Tang And Yinsi Research Question: Between Bourne

Yin means excessive, illegal. The Illegal Sacrifice is a general name of the ritual activities which is widely popular in the society of the lower class. It is illegal because it’s different from the sacrificial rites of the ruler class. It belongs to the field of folk beliefs. Influenced by the natural environment, economic life, and some other factors, the past research of illegal sacrifice only stayed in regional differences, Through collecting and sorting information about the faith of illegal sacrifice, the writer will mainly analyzes the stage distribution and characteristics of the illegal sacrifice in Tang and five dynasties period. During Tang and five dynasties period, to the illegal sacrifice, the rules not only inherited the features of the former generation, but made certain concessions advancing with times, which made folk beliefs became more adapt to the demands of era and satisfied the ruler’s requirements. It played an essential role in the development of sacrifices. This essay mainly contains the following aspects:Chapter one:the theoretical discussion of the illegal sacrifice. It contains the concept of the illegal sacrifice, the relationship between the illegal sacrifice, folk beliefs and the national sacrifices, the ruler’s attitudes to the illegal sacrifice. While discussing the concept of the illegal sacrifice, the essay mainly analyze what is "the illegal sacrifice" from tang people according to their judgment and the material in Tai Ping Guang Ji. In early research on the problem of folk beliefs in ancient China, some scholars equaled the illegal sacrifice with folk beliefs, and believed that there are insurmountable gap between the folk belief and national sacrifices. But they just saw the differences between them, ignored the similarities of them. As for the ruler’s attitude towards the illegal sacrifice, we can sum up such a rule "To believe a ghost in a declining time, and a fool can easily seek the good for themselves" from the central and local governments.Chapter two:the history and development of the illegal sacrifice. The word "Illegal Sacrifice" first appeared in Li Ji Qu Li. During different historical periods, the development of the illegal sacrifice has different features. Learning the illegal sacrifice’s development in different periods will benefit us to study the development of the illegal sacrifice in Tang and the five dynasties. Therefore, this part mainly introduces the development of the illegal sacrifice before Tang dynasty, it is divided into the Pre-Qin, Qin and Han dynasties, and WeiJin southern and northern dynasties to sui dynasty three parts, and talk about its historical evolution and features in different periods.Chapter three:the periodic distributions and characteristics of the illegal sacrifice in Tang and the five dynasties period. This chapter mainly takes zhi-yuan and counties map and tai ping huan yu ji as the basis, the rebellion of An Lushan and Shi Siming as the dividing line, listing to show the distribution of the sacrifice both in the north and the south during the period. The writer also give the further analysis of the features in different times. The past research on this issue, scholars usually discuss the synchronic local characteristics starting from the differences of the north and south, but seldom study it on the historical view. Therefore, the main content of this chapter will focus on the historical significance of the illegal sacrifice’s every stage in Tang and the five dynasties based on the previous studies. And it also summarizes the stage summary the periodical, local, regional, and the hysteresis characteristics of the illegal sacrifice.Chapter four:The illegal sacrifice relates to the folk wizard culture. Under the influence of the concept of "all things on earth have a bier", ancient Chinese always stick to the tradition of sacrificing for the merits. Since the illegal sacrifice rise, it has been associated with wizard, and have a great influence on people’s producting and living. Therefore, to research the relationship between the illegal sacrifice and the wizard culture, we can peep the relationship and the development of folk culture and the illegal sacrifice in Tang and the five dynasties. In addition, as mentioned before, the different characteristics in different historical periods, the development in Tang and the five dynasties period, and the government’s attitude towards the illegal sacrifice create the conditions for it to develop in future generations.