毕业设计（论文）-论中西方文化中乌鸦意象的文化意义.doc

本科毕业论文题 目：论中西方文化中乌鸦意象的文化意义学 院： 外国语学院 专业班级： 英语0601班 学 号： 2006344010130 学生姓名： 指导教师姓名： 指导教师职称： 讲 师 二O一O年六月十二日 On the Image of Crow in Chinese and Western CultureA Graduation Thesis Submitted by Wang YanjiaoIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsForThe Degree of Bachelor of ArtsIn the Subject of English Language and Literature ToCollege of Foreign LanguagesOfAgricultural University of HebeiSupervisor: Li YaminJune 12, 2010Candidate Supervisor Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsi摘 要iiAbstractiii1 Introduction12 The Analysis of Crow in Chinese Culture12.1 The Positive Meaning12.1.1 The mysterious bird22.1.2 The Filial Bird32.2 The Negative Meaning42.2.1 The Coming of the Negative Meaning42.2.2 The Symbol of Death and Calamity52.2.3 The Symbol of Drift, Desolation and Grief63 The Analysis of crow in Western culture73.1 The Positive Meaning73.2 The Negative Meaning83.2.1 The Coming of the Negative Meaning83.2.2 The Symbol of Death and Calamity94 Conclusion11Bibliography12AcknowledgementsFirst of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Li Yamin for his warm-hearted encouragements, valuable instructions and thoughtful comments for this thesis. His guidance and encouragement have made this thesis a better one than I can ever possibly produce.And I am also extremely grateful to all the professors and teachers who taught me and enlightened me in the past years of my study at the Agricultural University of Hebei. Their lectures have laid the solid foundation for this thesis.Then, I would also like to give my special appreciation to my classmates and roommates for their patience in helping me collect materials without which my paper would not be finished so smoothly.Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank my family members who have given their support and encouragement during the four years of my undergraduate study. Wang Yanjiao June12, 2010【摘 要】古今中外，鸟和人类的生存与发展息息相关。在人类漫长的岁月里，各民族的人们有意或无意地把鸟类人格化或神灵化，并依据鸟类的外貌和习性等特征赋予他们特定的寓意来寄托自己的感情，而乌鸦正是其中一个典型的例子。它是中西方文化，尤其是文学作品中重要的禽鸟意象，其身上承载的意义丰富多彩，并受不同历史时期的影响而不断变化，但总体被赋予了积极意义和消极意义面。本文将就着两个方面做逐一探讨，以期更好的理解乌鸦意象在不同文化中的内涵。【关键字】中西方文化；乌鸦；乌鸦意象；文化意义【Abstract】The birds are closely connected with the survival and development of human beings in modern times or ancient, in China or in abroad. During the long years of human history, people of different nations personify and deify the birds consciously or unconsciously. And people focus on their feelings by giving the birds some specific implications according to the appearance habits and characteristics of the birds, and a typical example foe which is the crow. The crow is the important bird image in the Chinese and western culture, especially in the literary works. And it carries too much human emotion and the reprehensive meaning of it is colorful and rich. By the different historical periods and different cultural influences, the crows are given a variety of images. But all in all, no matter in Chinese culture or in western culture, the crow is a contradictory image; that is to say, there are two sides of it: the positive meaning and the negative meaning. This passage is based on the two sides to probe into the crow in culture. It is the purpose of this paper to make a statement of them one by one, only through detail analysis can readers obtain further appreciation and better understanding of their cultural cononation.【Key Words】Chinese and western culture; crow; the image of crow; the cultural meaningiv1 Introduction By probing into the cultural connotation of crow, this paper states that each word not only bears the rational meaning which is human being s understanding of the objective world, but also concentrates the cultural meaning in human social practice, which is result of the synthetic effects of many factors, such as cultural background, folk custom, etiquette, nice or nasty psychology. Everything has its origin. No matter in Chinese or in western world, the significance of crow experiences the process of changing. In China, as to crow s reputation, a lot of people have already been full of senses of detesting to such hasty and careless and wicked bird with ugly appearance in influencing by the surroundings since childhood, but once speaking to the pigeon or magpie, we will put another perspective look at once. But in the Tang Dynasty, the crow was once that one kind was considered as the lucky bird, the winding evolution of its reputation has something to do with its moral and personification with the people at that time too, from which we can also see a lot of popularity to go through the integration of social life to adapt to the prevailing moral order and political demands. However, the development of crow in western is not as twist as in China. Yet, it also conveys the positive meaning as well as the negative meaning. Like in China, the crow is a very complex image in western culture. It is not only the symbol of wisdom and intelligence, but also the symbol of despair and death. The crow has a long history, and it has witnessed the development and progress of human civilization, its images are often seen in Chinese and foreign cultures. In fact, it has far exceeded its biological significance as a bird, carrying too much human emotion, and it is spoken by men of letters to express their feelings unfailingly. By the different historical periods and different cultural influences, crows are given a variety of images. But all in all, no matter in Chinese and negative meaning of it: the crow is a contradictory image, that is to say, there are two sides of it: the positive meaning and the negative meaning. This passage is based on the two sides to probe into the crow in culture, so that it is good for people to understand the connotation of crow in different culture.2 The Analysis of Crow in Chinese Culture2.1 The Positive MeaningIn the hearts of the Chinese people, the crow has become an ominous sign. However, in history, dating back to the origin and evolution of the raven, we will find that its cultural symbolism is rather complex transformation. At first, the crow has the positive meaning, and it is seen as the mysterious and filial bird.2.1.1 The mysterious birdRavens are considered a solar symbol in Chinese mythology. Why do people relate the raven to the sun together? At first people linking the raven to Ukraine, is based on the primitive simplicity of the original period of thinking, sun worship, the Yi tribe bird totem worship and sunspots and black gas phenomena through ancient thinking consolidation together, and eventually become Yang Wu as a myth. The crow in the ancient peoples heart is sacred. As the great work of the Mountain and Sea Classics say: 汤谷上有扶木,一日方至,一日方出,皆载于乌。论衡说日篇云:“儒者曰:日中有三足乌,月中有兔。” The meaning is that, in the sun there are two images the rabbit and the crow, and in the ancient people heart, the sun is the defied and worshipful image. From that we can see the position of the crow in ancient times. In the unearthed relics, there is the figure of raven. In Yangshao culture, the potteries are painted a flying raven. Changsha Mawangdui unearthed the tomb of the initial period of western Han Dynasty marchioness Xinzhui. There paints a picture. On the cover, there stands a golden Ukraine in the sun. The painting depicts the three worlds: the hell, the earth and the heaven that the expression of the ancients thought of life and death. At the heavens part, and the strange nine sun shine in the boughs, located above the solar maximum, and a golden raven stands among the sun. The haven is a place where people imagine having better life. Xinzhui wants her soul can enter to haven, and has the eternal life. There is no doubt that the golden crow is a divine bird. So we can see that the early Western Han Dynasty is the inherited the faith belief of the original ancestors.Crow is a secret and full of legendary bird, in such materials, the most famous example is the great thinker of Confucius and Valor of the 3 000 soldiers of the Legends of the Raven. According to the legend, after Confucius travel around the world, the reputation and fame is known by most of people and his many disciples have been the ministers of the vassal states, so that his political views gradually implemented in the vassal states. This endangers the interests of the vassal states own ministers, in particular, especially in the State of Lu. Therefore, they are doing everything possible to look for opportunities to attempt to murder Confucius. One day, Confucius and his disciples hunt in the Nepalese mountains, suddenly, from all around a number of banditry rush to them, and his disciples who suffer heavy casualties and launch a desperate struggle with the banditry. In the crisis moment, there are countless crows suddenly from heaven, they quickly rush to the banditry, and use their mouth or claw to attack the enemys eyes, which make the banditry blind, and make them fled. Confucius and his disciples are saved at last. From then on, whenever Confucius travels, there is always a group of crows hovering about, escorting to Confucius, in the legend, the crow become the protector of Confucius.2.1.2 The Filial Bird In the traditional ancient Chinese culture, the crow is considered a filial bird. It is said that after the litter crow is grown up by his mother, and when his mother is old and feeble and cannot fly, he would fly out to find food and feedback to his mother. This spirit is called the crow feedback, which is on the appetite the filial spirit which advocate by the Confucius doctrine. This is Chinas feudal rule, under the dynastic advocacy to match the Confucian culture, Xiao is the cornerstone of Chinese moral ethics, starting from the Confucian precisely to define the virtues of filial piety, parents as a life-giving, and tending to, not only have a loving, but also help their children and others to establish the initial connection and contact, therefore, the Confucius advocates that we should respect our teachers and we should hold our spiritual virtues loyalty, which are the extended of the filial piety. And filial piety has the same structure and nature of the fittness. When the Confucianism establishes the dominated position in Han dynasty, filial piety become the Confucian family ethics promulgated by the core content, but rose to political discourse, and creates the official title of give Xiaolian, which is a major event in China since ancient times. It must have miraculous beginning of all to promote the filial piety of course, but who can receive this kind of responsibility. Although the decline of the sun myth, the myth about the sun birds in peoples vision gradually disappeared, the bird as the god of the sun bird still remains. So, naturally the crow becomes the day Akitaka messenger. Although this is a mysterious saying, it gives a Ukraines biological instinct to explanation of ethics, and further to the mystery. In addition, there is another work艺文类聚says that“日中三足乌之精，降而生三足乌。”It means the essence of the sun is the Ukraine. As the crow, people have always been linked with the sun, so its shape is also gradually deified by the people, the crow said to be a three- legged, and its emergence as a more politically signs. Ancient literary works as Wu Bird affair, the crow feed to his mother. There is also the work about this point. In Jin dynasty, limi wrote A Letter to His Majesty said: “Now Your Majesty is ruling the country on the principle of filial piety. Old people of high virtue are being taken care of and well provided for. It is apparent that I am more distressed than others. Besides, out of vainglory to secure a high position in the government regardless of my personal integrity, I served in the last dynasty during my youth as shangshulang, and now, I, a captive, a slave, am getting undeserved favor from Your Majesty. How dare I hesitate and cherish any aspirations? But my grandmother is at her last breath, and she is like the setting sun beyond the western hills. Her life is at stake and she may die at any moment. But for her, I would not have become what I am today. But for me, she would have been long dead. It is because the two of us depend upon each other that I, your humble servant, cannot leave home at present. I am forty-four years of age and my grandmother is ninety-six. Ahead lie many years during which I may faithfully serve Your Majesty, but there remain only a few brief moments during which I can serve my grandmother. Given that even the crow looks after its elderly, I pray Your Majesty will allow me to stay with my grandparent until her last breath. 2.2 The Negative MeaningEverything changes always, and with the development of society, the crow carries too much the human emotion, the cultural significance of it begins streaming; the sanctity of the crow begin to decline. The negative meaning is the major aspect.2.2.1 The Coming of the Negative MeaningHowever, with the historical changes, as social development and peoples understanding and progress, the cultural significance of crows begin streaming; the sanctity of the crow begin to decline. In Qu Yuans works, the image of crow re-launches with the ugly appearance. The crow symbol meaning begin to change clearly. It doesnt represent the ethic of the sun-bird, and gradually grows and eventually the crow becomes an ominous bird which is the major cultural significance. The evil significance of crow begin to the dominate streaming. The reasons are various. First is probably because the crows biological appearance which is so dark and ugly, and the biological instinct, the infested environment. On the other hand is probably the indifference of a bird totem worship in peoples psychological sense, the crow does not have the ancient mystery acolor. At the same time, it is also found that the crow is not feeding, then the mysterious of crow would be gone which is given by the Confucian ethic. Crow experienced the evolution of the cultural connotation of The sun bird - bird filial piety - the evil bird which also reflects the peoples understanding of the natural habits of the crow, with the development of society, peoples level of awareness and mind continue to progress, from the nature binding gradually set free from the nature worship to re-examine the world, and recognize peoples own strength and power, and thus the status of divinity in nature begin to falter, and the hero myth and hero worship begin to appear, that all of these verifies the human beings progress. The most famous example is Houyi shooting the sun which verifies the declining of the suns status. The myth God set Ukraine on Nature gradually reduces from the high above worldly God poultry birds and even ugly evil. In addition, together with self-awakening of human consciousness, people begin to question the power of God and begin to pay more attention to the reality and life, not worship for the myth. From the Song Dynasty, the crow begin in China to have a very bad reputation, people have a strong aversion and contempt to it, treating it s an evil bird.2.2.2 The Symbol of Death and CalamityCrow always connects with the dessert, battlefield and solitary temple to create the desolated deteriorated environment, implying the meaning of the country ruins the family perishes. Due to the good scavengers, the characteristics of crows gather in the wilderness like the wild mounds, dead bodies lying here and there, and making all sorts of voices. This closely links to the death under the situation of making all sorts of voice. There is the feeling of fear and trembling in peoples mind. Thus, in the classical poetry there is an image of Ukrainian famine.In rural China, crow has become a symbol of death, people shun it, drive it away, and kill it as a natural thing. On TV, movies, the image of crow is also commonly used to express the ominous, tragic scene. Even with the crow-related vocabulary and proverbs are more derogatory, such as crow mouth crow landed on a pig a disorderly band of people Evil people are sanely bad all over the world., crows take the lead must have been no disaster and so on. These ideas after the establishment by popular usage or accepts through the common practice, and gradually develop into a national mental consciousness, that is, Wu Ti trillion fierce, and plus the black appearance of crow, which is even more strong emotionally. If the men who want to set off during the march heard crow, then morale will drop. And then the mysterious power of luck has turned off, and it portends a bad outcome. Whats more, the crow always eats the peoples labor fruit, so the disgusting sense of people to it is stronger and stronger. 2.2.3 The Symbol of Drift，Desolation and GriefThe crow image and evening combined to convey the feeling of being back, which is a complex can be said that a cultural psychology of our nation, as early as the spring and autumn period, this kind of combination appeared in person for pregnant sunset. As the crow and other birds has the habit of moving out and coming in late, when people see the mountain air, the sunset light and birds flying home together naturally thought of the old forest and home, so the missing complex triggered under the circumstanc