周作人是中国民间文艺学和民俗学最早的奠基者和理论家之一,也是中国系统介绍国外神话理论的第一人。他一生对神话饶有兴趣,扼要而全面地介绍了西方主要神话理论流派,评点其优势与不足,并运用古典进化论、心理学等理论研究神话,提出了广义童话是神话之源等新颖而深刻的观点,并对神话的性质和内涵做了重新思考。梳理周作人的神话研究,不仅是对中国民间文学学术史的必要回顾,对当下的神话研究亦具有启发意义。 Zhou Zuoren is one of the earliest founders and theorists in Chinese folklore and folklore, as well as the first Chinese person to introduce foreign myth theories. His whole life is very interested in mythology. He briefly and thoroughly introduced the major schools of the mythology in the West and commented on its strengths and weaknesses. Using such theories as classical evolutionism and psychology, he studied the myths and proposed that the generalized fairy tales are the source of myths, And reconsidered the nature and connotation of mythology. Combing Zhou Zuoren’s mythological research is not only a necessary review of the academic history of Chinese folk literature, but also instructive for the present myth research.