Ancient cult of Themiclesia

The state cult of Themiclesia refers to a set of religious practices funded and performed by the Themiclesian government, through the office of the Grand Counsel (奉常, pjong'-tjang). The Themiclesian state, in previous centuries, sees its cult as part of its Menghean heritage and practices it to demonstrate political legitimacy. The state cult is homogeneous with Menghean Sindoism, though many differences have since emerged.

The state cult has been described as animistic, believing natuaral phenomena, geographical features, and deceased humans to be spiritual entities. The state cult is highly integrated with political and social institutions, giving rise to several public holidays and concomitant festivities. Yet for the same reason, it is not an organized religion and generally has no theological study or doctrinal scripture; nor are public institutions dedicated to the state cult present beyond the context of government or the household. The state cult has been secularized several times and is justified by connection to historical practices, rather than religious belief.

Name

The term state cult is coined by scholars in the 19th century, comparing the role of the state cult to that of the Sylvan imperial cult. In Themiclesia, as in Menghe, it has been so thoroughly integrated into political and social institutions, that there historically was no name or conscious attempt to define the state cult and describe its contents. Some have rationalized the state cult as an appeal to the establishment, asserting that its continuation was based on its pervasiveness and persistence. Later in Menghean history, Chŏndoism surfaced as a doctrinally distinct religion, engendering the term Sindoism to describe the existing set of beliefs (if only where they contrasted with Chŏndoism); the same situation has not occurred in Themiclesia, where the state cult remained native to the government and, to a great extent, the public.

History

The state cult is ultimately rooted in the animistic religion of the ethnic Meng states that began to dominate the southern-Menghean plains in the 2nd millennium BCE. While the earliest traces of Menghean activity in Themiclesia can be traced to the first half of the 1st millennium BCE, little remains of the religious practices of the earliest settlers. A jade disc, dating to the 4th c. BCE, was unearthed in a tomb, in southern Themiclesia, demonstrating the cultural affinity of the interred as Menghean; in some neolithic cultures that preceded the Meng culture, such jade discs were common grave goods for persons of stature, though their functions remain unclear.

Closer to the Common Era, polities gradually appeared in Themiclesia, though their influence was ostensibly smaller and usually transient. An internally stable state was not established until the late 200s, when the first wave of Menghean settlers arrived in aversion of the chaos at the end of the Meng Dynasty. Given the Tsjins Dynasty's proclivity for imitating the Meng Dynasty, it established the full range of religious offices, at least on paper, that carried out the same functions as they did in Menghe; however, historical records show that many such offices were simply not filled or could not perform canonical functions due to want of physical facilities or political desire. During the Meng-Rjang Dynasty, which began in 543, the evacuation of large amounts of Meng court artifacts and documentation imbued these dormant offices with necessary information, while the restoration of the Meng monarchy in Themiclesia provided impetus to expend resources on large-scale cult activities.

Since the arrival of the Meng monarchy in Themiclesia, there has been a consistent drive to restore Meng-era practices that have actually been abandoned in Menghe before the restoration. Since the Meng-Rjang state believed itself to be a continuation of the Meng Dynasty founded in the 2nd c. BCE, that state cult practices (and many others) retain fidelity to that era took on the characteristics of a political statement. Into the modern era, the state cult, as far as the dynasties' practice of it, has basically been conceptually unchanged as a "link" to the Meng Dynasty itself, to promote later dynasties' claim to its legitimacy and disparage contemporary Menghean dynasties.

Major deities

Scholars divide the state cult's pantheon into three groups, the heavenly, the earthly, and the deceased. These classifiers are based on their apparent characteristics, rather than any canonical relationship between them.

Heavenly deities

The heavenly realm has a high god called Têgh (帝, têgh) or Djang'-têgh (上帝, djang′-têgh, "high god"), which is cognate to Menghean Sangje. Compared to the vivid image of Sangje in Menghe, the Themiclesian version is far less anthropomorphic, and he is not depicted with a physical figure. While some scholars assume this is the original condition before the final split in the 6th c., it is also notable that Themiclesia did not permit public involvement in ceremonies involving Têgh, which may explain why Sangje instead has a clear image in the cultural consciousness of Sindoism. There is considerable debate as to the original functions of Têgh. The character for Têgh (帝) itself was used in Menghean oracles to denote a form of worship; in received texts a similar character, also read têgh (禘), denotes a ceremony involving a fire, but special attention is paid to the smoke that rises out of it. Some researchers conclude 帝 was originally a ceremony, while the deity was associated with this form of worship; they also cite that Têgh later became a part of the title of the Menghean emperors, though this is well after the ceremony went extinct. It is notable that têgh was used during the Gojun dynasty as an epithet for deceased kings by their descendants, possibly indicating deification of the ancestor, though during this period Djang-têgh was a distinct figure from the deified ancestral kings. Other potential interpretations of Têgh include dêk "enemy" (敵) and dêk "legitimate" (嫡).

In both the Menghean and Themiclesia traditions, Têgh is thought to lead some form of government, which is a reflection of the human government. Again, Menghean scriptures provide a far more detailed image of Têgh/Sangje's roles, while the Themiclesian tradition only mention Têgh as a recipient of supplication and actions by humans, rarely showing initiative. In Menghean oracular texts, Têgh is capable of effecting meteorological conditions, showing approval of state actions, and granting victory in warfare; in Themiclesia, Têgh seems to be confined to granting and revoking the Mandate of Heaven. The Menghean figure of Chŏnja is without parallel in Themiclesia, though this does not necessarily indicate Chŏnja was a Menghean innovation, since Themiclesia apparently deleted a number of deities through rationalization of the pantheon at various times. The term Chŏnja in Themiclesia refers to the Themiclesian emperor. Earlier Casaterran scholars translate both as "Son of Heaven", but Themiclesian lexicons indicate that when used as a title of the emperor, Chŏnja actually means the "highest person", without spiritual connotations.

However, Têgh is said to have dominion over several other deities that correspond in function to the Weather Mothers in Menghean Sindoism. Sacrifical activity to Têgh's subjects predate the dynastic period and represent some of the earliest recoverable religious activities in Themiclesia; these suggest that the belief system that would give rise to "classical" Sindoism had spread to Themiclesia no later than the beginning of the Common Era. In early sacrifical tablets, which were buried after the proceedins, supplicants offered animals to "the five envoys of Têgh" (variously inscribed as 帝五臣正 "Têgh's five officers" and 帝五史 "Têgh's five envoys"), which are Wind, Cloud, Rain, Thunder, and an unknown fifth. During the dynastic period, supplications were offered to Têgh and his "five ministers" separately; surprisingly, sacrifices for the "five ministers" always dwarfed those for Têgh's by at least an order of magnitude. It is possible that the fifth is Star, since Menghean oracles shows records of Têgh ordering stars to appear, but it is inconsistent with the other four as weather phenomenon.

Earthly deities

The figure of the Great Earth or Sovereign Earth (大土 taih-hla’ or 后土 goh-hla’) features very prominently in Themiclesian societal tradition. As source of grains, hence sustenance and survival, annual ceremonies towards the Earth precede that towards the Heavens. Rather than a clear, role-based paradigm that defines the members of the heavenly realm, each community traditionally erects its own shrine towards the earthly spirits. The worship of Earth is far more demotic than that of the Heaven, and semi-annual sacrifices to Earth, once before sowing of seeds in spring and again after harvest in the autumn, are important public holidays that survive into the modern day. Themiclesia being an agrarian state for most of its history, such ceremonies saw participation by virtually every household in the rural areas, with a copious amount of lore and custom emanating. Such events typically included more merriment and popular festivities, against the didactic ceremonies used towards the Heavens. Apart from the community-oriented celebration, the state also holds formal ceremonies towards Earth. The central government erects the Great Shrine of the Earth; each prefecture, likewise, erects a Prefectural Shrine of the Earth. Supplication towards the Earth was not different from that of the Heavens.

Earth holds obvious functions over agriculture, determining the quantity of each harvest. Events that adversely affect harvests are also controlled by Earth. Though Rain is an "envoy of Tis" by common reckoning, Earth also controls whether land was humid or arid. During drought, the court often ordered sacrifices laid before both Rain and Earth. Locusts, a somewhat common pestilence, was considered part of the jurisdiction of Earth. Aside from shrines towards the Earth in genearl, various geographical features were also given their own Earth shrines. Most importantly, the River Ga had its own shrine, which merited monthly sacrifices of livestock to prevent it from flooding its banks and the farmland on it. Major mountains, as in Menghe, also possessed their own shrines, though Themiclesia's very flat geography often meant the standards of a "mountain" were much looser than those in Menghe. Since a set of Menghean mountains already acquired divine status before the split in the 6th century, those shrines were re-dedicated to Themiclesian mountains, some of which were so strikingly minuscule that Menghean visitors wrote mocking accounts about them.

Human ghosts

Early Themiclesians, in broad terms, accepted that when humans died, they became ghosts (鬼). This condition is universal as far as textual evidence suggests. A ghost is held to inhabit the mortal world with the living, and it seems no further transformation is possible for it. The ghost possessess all human attributes: it can consume food and drink, has consciousness, and can communicate with the living by a variety of methods.

Core concepts and principles

Creation

The state cult is generally consistent with Sindoism in its description of the creation of the world, though as in other arenas, lore is impoverished and leaves much room for interpretation. In early texts, a common phrase to describe the event of creation is "opening" (開闢, k’ei-p’rjik), as in opening land. This agrees with the concept that the world's content were in some sort of egg-like envelope prior to the "opening". The narrative that follows disagree on specific details but generally provide that the lighter elements rise to form the heavens, while the heavier ones, the land. This view is attacked in other philosophical texts, particularly those discussing received texts in the pre-Meng literary tradition. These authors argue that the world cannot have a beginning but has existed since the "infinite" (無極, mja-gjek), because if something or someone was there to create it, the world must have existed already. It seems in scholarly settings the latter argument was canonical, though the idea the world had a definite beginning was undoubtedly more popular amongst the public. In some Themiclesian traditions, the figures of T’in-tsja’ is present as the creator of the world, but most scholars consider this a borrowing from Menghe at a later date.

After the moment of creation, sources again disagree on the provenance of mankind and the origin of various geographical features. According to Rju-lang Memoirs, a travel log compiled by an unnamed person, many people in Themiclesia thought that the harder elements, bound by their weight, formed the mountains, while the softer ones became soil. In the primordial soup, liquids kept the elements mixed, but out of it, the liquids separated out of solids and formed the water bodies. The author of the Rju-lang Memoirs ridiculed these views in his book but does not provide an alternate account as to the creation of geographical features. There is likewise no prevailing theory on the origin of mankind, but it seems implied that mankind must have come into existence at some point after the "opening", since the Meng ethnicity was alleged to be thus named because they were the first to acquire an identity, hence their ethnonym meaning "eldest". One story, particularly prevalent in northeastern Themiclesia, states that the first human was born from an egg laid by a bird, subsequently incubated by monkeys; it further rationalizes that humans therefore possess the intelligence of birds and the appearance of monkeys.

Mortuary practice

The mortuary practices as endorsed by the state cult has been summarized by rationalist thinkers in the late 12th century as "sumptuous burials, prolonged mourning, complex rituals" (厚葬久喪繁禮, gos-dzangh-kwje′-smang-bjan-ri′).

See also

• Menghe