After killing Murong Ning, Jochi raised his sword above the leader with both hands and shouted loudly: "Warriors help the cowardly, and talented people assist the sages." The greedy and evil leader Murong Ning has died, and we welcome a new leader, Murong Ke, the heir of the Murong family's royal family! ”

The hundreds of surrounding warriors raised their swords together and shouted, "Great Leader Murong!" Murong Chief! ”

The surrounding herders were silent, they had not yet understood what was happening.

Murong Ke waved his hand, and he said, "From today onwards, the tax in the tribe will be halved!" I will bring you a life of abundance! ”

The herders didn't shout with joy, but they all had smiles on their faces.

Murong Ke understood that it was not a day to subdue people's hearts, so he waved his hand to let the herdsmen disband and go to rest.

The next day, Murong Ke went to visit the shamans in the tribe.

The word "shaman" can also be transliterated as "Shanman", "Yama", etc. The word is derived from the Tungusic word saman and the North American Indian word shamman, and the original word contains: wise, knowing, inquiry, etc., and gradually evolved into the special name of the shamanic shaman, that is, the person who dances the gods, and is also understood to be the agent and incarnation of the shaman gods in these clans.

In the steppes, shamans are physicians, priests, and spiritual leaders all in one. Therefore, Murong Ke needs his help to stabilize people's hearts.

The scrawny old shaman opened his cloudy eyes and said gloomily, "I can feel that your soul is from another world. ”

"Otherworldly?" Murong Ke smiled coldly, looked directly at the old shaman and said, "In every shaman's soul, there are elements of the other world!" ”

"How do you know?" The old shaman was astonished.

Many shamans become shamans after falling ill. The Yakuts call it shamanic disease, which first goes through a coma phase, about three days, and then is reborn and has to learn everything again. If you slaughter another sheep, you can find a teacher to learn and become a shaman.

Sound familiar? It's a feeling of being possessed by a traverser!

The power of shamans in some societies is thought to have been inherited from other shamans who have been "spiritually conjured": the behavior of a Siberian shaman may have been portrayed by Western physicians as a psychopath, but Siberian culture interprets it as a possession of a spirit.

Shamans are able to communicate with spirits to heal those who are deeply affected by the Demonic Path: some societies distinguish between healing shamans and harmful shamans (white shamans and black shamans); Others believe that all shamans have healing and harming powers; In other words, shamans are also considered to have the ability to harm others in some societies. Shamans usually enjoy great power and prestige in the community, but they can also be feared by suspicions of harm.

The word shaman is derived from the Siberian Manchurian-Tungusic word saman, and through Russian it becomes the English shaman, which refers to a shaman who practices shamanic techniques.

In the Tungusic word saman, sa means to know (to kno), and saman means "knower" (he ho knos) in the literal sense, so the name knower means that shamanism is a way to gain knowledge.

Shamanism is a general term for a phenomenon, there is no dogma or a specific belief system, different traditional shamanism has different ways of practice and characteristics, and the general definition of shamanism is also derived from its experience and technology.

Jonathan Horitz said, "Shamanism is not about faith, it's about experience. ”

Horitz defines a shaman as "the deliberate alteration of his state of consciousness in order to come into contact with and/or enter another reality from which power and knowledge can be attained." After completing the mission, the shaman travels back to his original world to use the power and knowledge he has gained to help himself or others. ”

The so-called reality is more mysterious, and the shamanic journey is just that. The spirit soul body completely travels through the other world, different time and space, and then can return to the original world. And use the power and knowledge you gain to change your life!

Since he said it, the old shaman looked at Murong Ke with burning eyes and said, "Your soul is unusually full, follow me to learn to be a shaman, right?" ”

Murong Ke shook his head and said, "Our soul and body are all given by the God of Thunder, and when we were born, the soul completely belonged to the God of Thunder. I can't follow you as a shaman. But I need to learn the knowledge of shamans, which is also a command given to me by Thor. ”

"Thor?" The old shaman shook his head and said, "We think that the stone god is the first great god to appear in the universe."

He began to talk about the shamanic origin of man:

Like water, stone is the mother body that gave birth to the first life in the universe in mythology. This first life is called the stone god, and the world was created by this primordial cosmic god.

As the source and support of fire, stone is regarded as the mother of the universe or a symbol of the vitality of the universe. Therefore, the concept of stone gods is closely related to fire mythology and fire beliefs.

In Manchu mythology, there is a goddess named Duokohuo. According to legend, when the heavens and the earth were not divided, there was this ancient goddess, who lived in stone and gave birth to the cosmic god of light and heat.

Abu Kaheh, the Heavenly Mother, was tricked into the snowy mountains by the demon Yaruli, and the huge snowdrifts weighed her cold and hungry, so she swallowed the stones at the bottom of the snowy mountains and the goddess Dokoho in the stones.

The heat of Dokoho burned Abukaheh restlessly, and he crashed out of the snowy mountains at once.

The heat melted Abukah's limbs, his eyes became the sun and the moon, his hair became a forest, and his sweat became a stream.

Stone mythology places great emphasis on the cosmic significance of the creation of stone fire, that is, it is the earliest life form in the universe. The stone god is also the first great god to appear in the universe. It is the root of all things in the world and the cosmic deity who created all things.

This is also one of the multiple forms in which the universe of shamanism originates. Some Manchu surnames regard stones as ancestral gods, and use stones to represent gods, or that stones are the hiding places of gods.

During the sacrifice, the clansmen bow to the white pebbles, and the shaman sings: "Mother's ancestral stone, mother's ancestral stone, bright ancestral stone, life's ancestral stone, and the mother stone god ancestor of Wandai Kaiji." ”

In folklore, the stone is also a borrowed body for the shaman's soul, and the shaman uses the vitality of the stone to nourish the soul and enhance the soul power.

Shaman costumes are also decorated with sacred stones, either to nourish the shaman's soul power, or to represent the gods, or to protect themselves with sacred stones.

Murong Ke did not forget his mission, he said, "Tell me about the concept of shamanism and the worship of faith."

The old shaman explained energetically:

The basic concepts include the concept of the soul, the concept of the gods, and the concept of the Three Realms

Soul Concept:

It is believed that all kinds of things in the world have souls, and the blessings and misfortunes brought to people by changes in nature are all manifestations of the will of various spirits, ghosts, and gods.

Shamanism believes that people have several souls. The Hezhe people believe that there are three souls:

(1) The soul of life (斡仁). Given by the God of life, it is always with the life of man, and when he dies, he leaves the body forever and disappears.

(2) The soul of thought (Hani). As a person waking up in his thoughts and dreams, it is a temporary retreat from physical and other soul encounters. When a person dies, it does not disappear, and it is necessary to ask the shaman to send it to the underworld, so as not to cause trouble in the world and harm people and animals.

(3) Reincarnated Soul (Fagaku). It is given by the god of rebirth, and after death, according to the conduct of the person before death, or reincarnated as a human being, or reincarnated as an animal or animal, women are infertile or miscarried, and it is believed that they do not have a reincarnated soul or that the soul is taken. The spirits heard only their voices, but not their forms.

Concept of Gods:

Shamanism often endows fire, mountains, trees, sun, moon and stars, thunder and lightning, clouds, ice and snow, wind and rain, rainbows, and certain animals with personified imagination and mystified spirituality, and is regarded as a god who governs nature and the world.

In particular, the concept of ghosts and gods formed by the spirits of ancestors and the fear caused by various diseases and deaths in the world are at the heart of the shamanic concept of gods.

It is believed that all kinds of gods and spirits have the same will, desire and **** as human beings, and there is a distinction between good and evil, which cannot be disobeyed or offended.

All kinds of gods and goddesses have different attributes and functions, each in its own way, each in its own way, generally equal in status, very rarely under the control, most of them have no hierarchical differences, and there is no god who dominates everything.

However, in the shamanism of the Mongols, Manchus and Daur tribes, which entered the feudal society, the concept of the gods (Tengri) appeared, and gradually rose to a higher position than the gods.

Concept of the Three Realms:

The Hezhe people thought that the universe was divided into upper, middle and lower realms, the upper layer was heaven, where the gods lived, and it was divided into seven layers, and the most authoritative gods were at the top; The middle realm is where people, animals and plants are located; The Nether Realm is the underworld, which is also divided into several layers, which are inhabited by ancestral spirits, ordinary undead spirits, and large and small ghosts.

Humans are caught in the middle, under the influence of divine blessings and ghosts.

Only a shaman can reach the upper and lower realms and dredge the affairs of the three realms.

Beliefs and worship include: worship of nature, worship of animals, and worship of ancestral gods

Worship nature

(1) Fire worship. It is believed that fire comes from the heavenly realm, which is the most sacred, clean, and kind, and can wash away all filth, drive away demons, and ask questions and blame, etc., and that no religious ritual can be separated from fire, and all kinds of sacrifices must be offered to the god of fire first.

(2) Worship the mountain. The mountain was once the dwelling or origin of the ancestors of the clan and tribe, and dominated all kinds of birds and beasts. The ancient Turkic khans would go to the cave where their ancestors lived every year to kill animals and sacrifice them together with the leaders of various tribes, which was called the sacred mountain.

(3) Worship the sun, moon and stars, wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

Worship animals

The Evenki and Oroqen people are extremely in awe of bears, believing that they are their ancestors and forbidding hunting.

Worship ancestral gods

Under the domination of the concept of ancestral god worship, the explanation of the ancestral god is often added to the disease of humans and animals. At the same time, special attention was paid to the signs of dreams and everyday phenomena, believing that they were the omen of the ancestral gods, so many rituals, taboos, and interpretations were prescribed.

(End of chapter)