What is the relationship between ancient novels about gods and monsters and the development of the relationship between mountain beliefs?

The Kunlun Mountains

Human beings emerged from the mountains and forests and took a step towards civilization, and mountain worship is a very important belief for the Chinese people. Many of the remains of ancient civilizations in China are found in the mountains and forests. The mountain culture, which accompanied the emergence of Chinese civilization, has undergone an evolution from primitive nature worship to socialized religious beliefs to ornamental aesthetic sensibilities. Mountains have been written about extensively in various types of literature, including novels.

Compared with other types of novels, such as historical novels and novels of worldly affairs, novels of gods and monsters were undoubtedly the earliest. For example, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Feudalism of the Gods, and so on. The core of the novel is the idea of gods and monsters. The high mountains, dense forests, and the creatures that lived there in various forms and habits were undoubtedly still very mysterious to the primitive ancestors, who had relatively low levels of productivity and understanding. This mysterious sense of nurturing, gave birth to the concept of gods and monsters, when they use mythological thinking to try to explain all kinds of unknowns, they produced a variety of imaginary gods and monsters in the mountains and mountain beliefs, but also naturally born gods and monsters novels.

I. Mountains: the breeding place of monsters

1, mountain worship and mountain monsters

Mountain worship is an ancient belief. The "interpretation of the name" interpretation of the "mountain" day: "mountain, production is also. Produces things." Han Shi Wai Zhuan further pointed out that the mountains are the source of wealth, "grass and trees are born, everything is planted, birds gather, and beasts rest".

Because of the mysterious nature of mountains and valleys and the lack of cognitive ability of the forefathers, the animals and plants in the mountains were gradually deified, and the strange animals and plants with strange functions in the Classic of Mountains and Seas are the concentrated manifestations of this deification. The records of the mountains and mountains in the novels of "Divine Isolation Scripture" and "Museum Journal", while promoting and deifying the mountains and mountains, the status of the mountains and mountains as the abode of magical and strange things has been gradually highlighted. In this way, the spirits and monsters in the novels of gods and monsters live in the mountains, which is a manifestation of the worship of the mountains.

Shan Hai Jing

2, the mountain monsters in the novels

such as The Journey to the West in the demons almost all of them are animal-type monsters. And the prototypes or bodies of these animal-type spirits and monsters are mostly mountain beasts. The tiger is the typical mountain goodness, known as the king of the mountain, and thus the tiger-type monsters are mostly entrenched in the mountains. The monkeys and monkeys rely on the mountains and forests, and the mutated monkeys and monkeys also use the mountains as a place of activity.

Fox spirit can be said to be one of the most popular types of spirits and monsters favored by novelists and literati. The phrase "Birds fly back to their hometowns, and foxes die in the head of the river" in "Chouzhang - Shibujiang" has made "foxes die in the head of the river" a familiar idiom. There is a story in "The Record of Searching for Gods", which says: "There is a mound at the top of the hill, which is an ancient mound, and there is an old fox squatting in the mound". Other novels about gods and monsters also have many fox spirits. Journey to the West" in the pressure of the Dragon Mountain pressure of the Dragon Cave of the nine-tailed fox spirit, Jade Lei Mountain Mo Yun Cave of the jade-faced fox, "Zhaoyang interesting history" in the Pine Nut Mountain of the self-proclaimed king of Wujin nine-tailed wild fox, and so on.

Second, the evolution of mountain beliefs

Mountain beliefs not just mountains. It also includes mountain spirits and ghosts that live in the mountains, and the mountain gods and goddesses associated with the mountains. For the ancients, mountains were the mother of the home where they were born and raised. Dependence on the mountains and the mountains of the treacherous, unknown and fear, and gradually formed the concept of mountain worship. Initially, the worship of mountains is mainly on the natural mountains of the hazy veneration, and in the concept of all things have spirit after the emergence of the object of worship from the mountain evolved into the mountain of the spirit of the mountains. With the maturity of religious consciousness, the mountain spirits were spiritualized and exalted, which in turn gave rise to the concept of mountain gods (the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a concentrated manifestation of this concept of mountain gods).

1, the original mountain faith

Primitive society has a lot of mountain-related legendary stories, the most prominent of which is not Yu. The main achievement of Da Yu was the treatment of water, and the first thing to do was to treat the mountains. Because the mountains are the source of the water: "Yubu Separation of the nine states, with the mountains Ruichuan, any soil for tribute", "Yuxi soil, with the mountains published wood, laying the high mountains and rivers".

The Shanhaijing, which is a concentrated reflection of pre-Qin beliefs about mountains, has a deep connection with Yu. Regardless of the claim that the Classic of Mountains and Seas was written by Yu and Yi, it is a fact that the Classic of Mountains and Seas mentions Yu or the scenery related to him many times, such as: "Yu Ri: 'The world's most famous mountains, through 5,370 mountains, 64,516 miles, and the place of residence.'" This passage shows us that there was a witness to the experiences recorded in the Shanhaijing, and that person was Dayu.

Da Yu's water control

In the Huainanzi - Falling Forms Training, Da Yu again became the creator of mountains: "Yu was to fill the flood with resting soil to make the famous mountains, and dug up the land below Kunlun Hollow, with nine weights of the city of Zengcheng in it." The Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) of the Xia Penjing (Annals of the Grand Historian) describes Yu as "the divine lord of mountains and rivers".

From the above discussion, we can see that the mountains have an important position in the era of the five emperors. Since the relationship between mountains and people is so close, it makes sense that people pay attention to and honor mountains. As in the Yellow Emperor's time, "all the countries and the ghosts and gods of the mountains and rivers and for more than one", the mountains were frequently sacrificed. Mountain Sacrifices of the Yu and Shun period are also well documented in the Shangshu Shundian.

2, Xia, Shang and Zhou mountain beliefs

"State language - Zhou language" in the "Xia's rise, rong descended in the mountains" said; and "Yi" once had "Lianshan" "return to the Tibetan" "Zhou Yi" three kinds of, "Xia's" "Lianshan," "return to the Tibetan" "Zhou Yi," "the" three kinds of. Summer of the "Lianshan" "its Gua to pure Burgundy for the first" country, summer "Yi" to the mountain named, and Burgundy that is the mountain for the first Gua, visible to the mountains of the push. This is perhaps the best interpretation of the summer mountain beliefs flourish.

"Yin people honor the gods, the rate of the people to serve the gods, the first ghosts and then rituals". The wind of honoring gods and ghosts flourished during the Yin and Shang dynasties, and in the event of a disaster, divination was necessary. Among these oracle bones, there are a large number of records related to mountain beliefs. We based on Chen Mengjia in the "Yin false divination synthesis" in the list of oracle bone divination about the mountain god records, statistics oracle bone divination in *** involving fourteen kinds of mountain god: mountain flute Yue, half, Yue, Zhe, Pinnacle, the eye, the face of the pocket, the two mountains, five mountains and ten mountain goats. In these mountain gods, to Yong that Yue "appears most frequently. According to Lin Zhiqiang statistics, oracle bone divination in the "divination Yue of nearly 450 words", and after analysis that: "Yue God for the commander of the mountain gods." Therefore, the merchants' sacrifice to Yue was very solemn.

Oracle bone inscriptions

Qishan was the base and birthplace of the Zhou, and was highly respected by the Zhou before the destruction of the Shang. After the establishment of the Zhou dynasty, the Zhou people's worship of mountains went beyond their own ethnic group, and began to worship the mountain, Songshan, which symbolizes the place of heavenly destiny, as the ruler of the dynasty. Zhou dynasty songshan worship and the worship of the gods of heaven is consistent , that is, songshan worship is the worship of the gods of heaven. Songshan in the zhou dynasty in the literature more called the room of heaven, and there are "heaven in the mountain" and "because of the famous mountain rise in the sky" said.

3, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of mountain faith

Mountain worship is an ancient, with continuity of faith, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of mountain faith and the Western Zhou has a lineage of continuity, but due to the decline of the Zhou royal family after the migration to the east, the vassals, and royal The relationship with the royal family existed in name only. In the ideological field is also the same, cultural pluralism, thought is exceptionally active, each vassal state has its own localized mountain beliefs. Generally speaking, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, there was both primitive worship of mountain spirits and fully personalized beliefs in mountain gods. It had a profound influence on later generations.

Three, mountain beliefs and the emergence of gods and monsters novels

1, mountain gods and ghosts and gods and monsters novels

Spring, Autumn and Warring States period of strong naturalistic mountain spirits (or mountain monsters) beliefs are still relatively common.

Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" contains a chapter on "Mountain Ghosts", and Hong Xingzu of Song said: "Zhuangzi (《庄子》) said: 'There are Kui in the mountains'. (Huainan) day: 'mountain out of howling Yang', the Chu people's shrine, is not this kind?" The mountain ghost is considered to be Kui, which is the same as the mountain ghost. That is to say, the mountain ghost is Kui, that is, the mountain spirit. "Ghost" and God is different, it is a kind of spirit, this kind of spirit, the ancients called "demons and sprites", the folk are mostly called "ghost". And Zhang Taiyan that: "Ghosts, doubt is also a strange good, by the sound into the throat, that is, the sin milk for ghosts. Ghosts and kui sound the same, when this is a thing." That is, the original meaning of "ghost" may refer to monsters.

These concepts are prototypes for novels about gods and monsters.

Qu Yuan

But the mountain ghosts in Qu Yuan's writings only retained the name of folk beliefs, i.e., the mountain ghosts as spirits and monsters existed as literary archetypes, and the mountain ghosts in the later texts have been completely literary and personalized. as a literary image", becoming a grieving female deity". This is obviously a great distance from the folk belief in mountain ghosts, but this personalized mountain ghosts pushed forward the process of evolution from elf-worship to personalized mountain gods, i.e., the literary image of the mountain ghosts fed back into the folk belief in mountains. After that, the goddess of Wushan in Song Yu's Gaotang Fu and Shennu Fu had become a fully personalized mountain goddess, getting rid of the primitive mountain spirit belief from form to content. In addition, "Mountain Ghosts", "Gao Tang Fugue", "Goddess Fugue" and other works are the beginning of Mountain Encounter with Immortals and Love between Man and God in later novels.

2. The belief in the Kunlun Mountains in the novels of gods and monsters

The Kunlun Mountains as the "place of all the gods" began to have a general influence in the Warring States period. There are eight references to Mount Kunlun (or Kunlunqiu or Kunlunxu) in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, and there are at least sixteen myths and legends related to Mount Kunlun. The Zhuangzi also mentions the Kunlun Mountains four times, and this Kunlun Mountain is "the rest of the Yellow Emperor", which is mainly associated with the myth of the Yellow Emperor. The Chusi mentioned Kunlun more frequently, such as the "Tianwen" said: "Kunlun county nursery, the coccyx in? Increase the nine weight of the city, how many miles high? The door of the four directions, who is from it?" Shibu Jiang" cloud: "Ascend the Kunlun Ruoying eat jade Ying, with the world Ruoxi than life, with the sun and moon Ruoxi Qi light.

The Kunlun Mountains in the Chu Rhetoric are obviously already referred to exclusively, but there is a tendency to abstract and symbolize, which seems to refer to the place where the most important gods and goddesses in heaven and earth reside and the path to heaven. There are two points of concern in the influence of the belief in the Kunlun Mountains on later generations: first, the myth of the Kunlun Mountains contributed to the creation of the myth of the Immortal Mountain. First, the Kunlun Mountain myth contributed to the creation of the fairy mountain myth. The Kunlun Mountain in the Chu Rhetoric already showed signs of transformation into a fairy mountain, and Gu Jiegang believed that the construction of the Pengcai, Fangzhang, and other three fairy mountains in the novels of gods and monsters was inspired by the Kunlun Mountain myth. " In later legends and records, the status of the Kunlun Mountains gradually increased," becoming "the middle of the earth" in the "Water Classic", "the pillar in the sky" in the "Dragon Fish River Map", "the place where the gods and immortals live", "the place where the gods and immortals live", and "the place where the gods and immortals live".

Wangmu Xi

The scenes and characters in the myth of the Kunlun Mountains had an impact on the construction of the heavenly realm or fairyland in later religious and literary works. Initially, the supreme gods of the Kunlun Mountains were Huangdi and Xiwangmu, and in the later evolution, the divinity of Huangdi gradually weakened, and finally settled into the role of the ancient human king: while Xiwangmu became more and more powerful in her divinity, and her human and godly image was transformed into the humanized mother of mercy, and the status of the heavenly realm as the great god was gradually established, and eventually became a folklore, The Queen Mother in folklore and popular novels. At the same time, the scenes and scenery of the Kunlun Mountains in the myth of the Kunlun Mountains, such as the Hanging Gardens (the structure of the Nine Heavens), the Yaochi, the Immortal Tree, and the water of the Immortal Elixir, are also absorbed into religious beliefs, building a heavenly realm of the gods in which everything is in its place, and where everything is magnificent and magnificent. In turn, this heavenly setting has been borrowed by novelists, and has taken on a vibrant life in works of fiction about gods and monsters.

3. The Immortals of the Mountain

The stories of the Immortals are recurring themes in the novels of gods and monsters, and many of these stories of the Immortals are related to the mountains in a variety of ways, with the Immortals either living in the mountains, descending to the mountains, visiting the mountains, or being mountain deities. The storyline has mountain cultivation to become immortal type, the mountain encounter fairy type, fairy descending in the mountain or active guide mortals into the mountain fairyland type ...... all kinds of stories in the gods and immortals are related to the mountains, in the view of the ancients, the mountains are high in the clouds, and the sky, is the channel of the gods and mortals, the mountain gods and immortals should be so appear. The gods and goddesses should also be so appear. This is also a mountain belief.

The story of the immortals: The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea

Four, summarize

"The mountains are the place where the spirits gather and hide, and there is no such thing as an empty place, not for the demons to steal, but for the immortals and Buddhas to leave their traces".

From the above, it seems that the relationship between the novels of gods and monsters and the belief in mountains is close and special. The concept of gods and monsters is undoubtedly the core element of the novels of gods and monsters, which determines the characteristics of the novels of gods and monsters differentiated from other types of novels, and the early concepts of gods and monsters can not be separated from the nurturing of the mountain environment, and at the same time, the mountains and things related to the mountains are also the main object of the concepts of gods and monsters at the beginning of the observation.