Focusing on religious customs, what are the similarities and differences between China and Zimbabwe (primitive religions)?

(Including Buyi, De 'ang, Dong, Dulong, Gaoshan, Gelao, Hani, Jino, Jingpo, Lahu, Li national religion, Lisu National Religion, Barrow, Maonan, Miao, Mulao and Naxi Nationality Religion.

Religious beliefs in Paleolithic and Neolithic China and their residual forms in class society. According to the current archaeological excavations and ancient books, there are mainly funeral ceremonies about ghost worship and various forms of nature worship. Because religious archaeology has yet to be developed, there are not many special records about religion in ancient books; The division and context between primitive religion and ancient religion in China is still a subject to be further studied.

Archaeological excavations have proved the funeral ceremony and ghost worship. Around the remains of cavemen in Paleolithic China, red powder containing hematite is scattered, as well as ornaments such as drilled animal teeth, stone beads and bone pendants as funerary objects. It can be inferred from these relics that in the primitive society of 20,000 ~ 30,000 years ago, the concept of immortality of the soul and the worship of ghosts have appeared. The difference between the complexity and simplicity of funeral ceremonies reflects the different degrees of ghost worship.

In the early Neolithic period, people's concept of ghosts was relatively simple, and tombs were also relatively simple. According to archaeological findings, the tombs of Songzexia site in Qingpu County, Shanghai have no graves, and they are buried on the flat ground, lying on their backs, with few funerary objects. The early tombs in Dawenkou, Shandong Province were small pits with vertical holes, and there were few funerary objects, especially those with production tools as funerary objects. In particular, there is nothing in the funerary objects that cannot be used in the world, and there is no special treatment for the body.

After the middle and late Neolithic Age, the concept of ghost became more and more complicated, and the burial methods were also diversified accordingly. The children's tombs in Xi 'an banpo village site are all buried in residential areas, with urns and coffins, while the adult tombs are all in the same cemetery outside the ditch; There were extended burials in supine position, prone burials, burials with bent limbs, and five secondary burials, among which the group was reburied. Among the prehistoric tombs of Chengnan Temple in Lintao County, Gansu Province, there are some that contain ashes in clay pots after cremation, and some that are buried with them. Among the tombs in Peiligang, Xinzheng County, Henan Province, some large tombs include 5-7 small tombs, with the largest number of 42 people. During this period, there were usually fixed public cemeteries, and the faces of the dead in the same cemetery were facing the same direction. It can be inferred from the above example that there was a complicated concept of ghost at that time. The same orientation of the face may indicate the whereabouts of the soul. The use of a fixed public cemetery, with a big tomb and a small tomb, may be because primitive people think that ghosts still maintain the relationship between big and small families in the underworld. The separation of children's cemeteries from adult cemeteries reflects people's belief that there are age differences in the underworld. Cremation is to let the soul get rid of the bondage of the body as soon as possible. The second kind of burial by eviscerating bones may be that the soul can only be free or reincarnated after the body decays. During this period, the number of funerary objects increased obviously, and it was not uncommon for people to be buried with labor tools. In Peiligang 100 tombs, 9 1 piece of funerary objects are mostly labor tools; Men's tombs are mostly stone knives and axes, while women's tombs often have spinning wheels and stone mills. At that time, people not only thought that people would still work in the underworld after death, but also had different division of labor between men and women. In the late Neolithic period, such as Qijia cultural tombs in Gansu, a man and a woman or a man and a woman were buried together. In Qijiaping tomb, there are even 8 ~ 13 people buried together. It shows that in the concept of ghosts at that time, the dominant position of male power was related to the slavery and oppression of slaves by their masters, so there was a funeral system in which wives died for their husbands and slaves died for their masters.

Ancient Books There are many records about Han people's understanding of ghosts and funeral ceremonies in the ancient books of pre-Qin and Western Han dynasties. "The Book of Rites Sacrifice Law" says: "Whoever is born in all things and between heaven and earth is called life. Everything is broken only after death. People die as ghosts. " People think that ghosts have superhuman abilities, which can be divided into good and evil and can bring misfortune to people. "The Seven Years of Zuo Zhao's Specialized Public Service" contains: "A man and a woman died hard, but the soul can still cling to others and think it is obscene." The Book of Rites on Tan's bow says that ghosts "are born to benefit people, but die without harming others". Based on these concepts, various ceremonies have emerged, among which funeral is the most important. Pay special attention to the orientation of the cemetery and the orientation of the corpse. "Book of Rites Tan Gong Xia" records: "Buried in the north, first in the north, the ceremony of three generations." These contents are basically consistent with archaeological findings and can be considered as the funeral customs of Han ancestors. "Mourning in Mozi Festival" specially records the funeral ceremony of non-Han people: "Those who crossed the East in the past had a country of mourning, and the eldest son was born to eat it, named Yidi. There is a country in the south of Chu. When their relatives die, they spit out their meat and throw it away, then bury their bones and become dutiful sons. If there is a country with canals in the west of Qin, its relatives will die, and they will be burned, which is called Deng Xia, and then become a dutiful son. " The above-mentioned ways of handling corpses reflected the diversity and complexity of ghost concepts and funeral ceremonies at that time.

With the change of social life and relationship, and the improvement of human skills and activity ability, on the one hand, evil spirits and ghosts with great trouble-making ability and strong revenge psychology have appeared in people's minds; On the other hand, some creativity and heroic deeds of the deceased were deified, and as a result, they were regarded as ancestors or gods and became objects of fear and worship. Therefore, funeral ceremonies, ghost worship, exorcism and other activities are becoming more and more complicated, which has attracted people's attention. Therefore, from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, fixed funeral ritual procedures such as evoking spirits, mourning, burying corpses, offering sacrifices, funeral, mourning period and so on, as well as exorcism, exorcism and ghost-chasing spells were gradually formed.

Ancestor worship originated from the concept of ghost. At first, it only worshipped clan ancestors or ghosts who had made great achievements in history. As the saying goes, "when the law is applied to the people, it is worshipped. When you are diligent, when you are determined, you can resist the catastrophe, and you are worshipped" ("Book of Rites Sacrifice Law"). At the same time, due to the emphasis on consanguinity, some ghosts in people's minds become ancestors or protectors of the clan and serve as long-term fixed sacrificial objects. Usually, a family only sacrifices its closest ancestors, such as father and ancestors, and also participates in joint ancestor worship activities of several families. With the disintegration of the clan group, the aristocratic group of slave owners in Shang and Zhou Dynasties inherited and monopolized the right to sacrifice ancestors and used it as a spiritual tool of rule. When the scope of rule is expanded or the dynasty is changed, the rulers should try their best to prove that they are of the same origin as the previous rulers or conquered nations and worship the same ancestor. According to the Book of Rites Sacrifice Law: "Yu ancestors buried the Yellow Emperor and lived in the suburbs, while Zhuan Xu ancestors lived in Yao; Xia Houshi also gouged out the Yellow Emperor and lived in the suburbs, while Zhuan Xu was the ancestor of Yuzong. Yin people are silent and ignorant, and are the ancestors and ancestors of Tang; Zhou lived in the suburbs, and the ancestral king lived in the king of Wu. "

Worship of Nature In primitive and ancient times, people worshipped natural objects and natural forces that were closely related to their lives but could not be understood and controlled. At that time, there was no clear concept of supernatural body, but there was a tendency to worship supernatural natural objects and natural forces as gods with life and will. With the enhancement of people's abstract ability, the concept of gods independent of concrete natural objects and natural forces has gradually formed. There are more and more objects of worship, such as mountains and rivers, storms and lightning, animals and plants and even the sun, moon and stars.

China's agriculture and animal husbandry developed earlier in the storm, and rain has a great influence on agriculture and animal husbandry, so people attach importance to it. Among the Oracle inscriptions in Yin Ruins, praying for rain accounts for the largest proportion. Yin people pray for rain, some burn people or sacrifice on firewood, and some dance to the rain god for rain. Ancient books such as Zuo Zhuan also recorded "burning witches", "violence" or priests setting themselves on fire for rain. The worship of rain later changed into the worship of many rain teachers and dragons who are considered to have the ability to pray for rain, among which the dragon is the most common one. Most of the folk sacrifices for rain are aimed at dragons.

The ancients felt mysterious and horrible about the formation of wind and its influence on nature, which led to various illusions about the ontology and divine power of Fengshen. If you think there are four winds coming from east, west, north and south, then there are four Shen Feng dominating them respectively; Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins has his own proper name for four winds, and there are similar records in Shan Hai Jing. There are also various myths and legends about the source of the divine power that drives the wind. Some attribute this divine power to some birds, such as □, Ju Ju, and some think that the valley is a god who can blow the wind, such as the "middle valley" of the "Mountain of Lingqiu" and the "legacy valley" of the "tail of Ruoshan" mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Before the Western Han Dynasty, "Huainanzi" had the folk custom of killing dogs to worship the wind god. There is a saying in Erya Shi Tian that "the wind is a sacrifice". Guo Pu's Note: "Today's custom kills dogs on the road, and clouds stop the wind." Emperor Yong of the Qin Dynasty had a temple of the wind, and the king had to offer sacrifices to the wind god to repay his merits.

Lightning The ancients were afraid of lightning, but they did not regard it as an evil god, but as a good god who presided over human justice and executed the wicked. "Shan Hai Jing Hai Nei Dong Jing" said: "Leize has a Raytheon, a dragon with a head and a belly, in Wuxi." "Huainanzi Terrain Training" said: "Razer has a god, a faucet, and a full belly." This primitive image of Thor is full of strong intuitive fantasy, which may be that lightning is like a dragon when it thunders, and the thunderstorm phenomenon is linked with the concept that dragons can make rain, so it is imagined that Thor has a dragon body; Imagine that Thor lives in Shui Ze, and his residence is called Razer. After Raytheon was more anthropomorphic, he was called Leigong. "On Lei Heng's Preface" said that in the Western Han Dynasty, "the painter is like thunder and heavy as a drum; The other picture shows a person, if he is good at it, called Lei Gong, and asked him to lead the drum with his left hand and push the spine with his right hand. It looks like a blow. It means that the thunder rumbled and even the drums were buckled. The thunder Lord here is no longer a dragon, but a Hercules; It's not that Thor thundered with his belly bulging, but that he thundered with gongs and drums. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was another saying: When it thunders, you should be well dressed and behave appropriately, otherwise you will get angry and suffer. " "The Book of Rites and the Monthly Order" said: "Three days before the electricity was turned on, we warned the people without hesitation, saying,' Thunder will sound'. If anyone doesn't leave Rong Zhi, he will have an unprepared child, which will be a disaster. "

Social worship and the development of land gods China's worship of land gods can be divided into three stages: ① primitive land worship, in which people sacrifice directly to the land; (2) the personification of the land god, gradually transforming from the natural god to the social god; The "landlords" in various regions are regarded as landlords and managers, and they mainly have the divinity of social attributes rather than natural attributes.

The "social worship" recorded in ancient books is a form of natural worship in primitive land. "Historical Records" said: "Since Yu Xing, I have been in the country, and ... suburban communities have never stopped." The worship of society may be in the early summer, when the land was directly worshipped. By the Yin Shang Dynasty and the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the initial method of offering sacrifices to the land gods was still to bury the sacrificial ceremony underground, or to pour wine, sacrificial blood and human blood into the ground.

In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the land god gradually changed from a natural god to a social god. Legendary figures such as Yu, Hou Tu, Dragon, Plough, etc. are all worshipped as land gods. But the land gods in this period were mainly regarded as natural gods, and people worshipped them in the hope of benefiting from agricultural production. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the social attribute of the land god was gradually enhanced, and it was graded according to the different status of admirers. Later, it was further divided into many land lords with their own jurisdictions. The object of worship is a mound called the master. "The country is the master of the land, and the land is vast and can't be respected all over, so the land is sealed for the country and sacrificed for the country" (Xiao Jing). It was not until the late Western Zhou Dynasty that the legendary figures who contributed to agriculture were regarded as social owners. Later, with the development of the deification of land gods, the country became a country that managed various regions, and finally developed into a landlord in many places-Ford Shen Zheng, who was considered virtuous before his death. Social sacrifice has become the most important folk sacrifice.

There are many legends about the mystification of mountains and famous mountains in ancient times. These mountains are considered to bring vitality or some spirituality to people, so they are worshipped. Besides Kunlun Mountain, Mount Tai, Mount Hengshan, Huashan, Mount Hengshan and Songshan are the most revered, and they are also called the gods of the Five Mountains. Ancient emperors always went to pay homage or sent people to sacrifice. According to Records of the Historian, in addition to the Five Mountains, there are dozens of deified mountains all over the country. The emperor went to worship in person or the government built mountain temples. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins and Shan Hai Jing also mentioned other ways of offering sacrifices to mountain gods, such as "□" and "Tuo". Because the mountain is high, the sacrifice should be burned to the mountain god, because wealth is taken from the mountain and underground, and the sacrifice should be buried underground as a reward.

Rivers are worshipped because of their close relationship with human life and production. In primitive society, tribes worshipped rivers near their homes. After the country was formed, it gradually became a famous river where emperors or princes offered sacrifices to the world, while people still offered sacrifices to river gods in their places of residence according to the old customs. The early sacrificial rites of Shang tribes were mainly the Yellow River, Huanshui (Anyang River), Shangshui (Zhangshui), Weishui and other large and small rivers in residential areas. Sacrificial ceremonies are quite grand, with cattle and sheep as sacrificial ceremonies and sometimes people offering sacrifices. Sacrifice to the river god mainly uses "sinking" or "floating", that is, sacrifice to sink to the bottom of the river or float on the water. After the Zhou Dynasty, the ruling territory expanded, forming the habit of emperors offering sacrifices to the world's famous mountains and rivers and governors offering sacrifices to Xinjiang's mountains and rivers. Later, each river has a specific figure as a river god, such as Feng Yi as Hebo of the Yellow River, and Xiang Jun, the son of God, as the God of Xiangjiang River.

Plant worship is mainly manifested in two aspects: ① agricultural plants are mystified and worshipped as natural gods, and later become agricultural sacrificial gods with the personification of natural gods; (2) Worship the characteristics of some plants, thinking that these characteristics have some mysterious power and are used in witchcraft activities.

Initially, millet was one of the cereal plants worshipped together with rice, millet, wheat and glutinous rice. However, because of its most extensive planting and the longest history, Xiaomi has been pushed to the "length of five grains". Then he became the representative of the five-grain god, became the comprehensive god of five grains, and finally deified people and rose to the agricultural god. Legendary figures, such as Hou Ji, Nong, Zhu and Zhou Abandon, are all regarded as gods under the millet. Ji Shen is one of the important objects of ancient sacrifices, and is also called "country" with the land god. Sacrificial ceremonies are held every year for the harvest of agriculture. According to Zuo Zhuan's Seven Years of "xianggong", it is recorded: "My husband worshiped Hou Ji in the suburbs to pray for farming. Therefore, it is clumsy and suburban, and then cultivated in the suburbs. " This kind of agricultural sacrifice and ploughing ceremony originated from the sowing sacrifice of primitive religion. According to the Book of Rites, in addition to rural sacrifices, whenever crops such as wheat, millet, millet, hemp and rice are harvested, a "taste" sacrifice is held as a thank you.

The ancients believed that some plants, such as peach trees, creepers and spines, had the spirit of exorcism. For example, the Book of Rites Tan Gong Xia said that "evil spirits are also evil", and Zuo Zhuan Si Nian also had words such as "peach arcs and thorns to avoid their disasters". In addition, Shan Hai Jing records leeks, millet, lavender and so on. "Not fascinated by them" and "fascinated by others" are somewhat witchcraft. At the same time, it is related to the characteristics of these plants, such as the shape and smell of Acorus calamus, the tenacity and spikes of peach wood, and the strong special smell of ginger and leek.

Animal worship has three characteristics: ① The deified animals are mainly horses, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, tigers and leopards that people are afraid of. The shapes of ancient gods described in Shan Hai Jing are mostly related to these animals. ② Worship dragons, dragons and turtles as "four spirits". Dragon, phoenix and forest are auspicious animals in people's imagination and are regarded as the king of beasts. The so-called "fish swim from the dragon", "bird from the phoenix" and "beast from the forest" all have mysterious power to control all kinds of animals, and turtles are considered to know nature and predict human interests. The "four spirits" are also regarded as the embodiment of benevolent politics and morality, as "benevolent animals", "auspicious animals" and "virtuous animals"; ③ Animal totem worship is not obvious. After the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, there was no typical record of animal totem worship in ancient books. This may be because totem worship did not appear or died out earlier in ancient China. However, some scholars, according to the "life consciousness" and "origin" of mythical figures recorded in ancient books (such as Zhu Di, the mother of a deed, who swallowed the eggs of a swallow), took animals as surnames or formulated official systems (such as the Yellow Emperor had a Xiong family and young birds were officials), and thought that totem worship was once popular in ancient times; According to some scholars' field investigation, there are traces of modern animal totem worship among the ethnic minorities in southwest China. This problem needs further study.

Celestial worship worships celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars directly as objects of worship or as gods or their dwellings. During the Shang Dynasty, there was a custom of offering sacrifices to the sun. Yin Qi has Oracle Bone Inscriptions, such as "Wang Binri", "Leaving Japan" and "Entering Japan". These inscriptions are believed to be the records of Wang Yin's greetings to the Sun God in the morning and evening. In Yao Dian, there are records of "Yin Ke leaving his grandson" and "Yin Zhu's grandson", which shows that the ceremony of welcoming the grandson has a long history and did not begin in the Shang Dynasty. After the Western Zhou Dynasty, the rulers unified the worship of the God of Heaven, and the Sun God occupied the position of the Lord God. The so-called "worship in the suburbs also welcomes the arrival of a long day and reports it to the sky" (Book of Rites). In primitive times, the worship of the sun god was mainly to thank the sun for giving the world light and giving people the convenience of orientation. The so-called "offering sacrifices to the altar of the sun and the ridge of the moon to avoid seclusion and brightness, to facilitate the up and down, to the east of the sun and to the west of the moon, to end its position" (Book of Rites) reflects the essence of sun worship. After agriculture has become the main social production industry, the sun is considered to be the master who determines the richness of agricultural products. During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, people were afraid of the solar eclipse, which was regarded as an ominous sign. If there is a solar eclipse, divination will be carried out to sacrifice ancestors.

There are many records in ancient books speculating about the situation in the middle of the month, but rarely rendering the divinity of the moon and the divine power of the moon god, and an eclipse is not regarded as a disaster. Although it is worshipped because it shines in the dark and has regular profits and losses, it has little influence on human life, its divinity is not high, and the ceremony is not grand. When offering sacrifices to the gods, they were placed in a supporting role.

As for the record of offering sacrifices to stars, it is even simpler. Star worship does not occupy an important position in primitive religion. However, after the appearance of the highest god in the sky in ancient times, wizards linked many social phenomena with the luminosity, color, orbit and position of the stars and made mysterious explanations, thus forming many star gods and myths, which made the stars surpass their natural characteristics and become gods with certain social functions, dominating some natural phenomena. For example, "white stars dominate the eight winds, and blue stars dominate the hunting." Many stars in Records of the Historian Tianguanshu are endowed with this divinity. On the other hand, the social structure of the world has been moved to the sky, and the stars have become vassals of God. Some stars have become gods who can satisfy some human desires and are worshipped. The god of stars and divinity recorded in Records of the Historian Tianguanshu have been incorporated into the deity system without nature worship. Natural phenomena such as the movement of stars and the change of luster have also been used for omen divination, forming astrology and becoming an important type of ancient divination.