The early Chinese stateshaping mode of familynation integration determined ancestry worship as the mainstream form of religion. This oppressed nature worship from developing in full wing, leading to the dull situation of natural mythology in ancient China. Thus the development of Chinese mythology always followed the track of history mythologization with the ancestors and heroes as the protagonists and the heroic mythology as the dominant form of temple literature. In contrast, the earliest state form in the TigrisEuphrates Rivers occurred in form of citystate. Each city had a natural god to worship. This determined the dominant place of natural worship in the long religious history in the TigrisEuphrates Rivers which offered a full development and advanced level of natural mythology. This difference between the two mythologies mirrors the prominent difference between the two great civilizations.

Chinese mythology; mythology in the TigrisEuphrates Rivers; cultural comparison