In Japan, the day before spring begins is called a "festival". On this day, temples and every household will hold the activity of "scattering beans to exorcise ghosts". Probably originated from the funeral ceremony in ancient China, which is an activity of Chinese New Year. At present, there is an activity of scattering beans to exorcise ghosts. In temples, it is generally men in the animal year who undertake the task of scattering beans to exorcise ghosts. Folk beliefs believe that eating as many beans as your age this year can make you safe and disease-free, so people are scrambling to pick up this kind of beans. However, in every family, there are no special rules for people who scatter beans. It is often the father who plays the role of a ghost in a ghost mask, and the children scatter beans at the "ghost". At this time, people shouted in unison: "The ghost went out and happiness came in!" " The scene is very lively. Although it is still very cold outside at this time of year, people can still feel the breath of spring from the shouts.
The "ghost" here is different from the "ghost" in China. It is not the soul of the dead, but a monster, pronounced ONI (ぉに in Japanese). Ghosts are very common monsters in Japan. According to their different body colors, they are red ghosts, blue ghosts and niggers. They are taller than ordinary people, with horns on their heads and tiger teeth on their terrible faces. They wear tiger skin crotch cloth and carry barbed iron bars. They often come to the earth to take away princesses or treasures and eat people. Therefore, in Japanese folktales, they play a role much like dragons in western folktales: the object that heroes need to fight and punish in order to recapture the princess.
Monsters generally live in remote mountains or isolated islands in the sea. That is to say, there is a certain distance from where people live. This is related to the Japanese concept of plane. Since ancient times, the Japanese have always regarded mountains and seas as aliens, ruled by an order different from human beings, where gods and monsters live. Yanagita Kunio, the founder of Japanese folklore, believes that monsters are the image of their immortal gods, and they are the same thing from the root. No matter which nationality, their understanding of God has two meanings: God can not only bring people happiness represented by wealth, but also bring disaster. Therefore, people pray to get rid of disasters and get a bumper harvest by offering sacrifices to God. But with the development of history, people are no longer afraid of these unsuitable things, but regard them as things that should be removed by human power. So God is also divided into two extremes: good and evil, good and evil. Good people are still called gods, and bad people are called monsters. As a result, monsters have become something that should be eliminated from people's lives forever.
Japanese ghosts are also one of the monsters that bring disaster to people. Therefore, ghosts in folk stories naturally provide heroes with opportunities to display their special abilities. In folk stories, ghosts are generally fierce and will do bad things. But they also have traces of being gods in the past, that is, there are many treasures and treasures in them. Therefore, the heroes who subdue them often bring back a lot of treasures and treasures when they save the princess. For example, after Momotaro brought back many treasures, he tried his best to be filial and lived a happy life with his parents. Such an example can also be found in China: in China's folk stories, the protagonist often brings back noble gourds from another plane, which is equivalent to the Japanese "Wanbao mallet". In Japan, another hero who conquered ghosts, Little Master, also used it (Wanbao marlett) to become a very handsome young man.
Momotaro and Master Tiny mentioned here are both representative heroes of subduing ghosts in Japanese folktales. Their birth is unusual. One-inch mage is a godsend son of the childless old couple through prayer. He was only one inch old when he was born and never grew up, just like Zao and Wa in China. Momotaro was born in an old childless couple. They found a big peach flowing down the river. But unlike the little wizard, he grew up quickly. Yanagida called these heroes with special birth experiences "little people" and thought they were important objects of ancient Japanese beliefs. In other words, only such a hero with divinity can drive away the terrible ghost.
But the Japanese like these stories, not only because of ancient beliefs, but also because they are enjoying a pleasure, that is, a tiny person, or a child under the age of ten, can subdue a monster bigger and stronger than the average person. Since ancient times, the Japanese have had a psychology: they like those who look weak to defeat those who are tall and strong, and even created a special word or allusion (HOUGANN-BIIKI) to express this psychology. Sumo, as a national sport of Japan, has no specified heavyweight, which may also be related to this mentality.
There are also many stories about ghosts. "I met a ghost or a snake" (the future is uncertain), "Even the ghost laughed" (predicting the distant future), "The ghost got an iron bar" (because of a useful thing, the originally powerful person became stronger. Such as adding wings to the tiger), washing clothes in the gap where the ghost is not there (the devil is not there, and the cat is not there), chanting Buddha through the mouth of the ghost (the cat cries and the mouse pretends to be sincere), chopping off the ghost's head (triumphant, such as making meritorious deeds), and the ghost will cry (the hard-hearted person will also cry and the stone will nod). In addition, the students in the school often give the particularly strict teachers the nickname "ghost", whose antonym is "Bodhisattva". For the flat and hard stones on the river beach, it is generally called
The washboard of the ghost. When I was a child, the Japanese probably played "ghost chasing people" ..............................................................................................................................................................
Scholars believe that the ghost in the aforementioned "spreading beans to exorcise evil spirits" was formed after China exorcised evil spirits spread to the Japanese court and then to the people. Because Fang, who walked at the front of the parade, was dressed strangely, people mistakenly thought that he was an evil monster that should be eliminated, so he gradually became a Japanese ghost. Besides, the portrait of Harraca Ranasa, which has been popular in Japan since heian period, resembles a ghost. Furthermore, we often see shop heads on the doors of ancient buildings in China, and their images are a bit like ghosts. Although not exactly the same in function, it gives people the same psychological shock. From this point of view, this behemoth, which has been deeply rooted in Japan, seems to be imported. After many years in Japan, it was slowly localized, and now it has completely become a part of Japanese culture. Japanese culture has a characteristic, which is to absorb and digest foreign cultures and use them to form its own culture. We can also see this from ghosts.
Chinese ghost culture
First, the causes of Chinese ghost culture
"Ghost" refers to all kinds of "spirits" that exist after death and are separated from the body. There are a lot of rumors and descriptions about the "soul" in China. No matter the dignitaries or ordinary people, they always talk about ghosts to complain and kill people. We call the problems surrounding the "soul" and related phenomena such as ancient books, laws, etiquette and customs "ghost culture". Exploring the formation mechanism of this cultural phenomenon is one of the important contents of this paper.
Historical materialism holds that any social consciousness phenomenon has its profound socio-economic roots and can be based on social existence, and the formation of ghost culture is no exception. Ghost culture in the primitive sense is gradually formed with the appearance of human beings. When primitive people still live an animal-like life and can't consciously separate themselves from the surrounding nature, it is impossible to produce ghosts, elves and other appearances. Only when people struggle with nature for a long time, gradually get rid of the surrounding environment, have a clear sense of self, and know some natural phenomena and processes, can they find the connection between various natural phenomena. In the process of searching for the above connection, primitive people saw that some natural phenomena brought them unexpected enjoyment, while some natural phenomena brought them harm and even casualties. Over time, people have two different understandings of natural phenomena. One is the knowledge that can control natural forces obtained in the production struggle. For example, the friction between two trees can make a fire, and the fire can burn wood, which can be used for heating and cooked food. The other is people's various wrong and fantasy ideas about unpredictable natural forces, and the appearance of elves, demons and good ghosts is part of this fantasy idea. They regard natural objects and phenomena that can bring benefits to people as good gods and ghosts, which reflects the insecurity of social material life at that time. Taking natural objects and phenomena that are not conducive to people as demons reflects the low productivity of society at that time and people's fear of natural phenomena is weak.
In addition to the above socio-economic reasons, the formation of ghost concept also has its epistemological roots. In ancient times, people didn't know the structure of their bodies, and doubts about the phenomenon of dreams directly led to the emergence of the concept of ghosts. People meet others or dead people in their dreams, make friends with them and do all kinds of things, but when they wake up, they see nothing, which not only makes primitive people think that the soul is an entity independent of the body, but also draws the conclusion that the soul is immortal from the dream of meeting the dead. Primitive people also think that they can fly and enter the water in their dreams, which shows that the soul leaving the body has greater ability than the soul attached to the body. In addition, all kinds of strange non-human images appear in dreams, which are easily regarded as evidence of ghosts by primitive people. In a word, primitive people can't correctly distinguish between sober feelings and hallucinations in their dreams, so that they separate the spirit from the body and regard the spirit as an entity independent of the body, thus producing the concept of ghost.
From the psychological point of view, the fear of darkness and death is also one of the important reasons for the emergence of ghost concept. Fear of darkness is one of human nature. When darkness covers everything, people lose all references, which is equivalent to losing themselves and being involuntarily afraid. People need to assume that there is something inevitable in the darkness, which is a threat to people, so the ghost that harms people has the possibility. The fear of death is closely related to the emergence of ghosts. On the one hand, life and death are two completely different states. People who were energetic not long ago turned into cold and stiff bodies when they died. After comparing the two States, the ancients thought that death was the result of the lack of something in the human body. Although this kind of thing is invisible, it is a force that makes the body warm, active and able to speak. China's ancient theory of "three souls and seven spirits" is a concrete proof of this idea. On the other hand, once anyone in ancient times thought that one day he would say goodbye to the world in which he once lived, his personal joys and sorrows and the vicissitudes of life would disappear with death, and he could not help but feel deep fear. In order to get rid of this death period, people are eager to know after death, and the concept of ghost came into being, and the reincarnation of soul undoubtedly brought great comfort to people.
It can be seen that the emergence of the concept of ghost has its profound social and economic roots, as well as its important epistemological and psychological basis. After the history of China entered the class society, this special cultural phenomenon was publicized by the ruling class under the condition of underdeveloped science. On the one hand, they use all kinds of ghost materials to fool the people, demonstrate the rationality of their rule, and safeguard the political and economic interests at all levels within the group. On the other hand, the broad masses of the people often use this means to criticize current politics, warn the world of self-discipline and entertain themselves. In a word, once the concept of ghost came into being, it gradually formed a cultural phenomenon with strong superstitious color through vertical historical inheritance and horizontal interpersonal public opinion, which left a deep impression on the history of cultural development in China.
Second, the basic characteristics of Chinese ghost culture
China's ghost culture germinated in the soil of primitive society, and at the same time it experienced a process of constant enrichment, variation and renewal with the historical development of China. Throughout the whole process, we find that the ghost culture in China, due to the particularity of its formation background, also presents outstanding features that are fundamentally different from those in other regions.
(1) The long-term existence of the patriarchal clan system has closely combined China's concept of ghosts with the concept of ancestral spirits, thus leaving a distinct patriarchal brand on China's ghost culture.
After the establishment of the patriarchal clan system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, as the basic cell of China's social structure, it ran through China society for more than 3,000 years and had a far-reaching impact on China's ideology. Influenced by it, China's concept of ghosts changed qualitatively around the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to the archaeological data excavated from abandoned sites in Yindu, there were still many worship tendencies in Yin people's view of ghosts and gods before the Western Zhou Dynasty. Sun, moon, stars, thunder, lightning, mountains and rivers all have souls, and they all have the functions of reducing disasters, saving lives and harming people. Not only that, in the view of Yin people, the death of parents and ancestors, like other gods in nature, often does things for no reason and harms future generations. Zhen Zuxin worships me [1] and Zhen Cong worships her good son [2]. Here, the deceased Kao and Cong, as well as Zukao and Zucong, have the same meaning as other natural and man-made disasters.
After the Zhou Dynasty, with the establishment of the patriarchal clan system, the reference to the spirit of ancestors gradually disappeared. Because in the eyes of Zhou people, the spirit of our ancestors took "respecting morality and protecting the people" as its own responsibility. They are not only virtuous, but also guardians of the moral behavior of their relatives and descendants. They will never make trouble for no reason, endanger their descendants, or do anything against morality. With the beautification of the function of ancestors' undead, ancestor worship gradually occupies an important position in various sacrifices, and various forms of ancestor worship have emerged, such as ancestral temples, family sacrifices and tomb sacrifices. Especially, ancestral halls and ancestral halls, as important places for ancestor worship, their architectural structures are gradually valued by people. In the Book of Rites Qulishang, there is a saying that "there is a ancestral hall first, then there is a barn, and then there is a living room", that is, the princes and emperors must build the ancestral hall first. Correspondingly, various complex sacrificial activities such as "Moon Festival" and "Four Seasons Festival" have gradually appeared in ancestral halls and ancestral halls. In addition, for those ghosts who have no owners, in case of trouble, temporary altars will be set up in the suburbs for "evocation sacrifice". In the long ancient society, temple buildings and cemetery buildings related to ancestor worship were widely distributed all over China, forming a large system of cultural exchange. Up to now, people, scenery and things involved in China's ghost novels, operas, fine arts and dances are mostly closely related to the death of ancestors, ancestral halls, ancestral halls and cemeteries. Due to the regularity of ancestor worship, the diversification of ancestor worship forms and the popularization of ancestor worship consciousness, Chinese ghost culture has a strong patriarchal clan system, which makes it significantly different from ghost culture in the west and other regions.
(2) With the widespread popularity of Taoism, the ghost culture in China is characterized by the combination of witches and ghosts, and the connection between ghosts and gods. Taoism is a religious system with China characteristics, which is based on the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, with folk witchcraft and immortal magic as its main contents, and absorbs some thoughts of Confucianism and Buddhism. It came into being in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty and has a history of nearly two thousand years. It occupies a very important position in the cultural history of China and has a far-reaching influence on many aspects of ancient China society, especially on the ghost culture of China.
As we know, folk witchcraft, as one of the important sources of Taoism, originated in the late primitive society. Witch is the intermediary between human beings and ghosts and gods, and it is an indispensable occupation in ancient society, because it can make gods come, interpret dreams, predict, beg for rain, cure diseases and astrology. Ancestors thought that diseases were possessed by ghosts and needed to be eliminated by witchcraft, so there were exorcism spells. Taoism has largely inherited the idea of relying on witchcraft to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters. In the middle of feudal society, with the decline of witches, Taoists replaced most of the functions of witches, such as presiding over funeral ceremonies, exorcising ghosts and seeking peace, and crossing over the dead, and became an important role in manipulating ghost cultural activities, which led to the integration of Taoism and witchcraft in ancient China.
In addition, Taoism also absorbed the ideas of "God Man", "Perfect Man" and "Real Man" in Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy, catering to people's desire to become immortals, thus constructing a complete immortal pedigree. According to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 430 Taoist immortals. Such as: Bodhisattva, Jade Emperor, Xuan Nv, God of Wealth, Door God, Kitchen God, Poseidon, Guandi, Huang Cheng, and so on. For example, blacksmiths worship the old gentleman, dyers worship Meige Xianweng, and beggars worship Luo Zu Daxian. As for Guiguzi, Zhang Tianshi, Xu Zhenjun and Eight Immortals, which people often say, all women and children know. Through the study of Taoist classic "Taoist Collection", we find that Taoist immortals have a prominent feature, that is, they are famous with surnames, tangible with quality, affectionate with desires and have a life history of becoming immortals. Taoism's thinking mode of creating immortals easily gives ordinary people an illusion, that is, people die as ghosts, but as long as they get the Tao, they can change from ghosts to gods or immortals, which leads to the characteristics of Chinese ghost culture that ghosts and gods are interlinked and mixed.
(3) The introduction of Buddhism made China's inherent concept of hell present colorful features.
Buddhism was introduced into China after BC, and flourished after the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Its influence on Chinese ghost culture is highlighted in The Concept of Hell. Compared with China's inherent concept of underworld, Buddhist hell highlights the characteristics of "prison". That is, to punish people in the world, whether they are rich or poor, and their ghosts will go to the underworld to be tried by the keeper after death, which undoubtedly provides a means of psychological relief for China people who have no way to get revenge after entering the class society. The hell of Buddhism is incomparable to other religions, and it is extremely chaotic. Basically, there are fundamental hell, lonely hell, eighteen dungeons and so on. Every big hell includes many small ones. Every kind of hell has all kinds of instruments of torture, so that the good and evil committed by the deceased can be punished lightly or heavily, and there is also a bureaucratic system of managing hell headed by strictness, supplemented by judges, ghost collectors and ghost soldiers, which is not found in China's ancient world outlook. Later, the concept of hell in Buddhism absorbed some elements of "nine underground floors" in China's early view of the underworld, and combined it with the official system of China to create the "ten halls of hades" with China characteristics. "The first lesson; Qin Jiang; The second lesson: the calendar of the king of Chu; The third hall: Emperor Song Yu; The fourth hall: Wang Lu, a five-product official; The fifth lesson: guarantee; The sixth hall: the king of the city; Lesson 7: Mount Tai Dong Wang; Hall 8: Wang Huang, the capital; The ninth hall: equal to Wang Lu; Lesson 10: Wang Xue "[3]. Each temple has clear responsibilities and is in charge of all kinds of affairs in the underworld. Thus, the Buddhist concept of hell and China's inherent concept of the underworld are complementary, interdependent and isomorphic, which has become a huge and complex system of the underworld in China since the Middle Ages.
(4) Confucianism, as the mainstream of traditional culture, is influenced by the principle of "loyalty, filial piety and benevolence", and China's ghost culture shows a strong ethical supremacy.
Confucianism is skeptical and alienated about the existence of ghosts and gods. Confucius thinks that we should "stay away from ghosts and gods" [4] and "how to associate with ghosts without interacting with people" [5]. On the other hand, Confucianism attaches great importance to funeral and sacrificial activities related to ghost culture. In view of this phenomenon, some people think that fundamentally speaking, Confucianism recognizes the existence of ghosts and gods. This view is reasonable to a certain extent, but it should be pointed out that the reason why Confucianism attaches so much importance to ghost activities such as funeral sacrifices is not entirely to serve ghosts and gods, but to enhance people's concept of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness as a means to consolidate the hierarchy. Zeng Shen's "Be cautious in the end, and people's morality will return to thick" [6] is the concentrated embodiment of this thought. The founders of Confucianism and the successors of later generations took "people's morality as the starting point" and injected the ethical concept of "loyalty, benevolence and righteousness" into ghost cultural activities purely belonging to witchcraft and ritual. With the consolidation of patriarchal clan system, Confucianism attaches importance to funeral sacrifice to the point of red tape and even inhumanity. The explanation and discussion of funeral etiquette in past dynasties are overwhelming, and the amazing admiration for filial sons and grandchildren in funeral ceremonies is unprecedented. The Book of Rites is one of the representative works that completely summarizes funeral activities. This practice of institutionalizing, standardizing and rationalizing funeral activities has greatly promoted the development of ghost culture objectively, and at the same time endowed Chinese ghost culture with a strong ethical supremacy, which constitutes another important feature that clearly distinguishes Chinese ghost culture from other ghost cultures.
Third, the social function of Chinese ghost culture
Due to the above-mentioned outstanding characteristics of Chinese ghost culture, once it came into being, it had a wide and profound impact on the economy, politics, ideology and culture of ancient China society. Even in today's society, the role of ghost culture in social life can be seen. Due to the limitation of space, this paper only talks about the main aspects of its function.
(1) The development of ghost culture has led to the persistence of reburial, which wastes a lot of property and hinders the development of social economy to a certain extent.
As the specimens for reburial, there are the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang under Lishan Mountain in Lintong, Shaanxi, many Han tombs on Beiyuan in Xianyang and Mangshan Mountain in Luoyang, the underground palace in Beijing, Dongling and Xiling in Hebei. People died and were carefully buried. Precious gold, silver, jewels, silk and silks and satins, as well as pottery figurines, live horses and living people, are all buried in graves with them, which can be seen everywhere in the history of China. Under the influence of the emperor's reburial, the general dignitaries followed suit and followed suit. "On the Hidden Husband and the Prosperous Age" vividly records the scene of the wealthy aristocratic families in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Today, the capital is rich, the counties are rich, and they are not extremely nourished, or they are not extremely sad when they die, or they carve golden jade, build fertile fields and bury loess. More treasures, dolls, chariots and horses were buried and big graves were built. What adapts to the wind of reburial is the solemnity and complexity of funeral. After the death of Sun Guang, an important official in the Western Han Dynasty, more than 400 orphans in Yulin were buried, and more than 10,000 vehicles were used. All roads mourn for the funeral. After Huo Qubing's death, Liang Wudi sent an army of Xuanjia officials from Chang 'an to Maoling to see him off. In China's long feudal society, heavy burial was one of the heavy social and economic burdens. "The Biography of Jin Shu Sorin" said: "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne for one year and served as the Mausoleum, contributing one-third of the world, one for the ancestral temple, one for the guests and one for the Mausoleum." That is, one year after the new emperor ascended the throne, he would set aside one-third of the annual tribute to build the imperial tomb.
(2) The prevalence of ghost culture has greatly influenced the political life in ancient China, whether in the period of the integration of the ancient rule of man and the rule of god, or in the later stage of the separation of the rule of man and the rule of god.
In ancient times, when the rule of man and the rule of god were unified, "ghost" was above all politics, and the will of ghosts and gods was directly reflected in political behavior. For example, the Yellow Emperor, the leader of the Huaxia tribe, is the biggest wizard in the tribe. Legend has it that he "combined ghosts and gods in the West Mount Tai, driving a six-dragon elephant car, while charging in the front, Chiyou in the back, Fengbo sweeping, the rain teacher sprinkling the road, the tiger and the wolf in the front, ghosts and gods in the back, the snake lying on the ground, the phoenix covering, ghosts and gods combined into a clear angle" [7]. Later, fighting against Chiyou, in addition to the clan of Huaxia Tribal Group, there were ghosts and gods from all directions. In the transitional period of separating the rule of man from the rule of god, ghosts and gods are still very important to the ruling power of social politics, which can be clearly seen from the Yin and Shang societies. "Yin people respect God, lead people to deal with ghosts, ghosts first, then rituals" [8]. Kings, big or small, should consult ghosts and gods before making a decision.
It is the history of witchcraft that speaks for ghosts and gods. Witches lay particular stress on ghosts and gods and use divination to speak on their behalf. History emphasizes personnel and speaks for ghosts and gods. The king's actions must be approved by the wizard. After the separation of rule by man and rule by god, the influence of ghost culture on social politics is no longer direct and decisive, but it still plays an indirect role in thought and spirit. For example, the rulers of past dynasties used ancestor worship to maintain the sanctity of royal status and reconcile the internal contradictions of the ruling group. After Buddhism was introduced into China, its ghost culture concept of karma, as a supplementary means of politics, effectively curbed the thoughts of subordinate workers and played a role in maintaining the feudal grass-roots political power.
(3) The arguments about the existence of ghosts and gods in past dynasties constitute an important part of China's ideological history. In the history of China's thought, the debate on the relationship between form and spirit lasted for thousands of years, and the theory that there is no ghost when God is destroyed was formed. There are ghosts when God is immortal, which constitutes the theory of ghosts. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, the debate about the relationship between form and spirit has a long history. Based on Du Bo's shooting ghosts and Zhuang Ziyi's killing Yan with a ghost stick in Historical Records, Mozi emphasized the omnipresence of ghosts and gods and advocated offering sacrifices to them. Zhuang Zhou explained the phenomenon of life and death by the accumulation and dispersion of qi, emphasizing that "God is born in Tao, form is born in quality, and everything is born in form" [9]. Confucius, on the other hand, advocated respecting heaven as the ancestor and staying away from ghosts and gods. Later, Xun Kuang directly denied that people died as ghosts. In Han Dynasty, Huan Tan and Wang Chong denied the theory of immortality of the soul with the metaphor of candlelight. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the introduction of Buddhism, the theory of immortality of god became widely popular, and the dispute over the relationship between god and form reached its climax. Fan Zhen, an atheist, wrote the famous book "On Immortality" and put forward the philosophical thought of "the unity of form and spirit, and the combination of form and spirit". After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the debate on the relationship between form and spirit still existed, and there were occasional confrontations. It is in the above-mentioned ideological argumentation that the concepts of "life", "death", "form" and "spirit" gradually became the basic categories of China's philosophy, which shows the position of the ghost problem in the history of China's thought.
(4) The existence and development of ghost culture has had a far-reaching impact on all aspects of China's classical culture and art, including literary creation, fine arts, sculpture, music, dance, opera and so on.
From the literary point of view, on the one hand, with the ghost activities such as funeral and sacrifice, there have been related epitaphs, eulogies, hanging essays and other styles. On the other hand, many scholars have created a large number of ghost works based on folk ghost stories, such as Sou Shen Ji, Ghost Stories, Romance of Ghosts and Ghosts, The Journey to the West, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and so on. In his works, the author uses ghost stories to describe people, and reveals the indifference of the world and the good and evil in the world with provocative pens. Moreover, ghostly cultural terms such as "Ghost Cry and Wolf Howl", "Magic Axe" and "God makes ghosts different" have long been integrated into the blood of China culture. In terms of art, ghost culture has also exerted a wide influence on China's art and sculpture. Zhong Kui's ghost-catching picture, Zhang Tianshi's riding a tiger to kill evil spirits, as well as the popular town house god picture in folk New Year pictures all reflect the concept of ghost culture. There are countless sculptures about ghost culture in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes. In addition, many of China's music and dances are directly derived from the sacrificial activities of ancient human witches.
Based on the above three aspects, we can see that ghost culture, as an important part of China traditional culture, is formed by social economy, epistemology and psychology. Once formed, influenced by the traditional cultural background, it presents many outstanding characteristics different from ghost culture in other regions. Under the action of the above characteristics, it had a wide and far-reaching impact on the economy, politics, ideology and culture of ancient China society.