“中国没有创世神话”就是一种神话

“中国没有创世神话”常常被认为是中西文化传统之间最根本的区别之一。随着时间的推移,中国没有创世神话的说法变得越发夸大其词,成为当代史学的一个陈词滥调。我认为这些学者坚称传统中国没有创世神话,原因在于他们将中国文化视为一种不可能产生创世神话的文化。这是因为他们将中国视为西方范式的一个具象化的衬托、一个完全相反的文化领域来表现完全对立的道德观念和思维方式。唯一能解释在学术界的“中国没有创世神话”这一刻板印象和中文文献中有关创世神话的丰富记载之间的如此明显冲突,就是如下结论:这些证据之所以被忽视,是因为它们和将中国作为“别处”[或他者]的神话学视野相冲突。这里必须要强调的是,“中国没有创世神话”这一观点,是中西比较研究中最糟糕的谬误之一。比较世界文化并非意味着要找出一些所谓的西方世界的本质,然后再去查看这一本质是否也存在于其他文化中。遗憾的是,这是绝大多数比较文化研究所采用的方法,包括涉及中国的研究。以这样一种方式研究中国,会防碍对于中国真正的理解,而仅仅是将其视为西方范式的一个苍白的镜像而已。
Abstract：It is often averred, as one of the prime differences between China and the West, that China has no myths ofcosmogony. Over time, claims about the lack of Chinese creation myths have only become more inflated and have become nothing less than a cliché in contemporary historiography. In this paper, I suggest that scholars have insisted on the absence of creation myths in traditional China because their vision of China is one that cannot have creation myths. This is because they present China as a reified foil to a reified West, an antipodal domain exemplifying antithetic mores and modes of thought. The only way to account for the glaring disjuncture between the “China has no creation myth” stereotype in scholarly theorizing and the cornucopia of creation myths in Chinese sources is to conclude that evidence has been ignored because it conflicts with the mythic vision of China as The Place Where Everything Is Different. It should be emphasized that “China has no creation myth” typifies one of the worst fallacies in comparative study. Comparing world cultures does not mean identifying something purportedly essential about the West and then poking around to see whether the same thing exists somewhere else. Regrettably, this has been the approach of most comparative work involving China. What is most wrong with this mode of inquiry is that it prevents China from being anything more than a pallid reflection of the West.