Research On The Religious Beliefs Of Yi People In Wumeng Mountain Area

Since the Jin Dynasty,in Han literature,the Yi people are usually considered to"believe in ghosts".However,contemporary academic circles generally believe that the Yi people "revere ancestral spirits".The Wumeng Mountain area is located at the junction of the three provinces of Yunnan,Guizhou and Sichuan.This area was one of the main settlements of the Yi people in history.The ancestors of the Yi people had established dozens of Zumo(monarch)regimes with region regulation in this area.The sacrificial ceremony was one of the most important activities in the Yi Zumo regime.The traditional society of the Yi people has a huge group of priests.These priests,called "Bumo",are cultural elites in the Yi society.They are good at astronomy and calendar,who are the teachers of the king and the spiritual guide of the common people.There"Bumos" enjoy a very important position in Yi society.A large number of precious Yi literatures have been discovered in the Wumeng Mountain area.However,so far,the content of these documents has not received sufficient attention from the academic community except for the translators and organizers.I have noticed that most of these Yi documents are scriptures used by the Yi priest "Buro" when presiding over sacrificial ceremonies.These scriptures are precious historical materials for understanding the Yi society in the Wumeng Mountain area before the Qing Dynasty and clarifying the belief system of the Yi people.I found that the Yi people do not actually "believe in ghosts" by reading and sorting out these scriptures,going deep into the Wumeng Mountain Yi settlement to observe their sacrificial activities,and interviewing Yi priest Bumo.On the contrary,in ritual activities,"ghosts" are often objects of expulsion and repression."Belief in ancestral spirits" also cannot fully explain the religious connotation of the Yi people.In addition to advocating ancestral spirits,the Yi people also adore heaven and earth.I have noticed that the sacrifices of the Yi people are mainly divided into three types:sacrifices to the heaven,sacrifices to the earth,and sacrifices to the ancestors.The sacrifice to the heaven is mainly reflected in the sacrifice ceremony for festivals;the sacrifice to the earth is reflected in the sacrifice of natural objects such as mountains,rivers,trees and rocks;the sacrifice to the ancestors is reflected in the grand funeral ceremony.The Yi people are accustomed to refer to the heaven,the earth and the ancestors as "three-star",and have built a complete system of the Yi people’s religious beliefs.Therefore,I think the belief of the Yi people may be called"three-star belief".Behind the frequent sacrifices of the Yi people to heaven,earth and ancestors is the Yi people’s cognition of the origin of life in the universe.They believe that "Qi"generates the soul,and the soul creates all things".The "Ai" and "Bu" born from"Qi" are the souls of all things in the universe.Actually,Human beings,heaven,earth and all things are just shadows transformed by "Ai" and "Bu".If the shadow disappears,the soul will return to "Ai" and "Bu".Based on this cognition,the Yi people have a special understanding of the human soul.They believe that after a person dies,the soul will be divided into three parts,one soul will return to its own star after guarding the burning site for three years,three months and three day.The other soul will return to the earth and integrate into nature after the worship of nine generations of descendants.Another soul will return to the ancestral place"Wengmi" along the migration route of the ancestors under the guidance of the scripture.The funeral ceremony of the Yi people is the ceremony for the placement of these three souls,and the destination of the three souls is also the heaven,earth and ancestors.In addition,whether it is a ceremony to sacrifice to heaven and earth,or a ceremony to sacrifice ancestral spirits,the worship of "three-star belief" always runs through all ceremonies.The Yi people believe that the heaven,the earth,and the ancestors built the universe in the early Yuan Dynasty,and the "three-star belief"depend on each other and are inseparable."Three-star belief" is born in the soul,and will eventually be unified in the soul "Ai" and "Bu".In order to fully demonstrate the "three-star belief" system of the Yi people,I also observed the sacrifice behavior of the Yi people in Wumeng Mountain with social reality.The social function of "three-star belief" in Yi traditional society is analyzed,and it is pointed out that belief in heaven is the symbol and projection of Yi social hierarchy.The mastery of the laws of celestial bodies makes them have a strong awe of order.They use astronomy to personify human beings,thinking that"a star in the sky corresponds to a person on the ground".The ruler,minister,and teacher in the human world correspond to the sun,moon,and stars in the sky,respectively.Even after the death of a person,the soul still has to follow this order:"The ruler must go back to the sun,the ministers must go back to the moon,the priest Bumo must go back to the Big Dipper,and the common people die,they must go back to the stars in the sky.All things return to their place in this order".They believe that the order of the human world is determined by heaven,and the gods think that there is no order in human life,so they arrange "the ruler to issue orders,ministers to deacons,and teachers to worship ancestors".After this arrangement,"the sky is bright,the world has ethics,and the world has morals".The laws of nature have become a reasonable explanation for the hierarchical social construction of the Yi people.The belief of the Yi people in the earth gods has typical regional characteristics.People living in the same Zumo territory are often protected by the same earth gods.The belief in earth gods effectively relieved the tension caused by the hierarchical order,which led to regional unity.The ancestral spirit sacrifice of the Yi people is closely related to the construction of the Zumo regime.Historically,the several major Zumo regimes in the Wumeng Mountains area were not only clan relations,but also maintained long-term in-law exchanges and worshipped common ancestors,consolidating and maintaining this relationship.Religious beliefs played a huge role in maintaining the stability of the Zuma regime.This paper denies the fallacy of the Yi people’s "belief in ghosts" through the mutual verification among Yi and Han documents and field investigation.It also supplements and improves the connotation of the Yi people’s belief system,puts forward the concept of "three-star belief" for the Yi people firstly,and analyzes the function and influence of the "three-star belief" on the Yi society.