The Early Chinese Religions Recorded In The Shiji Chapter On The Feng And Shan Scarifices

The two inseparable elements of any religion are religious practice and religious belief.The Shiji chapter on the Feng and Shan scarifices written by Sima Qian,who is in the tradition of the Wu-Shi(Shaman-Historiographer),gives a detailed description of the religious activities from ancient times to the early western han dynasty,and reveals the basic religious beliefs and concepts of the ancient people.It can be called the first early Chinese religious history book.In this paper,after reading the Shiji chapter on the Feng and Shan scarifices and relevant materials in detail,the author divides the religious activities described in the book into offering sacrifices to heaven and earth,the sun,the moon and the stars,mountains,rivers and other activities by means of induction and argumentation,and classifies and discusses the belief concepts reflected in the book.Among the most important activities of worshipping heaven and earth,this paper makes a detailed analysis,expounds the development and change of its ritual,which varies with different regions and times,and reveals that faith develops towards the direction of humanity and rationality.This paper holds that the belief concept of early Chinese religion is very rich,the religious activities are diverse,the folk religion and the state religion are integrated,and the religious belief of later generations has been basically established.Generally speaking,the ancient people believed that heaven and earth,mountains and rivers,and ghosts and gods could control people’s destiny.However,people needed to carry out a systematic sacrifice system,conduct a large number of sacrifices,and have an induction with the gods to pray for good fortune and return to the gods.In the early religious belief,people also emphasized their own virtue and combined their own virtue construction with god worship,making religion an important aspect of social and cultural life and playing a positive role in social stability and development.Secondly,early religions also highly respected human life and sought to break through the shackles of human ability.The numerous activities of seeking the immortal and waiting for the immortal in First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han indicate that the pursuit of immortality and immortality became an important aspect of the early Chinese religious thought.