Archaeological Research On Big Dipper Beliefs In Ancient China

China had been prevalent with a variety of nature worship and supernatural beliefs since upper ancient times. There were all kinds of gods and celestials in various names, such as in the name of god, country, mountains and rivers, birds and animals, earth- moon and stars, wind- rain and lightning, etc. Among these, the belief in Big Dipper is one of the earliest religious beliefs of our Hua'xia ancient ancestors. It is also a religious belief which lasted the longest time in Chinese history, and had the most extensive influence on China. In our ancient ancestors' mind, the god of Big Dipper had been a sovereign god who had the power to give and take the life of the world, and therefore worshiped and offered sacrifice in the highest standard by our Chinese ancestors.The belief in Big Dipper relique could be found in the earliest Neolithic Age and went through the whole Chinese history. Until now in some areas of China Big Dipper belief tradition remains in the funeral customs. Archaeological data show, number 45 tomb in Pu'Yang Xi'Shui Po, which could date back to Mid-Neolithic Period, had a grave-goods, namely, the Big Dipper shape, consisted of a triangle piled by clamshells and a frame structured by two pieces of human's tibia. In Zeng'hou yi's tomb, which could date back to the Warring States Period, there was one Chinese character " Dou(?)”in red excavated as well as a chest made of lacquer wood drawn with the lunar mansions. Since Han dynasty, the theme of Big Dipper in frescos, stone carvings, grave bricks and the grave-goods had been more prevalent. Such as in Wu'Shi Shrine of Jia'xiang in Shan'dong province, there was a carved stone designed as "Emperior's vehicle"; relief stone sculpture of Han Dynasty in He'Nan Nan'yang kylin hillock designed with "gods, Sagittarius, Big Dipper" with Chinese characters“????(Yellow god Big Dipper)",and“???(god Big Dipper)" on them. In later tombs excavated, there frequently appeared "seven-star board" and etc. Those reflect the belief in Big Dipper of the people at that time in different level. Further more, There were some other variants showing this belief, such as the way to position grave-goods, the number of the grave-goods(7 or multiple of 7), devices with names of the same pronunciation as Chinese character "dou(?)”,or tomb figure and image like god Big Dipper. All above deserve our well attention and resurvey.In addition, there were many records related "Dipper"and "offered sacrifice for Dipper" on Orcl of Shang dynasty. And there were also a lot of-literature recording Dipper Belief in later times. According to those records, it seems that in ancient people's religious consciousness, Big Dipper could work as various kinds of religious functions, such as dropping blessing from heaven, prolonging life, divining, controlling devils, keeping away from war, practicing to be immortal. Further more, this belief had been presented in a variety of forms within different geographical and cultural background. Therefore a thorough and systematical study should be done on the archaeological reliques and the records mentioned in the literature.Through analysis of the literature on Big Dipper and Big Dipper reliques, chronologically, the development of Chinese Big Dipper belief can be divided into incubation, sprouting(Initial), maturing, transition, thriving and declining periods. In every specific period, the outlook of Big Dipper belief and its main characteristics will be discussed in terms of its type and its geographical area and be studied on the culture appearance and religious featuresPrehistoric period (incubation period):In Neolithic Times Big Dipper was close to the North Pole, possibly, it was taken as the polestar. Meanwhile, Big Dipper was respected and worshiped by Chinese ancestors because it had such functions as determining directions, seasons which had a close relation with their production and daily lives.Yin Zhou Period (Initial stage):In this period, there appeared large-scale ritual of offering sacrifice activities. some school of thoughts in Zhou dynasty began to notice the unique position of the Big Dipper in the sky, and gradually formed a world view that is "the soul will go back to Dipper after the death of human".Qin and Han dynasty (maturing period):This is a all-round developed period for Big Dipper beliefs, and basically it laid the main frame for later belief. With its distance far from the North pole, the position of Big Dipper gradually declined, and then it was taken as the vehicle of the Heaven and Earth. In the Han divination, Big Dipper was falsely analogized as the essence of Yellow Emperor. Especially Astrology paid more attention to it, and thought that they could tell the merits or wrong behavior of the emperor, officials and their lives by observing the change of the astronomical phenomena around the Big Dipper. Because of the astronomical phenomena, there was a Tamahome under Big Dipper so that it was more likely that the Big Dipper could conquer Tamahome. As a result, Big Dipper had the religious function to suppress ghost and exorcise evil force, to remove evil spirit and bless people. Furthermore, in East Han period, the concept of Big Dipper controlling killing power was the origin of Big Dipper belief for registering death in Wei and Jin dynasties.Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties (transition period):The primeval Daoism digested and absorbed Big Dipper belief, and even entrusted with new religious insight. As a result, the Big Dipper belief occurred in multiple cultural outlook, further more transferred into god image, and then derived into celestial belief of controlling life, that is to say, South Dipper controlled birth authority while North Dipper controlled death authority in the celestial official system, which had developed into a series of Big Dipper Daoism strategies strengthening the supplementary function of this belief in the process of Daoism practice. In addition, from North Qi dynasty till now, the seven-star board being in use revealed that reflected the ultimate desire of human that is to let soul back to Dipper after death and the important role of this belief in Taoism immortal practice.Tang and Ming dynasties (the prosperous period):Between Tang and Song dynasties, there appeared systematic and completed Daoism scripture on Big Dipper and worship ritual. It was believed that the Big Dipper was in charge of human's life, fate, happiness and official fate. Therefore, paying service to Big Dipper could remove ill fortune, prolong life, bring happiness. People at that time even held the idea that " all the ways came out of Dipper and all the laws from it." Between Song and Yuan dynasties, the system of Big Dipper belief based on " Dou Mu—Jiu Huang" belief had been developed completely. As research shows that, the founding emperor of Ming dynasty Zhu Yuan'zhang had his capital Nan Jing city designed like a gourd shape which was a combination of Big Dipper and South Dipper. Even after his death, the buildings in Xiao Ling where his tomb positioned was placed in Big Dipper shape. From above, we can see that Big Dipper belief had great influence in Ming dynasty.After Qing dynasty (Declining Period):the literature on Big Dipper belief was obviously rare, which was a sign of declining. Historical relic also lacked of Big Dipper cultural trail, and only a handful of regions retained such funeral custom as Seven-star board", "seven-star coin".In this paper, analysis is given on the causes of Big Dipper faith. It Reveals the astrology origin of the Big Dipper suppressing evils belief; it is made clear that the relationship between Big Dipper and the supreme gods, namely, Tiandi, Taiyi, Tianyi; The mysterious relationship between Dipper and emperors and the functions of Dipper shows guiding the emperors to control the world; In addition, this paper makes a good summary of Dippers life control Power belief and its significant in Daoism practice. This is also a basic reproduction of Chinese ancient Dipper Belief in cultural appearance and religious functions in each period of Chinese history.There are mainly three innovation points in this paper:Firstly, this paper has a fresh-new topic. Big Dipper belief is one of the natural objects worship which has the longest history with best influence on Chinese culture. It is part of the important content in studying Chinese history, religious and thought, which has not been paid enough attention in Chinese academic field. This paper explores initially the systematic and complete research on the historical causes, development vein, representatives, cultural connotation, religious significance, and the affected areas in China through consideration of archaeological data and ancient documents.Secondly, novel strategy is designed in this paper by using interdisciplinary research method, sorting and interpreting archaeological materials from the angle of religion science, which very few scholars had tried before. According to its religious function, it is the first time to classify the cultural legacy of the tombs into astronomical map, instrument of Ya Sheng, astrology, and others. This paper will make an in-depth investigation on the religious significance and cultural connotation behind the various Big Dipper beliefs from multidimensional perspectives, such as, the religious sociology, religious psychology, religious culture etc, combined with philology, astronomy, archaeology and folklore and many other materials.Thirdly, novel conclusion is achieved by new research methods, new interpretation of Big Dipper cultural heritages so that the study is different from any previous one. For example, Big Dipper Ya Sheng belief reveals the origin of astrology and fill the academic blank in this field through analysis of the Chinese characters and image carved on the Jie Zhu Ping (Solution Note device).