A Study Of The Connections Between Qu Yuan And The Culture Of Witchcraft

Qu Yuan is a giant in China's history of culture. His thinking and his works have an extensive and far-reaching impact on the culture development in China and in other countries of Asia in the past two thousand years. An In-depth study of Qu Yuan can give us a better understanding of the glorious history of our national culture. Furthermore this study can realize the great revival of our national culture. Its positive significance is great.In the past twenty centuries, many aspects of Qu Yuan have been well studied and lots of relative results have been accumulated, thus forming a grand subject named QuXue. However, there are still many realms of QuXue waiting for us to reclaim and cultivate thoroughly. For example, the connections between Qu Yuan and the Culture of Witchcraft have been discussed very warmly by scholars for nearly 30 years; however, many studies still need to be improved. At first, many questions need solving. Secondly, some researchers proposed some extremely one-sided viewpoints, which make people misunderstand Qu Yuan and his works. We have to clarify these misconceptions. Thirdly, the studies that some scholars have done could not help people form an overall understanding of the relationship between Qu Yuan and the culture of Witchcraft. Therefore, to study the connections between Qu Yuan and the Culture of Witchcraft systematically, thoroughly, objectively, is an extremely important task of QuXue now. In this thesis we shall discuss the connections between Qu Yuan and the Culture of Witchcraft systematically from five relative aspects, such as Qu Yuan's ancestors, Qu Yuan's life, Qu Yuan's official post, Qu Yuan's works as well as Qu Yuan's thoughts.The first chapter mainly discusses the relationship between Qu Yuan's ancestors and the wizard culture. Qu Yuan revered his ancestors deeply. The traditions that Qu Yuan's ancestors had had formed influenced Qu Yuan greatly. Qu Yuan praised GaoYang in his works because Gao Yang reformed the religious life and made progress of the society. Qu Xia is the first ancestor of Qu Yuan's family and from Qu Xia the family of Qu held the hereditary post of Moao in the Chu kingdom for a long time. Moao mainly governs the royal family business. In the Spring-Autumn time, Moao often participates in the military affairs and the diplomacy, however in the Warring-States time Moao doesn't take part in military affairs. The duty of Moao includes royal family's fetes and royal family's auguries, but it is still a mistake to say that Moao is an official of witchcraft.