The Cultural Environment of Maogusi's Origin (Part 4)
Wu and Tujia Maogusi. For a time, wu was both a mode of behavior and a mode of thought, forming a consensus among the ancestors of the Tujia. Wu became a sharp weapon governing people's thinking; people measured their words and actions by wu, used it to foster moral awareness, and formed a shared order through it.
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Witchcraft and the Tujia Maogusi
For a certain period, witchcraft was both a behavioral pattern and a mode of thinking. It formed a consensus among the entire Tujia ancestors. Witchcraft became a sharp weapon that ruled people's thoughts at the time. People used witchcraft to measure their words and actions, used witchcraft to make people develop a moral consciousness, and used witchcraft to form a bond linking ethnic groups and tribes. Witchcraft became the spiritual treasure of the Tujia ancestors. However, contemporary views of witchcraft are very subjective. Some dictionaries' explanations of "witchcraft" are still debatable. For example, one dictionary explains "witch" as: "A witch is a person who prays to gods to swindle money." This is clearly derogatory. This is the product of modern materialists sneering at witchcraft. Especially the four characters "swindle money" carry too much weight. Even the authoritative "Cihai" explanation contains derogatory meaning. "Cihai" explains witchcraft as: "A person who pretends to be possessed by spirits and ghosts and takes praying for others as a profession." Apart from the fact that these dictionaries have not conducted in-depth research on the explanation of witchcraft, even such an explanation is too limited and too one-sided. This is only a definition of those in modern society who pretend to be possessed by spirits and ghosts for the purpose of swindling money. It does not delve into the historical role of witchcraft, does not look at problems with a historical perspective, and does not see the certain contributions witchcraft made to humanity in its early stages.
The influence of witchcraft on all humanity is extremely important. In primitive society, first, witchcraft occupied people's minds and became the basis governing people's actions; second, witchcraft penetrated every corner of society, and people felt its presence at all times and could not do without its constraints; third, witchcraft was universally recognized by people, and whether it was national affairs or people's daily trivial matters, witchcraft was indispensable. Not only the Tujia people believed in witchcraft; in ancient times, the entire Chinese nation believed in witchcraft and superstition in various divination techniques. In the ancient classic "Rites of Zhou", there is even a special chapter called "Shiren" (Diviners), which says: "For all great affairs of state, first divine by milfoil, then by shell."
It can be said with complete certainty that witchcraft is a ladder of human civilization and progress, a major driving force pushing human society forward, a sharp sword that lifted the mysterious veil of humanity's transition from a savage society to a civilized society, and a sharp weapon that exercises the human brain and lets people spread the wings of imagination. Without witchcraft, human society would have delayed its progress by tens of thousands of years. If the roles witchcraft played in human history were all erased, that is, if one did not use the perspective of human social development, did not use an anthropological perspective to understand and identify witchcraft, but merely gave a very inaccurate definition based on some dark sides of witchcraft, this would at least be subjective. Of course, in today's society there are also people and things like those explained in "Cihai", who take amassing wealth as their purpose and have lost the basic principles of being human. They are the dregs of society. These people cannot be mentioned in the same breath as witchcraft, and we should strictly distinguish them from witchcraft. Those "who pray to gods to swindle money" have alienated the original purpose of witchcraft. They are not witchcraft in the true sense, but have used witchcraft as a means of deception. For such people, public security organs and industrial and commercial departments should strictly ban and crack down on them.
In ancient times, there were definitions for those engaged in the profession of witchcraft, with distinctions between male and female. Specifically, women were called wu (witch), and men were called xi (sorcerer). "Shuowen" says: "A woman who can serve the formless and bring down gods through dance." That is, ritual activities using spells, objects, or behaviors to achieve a certain expected effect. Tylor called it the misuse of association of ideas, relieving emotional pressure through pretense. Therefore, witchcraft is a substitute for venting and stimulation when means to achieve a goal are lacking. Evans-Pritchard believed that witchcraft did not arise because of emotion; rather, it induced the generation of emotional states. For this reason, Frazer specifically distinguished imitative witchcraft and contagious witchcraft, and he believed that both science and religion originated from witchcraft.
According to Frazer's principle of similarity in imitative witchcraft and the theory of things sharing their original nature in contagious witchcraft, we see that the mode of thinking running through witchcraft is analogical reasoning. Some people have also found similar things in the thinking of artists and children, but let us not discuss that here. However, one thing is certain: magical thinking is a universal mode of human thought. Levi-Strauss believed that everyone has both scientific and magical thinking components in their minds, with no distinction of high or low, noble or base. So-called progress, he said, is merely the projection of unchanging cognitive power onto new objects. This is the essence of magical thinking—analogical reasoning—bestowing the experience of one domain onto another, and its most typical vestige is none other than metaphor—metaphor is a cognitive way of describing and viewing the world. To achieve this cognition, the principle of similarity plays a core role. What is analogy? It is imitation, similarity, distinction, and comparison. Analogy allows us to see cause and effect, expands the domain of experience, and gives meaning to ourselves and the world. Analogical thinking and rational thinking have equal validity in cognition. The Tujia Tima, whether performing rituals or ordinarily treating people's illnesses, apply some analogical methods, which can achieve the effect of overcoming disease spiritually.
Little do people know that witchcraft played a very important role in human history, providing comfort to people's souls and practical guidance for human production and life. In Chinese history, witchcraft is recorded relatively extensively in relevant documents. "Zhouyi" (Book of Changes), honored by Chinese people as the first of the "Thirteen Classics", is a thoroughly witchcraft book. Before "Zhouyi", there were also two witchcraft books, "Lianshan" and "Guicang", but unfortunately these two witchcraft books were long lost, and modern people do not know their actual contents. As for the surviving "Zhouyi", for thousands of years mathematicians have regarded it as the standard. "Zhouyi" is divided into two major parts: "Yijing" and "Yizhuan". "Yijing" is a book of divination, compiled around the Yin and Zhou dynasties, and is a relic of ancient official history culture; "Yizhuan" is a work from the late Warring States period, a philosophical work with its own system, reflecting the worldview of the emerging feudal class.
"Yi" is a kind of divination activity, originating from primitive religious witchcraft. "Yijing" is the oldest classic in Chinese culture. Orthodox scholars of past dynasties praised it with many different words, roughly speaking, honoring it as "the first of all classics". "Yijing" was originally the learning of divination in ancient times, but by the time of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, after King Wen's arrangement and annotation, it moved from the scope of divination into the academic field of "the relationship between heaven and humanity". Thus, the book "Jianyi" became the foundation of Chinese humanistic culture. Since the Eastern Zhou dynasty, after Confucius's research and transmission, it also dispersed into the source of the academic thoughts of the Hundred Schools of Thought. This is an undeniable fact. Therefore, if one wants to study Chinese culture, whether it is Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, or Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and other schools after the Tang and Song dynasties, without exploring "Yijing", one would have the sense of forgetting one's origins.
"Yi" is divination. According to "Rites of Zhou", the Zhou dynasty established the office of "Taibu" (Grand Diviner), who was in charge of divination according to the "Three Yi". Zheng Xuan's commentary on "Rites of Zhou: Chun Guan: Taibu" says: "Yi means the numbers of change in milfoil divination that can be used for prognostication." "Guanzi: Shanquan" says: "Yi is what is used to observe success and failure, good and bad fortune." "Yi is to examine people's feelings and the principles of virtue, and to divine good or bad fortune for those who do not follow them." From this it can be seen that there is a certain reason why "Yijing" is called a "book of divination". "Yi", as a kind of divination and milfoil divination activity, is itself a kind of witchcraft. There is reason to believe that the multi-level and multi-directional interpretations and derivations surrounding "Zhouyi" through the ages, and Yixue, are typical manifestations of the witchcraft-history tradition as the spiritual origin and core of Chinese civilization.
In addition, another classic, "Shangshu" (Book of Documents), also clearly records:
"When resolving doubts, choose and appoint diviners by milfoil and shell, and then command them to divine. The signs are called rain, clearing, cloud, connected, controlled, steadfast, and regretful, seven in all. Five are by shell, two are used for prognostication, and variations are derived. Appoint these people to perform divination by milfoil and shell. If three people divine, follow the words of two. If you have a great doubt, consult your own heart, consult the ministers and officers, consult the common people, and consult divination by milfoil and shell."
From this passage, it can be seen that in ancient times, the concept of witchcraft was everywhere, and no one did not believe in it.
In addition, the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a book that synthesizes the great achievements of shamanism, recording a great deal of shamanic content. As to which region this work emerged from, or which area serves as its geographical background, scholars ancient and modern have offered divergent views and held to their own opinions, and to this day it remains an unsolved riddle awaiting decipherment. From what geographical vantage point did the author of the Classic of Mountains and Seas survey China, Asia, and even the world? Deeply sensing the mysterious cultural connotations and distinctive regional flavor revealed in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, one finds that it narrates a great deal of mountain-and-river geography and strange phenomena. When recounting legends of ethnic origins, it mostly speaks of the Xia people and very rarely touches on the Zhou or Qin; it possesses a strong shamanic-land coloring and the mysterious aura of shamanic culture. The Classic of Mountains and Seas was completed around the time of the Western Zhou; it was initially transmitted orally and only later took written form. The myths and legends, mountain-and-river geography, fierce birds and strange beasts, and exotic flowers and plants recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas are mostly directly or indirectly related to shamanism. If one examines its contents, they appear broad and miscellaneous, seemingly all-encompassing, yet all of this was to meet the needs of shamanism as a social function. Its narration of mountains and rivers and the animals and plants produced in each place was to enable shamans to understand the deities presiding over each mountain, the methods of sacrifice, and omens of good and ill fortune—not to compose a 'geography book' or 'treatise on natural history'; its narration of fragmentary historical facts of high antiquity was to enable shamans to clarify the origins and transmission of the various gods and the various systems formed by the gods, its purpose by no means being to record and recount history. In the benighted age of ancient humanity, the shaman was the medium between humans and the heavenly gods; people fantasized about using the shaman's divine powers to reach the celestial realm, praying for the elimination of disaster and the descent of blessings. Only one who thoroughly understood astronomy, geography, history, and all things in the world could be equal to this office. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, 'Great Wilderness West Classic' also records: 'The grandson of Yandi was named Lingjia; Lingjia begot Husheng, who could go up and down to heaven.' 'Ling' is the shaman; 'going up and down to heaven' means being able to communicate with the gods. The record in the 'South Classic of the Seas' concerning 'Mengtu, the son of Xia Hou Qi, who served the gods in Ba' allows one to infer that Mount Wu in the legendary Xia dynasty period was the center of shamanic religion and had close interactions with the Central Plains region. The author has already discussed shamans and shamanic culture in previous text. Based on ancient documentary records verified against modern archaeological cultures, most scholars believe: the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which Lu Xun called 'an ancient shamanic book,' most likely originated from the Tujia region where shamanic customs prevailed. The Classic of Mountains and Seas recounts famous mountains and great rivers and strange tales and legends from within and beyond the seas; in the Han dynasty it was already a work on regional affairs and natural history, and both the Book of Sui and the Book of Tang classified it under the history section, geography category—one can imagine how much its content concerns geography. Qu Yuan, thoroughly versed in shamanism, may have absorbed the Classic of Mountains and Seas-style primitive religious mode of thinking, yet also walked out of shamanic customs and out of myth, writing the vast, profound, extraordinary, and uncommon 'Heavenly Questions.' Shamans excelled in divination and illusion-inducing arts, could communicate with the gods and ghosts of heaven and earth, and foretell future fortune and misfortune. Mount Wu is the numinous mountain, the place where shamans 'go up and down to heaven.' Because of the need to sacrifice to the gods, shamans mostly understood astronomy and geography. The 'Shaman Xian Kingdom' recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas must also be in the Tujia region, and the 'Ten Shamans,' that group of famous great shamans appearing repeatedly in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, must also have come from shamanic territory and shamanic land. Thus one can also conclude: since the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a shamanic book, it must have been collectively created by a group of shamans, and must have emerged from a place where shamanic clans were concentrated and within a shamanic cultural sphere where shamanic customs flourished; it is extremely unlikely to have emerged from the Yellow River basin where Confucian thought held dominant sway, and its author is extremely unlikely to have been a scholar or historian ignorant of shamanism. The shamanic cultural sphere of the Tujia region around the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan (Chongqing), and Guizhou had a broad range of influence; it gradually expanded and extended outward in all directions, radiating across Hubei, Shu, western Hunan, and southeastern Guizhou, and the Yunnan theory may also be within the reach of its radiation.