The sacrifices in the nearby cities of Sucheng are different from those in Xiacheng: they all worship the ancestors of heaven and earth, and offer various utensils and food for blessings or prayers. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, the artifacts offered to the ancestors in the cities near Sucheng were different from those used by living people, and in most cases they were not as good as those used by living people: the qin had wooden frames without strings, cattle and sheep but were made of thatch, and garments were made of frugal materials.

According to Su Yue's explanation, when the soul of a person goes to another world after death, then the utensils they use should be different from those used by the living.

Chen Jian began to preside over the sacrifice of Xia Cheng at the age of fifteen, and now two years have passed, but it is still only in the external form, and there is no reasonable worldview to explain why the sacrifice and the various rituals of the sacrifice are just sacrifices for the sake of sacrifice.

This kind of chieftain, who knows nothing about sacrifices, is seen as a joke on both sides of the river. It's just that Xia Cheng is quite advanced in technology, and it is also considered meritorious to save the Acropolis in the northwest, and this kind of joke is not easy to mention among the leaders.

For the sacrifice itself, each leader or priest has his own understanding, and Chen Jian is the only person who has presided over the sacrifice without understanding the connotation, and he is also regarded as an outlier.

He has his own understanding, but what he understands is incompatible with these people, because he always disassembles and crumples all the beautiful and good things to see, and often can only see the helpless inevitability under the material and the connotation forcibly given by the helpless man.

Sacrifices like Aagi were established decades ago when the clans were aligned, and each clan followed this norm and etiquette that was understood by most people.

These include the difference between sacrificial vessels and living utensils, who is qualified to sacrifice and who is not, and the changes in sacrifices due to the gods and ancestors, the seasons and disasters, and so on.

After Su Yue explained some of the rules, Jian Chen quickly understood these sacrificial rules that seemed strange to him, and explained them with his own worldview, keeping them in mind.

The sacrifice stems from people's longing for their deceased loved ones and respect for the unknown mystical power between heaven and earth.

However, Chen Jian believes that the person who formulated these rules of sacrifice must not be a very pious, irrational priest, but a genius who guides people on how to sacrifice on the premise that everyone's worldview can accept, a genius priest who grew up in this era and is beyond the irrational thinking of this era.

For example, those exquisite brass vessels cannot be used for sacrifice, but can only be sacrificed with some common utensils, and the so-called sufficiency for the gods to see their hearts is only a second-in-the-fold meeting, but I am afraid that the real reason for this is still the materialism that is naked, unpleasant, and unaesthetically devoid of beauty--it is difficult to explain, but it is very realistic--under the lack of materials, they do not dare to offend the gods and ancestors, and they try to leave a limited number of good things for the living, give the gods and ancestors some broken things to fool them, and use this kind of thing to give this fool a sacralized cloak, for peace of mind.

For example, people who are tied with grass and cattle and sheep are sacrificed unless they are martyred on some special occasions, a beautiful and romantic explanation is the awakening of human nature and the hymn of civilization full of progress, while people with a worldview like Chen Jian seem to be much darker and disgusting: at the beginning of the emergence of sacrifice, the level of productivity was low, and feeding slaves was a loss compared to the work that slaves could do, so slaves were mostly used for sacrifices. However, with the development of sedentary agriculture, the value created by slaves gradually increased, and large-scale human sacrifice gradually stopped.

This explanation is not aesthetically pleasing, and it makes many people lose the freshness and beauty of their imaginations, so many people do not want to believe it.

Religion, etiquette, and morality were only the outward manifestations of the economic activities and material bases of the time; In the final analysis, the superstructure of laws, ceremonies, and other things of any era must be interpreted on the basis of the material conditions of the time, and thus fall into a sad and helpless inevitability.

This is the reason why Jian Chen wants to laugh, Su Yue talks a lot, and it can be seen that Su Yue himself believes in the connotation, but in the final analysis, it is the sages of this group who use a cunning way to fool the gods.

Chen Jian believes that the people who formulated these rules many years ago must have believed that the dead were dead, and it was not good for the people after the death to occupy the utensils used by the living who were already scarce.

But before the rules appeared, the sacrifice had already appeared and gradually formed a scale, and it was impossible to oppose it, because this is the worldview of all people, in this worldview: sacrifices, prayers, people and animals, it is moral to do it, and it is morally corrupt to not do it.

The sage who formulated the rules did not oppose it entirely, but used the rules to restrain it, and Su Yue explained to Chen Jian that when the material conditions were not abundant at this time, the sacredness of the sacrifice itself was overwhelmed by the materiality, and it was not until the material was rich that the sacredness could fully overwhelm the materiality and become the most important part.

The sacrificial utensils should not be too good to be the same as those used by the living, on the grounds that the world of the soul is different from that of the living.

The sacrifice should be made mainly by the head of the city, and the rest of the families can be sacrificed alone, but they cannot be exchanged for the utensils used to buy the sacrificial vessels, and the chief's utensils must be borrowed when the rest of the people need to be sacrificed. This was to prevent the sacredness of the sacrifice from becoming the first choice of the people, leading some not-so-wealthy families to exchange the few surplus goods for unusable sacrificial vessels, on the grounds that the sacrificial goods could only be owned by the chiefs and priests.

Human martyrdom still exists, but human martyrdom itself has changed from prisoners of war slaves to some beautiful women and children, because with the development of agriculture, women have gradually lost their status in the gathering era due to physical strength, and the soul may also need women, in other words, women have become a usable object in the sacrifice at this time, just like those cattle and sheep utensils, only the use of the nature of the person itself.

On the whole, it is progressive, a struggle between the rational and the irrational of man, and all the rules are designed to prevent people from falling into irrational mass sacrifices, and to restrain and guide them with an acceptable reason.

This kind of progress also existed in the history of Jian Chen's previous life, it was not that the people of this world were out of the times, and those clans that fell into irrational sacrifices were not nothing, and the dark witch sacrifices existed in some corners of the world in the previous life until the gunpowder age.

The sages may not have systematically generalized rational and irrational, but the choices they made were the best solution in the mark of the times.

After listening to those rules that were extremely cumbersome and savored but full of wisdom, Jian Chen's originally uncontrollable smile dissipated, and the smile at the beginning turned into respect at this time.

At least this race has gone the right way in the age of ignorance, and it should be far ahead of the rest of the races, and be the first to have rational thinking, so as not to let the whole race fall into the huge waste of uncontrollable religious sacrifices.

They are still afraid of heaven and earth, and they are still afraid of the gods, but they have fooled the gods with their wisdom, and they have found excuses to make themselves feel at ease, and even the people who make the rules may know that they are wrong, but as long as they believe it, it is good - this is nothing less than a simple and naïve idea that people will conquer the heavens, otherwise they would not dare to be fooled.

As for the fact that people in the future infinitely expanded the sacredness of sacrifice for reasons such as hereditary power and class differentiation, it is not the fault of the sages.

Moreover, even at that time, the sacrifice was materially divided between the nobles and the commoners because of the cloak of sacredness, and the sacrifice had to be large-scale, costly, and could not break the rules, and it was not something that could be prayed for by just putting a cake and making a shrine, and the common people could not afford to sacrifice.

Over time, perhaps this division will make the commoners farther and farther away from the sacrifice, the sacrifice is sacred but too far away from the ordinary people, and they can only look up but dare not break the rules and sacrifice at will.

This sense of distance will form a kind of pan-belief and belief in the gods, making it difficult for the religion of worshipping shrines at will to gain a foothold, unless the high-level of the entire ethnic group is collectively converted, this possibility is very small, and at that time it will be completely conquered by the alien race, and Chen Jian will be obliterated, and the world will no longer exist.

Chen Jian, who had experienced the passage of living in the Rumao Blood-Drinking Cave, had a deep respect for his ancestors, especially those who had shaped a general worldview and ethnic alliance.

By the time Su Yue finished explaining these rules, the only remaining pride in his heart was gone, maybe the sage would not have thought about it for so long, but little by little it influenced and shaped the entire ethnic group's concept of religion, sacrifice, etc., moisturizing things silently, and by the time someone could systematically explain the historical difference from the rest of the ethnic groups, this concept had been infiltrated into the bones of the clansmen with the great river of thousands of years, and it had already taken shape.

People are all human beings, but in history the formation of a distinction between character and concept, this kind of similar concept and character of people to form an imaginary and real blood community is a nation, a nation can not be created in a day, but needs the entire group of thousands of years of life to form universally acceptable values and habits.

The extermination of the nation, in addition to the physical elimination of blood relations, and then the mutual invasion of living habits, language, and values, this kind of hidden war will continue forever, no flesh and blood, but deadly and the most difficult to detect.

But here, this step, this race, is leading. As for the future, Jian Chen really wants to see what will become of him in the future.

The respect after thinking about it had not yet dissipated, Jian Chen bowed down and asked, "I don't know which clan this sage who set the rules belongs to?" ”

Su Yue replied proudly: "My kindred. Hua's wife, the former patriarch of the Su clan, and the priest of the Hwaseong Society. ”

Jian Chen sighed in admiration, Su Yue's face became serious for the first time, and said solemnly: "Ji Xia has heard so much, but have you written it down?" That's the second thing I'm going to say. Before the alliance, it is up to you how Xia Cheng worships it, but since you are ready to return to your kinship, please follow this rule with Xia Cheng and you, this is unchangeable. ”

Chen Jian nodded again and again: "Thank you for the teachings of the leader of Su Yue, Xia Cheng is far away in the northwest after all, and it is much more vulgar, and I also ask the leader of Su Yue to send some people who know the rules to Xia City." Since these ritual vessels cannot be sacrificed to ancestors, then please ask the leader of Suyue to accept them and distribute them to their children. ”

Su Yue was very satisfied with those brass artifacts, and said with a smile: "Since it is Ji Xia's good intentions, I will accept it." But these utensils could not be distributed among their children, and these golden bronze vessels were not for them to enjoy, and they were allowed to entertain the rest of the chiefs. Those shiny utensils can be divided among them, and they must like Ji Xia's gift. ”

Chen Jian breathed a sigh of relief, watched the box of lead ware being covered and put away, smiled and toasted a glass of wine to the sages, and also toasted Su Yue, when he asked Xia Cheng to be consistent with the rules of the sacrifice, this glass of wine was what Chen Jian should respect, this is a qualified clan alliance leader. (To be continued.) )