중국 천지기원신화에 보이는 천지의 형상과 천제(天梯)

Abstract

In the Chinese origin of the myth story, heaven was always a round shape and the earth was square. Somehow heaven and earth were getting farther away from each other, but there was a connection between these two. It was a “High Ladder”. This was the first Chinese ancient view of the universe.The Chinese ancient people tried to find the shape of this “high ladder” represented in their life which was a symbol for the unstable relationship between heaven and earth. A good example of this was the appearance of a rainbow, elephant, and turtle etc. which we can see in our life very often. The idea of a “high ladder” idea was the general vision of the universe for the Chinese minority groups. The belief was that heaven and earth were very close and that people could easily access the two places when the world began. The idea of god’s mountain and the divine tree are still in existence for Tianti myth. But one day, the relationship between heaven and earth was cut off because of the conflict between people on earth. God got angry because humans became more evil with each passing day. So this god removed the “high ladder” from earth to heaven. It was a punishment for the humans who had lost their morals. This myth story gets much more exciting because of people’s interpretation of this old story.