From Mythos to Logos: A Comparative Study of Rational Discourse in Ancient Greece and Ancient China

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between mythos and logos through a comparative study of ancient Greek and ancient Chinese intellectual traditions. It argues that logos did not arise from a radical break with myth but through gradual processes of reinterpretation and rational transformation. In Greece, philosophical reflection from the sixth century BCE onward progressively differentiated rational discourse from mythic narrative, yet myth persisted as a philosophically reworked element. In early China, by contrast, no sharp opposition between myth and rationality emerged; instead, mythic traditions were historicized, ethically reinterpreted, and integrated into cosmological and political frameworks, notably through concepts such as Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven. The article highlights an “inverted euhemerism,” whereby Greek tradition mythologized history, while Chinese tradition historicized mythology. The comparison reveals two distinct patterns of rational development: critical differentiation in Greece and cumulative, practical integration in China.