Female Roles in the Sacrifice of Wetland Plants Reflected in The Book of Songs

The Book of Songs is the first collection of poetry in China, recording all the social aspects in Zhou Dynasty, and exerting a profound influence. Sacrifice plays an important role in ritual culture, as well as in stabilizing the society. Document research method and corpus method are employed to explore the physical properties and associated cultural connotations of wetland plants as sacrifices in The Book of Songs. Additionally, the female roles are also explored in the whole-process sacrifice, together with differences between females with different social status in sacrifices. The sacrifices of wetland plants in The Book of Songs characterize a diverse offerings and treatment of wetland plants. A shared character is observed between wetland plants and female in ancient China in the softness and self-purification. Females are observed to participate in the whole-process sacrifice activities, ranging for sacrifice collecting, treatment and presenting, and praying, with their dominance in some key sacrifice activities. Besides, an obvious difference between females with different social status is also unveiled. The sacrifice activities recorded in The Book of Songs illustrates transitional characters from primitive sacrifice to modern civilization, marking the social transition from a maternal system to a paternal one. It provides a new insight into the understanding of the survival status of ancient Chinese as well the interpreting of traditional Chinese classic literature from the perspective of ancient religion.