Fire is a symbol of light and warmth for human beings. The imprint of fire on human development is indelible, and many civilizations still have the imprint of fire.
Today, we will talk about the "fire worship" in ancient and modern China and abroad, as well as the long-standing origin of Zoroastrianism.
In ancient China, there was a legend of the Fu ren clan:
"In the ancient world, the people ate the fruit and clams, and the smell was fishy and stenchy, and the stomach was wounded, and the people were sick, and there were saints who made it, and they drilled for fire to make fire, so that the people were pleased, so that the king of the world, the number of the flint people."
A long time ago, the ancestors could only eat raw food, melons, fruits and vegetables are better to say, raw fish, shrimp, clams and clams are simply a kind of torture for people. Once the human stomach eats raw food with a fishy and foul smell, it will make a stomach trouble, so that the disease is prevalent. There was a saint of the Flintstone clan who taught people to roast raw food with fire and solve the suffering of disease for people. The ancestors supported the Lingren clan, so they worshipped it as their leader.
Mr. Storyteller in the teahouse often says the phrase "Three Emperors and Five Emperors to the Present", and the Fu Ren clan is one of the Three Emperors. The fact that this ancestor who invented the method of artificial fire for mankind is enshrined as the head of the people shows how convenient his invention is for people, so that he can get the highest level of worship and respect from the masses of the people.
In ancient Greek mythology, there is also the legend of Prometheus:
Prometheus, as one of the first prophets, had a mission to teach mankind to make tools. Originally, Prometheus intended to teach humans how to use fire, but Zeus was reluctant to spread fire to the human world. In desperation, Prometheus quietly obtained the tinder in the sun cart and gave the tinder to the ancestors. Prometheus's theft of fire made Zeus furious, so Prometheus was trapped in a caucasus mountain, and there was an eagle who ate his internal organs every day, and then the internal organs would grow the next day, and the cycle would continue endlessly.
Fire has many wonderful uses, so it is not surprising that fire existed everywhere in the ancient system of thought.
In some religions, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which are the most widely spread in China, although there is no flame worship, there is a saying of "incense". How many incense sticks a god has is a symbol of its prosperity or decline.
For the common people, the seven things that go out are "chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea", the first of which is the firewood used to ignite the fire. Just as the so-called "people take food as the sky", the people want to fill their stomachs, they have to cook, and if they want to cook, they need to use a stove. Therefore, the King of Stove is the most down-to-earth existence in the Chinese gods.
So, what is the origin of the Stove King?
Folk have different sayings:
It is said that the Emperor of The Stove was entrusted after the death of Emperor Yan;
The second is that the King of the Stove is the fire god Zhu Rong;
The three sayings are the Taoist "old mother of fire".
However, although each theory is different, the original god of the Stove King is similar to the origin of fire.
Among the ethnic minorities in China, the Yi, Bai, Naxi and Kino ethnic groups all have torch festivals, and the origin of this festival is the flame worship in ancient times. In the Yi language, the torch festival is "Du Ze", which means to sacrifice fire. If the flames burn excessively, what is burned will turn into ashes. Therefore, in many legends, the flame is a sharp weapon used by the gods to punish evil. The sixteen layers of hell that Buddhism says are the volcanic hells of terror.
With the advent of the era of advocating science against superstition, many of the cultural allegories about fire have gradually faded out of our lives. However, the essence of the fire that brings warmth and light to human beings will always remain in people's hearts. On your birthday, be sure to put a candle on the cake and make a wish to the flames. Every New Year's Festival, it is even more necessary to set off fireworks to celebrate the beauty of life. To commemorate the martyrs, we should light the lantern and commemorate their deeds in the world.
According to the literature, Zoroastrianism is one of the earliest religions in human history, and there are still many Zoroastrian believers abroad today. In Zoroastrianism, the Supreme God is Ahula, the God of Light, and Zoroastrian believers believe that the flames seen in life are the embodiment of Ahula and the object of sacrifice. In China's ancient literature, there is no such thing as "Zoroastrianism", and ancient texts refer to Zoroastrianism as "Zoroastrianism".
According to the doctrine, Zoroastrian, the founder of Zoroastrianism, was the first prophet of ancient Persia, who is said to have been born in the eleventh century BC. However, this statement has not been recognized by the academic community. After Zoroastrian came to earth, he received the divine revelation of Ahura, so he founded Zoroastrianism. In terms of Zoroastrian belief forms, Zoroastrian borrowed elements from the polytheism of the ancient Aryans.
The doctrine of Zoroastrianism is "the dualism of good and evil." The supreme scripture espoused by Zoroastrians is the Persian Scriptures, also known as Avista by the faithful. Every Zoroastrian believer must abide by three principles: good thought, good words, and good deeds. Zoroastrians firmly believe that only by abiding by these three principles can evil and darkness be overcome.
In Zoroastrian beliefs, the Creator Ahura created the seven elements, the Seven Good Things, namely heaven, earth, water, plants, animals, humans, and fire. To this day, we can still see the special meaning of the number "seven" in Iranian culture. For Zoroastrians, the flame is undoubtedly the most sacred thing, it heralds the birth of life and the appearance of light.
It is precisely because believers worship the element of fire that Zoroastrianism has received the name of "fire religion".
According to the physical evidence obtained by the archaeological community, Zoroastrianism was already active in the Two Rivers Valley and in present-day Iran as early as 3,000 years ago. By the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC, Zoroastrianism was regarded as the "state religion" by the Persian Empire, and Zoroastrians at that time were very prosperous throughout the Persian Empire. However, by the seventh century, the Arab invasion led to the full Islamization of the Persian Empire and a change in persian beliefs. Although there were still many Zoroastrians at that time, the decline of the trend was inevitable.
Islam in Iran accounts for 98% of the total population, but even now that islam is embraced by all the local population, there are still many Zoroastrian believers who have become the bearers of the oldest Persian civilization. Because these believers never intermarried with the outside world, the ancient customs and customs of the ethnic group were always preserved. Only 60% of the current Persian vocabulary is inherited from Ancient Persian, while the rest comes from Arabic. Zoroastrian believers still retained the habit of using The Ancient Persian language.
In the middle of the seventh century AD, the ancient Persians could not resist the iron hooves of the Arabs, and they had to submit to Arab rule and were forced to make compromises. There are two options in front of them:
The first is to become a citizen of the Arab world, to convert to Arab religions, and to become Muslims of the same status as Arabs;
Second, they still believe in Zoroastrianism, but their social status is inferior and they still need to be subject to heavy taxes.
Forced by livelihood and thought, the vast majority of Persians chose to compromise and try to accept the new religion brought by the Arabs. However, at that time, there were also a considerable number of Zoroastrians who did not want to convert and were not willing to be enslaved by the Arabs, so they chose to leave their homes and find a place to stay outside the sea. Some Persians overcame the wind and waves and came to the west coast of India, they are the ancestors of the Parsi people. Today, the Parsi have become a minority in India, and these Zoroastrians from Persia have been integrated into another country.
The Arabs of this period were invincible, and they successively destroyed Zoroastrianism in Persia, Buddhism in Central and South Asia, and ancient Egyptian civilization. From a cultural point of view, the Arabs can indeed be called the most "successful" colonizers in human history. In the lands occupied by the Arabs, their indigenous peoples were cleared out, or left their homes or integrated into the Arab world. In Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Northern Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the indigenous peoples have almost been forgotten.
It is lamentable that today's Iran has long been a loyal defender of the Arab world, and few people remember Zoroastrianism, which flourished three thousand years ago.
most of Chinese memories of Zoroastrianism are from the Book of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavens.
In the book, Mr. Jin Yong uses many elements of Zoroastrianism, making it seem that Mingism originated from Zoroastrianism.
So, is the origin of Mingism really Zoroastrianism?
During the Sabbath dynasty, Manichae created a religion of one hundred heads, namely Manichaeism. Manichaeism incorporates the characteristics of many religions, including both Zoroastrian flame worship and some Buddhist and Christian doctrines or gods, like a hodgepodge. However, although Manichaeism borrowed many elements of Zoroastrianism, there were some differences in doctrine between the two.
Since its inception, Persian Zoroastrianism has had a "blood monopoly" character, and in order to abandon this characteristic, Manichaeism has put forward the doctrine of equality of all peoples and races. In addition, although Manichaeism, like Zoroastrianism, believes that there is a polarization between darkness and light in the world, Manichaeism believes that the human body is the source of desire and the prison of the soul. To attain the light, one must engage in a series of physical practices, so there are many elements of abstinence in the Manichaean teachings. It is also because Manichaeans generally advocate light, so after being introduced to China, they were named "Ming Sect".
Even after it was introduced to China, most of the rebellion was initiated by it.
The development of Ming Buddhism in China is mixed with Taoist, Buddhist, white lotus and other components. The peasant uprisings of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties were often used as tools for organization. Zhang Jiao is often revered as the patriarch, Mani (or translated as "Muni") is revered as the god of light, and the sun and moon are worshipped. Believers dress white, advocate vegetarianism, abstinence from alcohol, and naked burial; pay attention to unity and mutual assistance, called a family, believing that the light forces in the world will eventually triumph over the dark forces. In the sixth year (920) of the fifth dynasty Of Liang Zhenming, Mother Yi launched an uprising. During the Two Song Dynasties, it was popular in Huainan, Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places, and constantly organized peasant uprisings, the most famous of which were the Fang La Uprising and the Wang Nianjing Uprising.
In Mr. Jin Yong's novel, there is also a "bug".
The novel states that the ancestor of the Ming Religion was an old ancestor named "The Old Man in the Mountains", and in reality, this "Old Man in the Mountains" Huo Shan had nothing to do with Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, and his religious belief was Islam. Moreover, he was not the founder of the religion, but merely a preacher of Islam.
Resources:
[Zoroastrianism, History of Zoroastrianism]