Aesthetical Implications Of Qiang Nationality's Sacrificial Ceremony

The sacrificial ceremony of Qiang Nationality boasts its long history and rich cultural heritage. The transcendence and liberty of sacrificial consciousness share substantial consistency with aesthetic activities and embody abundant aesthetic implications. This thesis studies Qiang Nationality's sacrificial ceremony in the following four chapters.Chapter One: Cultural Overview of Qiang's Sacrificial Ceremony. This part centers on summarizing the ceremony by categorizing it into village sacrificial ceremony, family sacrificial ceremony and funeral sacrificial ceremony. These three ceremonies generally cover all sacrificial ceremonies of Qiang Nationality.Chapter Two: Aesthetic Consciousness of Qiang'Sacrificial Ceremony. This chapter analyzes the aesthetic consciousness in four sections. The first section deals with ghost consciousness, an integral part of Qiang's sacrificial ceremony. Ghost consciousness is different from common spiritual psychology. It is related to witchcraft culture and is bestowed by primitive religion. In the sacrificial ceremony, various dances and chorus of Shibi can be considered to represent the consciousness of ghost. The second section is about ethnic self-identity consciousness. Being a religious sacrificial activity, Qiang's sacrificial ceremony is also to realize ethnic self-identity. Primogenitor and totem worship related to ethnic self-identity have profound influence on the aesthetic consciousness of Qiang Nationality. The third section discusses the consciousness of harmony, which reflects the harmonious coexistence between mankind and the universe, mankind and the nature and among people in Qiang's sacrificial ceremony. And this reflects that Qiang's sacrificial ceremony is a kind of aesthetical activity featuring harmony. The fourth section touches upon the consciousness of optimistic living, which refers to aesthetic consciousness of life worship and optimism reflected in their sacrificial ceremony.Chapter Three focuses on expounding the three aesthetical formations, namely beauty of simplicity, beauty of loftiness and beauty of mystery which are presented in the sacrificial ceremony of Qiang Nationality.In Chapter Four, a discussion is conducted on the Qiang Nationality's aesthetical thinking as reflected in their sacrificial ceremony. The fact that this kind of aesthetical thinking preserves many elements from primitive thinking and myth thinking renders it original significance in terms of culture, thus making Qiang Nationality's aesthetical culture rich and unique. And their aesthetical culture serves as the foundation for the aesthetical consciousness and aesthetical formations expressed in the sacrificial ceremony.In a word, the aesthetic implications of Qiang's sacrificial ceremony are characterized by vivid cultural elements and convey many unique cultural connotations and meanings. At the same time, the sacrificial ceremony also preserves original components of cosmology, life concept and values of Qiang Nationality. By discussing the aesthetic implications of Qiang's sacrificial ceremony, recognizing the original components of cosmology, life concept and values and coming back to the harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature, the author of this thesis holds that it is enlightening for the mankind to cope with the spiritual and environmental crisis.