Worship of Deities in Ancient China
Ancient Chinese Worship of Deities and Spirits
The concept of deities and spirits is an illusory and distorted reflection of nature and society in the human mind. Nature worship, totem worship, reproductive worship, ancestral worship, and the worship of spirits form a grand spectacle, constituting the most abundant yet mysterious portion of traditional Chinese culture. Interpreting the origins and evolution of spirit culture can enhance our understanding and, by extension, establish a scientific outlook on culture.
I. Nature Worship
Nature was the initial and original object of religion. Nature worship refers to the adoration of specific natural objects—such as heaven and earth, the sun and moon, thunder, rain, wind, clouds, water, fire, mountains, and stones—as well as their corresponding deities. The foundation of nature worship is animism.
Because the "Azure Heaven" is above, all objects of worship within the sky use "Heaven" as their stage; it is the most worthy of worship and remains supreme. The "divinized" and "personified" Heaven manifests as the "Heavenly Emperor" (Tiandi), "Lord of Heaven" (Tiangong), or "Grandfather Heaven" (Tian Laoye). Mozi [1] (specifically the chapter "On Ghosts, Part II") suggests that the Xia Dynasty’s expeditions against various tribes were "the execution of Heaven’s punishment," demonstrating that "Heaven" possessed authority and could serve as a justification for conquest. By the Shang Dynasty, "Heaven" was already referred to as "the Emperor" (Di).
The Earth, as a physical entity beneath Heaven and under the feet of humanity, is the source and site of human clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and is thus venerated. Ancient Chinese primitive dialectics [2] placed Earth on equal footing with Heaven, explaining nature through the theory of yin and yang. Earth is yin, the hexagram Kun, and the Mother, complementing and following the vast Qian Heaven of radiant yang light. The subterranean world is mysterious; however, aside from inhabiting natural caves, humans possessed only the skill to dig, and thus the state of the underground remained a matter of imagination. Dark, damp, oxygen-poor, or consisting of three layers, it was the underground kingdom—the location of the Netherworld—where souls were punished. The Earth is kind and warm, possessing a maternal temperament; it is called the Earth Mother, and its deity is known as She [3].
Ancient people developed similar explanations for the solitary existence of the sun and moon. They believed that in the primordial sky, there were many suns and moons, but the excess caused disasters and had to be eliminated. In the myths of the Yami and Paiwan peoples of Taiwan, the extra suns were knocked down with a pestle. The Manchu people used a sheep-lassoing method to pull down the redundant suns. For the Han people, Houyi [4] was the great hero who shot down the suns.
Similarly, the Miao of Southeast Guizhou, as well as the Maonan, Lisu, Blang, Shui, and Gaoshan peoples, all treat the "Moon" with the same view as the "Sun," believing that today's moon is what remains after a process of "thinning out seedlings." Setting a calendar based on the waxing and waning of the moon is the most intuitive and feasible method; to this day, coastal areas primarily use the "Lunar Calendar" to facilitate maritime transport and operations. Women’s "menstruation" [monthly menses] and the practice of "sitting the month" (postpartum recovery) are both related to the "Moon." In fact, these traditional concepts were influenced by "mystical numerology." Since a woman’s menstrual cycle is not exactly one month but approximately twenty-eight days, establishing a one-month "sitting the month" period as an inviolable rule is a product of mysticism. A mother’s rest period should vary significantly based on her physical condition and the season of birth.
Moonlit nights are beautiful. People thus arranged a Mid-Autumn Festival during a season sparse with holidays. Conversely, lunar eclipses were terrifying; throughout history, astrologers regarded "the Heavenly Dog eating the Moon" as a major ill omen. Books of Chenwei (divination and apocrypha) [5] never dared to treat such events lightly.
Stars correspond to people on earth: "As many people as there are on earth, there are stars in the sky." This view of correspondence between humans and stars has made beliefs regarding stars rich and varied. The human eye can only distinguish about 4,500 stars, and this number provides ample material for speculation. First, stars were classified into various grades of wealth, rank, status, and baseness; then, personalities and stories were attached to the major stars. The brightest planets, which shift positions throughout the year, were considered the most portentous. These are Metal (Venus), Wood (Jupiter), Water (Mercury), Fire (Mars), and Earth (Saturn). Astrologers used the specific positions of these planets in the celestial palace to predict individual fates and the order or chaos of the state. The movement of two planets into adjacent positions was an ill omen known as a "clash" (fanchong). On August 18, 1999, the nine planets, along with the Sun and Earth, aligned in a special "cross" formation, drawing attention to "Nostradamus’s prophecies"; however, that date passed and the world remained at peace. In mythology, Venus is called Taibai and presides over warfare; Jupiter is the Star of Blessing (Fuxing); and Canopus (the South Pole Old Man Star) is the Star of Longevity (Shouxing). The "Three Stars" worshipped universally by various ethnic groups refer to "Blessing, Prosperity, and Longevity" (Fu, Lu, Shou). The Big Dipper (Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper) is also highly revered as the primary coordinate for identifying directions, calculating time, and predicting weather. As for meteors and comets, they are the stars of bandits and disasters.
Celestial phenomena of worship include thunder, rain, wind, clouds, and rainbows, with thunder being the most prominent. The synchronization of thunder from spring to summer with the growing season led people to believe that thunder gives life to the earth; thus, thunder is the deity that initiates the revival of all things and governs their growth. Simultaneously, thunder is a sign of heavenly wrath. The "Treatise on the Gaoche" in the Book of Wei [6] states: "Whenever thunder strikes, they shout and shoot at the sky, then abandon the place and move away. By the autumn of the following year, when the horses are fat, they lead one another back to the site of the lightning strike, bury a ram, light a fire, draw swords, and female shamans recite incantations... If someone was struck dead... they pray for blessings." To this day, northern ethnic groups still observe thunder taboos.
Accompanying thunder is lightning; they are two sides of the same event and have become a pair of deities in folklore, known as the Lord of Thunder (Leigong) and the Mother of Lightning (Dianmu). In the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), the God of Thunder has a "dragon's body and a human head" and is adept at "drumming his belly." The Cloud Dragon, meanwhile, is the personification of lightning.
Wind, rain, clouds, and rainbows each have their own deities, and the reasons for worshipping them are much the same as for thunder and lightning. Among these, the custom of praying for rain has been ubiquitous from ancient times to the present.
Furthermore, the worship of natural objects such as water, fire, mountains, and stones also constitutes nature worship. The water deity is called the Lord of the River (Hegong), and each body of water has its own spirit, such as the God of the Yellow River, the God of the Yangtze, the Lady of the Xiang (Xiangjun), and the Dragon Kings. The Han fire deity is Zhurong, while other ethnic groups have their own fire gods.
Among mountain deities, none is greater than Kunlun. The Classic of Mountains and Seas states that "the Hill of Kunlun is in fact the capital of the Sovereigns" and the "dwelling place of the hundred gods." It is truly a divine mountain. Ancient records list many sacred mountains, such as the three immortal mountains in the sea—Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou—mentioned in the Records of the Grand Historian [7] ("Annals of Qin Shi Huang"). Liezi [8] records five divine mountains: Penglai, Yingzhou, Daiyu, Yuanqiao, and Fanghu. The Huainanzi [9] mentions Mount Buzhou, which Gonggong struck in anger during his struggle for the emperorship with Zhuanxu. Every region has its famous mountains, and every famous mountain is guarded by a Mountain God or a Land God (Tudi). Historically, the imperial court favored holding grand ceremonies to sacrifice to or "seal" mountains; the Fengshan sacrifices [10] at Mount Tai were seen as a symbol of national strength and a sign that the monarch had received the mandate from Heaven.
Stone worship likely originated from the story of Nüwa [11] selecting five-colored stones to mend the heavens. Even today, such stories circulate in the mythology of the Central Plains. It is said that at the summit and base of Mount Tiantan, the main peak of the Wangwu Mountains, there are variegated stones; these are the leftover materials from when Nüwa mended the heavens, called "Nüwa Stones." Additionally, there are Pangu Stones and Great Yu Crags scattered across the country. Looking at the Ovoo [12] of the Mongolians or the Mani piles [13] of the Tibetans today, one senses the eternal and widespread significance of stones as objects of nature worship. Mao Zedong was called "Stone the Third Child" (Shi San Ya Zi) in his youth; his parents hoped his foundation would be as solid as a rock and had him "worship" a stone.
II. Animal and Plant Worship
Most famous mountains are occupied by monks. Mysterious nature has always received intense focus, and nature worship has a long history. Modern Qigong emphasizes integration with mountains and water, often originating in famous mountains and great rivers—this is a vestige of ancient nature worship. In the pharmacopeia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), certain rare birds, exotic beasts, and strange flora are precious medicines, reflecting the tradition of animal and plant worship.
TCM considers rhinoceros horn, antelope horn, monkey head mushrooms, and bear paws to be precious medicines; this view clearly bears the imprint of animal worship. As for those today who have "developed" "dog bone liquor" with supposedly miraculous effects, they have drifted further down the path of pseudoscience. This is not because there is any major difference between dog bone and tiger bone; on the contrary, I believe the difference is negligible. Although my assertion lacks the basis of experimental analysis, it is a judgment of common sense. Regarding tiger bone as medicine, the pharmacopeia says its nature is slightly warm and its taste is pungent, primarily treating difficulty in limb movement, wandering pain, and weakness in the legs and knees. Tiger bone contains calcium phosphate and proteins; dog bone or other animal bones also contain these components. Does tiger bone alone enjoy the privilege of being medicine? We say the use of dog bone as medicine has slipped further into pseudoscience because it pioneered the use of common animals in TCM, crudely creating a "miracle" of animal medicinal value without even the veil of mysticism. As for the farce of divinizing the nutritional and medicinal effects of turtles and soft-shell turtles, it was a clamorous phenomenon in the 1980s and 90s.
Human respect for the tiger stems first from fear. People also fear the bear, yet they must hunt it. Thus, the worship of these two animals reflects humanity's complex feelings toward the natural world. The tiger (Class Mammalia, Family Felidae) is distributed across a vast Asian region from Siberia in the north to the Indian subcontinent in the south. The tiger is the king of beasts, its authority derived from its martial prowess; thus, wild boar, deer, river deer, and antelope all serve as its fine meals. Modern research shows that when a tiger suffers from dental disease or other factors making its usual diet difficult, humans become its choice of necessity. How could one not fear it?
Worshipping the tiger is a tradition in places where tigers roam. In the Shamanic beliefs of northern ethnic groups, the tiger is a sacred animal that hunters dare not take. Therefore, hunters avoid encountering tigers; they fear offending the Great Tiger King. If they happen to meet one unexpectedly, they kneel and pray from a distance. The Hezhe people even have a custom of not hunting animals that tigers like to eat, to avoid offending the "King of the Mountain." The Tujia people believe their ethnic group shares a genetic kinship with the tiger, thus calling themselves the "Tiger People" and regarding the tiger as their ancestral deity.
Unlike the tiger, the attitude toward the bear is: hunt it. The Oroqen, Ewenki, Hezhe, and Daur peoples of Northeast China are all bear-hunting groups. They revere the bear as grandfather, grandmother, "old gentleman," or "old lady," yet they seek every way to hunt it. This is a very peculiar phenomenon of worship. It reflects the paradox of humanity before nature: on one hand, people fear, respect, sacrifice to, and appease it; on the other hand, they must consume it, as it is a vital resource for hunters. The foundation of all religion is predicated on survival. There is no such thing as "unprovoked faith" divorced from the purpose of survival.
After northern ethnic groups hunt a bear, they must invite a Shaman to perform sorcery, and women are kept away throughout the hunting process. Here, women are discriminated against as "unclean." This discrimination is a result of patriarchal clan politics. Such vulgar customs are preserved everywhere in folk beliefs. Even in the suppression of witchcraft by religion in the latter half of the 15th-century England—one of the darkest events in the history of civilization—those subjected to all kinds of maltreatment and ruthless slaughter were women.
Human worship of birds, fish, and insects has also existed since antiquity. In the mythology of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there are divine birds such as the Qingniao (Blue Bird), Feng and Huang (Phoenixes), Luan, Huangniao, and Jingwei. The spirit of the sun is the "Three-legged Crow"; the progenitor of the Shang who was born from an egg is the "Black Bird" (Xuanniao); the world-covering giant bird is the Dapeng. Among natural birds, the eagle, vulture, swan, magpie, crow, and cuckoo are worshipped, as are the golden rooster and white pigeon among domestic fowl. Every year during the Qingming Festival, the Bai people in the Heqing area of Yunnan celebrate the "Bird Sacrifice Festival," bringing bird worship to its ultimate expression.
Among aquatic and reptilian animals, the snake and tortoise are the primary objects of worship. In the present day, even the much-maligned soft-shell turtle (wangba bie) has squeezed into the ranks of worshipped creatures, becoming a synonym for medicine and nutritional supplements.
We could further extend this long list to include frogs, bees, ants, silkworms, cicadas, spiders, scopions, centipedes, and locusts in the ranks of the worshipped. Should these swarming, pouncing, crawling pets one day enter your living room, they would make any "Lord Ye who claimed to love dragons" [14] tremble with fear.
Then there is the majestic procession of divine beasts and birds created by human thought: the Dragon, Phoenix, Qilin, Lion, Suanni, Heavenly Horse, Seahorse, Xiezhi, and Douniu. They are as brilliant as the plants featured in worship: pine, cypress, bamboo, willow, locust, banyan, elm, chrysanthemum, orchid, plum blossom, peach, pomegranate, and peony.
Of course, the most worshipped plant might be that old locust tree in Hongtong, Shanxi. Long, long ago, when villagers were being escorted by officials to migrate to distant lands, the elders told the younger generation: "Remember the old locust tree at the entrance of the village; it is our root."
III. Worship of Deities and Spirits
The content of Chinese folk worship of deities and spirits is exceptionally rich. It includes the worship of phantasmagoria such as gods, ghosts, and spirits; the worship of human figures attributed with supernatural powers, such as gods (shen), immortals (xian), sages (sheng), and shamans (wu); and the worship of imaginary supernatural forces such as numinous objects, souls, and idols.
The philosophical basis of deity and spirit worship is animistic theism, which has permeated the entirety of human history thus far. Theism adapts to human ignorance, naivety, and flights of fancy; consequently, its depiction of the world is likewise a rough, caricature-like sketch.
Among Chinese deities, there are creator gods, guardian deities, ancestral gods, and domestic gods. Theism posits that the world was created by the divine; in Han ethnic tradition, Pangu is the creator of heaven and earth, yet it appears no gods can be found prior to him. The first volume of the Yiwen Leiju [15], citing the Sanwu Liji [16], states: "Heaven and earth were in chaos like a chicken's egg, and Pangu was born within. After eighteen thousand years, heaven and earth split open: the clear yang [17] ascended to become heaven, and the turbid yin became earth. Pangu remained within, undergoing nine transformations a day—divine in heaven and saintly on earth. Every day heaven rose ten feet higher, the earth grew ten feet thicker, and Pangu grew ten feet taller. After another eighteen thousand years, Pangu reached his ultimate height." At the dawn of the opening of heaven and earth, the world was an egg, subsequently pushed apart by the growing Pangu; this bears a certain coincidental resemblance to the contemporary theory of the universe forming from a Big Bang.
Guardian deities are also called protector gods, such as mountain gods, water gods, the Earth God (Tuduye) of the countryside, and the City God (Chenghuang) of the towns. The Earth God is also known as the She god [18]; the Shuowen Jiezi [19] defines She as the "deity of the sovereign earth." The guardian deity of a village or tribe is of paramount importance, reflecting the human pursuit of security. On a map of China, we find many place names in the Jinghong region of Yunnan containing the word "Meng." A Meng is a flat area between mountains—a village built on level ground or a union of several villages. The guardian deities of these villages, the "Meng Gods," are all miraculous figures: individuals who sacrificed their lives to protect the village interests. After death, they continue to guard the village as before, living on in the hearts of the people.
Ancestral god worship is the veneration of the progenitors of one’s clan, whereas domestic god worship is directed toward objects closely related to family life. Within the home, the stove, doors, wells, granaries, beds, and latrines all have presiding deities. The origins of folk fuji [20] sorcery may be related to the legend of the Latrine Goddess, while the importance placed on the New Year’s Eve hearth is clearly linked to the Hearth God. The Latrine Goddess is colloquially known as "Lady of the Third Pit," "Third Aunt," "Lady Qi," "Seventh Aunt," or "Hut Goddess," collectively referred to as Zigu. Various legends exist regarding her origin. Liu Jingshu’s Yiyuan from the Southern Dynasties period records: "There was once a woman named Zigu who, legend says, was a concubine. Resented by the primary wife, she was constantly forced to perform filthy chores and died in grief on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Thus, people fashion her likeness and welcome her at night by the latrine or pigsty, saying: 'The husband is away, the senior wife has returned, the Little Lady may come out.' If the person holding the figure feels it grow heavy, the goddess has arrived. Wine and fruit are offered, and her countenance seems to glow with color as she leaps and dances without stopping. She can divine all matters, foretelling the future of sericulture; she is also skilled at 'shooting the hook' [21]. If pleased, she dances grandly; if displeased, she falls asleep." By the Southern Dynasties, the Zigu cult was already popular, utilizing idol-like objects as ritual implements. By the Tang Dynasty, this custom evolved into the "wicker sieve holding a brush" form of "wicker divination," which is the fuji (planchette writing) or "Pen Fairy" [22] popular today.
In Chinese folklore, gods, ghosts, and spirits permeate every facet of life; no matter is without a god, and no detail is overlooked. A piece of land, a house site, a stove, or a wooden bed all have divine protection. Pregnancy, childbirth, and seeking medical aid also have specific deities in charge. The safety, warmth, hunger, and life cycle of the family are all held in the hands of various domestic gods. Meanwhile, the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother of the West, the Dragon King, and the deities of Fortune, Prosperity, Longevity, Happiness, and Wealth—along with local folk gods—continue to enjoy high visibility even today, despite the promotion of atheism.
Among ghostly spirits, there are king-level entities such as the Ghost Emperor, Yanluo Wang (Yama), the Great Emperor of Mount Tai, and Kshitigarbha (Chief of the Underworld). Beneath the ghost kings are ghost officials, clerks, and soldiers, such as the Magistrate, Marshal Meng, Marshal Wen, Captain Zhang, the City God, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the White and Black Impermanence, and lesser imps. Furthermore, there are domestic ghosts formed from deceased ancestors and malevolent spirits manifested from those who died unnatural deaths.
The belief in "spirits" (jingling) is an extension of the idea that combines the "living souls" of the vibrant with the "departed souls" of the dead, projecting the notion that all natural things possess their own souls. The many extraordinary birds and beasts, or half-human, half-animal creatures with supernatural abilities in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai Jing), are all spirits celebrated in ancient lore.
However, Chinese folk belief does not only worship those natural objects in their primitive state or purely fantastical supernatural forces; nor does it only worship ancestors through the extension of the soul-belief. Worthy of our attention is the worship of figures to whom supernatural powers have been attributed, including god-men, immortals, sages, and shamans.
The worship of "god-men" (shenren) is far more concrete than any other divine worship because they have historical figures as their archetypes. This worship is merely an exaggeration of the merits or sins of historical personages. These figures cover all fields: the thinker Laozi (Li Er); the eminent monks of the Eighteen Arhats, the Five Hundred Arhats, the Cloth-Bag Monk (Maitreya Buddha), Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva, Ji Gong, and Wang Lingguan; the King of Medicine Sun Simiao; the famous general Guan Yu; the tide god Wu Zixu; the god Erlang (Yang Jian); the sea goddess Mazu; the Earth Gods Du Shiyi and Chen Shiyi; the hydraulic engineering deities Li Bing and his son; the door gods Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong; the river god Lin Yi; the god of wine Du Kang; the god of tea Lu Yu; the god of craftsmen Lu Ban; the goddess of weaving Huang Daopo; the god of performing arts Liu Jingting; the god of the pastry industry Emperor Xuan of Han (Liu Xun); the god of medicine Bian Que; the kiln god Shun; and various local City Gods.
The worship of "immortals" (xianren) was formed under the influence of Taoism and is directed toward those who have ascended to immortality. The legend of the "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" is widely circulated in folklore. Zhang Ling, the founder of the Five Pecks of Rice Way [23], is also an immortal esteemed by Taoism. A native of Feng in the State of Pei during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, he founded the Five Pecks of Rice Way (also known as the Orthodox Oneness Celestial Master Sect); thus, Zhang Ling is also called Celestial Master Zhang or Zhang Daoling. Distinct from the "Lower Eight Immortals," the folk also believe in the "Upper Eight Immortals." Celestial Master Zhang is one of the Upper Eight Immortals, alongside the Star of Prosperity, the Star of Longevity, Zhang Xian, Dongfang Shuo, Chen Tuan, Peng Zu, and the Old Mother of Mount Li. The Lower Eight Immortals include the "Two Immortals of Harmony and Union" (He-He Er Xian), Guangchengzi, Guiguzi, Li Babai, Liu Hai, Ma Gu, and Sun Bin.
Hanshan and Shide were eccentric monks of the Tang Dynasty. Hanshan practiced at the Cold Rock of Mount Tiantai during the Zhenquan era. He was described as haggard and tattered, wearing wooden clogs and a birch-bark cap, always laughing. He was adept at composing gathas [24]; later generations collected over 300 of them into the Collected Poems of Hanshan. Shide was originally an orphan found (shide) by the eminent monk Fenggan. He became a temple cook and took care of Hanshan, and the two became bosom friends. Later, they became immortals; the folk regarded them as symbols of friendship, thus invoking the two immortals together as "Hanshan and Shide" and venerating them as the "Two Immortals of Harmony and Union."
The worship of "sages" (shengren)—those who possessed great virtue, wisdom, or courage during their lives—is a form of folk worship closer to the reality of life. The worshipped sages include ancient tribal leaders like Shennong, Fuxi, and the Yellow Emperor; slave-society sovereigns like Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu; representative figures of the Hundred Schools of Thought such as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi; the Lord of Wu and the Martial Marquis (Zhuge Liang) of the Three Kingdoms; and famous virtuous monarchs, ministers, generals, scholars, and officials throughout the dynasties. Folk sage worship is guided by Confucian ideology, advocated by imperial officialdom, marked by the construction of shrines and temples, and sustained through sacrificial worship, becoming a unique element of Chinese belief. In the actual process of worship, the original intent is gradually transformed, and some sages eventually become guardian deities. For example, Yue Fei was worshipped in the Song Dynasty as the guardian god of the Imperial Academy [25]; Taoism later attributed to him the role of a god of swift retribution and karmic justice, and he was even associated with being a God of Wealth or a Door God. By the Ming Dynasty, Qu Yuan had been reimagined as a protector god of the Yangtze River; Guan Yu was transformed into a "god-man" of great miraculous powers. Certain relics were imbued with mystery: it is said the red lotuses at the Lord Bao Shrine are "threadless" (representing his integrity), and corrupt officials dare not drink from the "Incorruptible Well." This shows the devolution of sage worship into superstition.
Shaman worship, including the belief in sorcery, is a primary variety of superstition. A shaman is a sort of quasi-divine cleric who claims to possess supernatural powers. The Shuowen posits: "A wu [shaman] is a supplicant; a woman who can serve the formless and bring down the gods through dance." There are also male shamans, called xi. Chinese shamanism flourished starting from the ancient Shang Dynasty. For over 700 years from the Zhou to the Han, from the imperial court down to the common alleys, matters great and small were governed by shamans, and shamanic customs were ubiquitous.
In the North, the Manchu people—as the main body of the Manchu–Tungusic language group—have worshipped Shamans since ancient times. This sorcerous belief covers a vast region from the Bering Strait to the Ural River on the Scandinavian border, among Altaic peoples (including Lapps and Eskimos). These practitioners, known as Shamans (shamans or fangshi), drew the attention of the British historian of Chinese science, Joseph Needham. In his analysis of Shamanic arts, Needham noted the phonetic similarity between the characters for "shaman" (wu, 巫) and "dance" (wu, 舞), thereby recognizing a link between shamanic practice and dancing. He further discovered that the lower portion of the traditional character for "medicine" (yi, 毉) is precisely the character for "shaman." Of course, perhaps precisely because shamanism is a superstition and the words of shamans are untrue and untrustworthy, adding the "speech" radical (yan, 言) to the character wu (巫) creates the character for "slander" or "falsehood" (wu, 诬).
Shamans are divided into "domestic" and "wild" types. The domestic shaman leads sacrifices to heaven and ancestors wearing robes, beating divine drums, wearing waist bells, and singing divine songs—this is exactly a form of "dance." This "dancer" is the Great Shaman. Usually, when a domestic shaman performs to invite ancestral spirits, the dance is frenzied but not chaotic. The "wild shaman" performing the dancing for the spirits (tiaodashen) uses many ritual implements—bronze mirrors tied to the body, ornaments on the hat, and knives, forks, or whips in hand—claiming to be possessed by various deities, and even possessing the ability to "traverse the darkness" (guoyin) to communicate with the souls of the dead. Shaman worship influences the cult of "perfected immortals" (xianzhen) who seek longevity and the worship of "living buddhas" in daily life; it is close to secular life and exists in the most natural state, and therefore carries the greatest capacity for deception.
The final type of folk deity worship is the veneration of numinous objects, souls, and idols. People believe that small objects can help ward off evil and invite auspiciousness. Amulets, longevity locks, neck rings, and "New Year's money" (yasuiqian) are all numinous objects. The belief in numinous objects such as "drinking blood to seal a pact" (shaxu weimeng) has a market worldwide. Blood, as a numinous substance, can be not only chicken blood but also one's own. American writer Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, repeatedly describes how Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, longing for the life of outlaws, naively imitated such shamanic customs. Today, the worship of numinous objects remains vibrant in the folk, seen in the wormwood and calamus freshly tucked into doorframes during the Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth lunar month, and the wearing of dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival.
Reproduction worship is also a form of numinous object worship. "Vulva worship" and "phallus worship" (qie worship) respectively leave behind the vestiges of sexual object worship from matriarchal and patriarchal clans. Sexual organs made of stone, wood, or clay are numinous objects thought to possess reproductive magic. A stream of water, a natural cave, or a depression can serve as symbols of the vulva, while stalactites are natural symbols of the phallus (qie). The Miao people of Southeast Guizhou worship a pair of progenitor siblings, Jiang央 (Jiang Yang). In the annual ceremony for this ancestral couple, two people chase each other, each carrying a sculpture of the male or female sex organ. The female is in front and the male behind, a rite called "chasing the woman." The male organ is filled with fermented grain water; once the "vulva" is caught, the water is squirted out. The man shouts, "Did it hit?" and the crowd answers in unison, "It hit!"
Returning to ourselves: it is claimed that the soul attached to the human body is called the "living soul" (shenghun). Perhaps the living soul only likes to leave the body for a stroll at night, resulting in dreams. Sometimes, if one is startled, the soul "leaves the body," and family members must "call it back." For the recently deceased, the soul may not have gone far, so there is also the "calling of the soul" to try to bring the dead back to life. If it finally departs and the soul separates from the body, it becomes a "wandering soul" (youhun). Today, both in the West and in China, a type of pseudo-psychological research called "near-death experiences" often describes the process of the soul leaving and returning to the body, doing nothing more than attempting to prove the existence of the soul independent of the physical body.