A Study of Mystical Thinking in Ancient Chinese Expressions: Focusing on “Chen Wei”

Mystical thinking in ancient Chinese culture was originally expressed through spoken sound and language, as seen in blessings, declarations to spirits, shamanic practices, court and folk poetry, and proverbs. This paper examines materials from the Han dynasty texts of 'Chen Wei' to analyze how mystical consciousness and a preference for cautious speech and silence over verbosity were linguistically and culturally encoded. It traces the origins of this thinking back to ancient interactions with gods and spirits, then discusses how the mode of expression gradually shifted from oral sound to writing, showing an evolution in how mystical content was conveyed across Chinese cultural history.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Ancient Chinese have expressed culture that communicated with gods and spirits through sound and language. This culture has contained mystical thinking that expressed orally, through spoken words, presenting a form of sound. This paper comprehensively examined and summarized the materials of mystical thinking in ancient Chinese from the texts of “Chen Wei”, analyzing the forms of mystical consciousness and the linguistic cultural features that favor cautious speech and silence over verbosity. The study explores the origins of mystical thinking in Chinese culture, tracing it back to the ancient people's blessings and declarations to spirits through shamans and historians, as well as court and folk poetry and proverbs. It then discussed how this was inherited by the texts of “Chen Wei” in Han dynasty, and how the mode of linguistic expression gradually shifted from sound to writing, examining the evolution of the mystical thinking content in ancient Chinese culture.