Primitive people not only believed in the existence of ancestors' undead, but also believed that they had supernatural ability to protect themselves, so they worshipped them. This kind of worship is developed by combining the concept of immortality of the soul with the concept of blood relatives. Because matriarchal clan society first appeared in human beings, female ancestors were worshipped first, and then male ancestors were worshipped.
In China, there are 56 ethnic groups. Regardless of the past or present, these ethnic groups have the custom of ancestor worship to varying degrees at any stage of social development, and the objects of ancestor worship are graded according to different stages of social development, such as clan ancestor worship, family ancestor worship and national ancestor worship.
Some of these ancestors worshipped real people, while others were legendary creators. For example, the Miao people in Mayang, western Hunan, worship Pan Hu as their ancestor and supreme god. Naxi people worship the legendary Chongren Lian as their ancestors. The Chinese nation regards Huangdi, Fuxi and Nuwa as symbols of national ancestors, as well as Suiren, Shennong and Youchao, all of whom are legendary figures. Duanzong, the ancestor worshipped by Bai people, actually exists. He is General Nanzhao, the ancestor of Duan Siping in Dali. According to historical records, Duanzong led troops to help Myanmar drive away the invaders, and after returning home, he eradicated the traitors who plotted political plots. After the establishment of Dali, Duan Siping named him the "central Lord" among the main gods of Bai villages, and built a statue of him in Shengyuan Temple in Dong Qing Village, Dali. Every year around April 24 of the lunar calendar, thousands of Bai people from Dali and several nearby counties sing and dance and go to Shengyuan Temple to worship this national ancestor.
Since ancient times, China people have a strong sense of family, and the performance of ancestor worship is also outstanding. "On Xun Gigi Lai" said: "Heaven and earth are the foundation of life; Ancestors, this is also ... no heaven and earth, bad life? No ancestors, evil? " "Book of Rites Special Sacrifice" says: "Everything is based on the sky, and people are based on their ancestors, so they are worthy of God." Because only ancestors can have children and grandchildren, and children and grandchildren can enjoy everything and survive. Ancestors and heaven and earth have the same contribution to "reproduction", so ancestors should be worshipped. In China, ancestral temples and ancestral tablets are almost everywhere. In times of crisis, people often pray for the protection of their ancestors "Digging ancestral graves" is an unpalatable hatred. In the eyes of China people, it not only destroyed Feng Shui, but also destroyed people's most sacred ancestor worship and belief. Family sacrifice is the most common custom in the history of China. Lu You, a patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem in Shizi: "When you die, everything is empty, and you can't see the sorrow of Kyushu. Julian Waghann set the Central Plains Day in the north, and the family sacrifice did not forget to tell Nai Weng. " It shows that people are closely related to their children and grandchildren after death. Modern China people also pay homage to their parents on the anniversary of their death. Of course, this is not superstition, but to commemorate them, but there may be some ideas of ancestor worship left!
Totem worship is a belief that an animal or natural thing has kinship or other special relationship with the clan. The word "Totem" comes from the O 'Ji Bu Wa Totem of North American Indians, which means "his kin". What is called totem by a clan (mostly animals, such as bears, wolves, deer, eagles, etc. ) become the symbol of this clan, and believe that it can protect and protect the clan. Animals or plants as totems have become taboo for the whole clan. They are forbidden to kill and fast, and worship and sacrifice ceremonies are held for them to promote the reproduction of this totem.
There is a passage in the Book of Rites in ancient China that plants, insects and animals should be sacrificed, which shows the worship of animals and plants:
Dabala, Tian Zi. Easy to be wax, wax also, cable also, last December, set all things to seek. The sacrifice of wax is also increased by the Lord and priests. Sacrifice 100 kinds to repay the increase. Agriculture, postal service, dropping out of livestock, benevolent, righteous. The ancient gentleman, make it, will be reported. Welcome the cat and eat voles for it; Welcome the tiger and feed it; Welcome and sacrifice. Sacrificial workshops are just water. As the saying goes, the soil is against its home, the water belongs to its valley, the insects do nothing, and the grass and soil belong to its ze.
Totem worship has also left a wealth of cultural relics, such as a large number of reflections in the rock paintings of Helan Mountain in China. Totem worship has been popular all over the world and still exists among some underdeveloped nationalities in the world. Among the ethnic minorities in China, Li people in Hainan Island regard cats as totems, calling male cats grandfathers and female cats grandmothers, and it is forbidden to kill them. The Oroqen people take the bear as their totem, and they call the male bear "Heke", which is the name of the male ancestor of the highest generation; Call the female bear "Ewo", which is the name of the ancestor of the highest generation of women. Yi people generally believe in tiger totem. They call the tiger "Luo" and take "Luo Luo" as the country name. Yi men in Ailaoshan, Yunnan call themselves "Luo Luopo" and women call themselves "Luo Moruo", which means male tiger and female tiger. They use the zodiac to record the year, month and day, but the leader is not a mouse but a tiger; Their triennial sacrificial ceremony should be held in the first year of the tiger. There are many totems of Kemu people in Yunnan. According to the survey, there are 25 species, most of which are animals and some are plants. Kemu people not only named each clan with totem, but also each member took totem name as surname.
Different totems are often accompanied by different myths and legends. For example, there is a tiger among the Lemo people, a branch of the Bai nationality in Bijiang County, Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province. They regard tigers as their ancestors. It is said that their female ancestors mated with a tiger and gave birth to offspring, that is, Lemos. They said that in the eyes of tigers, Lemo people are all tigers, so tigers will not hurt Lemo people. Whenever they have something important to do, they will choose to hold it on Tiger Day, because they think that tiger power is incomparable and will definitely bless their success. The Hodo people of Nu nationality are called bee clan. According to legend, their ancestor Mao Yingchong was a woman who was transformed by a group of bees flying from the sky. He also said that the bees in the sky rested by the Nujiang River, mated with snakes and gave birth to Mao Yingchong. When Mao Yingchong grew up, he mated with tigers, bees, snakes, red deer and muntjac, and his descendants included tigers, bees and snakes.
The ethnic minorities who still believe in these totems are not backward, but the continuation of traditional customs, giving people beautiful and mysterious memories and reverie. Don't modern China people still call themselves "descendants of dragons"? This is not superstition.
There are still many traces of totem worship in modern society. Rock paintings are recorded on the one hand, and the numerous surnames of China people are on the other. Looking up the dictionary of names in China, the surnames related to animals include cattle, horses, sheep, tigers, deer, camels, dragons, raccoons, minks, pigeons, ostriches, foals, birds, phoenixes, wolves, foxes, swallows, vultures, bears, fish, insects, pythons, unicorns and dragons. There are leaves, cattails, valleys, cypresses, poplars, willows, beans, rice, peaches, plums, fruits, flowers, chestnuts, grasses, melons, wheat, plums, mulberry, hemp, cinnamon and tung related to plants, all of which are related to totem worship in ancient times.
Sex worship is a kind of worship and belief of primitive people when they can't understand their sexual structure, sexual function and sexual pleasure. It can be said that it is a synthesis of the three kinds of worship mentioned above-nature worship, ancestor worship and totem worship. Sex organs, pregnancy and childbirth are all natural phenomena, but primitive people think it is very mysterious and incredible. Primitive people worshipped their ancestors, but where did their ancestors come from? The ancients offered penile pottery, stone, jade or bronze, which were called "Tao Zu", "Shi Zu", "Yu Zu" and "Copper Zu" respectively, and "Zu" means ancestor. The ancients also called penis "male root", and "root" refers to the beginning of mankind. In this way, sex worship is combined with ancestor worship. Totem worship also has some sexual meanings. For example, snakes, turtles, birds and lizards are symbols of male genitalia, while flowers, fish and peaches are symbols of female genitalia. The ancients believed that these animals and plants had magic power and were often associated with genital worship.
Primitive sex worship can be divided into three main contents: reproductive worship, sexual intercourse worship and genital worship. Modern scholars often discuss which of these three kinds of sex worship comes first, which is the main one and which is the secondary one, and they can't reach an agreement. Judging from the time when these worship concepts came into being, sexual intercourse worship and reproductive worship should appear at the same time. Primitive people felt the touching happiness of sexual intercourse, but also felt the mystery of drilling a child out of a woman's stomach. However, at first, they did not associate sexual intercourse with childbirth. When their understanding develops further, they link male and female genitals with sexual intercourse, and sexual intercourse with pregnancy and childbirth, only then can the complete content of sexual worship be formed.
If we pay attention to the three contents of sexual worship, we should think that reproductive worship is far ahead. The pleasure of sexual intercourse, no matter how magical, is only a personal feeling if it has nothing to do with reproduction; The contact between male and female genitals (sexual intercourse) is only a means to obtain this feeling. However, reproduction is different. It involves the interests of the whole group and the rise and fall of a clan, tribe, society and country. Therefore, at any stage of human history, people attach great importance to bearing offspring. Even in the age of asceticism, the most conservative people can deny sexual intercourse, but not reproduction. In the end, they will obey reproduction by sexual intercourse. Especially in the primitive society with sparse population, low productivity and bad living environment, human beings are faced with the harm of natural disasters, plagues and wild animals, and must overcome disasters and deaths with the power of "life". The deeper the disaster, the stronger the desire to reproduce, which is a historical and cultural phenomenon all over the world.
Zhao Guohua pointed out in On the Culture of Reproductive Worship: "The increase of population means the increase of manpower, so the reproduction of human beings has become a decisive factor in the development of primitive society. Out of serious concern for the reproduction of human beings as social productive forces, reproductive worship appeared among primitive humans. In other words, reproductive worship profoundly reflects an absolutely solemn social will-the reproduction of human beings as social productive forces. " [2]
From this perspective, reproductive worship should be the core content of sexual worship. In primitive society and many generations after that, sexual intercourse should be subordinate to reproduction, and genitals are regarded as "ancestors" and "roots", which are also closely related to reproduction. It has even been suggested that sex culture is actually reproductive culture, and may not be completely equivalent to both, but the significance of reproduction and reproductive worship should be fully recognized.
Edward tylor said: "The fact of daily experience has become a myth, the initial and main reason is the belief in animism, and this belief has reached the highest point of anthropomorphizing nature. When people see the expression of personal life and will in the smallest details of the world around them, this accidental or hypothetical activity of human intelligence is constantly linked to the initial state of intelligence. " [3]
However, no matter how ignorant and low the intellectual state of primitive people is, no matter how absurd and ridiculous the concept of "animism" is, human beings are still thinking and exploring the world at last. Sex worship is indeed the beginning and bud of human sexual culture.
No matter what is worshipped above, it is an understanding of the relationship between the objective world and the subjective world. Nature worship and totem worship are actually people's understanding of all things in nature, while ancestor worship and sex worship are actually people's understanding of themselves. The ancients advocated "harmony between man and nature", that is, man and nature, and man's subjective world and objective world are one.
It is based on these concepts that the ancients regarded a woman's stomach as soil, regarded a man's sperm as seeds, and compared sexual intercourse to "sex". It is an important means to make seeds take root, sprout and grow. They associate sex with seasons, for example, calling girls' sexual interests and needs "longing for love", calling sexual intercourse "spring breeze once", so-called "wildcat courtship" and so on. At the same time, from the perspective of Chun Hua Qiu Shi, it is considered that autumn is the harvest season and the best time for women to give birth. It is better for women to give birth in the wild, because the spirit of heaven and earth can make childbirth smooth, and childbirth is conducive to making the land fertile and getting a bumper harvest. The ancients also advocated sexual intercourse, believing that sexual intercourse in the wild can gain the spirit of heaven and earth, which is conducive to good health and grain growth.
Many legends and stories in history also prove the existence of this concept. For example, Confucius' father and mother had wild sex on Mount Nishan, and they got pregnant and gave birth to Confucius. Later generations commented that it would be difficult to give birth to the Great Sage and the Great Sage if it were not for crazy love. The history books also record that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Zheng suffered from a long drought, and the monarch asked him why. The minister said that this is because there are too many men and women in the country, and the yin and yang are not harmonious, so the wind and rain are not smooth. So the monarch took some measures to coordinate the marriage, and Gong Huan was happy, so the rain fell from heaven and the drought was lifted. This story is typical.
There was a national festival in ancient Japan, which has been passed down to this day and is called "Harvest Festival" or "Toyota Festival". This festival is usually held every spring to pray for a bumper grain harvest that year. Strangely, people actually associate this agricultural festival with sex, and associate sexual happiness, human reproduction and abundant crops. For example, in the "Harvest Festival" in Dashan City, in addition to beating gongs and drums, singing and dancing and many car rice cake parades, there are many newly dressed brides to symbolize marriage-the combination of human reproduction and nature. It is said that women marched naked in the past, but it was later banned by the government, so they changed to dress or semi-naked. The "Toyota Festival" in Xiao Mu City is a parade composed of wooden penises of all sizes, symbolizing vitality, sowing and reproduction. People touch, kiss and even worship penises, symbolizing the prosperity of man and nature.