帝、天关系的演变

从异源到合一,是帝、天关系演变的基本线索.帝之原型是商人的祖先帝喾,天之原型是周人的祖先天鼋,二者的演变轨迹相同,都由氏族祖先神变为华夏至上神.帝、天的本质共性是:皆原始父家长权威在神界的延伸和升华,也是远古部族英雄崇拜的投射和提升.周代帝、天融合,但帝、天的融合并非在西周立国之初突然发生,而是自商王朝鼎盛之时小邦周对大国商的文化歆羡和文化认同的历史积淀.

The Relationship between Di and Tian

The relationship between Di and Tian has become a very nice harmony despite their different origins. Di is prototyped from Diku, an ancestor of Shangers, while Tian is named after Zhouers'forefather Tianyuan. Their tracks of development are similar, as both have evolved from an ancestor-derived god believed by a single tribe to a main god worshiped by a whole nation, and from a sanctified human to a supreme being. The way Zhouers remember Houjis together with Tian is learned from Shangers who have commemorated passed Kings with Di. Di and Tian start to be used alternatively in the Zhou Dynasty. However, such an interchange does not come all of a sudden immediately after the establishment of West Zhou, but instead happens earlier in the prevalent times of Shang due to Little Zhou'increasing admiration and appreciation to Big Shang's cultural tradition.