On The Early Development Of The Religious Thoughts In Zhou Dynasty

The early development of religious thoughts in the Chinese ancient time, covering from Western Zhou period through Warring States era, is analysed and discussed with special reference to the psychological action and the way of thinking. The present dissertation expounds the developing process of the religious thoughts of ancient Chinese people. Traced from the preceded Shang Dynasty, the origin of the primitive religion was marked by folk legends at the early polytheistic stage. Starting from the succeeded dynasty, Western Zhou, the gods \vorshiped by the early inhabitants showed to be strongly connected with ethic and morality, which reflected that the patriarcal elan system had been perfected. The religion of Western Zhou had a large system of natural deity, involving the supreme gods representing the spirits of mountain, wind, rain, land etc. The religious authorities, on the basis of consanguinity, guarantied moral andf iliation. The aristocrats and ministers were believed to be the representatives of the gods, and dedicated to the hierarchy and stability of the society. However, the ordinary people were excluded from the main stream of the superior religious belief, and had to turn to the barbarism religious forms, such as magic and ghost-worship.When western Zhou regime began collapsing, and the royal court of Zhou had to move eastward, the Eastern Zhou Era dawned. The era was divided into two periods: the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period. In the f irst stage, some sages began to suspect the Gods, and began toturn their attention to man. Confucius, belonging to the aristocrats of lower levels, considered the realistic social questions from the aspect of humanism. He stressed strong concern on " benevolence" rather than on worship to the gods. In the Warring States period, the newly emerged landowner class, accompanied with the revolution of agriculture, began to take over the power in most states, and consequently a new type of religion began to be "formed. Mozi, a scholar of Song, practiced as an artisan, advocated "universal love" and built a new God with general equality.Taoism, originated from a south sate, Chu, concerned withconstructing a philosophioalt system, which turn^d out to^uin 2>the religious basis. This period was also e&liled "hundreds of schools contended ",promoted the rational speculation. Meanwhile, a natural philosophy, Yin~Yang (asserting the universe with attributes to be negative vs. positive nature), and its kin, Wu~Xing (postulating the universe to be composed by f ive primitive elements), attempted to merge the natural philosophy with the theism into a unified theologv. This theology sublated the old forms of the religion, ritual of magic and myth, but Consolidated a belief that mixed up with superstition, worship and the natural philosophy. This theology has strongly influenced Chinese traditional culture since then.