A Study Of The Concept Of Shen Ming In The Pre-Qin Dynasty

“Shen Ming” takes a vital part of Chinese culture,which is absorbed in such disciplines as religion,folklore,philosophy.It formed based on the confluence of certain politics,economy,culture and other areas and went through evolutionary stages from religion,theoretical research to instrumentality.The influence of “Shen Ming”extends to human society,morality and spirit.Taoist in the pre-Qin period,as one of the sources of traditional Chinese philosophy,has been playing an important role in the evolution and development of the concept of “Shen Ming”.The paper will mainly delve into the concept of “Shen Ming” in the pre-Qing period Taoist on the perspective of philosophy.The first chapter focuses on the literary origin of the word “Shen”,“Ming”(“light”)and“Shen Ming”,and briefly analyzes the time of “Shen Ming”appeared and the its evolution of semantic meaning.It is believed that the original meaning of “Shen”(“deity”)was “lightning”,which turned into the meaning of “deity” the symbol of mystery,on the faith of worship.“Ming”(“light”)originally means the light of the sun and the moon.Due to the ancient Chinese people enshrined the sun and the moon as deities,the word “Ming”(“light”)was gradually endowed with the meaning of“deity”,and then it also had the meaning scrutinize;besides,according to record,“Shen Ming”first appeared in the book The Commentary of Zuo,and its meaning was “deity”.Afterwards,with the change of people's perception,it developed the extended meanings of wisdom,spirit and divinity and the like.In the second chapter,“the concept of ‘Shen Ming'during the Xia,Shang and Zhou Period” mainly focuses the background of the concept of Taoist of the pre-Qing Period,and then demonstrates the human morality in “Shen Ming”.Although the word “Shen Ming” has not yet appeared,many concepts under the concept of “Shen Ming”orientated themselves towards morality,paving the way for the evolution of the concept of “Shen Ming”.The third chapter “Laozi's perception on‘Shen Ming' ” aims to show that the idea of “Shen Ming” in the thoughts of Laozi began to associate with the whole universe and the word “Shen Ming” began to refer to the spirit itself.After unpacking all sorts of concepts concerning “Shen Ming” reflected in the book Lao-Tzu and comparing Confucius' and Sun-Tzu's comprehension of the concepts,we can find that they had philosophic thinking on a cosmological perspective at that time,and steered the concept of deities toward the spirit.By the time that Chuang-tzu lived,“Shen Ming” had mentioned in the books The Commentary of Zuo and The Book of Changes.Thus the fourth chapter“Zhuang-tzu's idea of ‘Shen Ming' ” mainly looks at the features of Zhuang-tzu's idea of “Shen Ming” set in the book Commentaries on Yi.Zhuang-tzu,for one thing,pointed that “Shen Ming” generated from“Tao”(the way and the universal law)and the rules;for another,hechanged the concept of “Shen Ming” into virtue.The words “Shen Ming”was creatively used by Zhuang-tzu to refer to the spirit of humanity.In the fifth chapter,based on the three books Huang Di's Four Classics,Four Books of Guanzi and He Guan Zi,it researches the concept of “Shen Ming” in the late Warring states period,unveiling that the pre-Qing period Taoist made another shift into political philosophy after Zhuang-tzu changed it into a philosophy.The ideology of “Shen Ming”was externalization,namely,“Tao” reflected in “Shen Ming” turned into laws.In this period of time,“Shen Ming” demonstrated its characteristics of sensibility,regularity and instrumentality.The conclusion part summarizes the developing trend and features of ideology of deities in the Taoist of the pre-Qing period,and then expounds the impact of the ideology on future generations.