Preface:
Inspired by Engels' "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State", Daniel's "The First Civilization" and other related articles, modern historians usually use the term "civilization" to denote the period when a society began to disintegrate from the clan system to a period when there was a class of managers.
Through the unremitting efforts of archaeologists, Chinese civilization can be traced back to the Longshan culture. However, for the emergence of early Chinese society, state, and writing, researchers have not attributed the salient features of ancient Chinese culture to bronze, because bronze was used as a sacrificial and ritual vessel in the Shang, Zhou and previous times.
A large number of bronzes, pottery and jade in the Yongsan culture have one thing in common, that is, they are exquisite, impractical, time-consuming to make, and only used by a very small number of people.
1. The historical development of ancient sacrifices
It can be seen that some people in ancient society had special sacrifices, that is, the "witch" group who made sacrifices their profession. The formation of social classes in ancient China was a socialized group with witches as the main feature. Li Xiaoding derived the name from the shape of the "tool used by the witch", which Zhang Guangzhi believed was a "circle", and "circle" is the symbol that controls the world and nature.
He who can make a square or a circle is a man who can know heaven and earth. "Witches can see both heaven and earth, so those who use the rules are wizards." This is also in line with the saying "the people of the ancients, there are no gods".
The spirit of man, without a second, can work together, its wisdom, from top to bottom to righteousness, its holy light, far and wide, its light, its light, its ears, its voice, its gods, its people, its people. Yes, there is heaven, there is earth, there are people, there are people, there are people, these are five people, each has his own responsibilities and does not interfere with each other.
People can be faithful, there can be benevolence in mythology, although people have different professions, but they dare not blaspheme, so God gives them life, they enjoy their material things, there will be no calamity, there will be no need. Chinese The culture of "witch" and "sacrifice" is centered on "man" and "god", and is composed of the superposition of "learning" and "Tao".
The relationship between man and God was the most basic natural law in ancient times, and the witch community played an important role in it. They influence and organize social activities through religious beliefs and ritual behaviors, so that the people can produce "faithfulness" and certain spiritual attachments and beliefs; It is protected from calamity and meets the needs of daily life.
This is the basic form of the state. Therefore, the emergence of social witch groups was the beginning of the development of Chinese culture. What guarantees the social survival of this religious community? These rare jade, ceramic and copper ceremonial vessels are believed to have played a large role in their initial stages of development, giving some people a special status.
But as society evolves, the demand for this tool increases, their identities become more uncertain, their power increases, and all people can complete simple rituals. "Later, the Six Kingdoms perished, the Nine Li were chaotic, and the people and gods were mixed, and they could no longer be restored."
The people sacrificed in their own homes, and there was nothing special to pay attention to. The people needed sacrifices, but officials rarely needed sacrifices. Glory and wealth, with man and God. The people blasphemy the alliance has no majesty to speak of. "God and people, do not blaspheme. If Jiasheng does not submit, there will be nothing to enjoy.
The scourge is extremely difficult to enjoy. With this, he ordered Nanzi to rule the heavens for the use of the heavens, and the fire to rule the earth, for the use of the people, and everything is as usual, not for foreign things, this is the Jedi Heavenly Pass. The phrase "Jedi Tiantong" has attracted the attention of many literati and inkers.
Li Zero thought that "Jedi Tiantong" was about "the source of occupation, especially the source of history", and explored whether history could be replaced by folk wizards.
Sima Qian also mentioned his family origin in the "Tai Shi Gong Zi Order", saying: "In the past, the emperor ordered the southern town to rule the sky, and the northern town to rule the land. The implication of this sentence is to take "Jedi Tiantong" as his family origin.
Although the "ancestral theory" is only a semi-hypothesis and cannot be trusted from the perspective of time, from a logical point of view, "family as witch history" still exists. The premise of "Home as Witch History" is that it is easy to operate both in technology and operation, so it should appear in the early stages of the development of human civilization.
This phenomenon shows that in the early stage of the development of human civilization, although there was a witch group, the membership and status of this group were not stable. The witch group is the fundamental spirit of human beings to control the world and life, and is the core of the ideological system, and its instability is extremely harmful to the establishment of secular power and secular order. The purpose of "Jedi Tiantong" is to separate the "witch puppet" from the common people, in order to establish a reasonable "earthly" order between "heaven" and "man".
The most effective way for witches to become an independent professional class is to monopolize the power of discourse by strengthening specialization, and this process is usually done in two ways: the complexity of knowledge and the historicization. And all this, especially the latter, has greatly promoted the emergence and development of writing and history.
By comparing the above two paragraphs, it can be seen that in the period of "mixing of people and gods", "witch" is only a ritual of "unlimited", so everyone can engage in it; However, in ancient times, the role of the witch puppet was extraordinary, one was to master the lineage and genealogy such as "after the first saint" and "after the name and surname", and the second was that the process of sacrifice became more and more complex and more elaborate, to the point that ordinary people could not grasp and remember at all.
The understanding of lineage and genealogy means the understanding of the history of the Terrans, and the understanding of history also means the understanding of reality.
Second, the exploration of the rituals of sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty
The discourse power of contemporary society is a kind of discourse power with certain historical significance. Moreover, the complexity of genealogy and etiquette enables knowledge to be transmitted through the "old canon", so that knowledge can be separated from the etiquette system and practical constraints, and as the basis for the survival of social groups.
All these play a decisive role in how an empirical technique becomes a specialized discipline and how it becomes a level of knowledge. The development of any discipline or discipline is inseparable from the support of a certain historical consciousness. Later, bronze, jade and other sacrificial objects were still regarded as valuable artifacts because they were considered to have a high sacrificial value, but by this time, their value was more reflected in their historical status.
Just like the king of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, he coveted the Nine Dings of the Zhou Dynasty, but he did not think that he would never be able to do it, only that he could not do it under the circumstances at that time. Voodoo puppets, on the other hand, interpret and guide the life of human society through complex rituals and techniques.
The more complex the ritual, the more time it takes. For example, the very complex weekly sacrifice system of the Shang Dynasty is to use five kinds of rituals to perform repeated sacrifices to the ancestors of the Shang king, which also includes many time factors, such as the day of the Bu, the day of sacrifice, the name of the first king and the first concubine, etc., until now, modern scholars have not figured out the mystery.
It is clear that this particular concept of time, on the one hand, makes the ritual activities very complicated, and on the other hand, makes people more clearly use time to organize and remember the history of their people and families. Although the Shang kings were named after themselves during their lifetimes, after their deaths, descendants would still use special names to commemorate them and their wives.
These names of "nikgan" have a particular connection with "sacrifice." From the "lineage title of the Yin dynasty", Hou Wailu asserted that "the discovery of the concept of time is the first production of human consciousness". To be precise, the name of the Yin dynasty lineage is not simply "time", but a continuous and orderly marker, which is a manifestation of the Shang dynasty's understanding of "history".
These lineage titles and the special festivals associated with them contain expertise that is inaccessible to ordinary people. Here, historical factors play a big role. At the same time, historiography consciousness and historiography itself also stimulate the literary consciousness of this group.
The writing formed into a system of symbols is an important symbol of the Wu culture moving towards civilization, the key to the civilization of the Wu culture, and the necessary condition for the emergence of the Wu culture. "Shiben" is called "Shi Huang's name", while the "Spring and Autumn Yuan Mei Bu" collected by the "Han Xuetang Series" is called "Cangdi Shi Huang's name".
Shi Huang, naturally, is "history". This shows that in the understanding of ancient people, written symbols were directly related to the emergence of officials.
It is widely believed that the merchants preserved these oracle bones because they would verify the accuracy of this prediction in the future and use it as a basis for judging their scores.
This may not have been the original intention of collecting Oracle. First of all, Wang Bu has many records on the oracle bone, and the test of its validity is meaningless; Secondly, it can be seen from the "Shangshu Jinteng" that the oracle bones collected by it are not freely read.
Seeing that King Wu was seriously ill, the Duke of Zhou was willing to use the turtle to divination, and this document lasted until King Wu's death, and the second year of the Duke of Zhou's reign in the east, King Cheng of Zhou carefully opened it. It can be seen from this that the Bu Zhi documents in the "Zhou Yi" cannot be examined in time.
Oracle bone Buzheng is based on people's beliefs, and Buzheng activities are only an activity to convey divine will, which not only causes people's confidence in Buzheng activities, but also contradicts Buzheng's way of thinking. Only the results of divination are recorded in divination, and the results of non-divination are not recorded, so the divination results supplemented by later generations are only to strengthen the sacred nature of divination.
Therefore, this statement should prosper when religion is declining and the government is prosperous. There are two reasons for the collection of oracle bone words: first, the sanctity of oracle bones, and second, the sanctity of oracle words. Those historians who preserved the oracle bones, because of their double sacredness, they had an immutable sense of history.
Epilogue:
It can be said that the earliest history is the history of communication and prophets between man and God, and the historian is the witness of the gods, who gradually became the representative of God and gradually mastered the interpretation and management of social affairs. In the oracle bone text, "history", "scholar" and "thing" are collectively referred to as "history", which shows that the social function of "history" has been expanded like never before.
Wang Guowei said: "Most of the names and positions of large and small officials are taken from history,...... In the Zhou Dynasty, the officials of the imperial family were called gongqing; Mao Gongding, Xiaozi Shidun, and Fan Shengdun are all scribes, and Yin Huang in the "Book of Poetry" is the real name of the scribe.
The chief minister, elected by the emperor and ministers, is called the prime minister, and when the character Yin is empty, it is called the prime minister, and the prime minister is also called the country of Xiang. Among the Six Qing, "Shu Gan Oath" is called "Six Dukes", and "Situ Sima Sikong" is called "Three Dukes" by Shi Xiaoya, and these are all called "Three Dukes" by high-ranking officials, that is, "Shi".
From this, we can see how extensive the role of "historical officials" in the officialdom is and how honorable their status is. The professionalization of "witches" and "witches" led to the gradual centralization of secular power, and thus formed a social order that transcended clans.
With the passage of time and the increase in the thickness of history, the cultural functions carried by these works, such as "inheritance" and "interpretation", have become more and more prominent. It is in this research situation that historians can go deep into the center of culture and taste mellow history.
Bibliography:
The Origin of Chinese Civilization
"From Shang Zhou Bronzes on the Origin of Civilization and State"
"Ritual System in the Yongsan Period"
"Oracle Bone Script Collection"
The Bronze Age of China
"Chinese Fangshu Examination"