Ritual Treatment of Shamans in Northeast China

Xin-Hua Zhao＊

1Heilongjiang University of traditional Chinese Medicine, Heilongjiang, China.

Abstract Shaman originates from the Tungusic-Ian language. In northeast China, the Shamanism traditions have gradually merged, and formed a compound belief form of polytheism and immortality. When a Shaman enters a special state,he has special abilities beyond ordinary people, such as divination, healing, and disaster relief. The most important thing is that as a messenger of communication between man and God, the Shaman expresses his wishes to God.Man communicates the will of God. The Shaman relies on the drum dance and sings the divine music, through the Shaman ritual to convey the request of people and the will of God. This article summarizes the Shaman's ritual therapy methods (music therapy and dance therapy) and psychological mechanism research, and provides a reference for ritual therapy.

Keywords: Shamanism, Ritual therapy, Psychology

Background

The word 'Shaman' origins from the Tungus- ian languages [1]. The original meaning of which was"crazy dancer". The shamanic states has been called"mentally deranged", "an outright psychotic", a"veritable idiot", a charlatan, epileptic or schizophrenic.An opposite view seems to be emerging in the popular literature. Here shamanic states are being identified with those of Buddhism, Yoga or Christian mysticism[2]. The shaman souls of the Siberian shamans mostly appear in the shape of animals or birds. The Nganasans named their shaman souls d'a-mad'i [3]. Shamanism found its way from India to Siberia vid Tibet, China,and Mongolia [1]. The relationship between shamanism and archaic Chinese religion has been the subject of debate for some time [4].

In China, with a large number of immigrants from North China entering the northeast, the four major folk religions in North China are also introduced, which are integrated with the original Shamanism tradition in the northeast, forming a composite belief form [5].In Northeast of China, animal beliefs have developed into a set of belief systems with local characteristics through the integration of various local factors [6]. The Baojiaxian belief is just such a form of folk belief with distinctive local characteristics [7]. In shaman culture,a shaman is a wise man who knows everything and has high morals and can communicate the nature and the gods. Under normal circumstances, the shaman's life is no different from ordinary people； but when the shaman enters a special state, he has special abilities beyond ordinary people, such as fortune-telling,illness and disaster relief. Furthermore, shaman, as the messenger of communication between man and God,can express people's wishes to God and convey God's will to people by dancing and singing. It can be said that the emergence, inheritance and development of shaman culture all depend on shaman. If the shaman is a messenger between humans and gods, then shaman music and dance are the medium of communication.The shaman's dance is a ritual of descending gods, and the shaman song is the magic of language, through which the shaman can touch the invisible mysterious world. It spreads human prayers, hopes, and beliefs to the gods who are related to them, and waits for the gods to bring them some kind of result. This special function of the shaman song makes the shamans regard it as a sacred thing, not just a general language tool [8].Shamanism believes that space is divided into three levels, the upper level is "heaven" where the gods live；the middle level is where humans live； the lower level is "hell", where ghosts and gods live, and the blessings of mankind are given by the gods. Shamans are not hereditary. A few years after the death of the previous shaman, a next-generation shaman is produced. The new shaman is considered to have been chosen by the Gods of the previous generation shaman. Therefore,babies who are not decellularized, neurotic, or chronically ill at the time of birth are considered signs of being shamans. If you want to be a shaman, you need to learn the prayer of offering sacrifices to gods and be familiar with the contents of shaman religious activities. In the final exam, he jumped consciously before he was deemed to have possessed the God of the shaman, and thus qualified for religious activities.The shaman must have a set of equipment such as"God's hat", "God's clothing", and "God's drum". In Siberia, the shamanic equipment from the costume to the smallest detail symbolizes some kind of animal or bird. Shaman's costume of Engana symbolizes elk. It is sewn from elk skin with a metal pattern of antlers on its back [3]. The "God Hat" uses copper or iron bars as a hat holder. There is a copper eagle on the front side of the top of the hat and two copper antlers on the back side. The number of horns indicates the shaman's grade. "Shenyi" is a tight-fitting robe, usually made of deer skin, with bronze mirrors, small mirrors, waist bells and so on. Behind of the lower body is a streamer."God Drum" uses slat for drum rim and goatskin, calf leather or cymbal for drum head. There are also tools such as magic swords and scepters. The shaman jumped up the "God" to beat the "God Drum" rhythmically, the small and large bronze mirrors and waist bells struck each other, and the streamer flew like a warrior on the battlefield to show the majesty of the "God"[9].

Ritual therapy

Music therapy

Shaman musical instrument. Drum, waist bell,bronze mirror, three strings, pipa are commonly used shaman instruments. The drum is usually a single-sided drum of grasping type； it is often hung on a special red paint drum rack to play； "Waist bell"； the bell is divided into two groups, which are inlaid on the top of the pole with iron rings. Each group is composed of two bells,and a small iron ring is added. The iron ring is made of a steel bar which is forged into a quadrangular shape during the performance. When playing, the iron ring collides with the copper bell and rings； There are two types of bronze mirrors: one is the patterned "flower mirror" and the other is the smooth and plain "plain mirror" [9].

Divine song. The majority of Manchu Shaman divine songs are four-tone tunes. Among the 30 shaman divine songs collected from Jilin, only two tunes are five scales, one of which is mainly composed of MI, sol, La and do, while re only appears once in an unimportant place. Seven-sound scale in shaman divine songs have not been seen, and only two divine songs collected from Liaoning composed of six sounds. The upper sentence of the two divine songs is a pentatonic scale, while the next sentence is basically the lower fourth degree shift of the previous sentence. Actually these two six-tone divine songs are derived from the pentatonic scales [9].And Levi-Strauss believes that shaman's songs provide a symbolic statement, metaphorically manipulating the diseased organ, so that the diseased organ can be cured[10].

Ritual. Shaman songs are mostly in the form of question and answer. The shaman's lead singer is accompanied by many people and accompanied by a lot of meaningless rhetoric. The rhythm of the melody varies [11].

Dance therapy

Shaman dance is mostly used to drive away bad luck.When performing shaman dance, in order to show the hatred of doom, demons, and ghosts, it is necessary to reflect this kind of hatred through exaggerated dance movements, expressing the strong banishment of doom. The main scene of the shaman dance is bloody. Primitive humans used blood to support the soul and used blood to nourish the soul. During the dance process, they drank blood, sprayed blood outward, sprayed blood to the ground, and drenched the blood from head to toe. In the scene of the body,rough movement is unique to the shaman dance. At the beginning of the sacrifice ceremony, as the drum beats,God began to be invited and jumped. The drum beat was slow and fast, and the shaman's body was shaking from a small amplitude to a shaking, with the devotion to the gods in the singing, The body expression is also more and more expressive. The respect for the deities in the shaman dance is reflected in every link. The purity of the soul expressed in God, the sincerity when greeting God, the joyfulness when dancing, the sense of ritual when worshipping God, and the fulfillment when sending God are all reflected. Shaman's rustic feelings for the gods. By singing the song of God from the heart, he sang the divine sacredness and gratitude to the gods. It was also in such a simple way of expression that the shaman expressed his respect for nature and longing for a peaceful life [12]. Dance therapy is a rather fashionable word. To study it in detail, it is an exotic product. It was born in the United States in the 1940s. After years of practical accumulation and theoretical exploration, it has now formed a relatively complete system. It is defined as "the psychological application of exercise to help individuals strengthen their emotional, social, cognitive and physical processes" [13].

Dang-Ki therapy

Dang-Ki therapy is a form of treatment for Chinese shamanism in Singapore. For a given problem,Dang-Kis usually uses words, amulets, and physical manipulations to get people into a psychedelic state.They are possessed by a helping god to help them [10].

Psychological Research

At the beginning of primitive medicine, medical art was impregnated with the witchcraft and controlled in the hands of witch doctors. Roberto Margotta, a British medical historian, wrote in his book History of Medicine, which recorded medicine originated from witchcraft and religious activities, and the dance forms of primitive societies were usually part of their complex rituals, supernatural forces. It originated in it. If medicine is a conscious attempt by humans to fight disease, then medicine will be as old as the development of human self-consciousness itself. The research results of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the evidence of paleontology and anthropology,also seem to indicate that medicine originated from the practice of witchcraft and witch doctors. Chinese scholars have similar comments on the relationship between primitive medicine and witches. Thay consider in ancient civilization, medicine was also caused by witch doctors. In the ancient civilizations such as Babylon, Egypt, Greece, etc., witches heal diseases.They use worship, prayer, mantras, praises, and medicines collected from animals, plants, and minerals

to make medicines for treatment. He believes that the emergence of Chinese medicine is also the same； the

medicine of various nations is mostly from witches,and so is my people [14]. Shamanism soul therapy is

not only the core of the folk spiritual medicine of the

northern peoples, but also the psychological dynamics of the shamanism beliefs of the northern peoples. From the perspective of the integration of brain science and theory of mind, the mystery lies in that the shaman's soul healing activity matches the neuromodulation principles of the current patient's brain and psychological level, neural computing algorithms, and information processing models [15].

Indeed, shamans have been regarded as everything from severely psychologically disturbed to virtual saints. Probably the prevailing mainstream academic view is that shamans are psychologically disturbed or, at best, individuals who have recovered from a significant disturbance. Among other things, the shaman has been called "mentally deranged" and "an outright psychotic", a "veritable idiot" , and a charlatan.Perhaps the most common formal diagnoses have been epilepsy, hysteria, and schizophrenia.

On the other hand, an equally extreme but opposite view has appeared in the popular literature. Here shamanic practitioners and the states of mind they induce are being identified with those of advanced practitioners of Buddhism, yoga, or Christian mysticism [16].

The Jungian School regards Shaman medical culture as a source of inspiration. It not only excludes Shamanistic psychotherapy, but also praises Shamanism's outstanding achievements in building a bridge between human consciousness and unconscious communication. He believes that Shamanism's call to human subconsciousness is beneficial to human body and mind healing. There are two types of suggestive therapy in psychology, one is awakening and the other is non-awakening. Non-awakening multi-finger hypnotic suggestive treatment. Awakening cues are commonly used clinically to include linguistic cues,drug cues, surgical cues, situational cues, and model cues. No matter which cues are used, the effect of treatment is closely related to the susceptibility of individuals to cues. Authoritativeness also plays an important role [17].

Summary

In Northeast China, the Shamanism traditions have gradually merged and gradually formed a compound belief form of polytheism and immortality. When a shaman enters a special state, he has special abilities beyond ordinary people, such as divination, healing,and disaster relief. The most important thing is that as a messenger of communication between man and God, the shaman expresses his wishes to God. People communicates the will of God. The shaman relies on the dance of the god drum and sings the divine music,through the shaman ritual to convey the request of man and the will of God.