This book focuses on reinterpreting mythical China from the perspective of the cultural theory of big tradition. It is divided into two parts: the first explains the theoretical development and features of the Chinese version of big tradition, identifying the differences between the Eastern and Western cultural traditions (big tradition and great tradition). The second part then reinterprets the core values and mythical ideas of Chinese civilization and traditional culture from the perspective of big tradition. Moving beyond the small tradition of text centrism and using new methods and materials, the book reveals the original meaning and the cultural coding function of big tradition during the preliterate period. Drawing on integrated evidence from literature handed down from ancient times, oral and intangible cultural heritage, tangible culture, cross-cultures, image culture and unearthed documents, the book interprets Chinese cultural traditions and spiritual values from local, archaeological, experiential and survival perspectives, to help readers better understand the mythical codes and genes of early Chinese culture.

Autorentext
Jiansheng Hu, Doctor of Literature, is an Associate Professor at the School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He was selected as one of the Wen Xin Scholars, is Secretary General of the Society of Literary Anthropology, and is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Literature at Duke University and the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His main research interests are literary anthropology and mythological studies. He is the author of Studies on Fu Style in Song Dynasty: Power and Form; Wei-jin Demeanor and Chinese Culture Genes,* *and has published more than 40 academic papers. He has presided over National Social Science Foundation Projects and Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Foundation Projects.

Inhalt
Part One  Cultural Theory of Big Tradition.- Chapter 1 A Comparative Study on Chinese Big Tradition and Western Great Tradition.- Chapter 2 Culture as Text: Producing New Texts for Non-text Representations.- Chapter 3 Knowledge Innovation of the Big Tradition in Chinese Literary Anthropology.- Chapter 4 New Development of Chinese Literary Anthropology.- Chapter 5 Discoveries of Things from Cultural Big Tradition.- Part Two Mythical China.- Chapter 6 Review on Contemporary Studies of Chinese Myth -- Centering on Mythological China: Retrospection and Development of Chinese Mythology.- Chapter 7 Origin of Humanity: Images on Prehistoric Colored Pottery and Chinese Spirituality.- Chapter 8 Mythological Fantasy and Archetype Coding of the Divine Bear Imagery.- Chapter 9 Image Combination of Goddess Prototype - New Exploration of Cultural Symbolization of the Stork, Fish and Zax Picture.- Chapter 10 Original Way from the Cultural Big Tradition: A Study on the Divine Belief and Mythological Images of Tao.- Chapter 11 What is Man: Original Strength and Psychological Structure Revealed by Chinese Genesis Myth.- Chapter 12 Mythical Identity and Juristical Authority of Yueruo Jigu.- Chapter 13 The Cultural Interpretation of Golden Sound and Jade Vibration.