《圣经》“创世纪”与中国神话“创世说”比较研究

A Comparative Study of Genesis Stories in Bible and in Ancient Chinese Mythologies

本文研究了西方《圣经》中的"创世纪"与中国上古神话中的"创世说",详细对比了西方和中国这两个文化传统中有关世界初始、人类起源传说的异同,并试图从文化渊源上对其原因作初步的分析。《圣经》"创世纪"与中国上古神话中的"创世说"的相似之处主要表现在它们对世界初始的特征、创世过程、造物主的神力、泥土造人及洪水的描述上,这主要是由于早期人类社会相似的自然条件、生活经历、生产方式及思维方式决定的。但是,中西方历史文化背景各具独特性,使得两种创世神话同时又具有很大的不同,主要表现在各自的行文结构、行文风格、造物主的形象描绘及关于世界起源所体现的哲学观点方面。《圣经》作为基督教的经典,具有极强的宗教说教目的,充满了神秘主义的色彩:而中国上古神话经古代诗人、哲学家及史学家的润色,被赋予绚丽多彩的生命力,充满了浪漫主义的色彩。

This paper conducts a comparative study on genesis stories in Bible and in ancient Chinese mythologies,and analyzes the underlying cultural causes which account for their similarities and their difference.Genesis stories in Bible and in ancient Chinese mythologies share many things in common,including their descriptions about the original looks of the world,world creation processes,the magic power of the creators,man’s being made of dust,and the mentioning of floods. These similarities,according to the author,are due to the similarities in early people’s life,living conditions and their thinking.On the other hand,because of the peculiarities of the western culture and the Chinese culture,genesis stories in Bible and in ancient Chinese mythologies still have a lot of things that are far from each other,such as the organizations,the stylistic feattLres,the images of the creators and the philosophies embodied in these stories.As the Holy Script of Chistianity,Bible stories have been kept for the purpose of meral teaching and is imbued with magic and mysterious dements,whereas Chinese mythologies,oringally written down by ancient Chinese poets,philosophers and historians for their own sake,are fresh,interesting and full of vitality.