Chapter I: Front Matter

Myths & Legends of China

By

E.T.C. Werner

H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late
Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking
Author of "Descriptive Sociology: Chinese" "China of the Chinese" Etc.

George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.
London Bombay Sydney

In Memoriam

_Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner_

Preface

The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the _Li tai shen hsien t'ung chien_, in thirty-two volumes, the _Shen hsien lieh chuan_, in eight volumes, the _Feng shen yen i_, in eight volumes, and the _Sou shen chi_, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese Superstitions by Pere Henri Dore, comprised in the valuable series _Varietes Sinologiques_, published by the Catholic Mission Press at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssu K'u Ch'uean Shu, one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend Mr Mu Hsueeh-hsuen, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, for permission to reprint from _Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_ the fox legends given in Chapter XV.

This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths.

My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives of Chinese mythology--those which live in the minds of the people and are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which are merely diverting without being typical or instructive--in short, a true, not a distorted image.

_Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner_

_Peking_ _February_ 1922

Contents

Chapter

I. The Sociology of the Chinese II. On Chinese Mythology III. Cosmogony--P'an Ku and the Creation Myth IV. The Gods of China V. Myths of the Stars VI. Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain VII. Myths of the Waters VIII. Myths of Fire IX. Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. X. The Goddess of Mercy XI. The Eight Immortals XII. The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven XIII. A Battle of the Gods XIV. How the Monkey Became a God XV. Fox Legends XVI. Miscellaneous Legends The Pronunciation of Chinese Words

_Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontieres reelles?... Ces frontieres sont d'une nettete qui ne permet aucune erreur. L'Asie est la ou cesse la vulgarite, ou nait la dignite, et ou commence l'elegance intellectuelle. Et l'Orient est la ou sont les sources debordantes de poesie._

_Mardrus_, _La Reine de Saba_