Why should we attach importance to Chinese characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions? There is a simple reason. When the ancients created Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they used a lot of pictographic thinking, which was a picture form of the recorded object image. For example, in Japanese, the word sun is written as a symbol, and the middle point represents sunspots; For another example, the word "mountain", written as "Ai", is completely in the shape of a mountain. Therefore, many Oracle Bone Inscriptions characters retain a lot of real backgrounds, which died out in the later development norms of characters. Therefore, the true intention of a word can only be found in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty or later inscriptions on bronze.
There are many ways to write Tianyu in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, one of which is "& just like the image of an authentic Taoist, it is a standing human figure. Some people explain that this is a person standing in front, and the whole word is explained like this: the person standing in front is artificial.
This explanation is not convincing. Shuowen said, "God, it's a big deal." The other way around means high, so later emperors chose high places to worship heaven, so-called "Tai Tan". How do people standing express high meaning? If "the person standing in front is artificial", it is equivalent to drawing an equal sign between heaven and man. But don't forget, in Oracle Bone Inscriptions's era, heaven was the object of worship and sacrifice, and it was God! How can man be equal to God?
Besides, there are more than one way to write the herringbone in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, all of which are represented by a human figure, which is roughly similar to the structure of "8" (Tian). Why use a very similar word to express an irrelevant meaning? It doesn't make sense if the sky on Oracle bones is made with the concept that Yang is the sun and Yin is the earth. There are positive characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but there are no negative characters. When it comes to cloudy and sunny days, we always use "an easy day" and "a difficult day" to express it. That is to say, in Oracle Bone Inscriptions's period, Yin and Yang did not form a literal concept (but there was a graphic representation or a digital representation), and it was even more impossible to express the concept of heaven with positive.
So the explanation that "the man standing in front is man-made" is fundamentally wrong. So, what does "Tian" mean in Oracle Bone Inscriptions?
After carefully studying the structure of Tianyu, we found that the circle representing the human head seems to be a little big and does not coordinate with other parts. Therefore, we think that the focus of the word "Tian" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is not the human figure below, but the circle on the head. The meaning of this word should be: the "○" on the head is heaven.
So what does this circle above your head mean? In ancient Chinese characters and rock paintings, the ancients often used circles to represent the sun or the stars in the sky. The difference is that there is often a point in a circle to represent the sun, but there is no such symbol to represent the stars. Then, the word "sky" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions has clearly told us that a round object like a star above people's heads is the sky. In other words, the ancient concept of heaven is different from our present concept of heaven. It is not an invisible virtual sky, but a tangible material "paradise", which is round. This meaning coincides with the mythical concept of heaven mentioned above, which is really a coincidence.
Our explanation of heaven can also be confirmed from the inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Kim wrote "Ai" in the sky, and the circle in the sky became a square. In ancient times, it was impossible for people to represent a person's head with a square, which can also disprove that the circle on the character image in the Oracle bone inscriptions "Tian Wen" does not represent a person's head. The circle becomes a square, which means that it represents a physical entity, not an invisible virtual sky. At the same time, the inscriptions on the inscriptions highlight the significance of people's heads, which can be used as Oracle Bone Inscriptions's comments on the inscriptions on the inscriptions on the inscriptions. Because the inscription on the bronze ware is not far from Oracle Bone Inscriptions's time, he fully knows Oracle Bone Inscriptions's original intention, so he made such bold changes.
Besides, the culture of ancient Egypt is as old as that of China. In the murals of the Pantheon in Egypt, the Egyptian god has a ball on his head or holds a ball. We believe that the Egyptian gods are the same in shape as China and Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Immortals come from the sky, so the round objects above them also mean the sky.
The "sky" of ancient people refers to a round object like a star or the sun above people's heads. It is so close to us that one hand can touch it. This is an inevitable inference from myths and ancient Chinese characters.
"Heaven" is tangible and shocking!
So, how big is this day? The writing of another word "Tian" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions reveals some information to us. There is also a Tian Zi in Oracle Bone Inscriptions that says "Ai". The lower part of the horizontal line is also human. This word, like the previous words, focuses on the horizontal line above, not the human figure below. So what does "one" stand for? In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, "one" often represents the horizon. For example, the word "mountain" represents the earth, the word "vertical" represents the earth, and the horizontal below also represents the earth. Therefore, we believe that the accurate interpretation of this passage of Oracle Bone Inscriptions should be: the earth above people's heads is the sky.
How did the earth appear on people's heads? If Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jin Wen and China are used to connect the above myth about "heaven", the meaning will be clear at a glance: a huge planet, because it is very close to us, then you won't feel that it is a sphere, but just a piece of land above your head.
In recent years, archaeologists have discovered a large number of rock paintings in the Langshan section of Yinshan Mountain in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. These rock paintings have a long history and are still in the primitive society in terms of primitive techniques. One of the rock paintings depicts a person with round feet (kneeling posture), arms raised, hands folded, and a round image on his head (see Figure 5), as if praying. Researchers believe that this ring is "probably the image of the sun", so everyone unanimously named this rock painting "Sun Worship Painting", which also looks very vivid.
It is not an exaggeration to understand this. Because of the close relationship between the sun and human beings, almost all primitive peoples worship the sun. The Book of Rites Sacrifices says, "The God in heaven is no bigger than the sun. When offering sacrifices to the gods, the sun ranks first among the gods, so the clouds and the sun are precious. " There are "Binri" and "Churi" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. "Everyday" and "Going in and out" are all records of sun sacrifice. People worship the sun and send it to the evening, respectfully, and the ceremony is very complicated.
But the question is, does this humanoid really worship the sun? As far as the rock paintings we have found now are concerned, there are three forms to represent the sun. One is that there is a point in the circle, the other is that there is a sunbird in the circle, and the other is that there are radial stripes around the circle to represent the light of the sun. Of these three appearances, the latter two are the majority. This rock painting has no special symbol of the sun, and the ring can never be the sun. So the explanation of worshipping the sun is incorrect.
What is this kneeling figure worshipping? We believe it is the "sky" mentioned above, a huge planet suspended above our heads. Therefore, this rock painting is an illustration of "offering sacrifices to heaven".
At this point, we have a feeling of being suddenly enlightened about the problems we didn't understand before. Judging from myths, ancient Chinese characters and rock paintings, things are probably like this:
A long time ago, there was a huge planet-celestial body, which was very close to the earth. The ancients called it "Tian" and invented the ancient Chinese character "Tian" according to the specific situation at that time. Because this "heaven" has a mysterious relationship with people at that time (which will be discussed later), everyone worships it as a god, which leads to the worship of heaven, a religious belief of unknown origin and contrary to the common sense of ancient China.
Later, in an incident, this planet called "the sky" left us again, and it was replaced by a vast and empty space. However, the tenacious inheritance of primitive religion has not been interrupted by the great changes in space. Only with the passage of time, later generations gradually got used to accepting the invisible virtual sky, and could not unify the original "sky" with the present sky, forming a strange sky worship.
After passing the county seat, people are more puzzled about worshipping heaven, and everyone is whispering in their hearts: Why do you want to worship heaven? Thus, the worship of heaven began to decline. But under the strong inertia of inheriting the tradition, offering sacrifices to heaven became the patent of the emperor. However, many emperors worship, and I don't know why. With the development of history, modern people can't understand this strange religious belief.
However, this ancient "heaven" had such a great influence on our ancestors, who kept their religious memory of "heaven" at the bottom of culture and psychology, forming a strong potential religious consciousness. However, in later history, there is no religious form that can fully express this potential religious consciousness. As a result, China people's diffuse religious concept was formed, and people believed everything, but they didn't believe anything for long. Look at this and throw it away; Pick it up, have a look and throw it away. Under the guidance of the subconscious mind, China people would rather worship the natural process of life and study the relationship between heaven, earth and people, instead of clinging to any religious form. This is a nation endowed with a historical mission, and it silently hopes to find a "paradise" in its heart from generation to generation.
All right! Let's stop these heavy topics. Let's go back to the theme of "heaven".
Since the ancient "sky" is a huge planet near the earth, which celestial body does it refer to? Does it still exist in the solar system? When did this event take place?
To hell with those old ways of thinking and academic views. To answer the above questions, there must be a bold breakthrough. This is a requirement for us and our readers. We believe that truth is contained in bold assumptions.
The ancient "sky" is the moon now!