| Immortal belief has been playing a very important role in folk belief system of China. Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties was the important period for the formation and development of the belief. The immortal belief of this period has been one of the difficult points and frail link in the study on Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties and Taoism history. Using both the historical document and archaeological materials, subjects, combining the cultural anthropology, religion, folklore, literature and art, medical science, chemistry etc, the dissertation analyzes thoroughly the pregnancy and birth of the belief so as to reveal the profound intention of man' s longing for magnifying his power of life and pursuing the exceeding of spirit. In the dissertation, the vigorous mass campaign of seeking the immortal carr(?)ed out by Qi Wei, Xuan, Yan Zhao, emperor Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi and the rapid spread of the immortal belief among the public are analyzed. We try to make the scene reappear before the readers so as to make the readers more aware of the developing track of the belief analyze and summarize systematically the methods of becoming the immortal, the magic an s of immortal and the prosperity of the culture of keeping in good health, the development of science, and the booming of immortal story which were influenced greatly by the belief so as to shell out its influence on Chinese traditional culture from the dense fog of the belief. I also discuss the theorized, religious, political tendency of the immortal belief in Han Dynasties, reveal the important function of the belief in the format ion of the early Taoism so as to make the readers understand better the role and functions of the belief in the knowledge, thought and belief system of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties.How was the immortal belief formed? Why did it take shape in China? These are the premise in the study on the immortal belief of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties, in the first chapter, with the help of research achievement of culture Anthropology, the archaeological material and historical document, we try to find out the source of the belief and reveal the profound connotation in the back of the belief. Through the carefulanalysis about the worship of spirit, worship of reproduction, worship of the moon and worship of turtle, snake and cicada, we get the developing trace of man' s longing for everlasting life from the everlasting spirit to man' s reproduction, to the everlasting individual life. Through the analysis of man' s longing for rising to the Heaven, we sense man' s desire for happiness, freedom, longing Cor magnifying his own life power and the exceeding of the spirits. We believe the source of the immortal belief popular in Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties was just man' s longing for everlasting life, happiness and freedom.The period from early Western-Zhou to the middle of Warring-States is the important phase of the formation of immortal belief. During this period, the position of God fell day by day, while the position of man rose, day by day. During this time, the people were plunged into an abyss of misery, the mass lived in dire poverty but the social condition and the free atmosphere of thought provided a good base for the pregnancy of the immortal belief. The second chapter discusses the deep-layer reason of the formation of the belief from the two layers-classical thought and the general knowledge, thought and belief, analyzes deeply the factors of promoting the formation of the belief. We think the decisive power for the formation of the belief was still man' s longing for everlasting life, happiness and freedom. The human-centered reason provoked directly man' s wishes of magnifying life power and seeking the freedom of spirits; The turbulent social environment stimulated man' s thirst for life and happiness; The free atmosphere of thought made it possible for the people to develop fully their imagination and to show fully the power of human nature; The thought of Taoist School and Yin-Yang Wu Xing provided the theory basis for the formation of immortal belief. On the other hand, the tense confrontation between God-centered belief and human-centered reason didn' t influence greatly the deep-rooted witchcraft belief and the outlook of ghosts, and moreover the witchcraft belief, ghosts and gods belief, the old myth, as the general knowledge, thought and belief, were united with the wishes of man' s magnifying life power and seeking the freedom of spirits and then became the mother of the immortal belief. The witch and wizard who were defeated in the confrontation sensed suchpsychology and put forward the immortal sense with the characteristics of everlasting life, happiness and freedom.Once the immortal belief came into being, it was immediately loved by king and emperors who longed for everlasting life and everlasting happiness. From Qi We, Xuan, Yan Zhao to Emperor Qin Shihuang, Emperor Han Wudi, more and more Large-scale activities of seeking the immortal were carried out. After Emperor Han Wudi, the belief spread quickly among the ordinary people. In the late of Easter-Han, the scholars' seeking immortal made a bright scenery for the whole vigorous activities. In the third chapter, the vigorous activities and the belief are analyzed thoroughly and we try to make the scene of that time reappear. We also analyze specifically the reason why the vigorous mass campaign of seeking immortal was first carried out in Kingdom Yan and Qi, make it clear that the activities of seeking immortal had profound influence on the political life, culture of thought, belief system, etc; of the Warring States period, Qin and Han Dynasties, discuss man' s expectation and imagination for everlasting life and describe the basic characteristics of the development of the immortal belief during Warring-States period, Qin and Han Dynasties. We believe in this period: (1)The fairy land where the immortals lived changed from the heaven to the mountain and then to the earth—the distance was getting closer and closer; (2) Becoming immortal was getting harder and harder though in the theory it could be operated easily; (3)The immortal thought of Kunlun, Penglai, Chu and Yan Qi sticked together gradually and it developed first from the west to the east, from the south to the north, and then from the east to the west, the north to the south; (4)The though(?) of becoming immortal developed on the two roads—become immortal without death and become immortal after death. The people first hoped to become immortal in this life, then turned to the next life. The ways of becoming immortal developed in the different ways.The necromancers' advocating the immortal belief was not just to cheat the emperor and fool the public, many of them believed the possibility of being immortal, however, they needed the emperor' s financial support and they wanted the emperor to raise their status. The urgent wishes of being immortal and the following failures made theminvolved in the study of the magic arts. In order to gain the trust of emperors and the public, they boasted that they had magical arts. The vigorous activities of seeking the immortal were actually the necromancers' trying to form a pattern of magical arts. The fourth chapter analyzes comprehensively the magical arts of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties, describes its developing process from the single road to the comprehensive road and reveal the basic characteristics of the development of magical arts. This chapter also explain the developing process of the magical arts, summarize and introduced briefly the arts of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties and reveal the deep layer reason for the development of the magical arts under the influence of the corrupt politics, desolate economy, disordered society, and frequent disasters.The necromancers' devotion and study on the magical arts pushed forward the prosperity of the culture of keeping in good health, in that case, influenced by the immortal belief, how did the culture develop in Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties? What new idea did the development of immortal belief give the arts of keeping in good health? The fifth chapter expounds separately the main arts of keeping in good health such as eating something special, letting air run in man's body, gymnastics, avoiding cereal, air-eating, arts of the Bedchamber, etc. corrects some mistakes of the previous study on this field, analyzes the reason why some arts got a lot of attention and some not discuss the origin and theory basis of all kinds of the arts, summarizes systematically the achievements of the arts and reveal the deep-layer reason for the prosperity of the culture of keeping in good health of this period.The immortal belief was not scientific since no magical arts can make people "immortal" . However, just during the process of unscientific activities, science had its way out through the unscientific surroundings. The sixth chapter discuss the development of science and the traditional medical science, the origin of chemistry, reveal the positive influence which the immortal belief had on the science and summarizes the scientific achievement got under the influence of immortal belief.The thirst of being immortal stimulated man's imagination and provided a lot of miraculous, magnificent images for literature creation.With the specific historical documents, the seventh chapter analyzes the reason for the birth of immortal story, show its developing way and tendency of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties, finds out the characteristic of its evolution and summarizes all kinds of styles of the stories through analyzing the specific works and reveals the profound influence which the immortal belief and the immortal stories has on the interaction literature creation.After the development of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties, the immortal belief gained an extensive social basis. Both the emperors, officials and the ordinary people were involved in the imagination and thirst for becoming immortals. Where would the belief go? Why did it go that way? What did it do in the process of the formation of the early Taoism? With the help of historical materials and the study on the thought of Qin, Han Dynasties, the eighth chapter analyzes its developing course with the tendency to be theorized, religious and political. We think this was the important factor in the birth of the early Taoism. The chapter also analyzes some classical works of the early Taoism and its political tendency so as to help readers understand the characteristics of the early Taoism better.In a word, through the systematical and comprehensive study on the immortal belief of Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasties, the dissertation discusses the origin and development of the belief and the profound influence it has on Chinese traditional culture and cultural psychology, reveals its important role and function in the political life, culture of thought, belief system of this period so as to help the readers understand the nature of the belief better, discarding the dross and selecting the essence.
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