradition and merge its valuable essence of the western culture.