Studies On Fire Cult Of Zoroastrianism In Medieval China

Zoroastrianism,which originated in ancient Persia,is known for its sacred fire worship,and the complicated rituals of the worship.After Zoroastrianism had been introduced to Sogdiana where the vital communications hub between China and the Western countries,it became very prevalent.For some variations,shaped under the influence of various civilizations and cultures in this area,Zoroastrianism was also called HuoXian in Chinese historical documents.In the middle ages,with the sinicization of Zoroastrianism,introduced by the Sogian immigrants,it had produced many phenomena with Chinese cultural characteristics.This paper takes the symbols of Zoroastrianism,such as fire temple,altar and so on which were found in Persia,Central Aisa,and China,as the research objects,to understand the changes of Zoroastrianism in the process of spreading from west to east.The first part of this paper traces the evolution of the fire temples' forms from Achaemenian to Sasanian Persia.The second part,combines the archaeological findings and the records of Chinese historical documents,and discusses the variations in the shape and function of fire temples on the land among central Asia to China.In the third part,the writer compares the differences of the altars found in different places,and distinguishes the images of fire altar in the tombs of some Chinese Sogdian immigrants.In the last part,the paper discusses the fire rituals of Zoroastrian funerary practices,and provides a kind of new researching idea for the fire-burnning marks seen in the tomb of Anga.