Primitive Religion Thought In Book Of Songs

The article is based on the theories of primitive culture and primitive thought in anthropology.With some folklore study accomplishments, we will make a thorough inquiry on some workswhich permeate primitive religion consciousness, trying to find the essence of specialphenomena in Book of songs. Book of songs is an age-old collection of poems in China, so certain works depicts thecomplex and mysterious ideas of ancient people. These ideas are the remnants of primitivereligion consciousness, and the core of them is the belief on soul. It is the foundation ofanimism. Animism is the essential stage in human prehistoric period, and serves as the firstinterpretation on nature. Book of songs is a window from which we can observe things innature and realize the concepts behind the appearance. Nature in Book of songs is oftenregarded as deities, for example, the heaven or the mountain is the master of human's fate.The mode of thinking of the primitive people engendered a special concept, and that is totem.In totem society everything in nature can be conducted as a totem. In the people's mind,dreaming about a bear means boring a son, and a snake means boring a daughter. Thisreligious belief is from the totem of bears and snakes. In primitive thought the world isregarded as an integral entity, and it is reflected as similar rule or infecting rule in sorcery.Some works relating to fish in Book of songs convey a profound message about reproductionworship, which is the result of the sorcery mentality. Also the various plants such as flowers,grass, fruits and vegetables in some works imply rich, complex and mysterious views of theprimitive religion behind their natural and visual features. Analyzing these contents is a majorway to know the origin on the artistic thinking of China's ancient poetry. Everything is holy inprimitive thought, and nothing is not a matter of religion principle, so all the importantactivities must hold certain ceremonies. People hope that they can get power from gods if theymake gods happy enough. Usually they offer sacrifices to gods. The figuration of trees insome works has a background of the ancient custom. Last but not least, divination is alsoimportant in primitive religion. People want to get help from gods, so they must know theorders of gods, and the medium between human and gods is a certain special thing, such asbirds, tortoises, sun eclipses or lunar eclipses.