Chinese Mythology in the Context of Hydraulic Society

Abstract

The student of Chinese myth quickly learns the importance of water gods. They are large in number and diverse in origin; they have anthropomorphic traits; and they belong to a mythological hierarchy which parallels the terrestrial hierarchy of hydraulic despotism in imperial China. In Chinese high culture, water as a hydraulic necessity is often idealized as an abstract force. In Taoism, water, as the emblem of the unassertive and the low ground, appears as extremely favorite images. Lao Tzu t- (604?-531? B.C.) offers this ebullient comment on water in Daode Jing jitSfag: The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of water is that it benefits all creatures on earth. Itself does not scramble, but is content with the places that all men disdain. It is this that makes water so near to the Way (Zhuzi Jicheng 1986, vol. 3, 78.45.) Principle of what is formless and potential, basis of every cosmic manifestation, container of all seeds, water symbolizes for Chinese philosophers the primal substance: from it all forms come; to it they will return by their own regression or in a cataclysm. In every cosmic or historic cycle, water exists at the beginning and returns at the end. In cosmogony, folklore, myth, ritual, and iconography, water fills the same function, whatever the type of cultural pattern. Indeed, it does benefit all creatures on earth, real or imaginary. Numerous Chinese gods, heroes, and mythological creatures, especially Yu ^ and the dragon, are associated with water. The creation of water gods and heroes, however, should be attributed more to Chinese hydraulic culture than to water's metaphorical significance in Chinese philosophy. The term hydraulic, as Karl