神话隐语与天道模式——“黄帝四面”之谜的再解读

"黄帝四面"神话究竟应该作何种解读?自古以来一直存在分歧。这固然与神话本身的多义性有关,同时也与人们对神话解读存在局限性有关。以往的解读者多着眼于具体的文化(历史)现象,而没有关注到背后一以贯之的东西,即某个能够给予这些文化(历史)现象以普遍性理论支持的哲学世界观或文化元观念。通过对古代神话文本与哲学文本的对比研究并结合对神话得以发生的经验原型的具体分析即可发现,"黄帝四面"其实是一个与古代天道模式有关的神话隐语,各种与"黄帝四面"神话有关的文化(历史)现象只不过是作为文化元观念的天道模式的具体表现而已。由此,这个古老的神话就获得了忠实于神话原意的解读;而且,由于引入了文化元观念这一概念,从而有助于加深人们对中国古代神话、哲学以及文化之间一体性关系的理解。

Mythological Enigma as Model of Heavenly Laws: A Re-interpretation of the Myth of "King Huang's Four Faces"

How to interpret properly the myth of "King Huang’s four faces"? Divergent answers have been offered since the ancient time, a case that is of course related to the polysemy of myth itself, but also concerned with people’s interpretation limitations. In fact, the previous studies mostly focused on practical cultural (historical) phenomena, but overlooked something consistent below the surface, namely, a philosophical worldview or a cultural meta-ideology as a universal theoretical framework for those phenomena. A comparison of the ancient mythological and philosophical texts, in combination with the practical analysis of the experiential prototype on which myths were brought forth with, may reveal that the myth of "King Huang’s four faces" is essentially a mythological enigma associated with the formula of the ancient heavenly laws. That is, the various cultural (historical) phenomena related to the myth of "King Huang’s four faces" are merely a practical representation of the heavenly laws as the cultural meta-ideology. That old myth then gains an interpretation coherent with the true meaning of myth. Moreover, the introduction of the concept of cultural meta-ideology may help enhance the understanding of the consistent relationship between the ancient Chinese myth, philosophy, and culture.