中国洪水与治水故事:范型神话或历史传说

The Chinese Stories about Great Flood and Flood Control:Patterned Mythology or Historical Saga

在中国正统历史中,大禹治水传说表现为天下建立第一王朝的伟大背景。因此在后期传说中,禹的身份被加以神化,成为治水神的范型,如在汉代以后的民间信仰和传说记录中,提及治水之事时,经常会联系到禹神。这一现象或许导致现代学界通常将大禹治水故事视为中国传统中唯一的大洪水传说,并将其与世界各地洪水灭世和再生的范型故事放在一起讨论。但笔者认为,这种“神论”忽略了大禹治水传说与洪水范型神话之间的很多关键差异。本文经过文献对照推论,大禹治水故事并不符合各地所见洪水神话范型,并可以证明这是有史实基础的历史传说。但是,在楚古文明的传统中,实际上还有女娲补天神话,虽然今日只能看到该神话的零星碎片,但仍可从中了解,该故事才是符合洪水灭世和再生的范型神话,其在神话中相对应的时代远早于夏王国。

Whenever the Great Flood was mentioned in ancient China,it was related to the Great Yu,a legendary king.Consequently,the modern scholars generally holds that the Great Yu's taming flood was the only Chinese story about Great Flood and comparatively discuss it in the light of similar stories narrated in the rest of the world.The present paper disagrees with this and argues instead that it is not Yu's story but Nüwa's mending heaven that accords with the patterned mythology.