The Research About The Society Interactive Relationship With Thunder God Belief And Thunder Vision In The Tang And Song Dynasties

Thunder God is a relatively important natural god in Chinese history.Since the Tang and Song dynasties,the various basic cultural concepts and cultural forms of Thunder God’s belief have basically matured.Thunder God’s appearance has gradually evolved from a simulant monster to ghosts and gods.The artifact used by Thunder God in the minds of people today has basically appeared in the Tang and Song Dynasties.Cultural concepts such as Thunder God of striking locust tree,taking dragon,raining thunderstorm,fearing iron,and spraining foot are widely circulated in society.At the same time,thuder became a god with human nature and emotions who was active in activities of man‘s world under the interpretation of tales of the miraculous in the Tang and Song Dynasties.Beginning in the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty,the Thunder God sacrificial offerings were included in the official state rituals.Through the formulation of the rituals,the time,place,altar system,priests,prayers,music and dance and the ritual process of Thunder God’s sacrifice were gradually systematized and standardized.The local official Thunder God sacrifices were gradually perfected into regular sacrifices during the Tang and Song Dynasties.The god of thunder sacrifices played an important role in the official rain prayer activities in the Tang and Song Dynasties.In addition,the folk thunder god offerings in the Lingnan area represented by Leizhou began to rise in the Tang and Song dynasties,and it is an important manifestation of the prosperity of folk thunder god offerings outside of the official offerings.People in the Tang and Song dynasties have drawn up a set of systematic techniques of weather prediction that conform to the laws of nature based on their daily observation experience of lightning phenomena.The weather prediction of thunder and lightning is widely used in the production and life of the agricultural society in the Tang and Song Dynasties.In addition,in the divination books of the Tang Dynasty,there are techniques of five-tone divination and divination of a good or bad year,these thunder divination techniques was used in court politics and military warfare as their theory foundation.In the Tang and Song Dynasties,thunder and lightning were not only a natural phenomenon,but also a divine sign of luck.Thunder is regarded as a condemnation,punishment and catastrophe.Although some innovative literati class severely criticized and refuted these arguments,these ideas are still very popular in Tang and Song society.Under the influence of Wei Shu of the Han Dynasty,the "Electro-Orbiting Star" became the induced response of the Tang and Song emperors’ deified ancestors.Under the influence of celestial and human inductive thoughts,the phenomenon of thunder and lightning in more cases symbolizes the fate of heaven,and is a warning from the heavens to the monarch.The catastrophes of thunderstorms mainly include thunder from time to time,thunder in the suburbs,thunderstorms and snow hail,thunder without clouds,earthquakes to death,earthquake-damaged buildings,and thunder fires.The monarch will take measures to reflect on their behavior and improve people’s livelihood to eliminate disasters.However,such measures are mostly routine with no much use.Under the political background of the autocratic monarchy system in the Song Dynasty,thunder and disasters have become a tool for the emperor to strengthen the monarch,weaken the power of courtier,control the government,and manipulate party disputes.In the Tang and Song Dynasties,the popular idea of heavenly scourge of thunder influenced all aspects of social life in the Tang and Song Dynasties.Thunder is a miracle that demonstrates the divine power of God,and it is also a tool for God to punish the people.Heavenly scourge of thunder punishes and disciplines people’s lives and social behaviors in the name of the god,but it is not so much the reflection of the will of heaven,it is better to say that the heavenly scourge of thunder is a manifestation of mainstream social ethics such as filial piety,chastity,integrity,and thrift in the Tang and Song Dynasties.It’s the people’s wishes of placing their ideals of judicial justice and social fairness on god.