The Sacrifice Ritual To The God Of Route Before The Tang Dynasty

The sacrifice ritual to the god of route could be divided into two types according to the application.One was on the funeral,the other was in social.The former had not changed significantly with the passing of the time,while the latter had undergone tremendous changes in the dynasty before Tang,so we study the latter one in the passage.The sacrifice ritual to the god of route originated in the Zhou Dynasty and was an important part of the ritual system at that time.The birth of sacrifice ritual to the god of route was not only based on practical factors of the inconvenient transportation,but also on the psychology of the worship of the gods in the early days.Based on the description of classics,this paper explores the main characteristics of the sacrifice ritual to the god of route in social interactions before the Tang Dynasty and seeks its evolution law.In the pre-Qin period,the sacrifice ritual to the god of route was an unique ritual of the noble class,often held in the suburbs outside the gate.The sacrifice ritual to the god of route included sacrifice and feast.The sacrifice was more important in the whole process.During the Han Dynasty,China became an imperial country,paying attention to the selection of officials and the unification of the country.In this period.the sacrifice ritual to the god of route no longer emphasized the nobility status,and a large number of officials participated in the ancestral ceremony.The location of the sacrifice ritual to the god of route was gradually fixed,mostly for the city gates,some also for the special tents.The sacrifice and feast began to separate,but the sacrifice was still more important than feast.During the Wei,Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties,the gentry had an important influence in the society.The literati groups were closely connected to the political groups.The royal family members often attended the sacrifice activities to the god of route and organized people to write poetry.The literati tendency was obvious.In this period,the sacrifice gradually gave way to the feast,and some people think feast was equivalent to the sacrifice.