| The concept of ghosts and gods had started early, and had a significant impact in the process of the formation of Chinese traditional culture. In this paper, we select Qin people as the research object and aim to study the idea about ghosts and gods of Qin people based on handed-down documents and excavated documents. At the same time, we have a brief review on the meaning and the development of the idea about ghosts and gods.The word "gui" and "shen" are used individually at the beginning of the Chinese characters, and there is a clear border between the two words. From the point of view of word-formation, "gui" is related to the ancestral sacrifice, while "shen" is associated with changes of astronomical phenomena. Therefore, "gui" usually refers to the ancestor and "shen" refers to god in the sky. As for the source, ghost is from death. God including two parts:one is natural objects that closely related to human life, another is these death people who have special talent or have made outstanding contributions. Later, the border between ghosts and gods is becoming vague gradually.Finally, "gui", "shen", and "guishen" are often used in place of one another.The related handed-down documents are focusing on records the official sacrifice of Qin and there is almost no involving of folk belief. But there are many details about normal Qin people in excavated documents, especially the almanac (Ri Shu) that discovered in Shuihudi and Fangmatan. According to Shiji and Ri Shu, Qin people have established a large but ordered sacrifice system that including natural God, professional God and ancestor God. After analyze the process and purpose of the way Qin people used to communicate with Gods and Ghosts, we found that Qin people are usually with a strong purpose. In the aspect of political, the ruling class use destiny of God to show the legitimacy of regime. In the aspect of daily life, Qin people have explored a series of methods about how to drive out bad Gods and Ghosts. |
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