The memorial is the deep remembrance and remembrance of the deceased, the catharsis of emotions, and the review and praise of the life of the deceased, so that the spirit of the deceased can be inherited, and it also gives the living spiritual comfort, and entrusts endless love and reluctance. It is also a way for people to express their awe and reverence to the gods, praying for the protection of the gods and the blessing of disasters. It reflects people's awe of unknown forces and yearning for a better life. At the same time, it is also a kind of cultural inheritance, carrying specific religious and folk connotations, and strengthening the sense of identity and cohesion of the group.
The festival has had different characteristics in different eras, and here are some of the main developments:
Ancient times:
● Early periods: The earliest ritual texts sprouted from the prayers and supplications of the sacrifices, which were used to express wishes and sincere prayers to the gods. For example, the Book of Zhou Jinteng in the Book of Shang is regarded as the embryonic work of the sacrificial text. At this time, there was no emotion of "mourning" in the sacrifice, and there were few expressions of private emotions, and "respect" was the main emotion.
● Zhou Dynasty: Emphasis was placed on thick burials and memorial ceremonies to commend the merits of the deceased. As the earliest style of sacrificial texts, "诔" originated from the system of giving words at this time, and its content was mostly honorifics. For example, "Confucius" in "Zuo Biography", there is respect and sadness, but respect is greater than sadness. In addition, the lamentations in the Book of Songs and the sacrificial songs in the Chu Ci can also be regarded as another form of sacrificial texts.
●After the Two Han Dynasty: The rhetoric has become a very mature funeral writing style, the rhetoric is gorgeous, giving the sacrificial text a literary color, many of the verses are free to narrate the prose in front, and the back is the exquisite four-word rhyme, which opens up the format of the combination of sacrificial prose and rhyme. At the same time, there were also loose sacrificial texts, as well as mourning texts, condolences and other funeral texts. For example, Cao Cao's "Worship of the Late Taiwei Bridge Xuanwen" is recognized as the earliest popular "sacrificial text", with "ritual (sacrifice)" ...... The words and free writing of the text have a private emotional tone.
●Tang and Song dynasties:
- The sacrificial texts of this period made new breakthroughs in emotional expression and writing form. For example, Han Yu's "Sacrifice to the Twelve Lang Wen" does not need to be extravagant, and is good at integrating lyricism into the narrative, crying while complaining, intertwined with remorse, grief, and self-blame, and the language is natural and real. It changed the fixed mode of traditional sacrificial texts based on laying out the county prestige, decorating the official ranks, recounting the life, and singing the praises of virtue, and opened up a new way for the writing of sacrificial texts in later generations.
- Ouyang Xiu's "Takioka Table" is simple and simple, sincere and sincere, and homely. The author adopts the writing method of avoiding the real and using the false, seeking the truth with the false, and using the virtual to set off the real, skillfully interspersing the mother's words, remembering and commending the father's benevolence and benevolence, and at the same time praising the mother's moral and women's day.
Ming and Qing dynasties:
- In terms of ritual literature, the literati of the Ming Dynasty strove to express their feelings and rituals under the guidance of the ancient literary style, paid attention to the expression of emotions, and did not stick to the fixed style of writing. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the number of articles on the worship of the master increased, reflecting the development of culture and education. In the daily books, it was difficult to find the texts of priests and friends in the early days, and it was only in the late Ming and Qing dynasties that relevant models were gradually added to meet the needs of different classes. However, some popular books for daily use have gone to extremes in the literary classification of sacrificial texts, and some have separated literati sacrificial texts from popular sacrificial texts, communicative rhetoric and sacrificial texts.
- In terms of the connection with local social beliefs, some folk festivals show the characteristics of easy dissemination, and carry the sustenance or imagination of people's emotional life. At the same time, the beliefs of the local society gave birth to some special forms of sacrificial texts, such as the "Guo Puxian Snail Method" in the daily book of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which not only contains special rituals of the nature of local witchcraft, but also is a kind of sacrificial text.
In general, with the changes of the times, the development of ritual texts has evolved in terms of content, emotional expression, and literary form, and has gradually developed from a more rigid and formatted style to a direction that pays more attention to true feelings, individuality, and diversity. The memorial texts of different eras reflect the social culture, values, and people's thoughts and perceptions on themes such as life and death, and family affection.