The Belief Study Of Mountain-gods In The Novels Of Tang Dynasty

Mountain-god is one of the early folk gods in China,which is closely related to the lifestyle of living in the mountains and concept of nature worship.It has an important influence on the production and life consciousness of ancestors in the agricultural civilization.The image of mountain-god in people’s heart has gone through the process from elves to god,accompanied by the awakening of literature to the process of humanization,from simplicity to complexity,from fictional imagination to reflecting reality.On the basis of mountain-god belief of Han dynasty and Wei dynasty,The image in tang novels blend divinity with human nature and present a three-dimensional and multifaceted image to the world.There are various types of mountain-god in the Tang dynasty novels,such as divinity,personality and humanization.The gods of divinity refer to the spirits imagined by the ancestors under the concept of nature worship,which are the products of surrealistic ideals.Personality refers to the god which has anthropic characteristics and lifestyle,in life and death,human relations,family and so on.The last one refers to the historical figures to be god by the people’s worship.The diversity of images results in the differences of characters and functions.The emphasis and diversity coexist,and the blessing and sacrifice are both held simultaneously.The mountain-god has become not only the official symbol of protecting the country,but also the representative of the powerful bullies.There are political,religious and literary factors behind these phenomena.Under the official support,the belief in mountain-god is given the color of kingship and became a guiding light for intellectuals.Under the parallel situation of Buddhism and Taoism,mountain god fell into the contradictory situation of Taoism holding high and Buddhism suppressing.In addition,the belief of mountain god spread to Japan,especially the god of Mountain Tai,which had a profound impact on Japanese Buddhism,Onmyōdō and folk customs.Different from the personification tendency of mountain –god in China,the image in Japanese literature takes divinity as the main content of expression and gradually becomes localized in function,and finally becomes the belief of the whole nation.The evolution of the image of mountain-gods reflects people’s cognition and acceptance of folk beliefs in different periods.The belief in novels of tang dynasty reflects the difference between official and folk beliefs,the conflict and fusion between local and foreign cultures,and the diversified expression of folk god in literary creation as well as the communication and absorption in cross-cultural communication.