2014, Vol., No.46

JOURNAL OF CHINESE STUDIES 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.33

pISSN : 1229-3806 / eISSN : 2765-6330
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kucsi

Zhoulu, Hebei, China, has advocated for the three-forefather culturismsince 1994, and built a shrine for their three ancestors Yandi, Huangdi andChiyou: the Chinese three-forefather shrine. After feeling a sense of crisis fromthe 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, to rally scattered public sentiment, the ChineseCommunists tried to gather minority groups in China as well as Chinese aroundthe world with Yandi and Huandi as the central figure, and to embrace all ofthem in the framework of Chinese nation. Ethnic minorities, however, objectedto it, saying, “We are not descendants of Yan-Huang, even though we are alsoChinese nation,” and especially, Miao, considering Chiyou as their forebear,demanded to recognize Chiyou, who has been depicted negatively against Yandiand Huangdi, as one of the Chinese national ancestors. Chinese government,witnessing signs of disunion of minorities, which is the most sensitive matter inChinese political life, extensively organized an academic group, advocatedthree-forefather culturism that acknowledges Huangdi and Yandi includingChiyou as three forebears of Chinese nation, and built the Chinesethree-forefather shrine in Zhoulu. Unlike some of the Korean scholarscontending the theory started from the purpose of catching away Chiyou,ancestor of Koreans, it was part of ‘A Project of Making Chinese Nation’, toprevent minority groups from breaking away.

This article examined ancient China's social aspects and consequent changeof male status through male-related characters. As heritage of father ‘氏’ in contrast to ‘姓’ - heritage of mother- developedthrough the ancient society, it was used mixedly with ‘姓’ and also became anindex to identify status as well as whether being noble or mean. Therefore, ‘氏’may have reflected change of male status. Chinese character ‘祖’, which adds ‘示’ meaning worship or ancestral rites on‘且’ - appearance of phallic symbols - reflected worship for male ancestorsarising from worship of phallic symbol. During the period when society changedfrom matriarchal one to patrilineal one, ‘祖’ was commonly used to represent males above the generations of grandfathers. Original meaning of ‘父’ was an adult male working with a stone ax andturned into a common name for adult males one generation older thanchildren's generation in line with development of society and form ofmatrimony. Along the way, ‘父’ extended its meaning to refer to anauthoritative father. Original meaning of ‘夫’ was an adult male wearing an ornamental hairpin atthe time of becoming an adult and later changed to mean a husband. Patriarchal society in ancient China functioned to establish a firm position ofhusbands in families, and this concept of male domination was reflected in ‘夫’,eventually leading to mean an authoritative husband ‘夫’ in contrast to anobedient wife ‘妻(婦). Original meaning of ‘男’ was a male working hard for the harvest in farmlands. In agriculture-based ancient Chinese society, authority and status ofmales continued to increase, which was reflected in letters of ‘男’ and ‘女’ as is. Originally, ‘君’ meant an august man delivering orders or congratulatorymessages with a position commanding the tribes, while ‘士’ meant a high-rankedwarrior with a large ax in the battlefield. Meanings of ‘君’, ‘士’, and most ofother names in ancient China, derived from this root, reflect respect, authorityand good feelings for males.

Mythology is a complex of cultures. Therefore it reflects the historicalexperience that people went through and the structured system ofcontemplation built over time. The figure of a war deity, the primary characterin the mythology associated war which might have terminated or sustained anation, represents the most primitive contemplation system of the race. Thepurpose of the current research is to understand the difference in how easternand western people have developed their thoughts, by investigating two wardeities in Chinese myth and Greek myth, Chiyou and Ares. The research alsolooks into the embedded culture in those two mythological characters. Such investigation leads to the conclusions as following. First significant difference is found from the appearance of two gods. Chiyouhas the look of hybrid, of human and animal, while Ares has the look ofcomplete human. The dissimilarity in the appearance results from the differentformation and concept of divine characters. Two characters have different backgrounds in becoming divine characters aswell. The beginning of Chiyou was a human who was deified later. Ares, on theother hand, originated from a god, and gained the human characters later. In terms of aesthetics, stories of two characters have different types ofbeauty. The story of Chiyou is typical tragedy, while Ares represents typicalhostility. Paradoxical figure of Chiyou is the consequence of worshiping tragic heroand deifying the winner, while the hostility of Ares results from individualismand worshiping military force.