The Origin of Archery in Primitive Society (II)

The carrier of primitive witchcraft culture Research shows that primitive humans worshipped nature very early. Nature worship does not mean worshipping all nature, but worshipping those natural phenomena that are often related to human daily life and those natural forces that have the greatest impact on humans. Such as the sun, stars, land, mountains and rivers, thunder and lightning, wind and rain, fire, animals and plants, etc. Nature worship, as a form of belief, reflects the weakness of humans in the struggle for survival and their blind dependence on nature at that time. However, it is undeniable that it is this phenomenon of seeking spiritual comfort through blind dependence that has formed the most primitive religion. On the basis of the continuous expansion of the objects of worship and the deepening and diversification of the purposes of worship, primitive religion has also shown a certain stylized phenomenon in form, which is what later generations call witchcraft. Witchcraft is a social phenomenon that accompanies the coexistence of human society. It attempts to influence human life or nature through certain ritual performances and the magic of spells.

Due to the importance of bows and arrows in primitive social life, they have become an important carrier of primitive witchcraft culture. For example, the second version of Laozi unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty Tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui, Changsha, has a record in its "Sixteen Classics·Correcting Chaos" chapter: "Huangdi met Chiyou, and then captured him, peeled off his skin and made it into a Ganhou. He asked people to shoot it, and those who hit it many times would be rewarded." This means that after Huangdi defeated and killed Chiyou, in order to vent his remaining hatred, he peeled off Chiyou's skin and made it into a Ganhou, and asked soldiers to shoot it with bows and arrows, and said that those who shot it many times would be rewarded. This behavior process is witchcraft. It uses the form of shooting Hou with bows and arrows to curse the rebellious primitive tribal leaders. The same situation also happened in "Dragon Fish River Map": Later, the world was disturbed again, and Huangdi drew the image of Chiyou to intimidate the world. Because Chiyou was considered a famous god of war, Huangdi also relied on his power when he ruled.

In addition, "Shiwu Jiyuan·Shede" says: "Yu Shu says: Hou uses it to make it clear. The note says: Make the ritual of shooting Hou to make it clear about good and evil. So shooting Hou first appeared in Yao and Shun." This means that archery witchcraft can also achieve the effect of promoting good and eliminating evil. Therefore, "Zhou Li, Kaogong Ji, Zi Ren" preserves the remnants of this witchcraft culture, "Its words say: Only if Ning Hou, the mother or the daughter is not Ning Hou, not belonging to the king, so resist and shoot the girl." This practice of "shooting the unresting Hou" is to curse the rebellious princes with the help of archery witchcraft.

In ancient my country, there were historical facts that Hou was made to shoot because he was not peaceful and did not come to the court, and there were also historical facts that he shot his portrait or shot the statue of the patron saint or monarch of the enemy country because he did not come to the court. For example, Ding Hou did not come to the court, so Qi Taigong drew his portrait and shot him; Song Wangyan cast the portraits of the princes and shot their noses, carved wooden figures with their names and shot their faces. Therefore, there are many examples of using archery to curse in later generations. For example, "Historical Records·The Annals of Yin" says: "Emperor Wu Yi was immoral, so he made a doll and called it a god. He played with it and asked people to walk. The god was defeated, so he insulted it. He made a leather bag, filled it with blood, sealed it and shot it, and called it "shooting the sky". Wu Yi was hunting between the Yellow River and the Wei River, and there was a thunder, and Wu Yi died of shock." It said that Wu Yi was punished by the sky because he cursed the sky with archery.

In fact, in the archery witchcraft culture of later generations, there are also cases of blessing. For example, "Book of Rites·Inner Rules" states: "When a son is born, men set up bows on the left side of the door." Bows are wooden bows. When a man is born, a wooden bow needs to be hung on the left side of the door, in order to pray that the boy will become a scholar with superb archery skills in the future. For example, "Book of Rites·Inner Rules" says: When the prince of the king is born, "shoot people with mulberry bows and six arrows, and shoot the four directions of heaven and earth." "Shooting people" was an official position in the Zhou Dynasty who was in charge of archery. When a crown prince was born, he would use a bow made of mulberry wood to shoot six arrows towards the four directions of heaven and earth, in order to bless the crown prince to become a sage king with ambitions to rule the world in the future.