Mythological Science

Author: Liu Xingshi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: The mythological stories of Pangu creating the world, Nuwa mending the sky, and the Heaven Dog devouring the sun have accompanied generation after generation of children. Let us follow the omnipresent shadow of science to savor the joy brought by these mythological tales! Myths are essential to read, and science is essential to know. In the prehistoric era without written records, most myths were explanations by primitive ancestors for phenomena they could not understand, far from being baseless tales. They contain crucial information about ancient climate and geographical environments, which is the essence of prehistoric myths.
Traditional mythological studies are undoubtedly important, but research on prehistoric myths must not stop at general interpretations of mythology. Focusing solely on their fantastical and supernatural stories, and exploring various imaginary deities and supernatural forces, leads mythological studies into tedious textual and the mystical direction of etymology, far from the truth. The task of serious modern scientists should be to go from the surface to the core, to discern truth from falsehood, and to delve into the scientific information hidden beneath their bizarre and absurd stories, guiding mythological studies onto a new scientific path as an important supplement to Quaternary paleoenvironmental studies. It should be noted here that this may also have been the original intention of primitive ancestors. Exaggerating their mysticism should be seen as a distortion of the ancestors' original purpose.