A Preliminary Study On The Mountain Worship Of The Pre-Qin Period

Mountain shows the extraordinary ability to control human survival: on the one hand as human's reliever, it provides various life resources for mankind; on the other hand as human oppressor, it also ruthlessly threats to the survival of mankind, just like poisonous insect and feral beast, mountain torrents and landslide. In the face of the mountain, people are so tiny that come into being dependence and frightened feelings. Then they beg mountain to bless and remove the disaster. At that time,people can't improve the living condition through their own efforts, they just repose hopes on Mountain-Gods'favor, and then come into being the worship of Mountain-Gods. The worship of Mountain-Gods is the specific expression of the mountain worship in the pre-Qin period. The period of tribe alliance is the embryonic period of mountain worship and has already formed the notion of mountain worship. The leader of the tribe alliance held position of Mountain-Gods in Xia Dynasty, Mountain-Gods and ancestors were combined. People in Shang Dynasty frequently prayed for rain, harvest and blessing, and sacrifice the mountain devoutly. They just were manipulated by Mountain-Gods and didn't do anything worthwhile because of the eyeless worship for mountain. But the person in Zhou dynasty endowed Mountain-Gods with more divinity that Mountain-Gods could judge right and wrong, and could punish the evil. Compared with Shang Dynasty, the function of Mountain-Gods in Zhou Dynasty had been increased. The sacrifice of mountain began to be integrated closely with the state policy. The ideals of worshipping for mountain promoted the development of the important political activity such as hunting visit, Feng Shan etc. Affected by the thought of humanities, people regarded landslide as God's punishment to the king. In the pre-Qin period, the behavior of mountain worship was various, and had the characteristics of region, utility, rank etc. The mountain worship in this period promoted social progress, cultivated people's lofty sentiment and nourished the early literature and art. It not only made forest resources get better protection, but also had a profound influence on Taoism and offered a reference for the creation of Taoism system of blessed-spot. In the pre-Qin period, mountain worship was not only the reflection of ancient civilization, but also the necessary stage in the development of ancient Chinese culture.