Review The Sacrifice Ceremonies And Some Concrete Methods Of Three Groups Of Diction On Gods

Wording or diction in Qin dynasty is of paramount importance and enjoys a favorable position in making certain the original meaning of the earliest Chinese words and expressions. Wording or diction on all kinds of gods occupies an important position. A detailed analysis of diction on gods helps to recognize their origin and their development in succeeding centuries. This paper thus aims to probe into the development of three groups of diction on gods, i.e., 帝 and 天,西王母 and 高禖, 风神 and 雨神 and review the sacrifice ceremonies to worship them and some concrete methods in those ceremonies."帝 and 天 originate differently. 帝 is originated from "蒂" which means literally the pedicel of a flower in ancient Chinese language and is evolved to refer to the fundament or origin. 天, originally meaning the top of the head gains the meaning of "sky" in nature. These two concepts assimilated with each other gradually and the gods they represented became the utmost gods in Chinese culture. 禅 and 祡 are two ceremonies to offer sacrifice to them."西王母" , is a translated title of a totem and 高禖 is the goddess charging of birth and reproduction. 閟宫 is the unique place to offer sacrifice to 高禖 while no special place? or fixed name for sacrificing 西王母.Wind and rain are common phenomena in nature. However it is only natural that the primitive people worship them as gods in ancient times when they could not explain what the wind and rain are. 风,师,飞,廉 are all names for god of wind; 雨师屏翳 are names for god of rain,磔 is the ceremony to sacrifice the god of wind and 烄,雩 are ceremonies to show worship to god of rain.