Worship And Taboos About The Colour RED

The worship of red is a very important phenomenon in Chinese social life, and the Chinese people is famous in the world for its unusual love of the red colour. Where did this custom come from, and how did it develop in the history, this is a topic worthy of discussing. The author tries to probe into this question from two aspects: the red colour in official belief system and in grassroots system, so to figure out how red is looked upon in the whole Chinese history, and what's the cultural, psychological, religion and political background lied behind this custom.The article is composed of four major parts:First: the purpose of writing this paper and the existed studies of other scholors.Second: the physical and economical reason of people's favor of red, and how "red" was defined in the ancient China.Third: the roots of the belief of red colour, such as worship of the sun, fire, phoenix and blood.Forth: the development of this custom in both official and grassroots belief systems.