Chapter 338 Listen to the Legend

In the fifth century, some believers of this religion carried out a social and religious reform under the leadership of Mazdak.

Between four hundred and ninety-nine years, large-scale and continuous uprisings were launched in Persia and Azerbaijan and other places.

The Sassanid Dynasty adopted deception and high pressure policies one after another, and the uprising was finally suppressed

In the fourth century BC, after Alexander the Great conquered Persia, Persia entered the Hellenistic period. Zoroastrianism suffered a heavy blow, but it re-moved around the first year of AD. Ahur Mazda and his gods became partners of the sun god, moon god, etc. During the Roman rule, one of the Zoroastrian gods, Mithra (the sun god), became the object of common belief in the Mediterranean region.

In the sixth century AD, the Sassanid dynasty was destroyed by Muslims. At first, the Caliph expressed tolerance to the Zoroastrians and allowed them to maintain their faith after paying taxes according to law. After the Nurgan Nian, the Zoroastrians were forced to convert to Islam. The remaining religious believers in Persia were called Gabar (pagan), and partly entered China through the Western Regions, making the religion popular in the Western Regions during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Many people mistakenly confuse Zoroastrianism with Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism. In fact, these three are of the same origin but have different teachings and even slightly conflicting.

Just like Judaism, Christianity and Catholicism

According to statistics in the 1970s, about 170,000 people were distributed in Yesde and Germeng in southern Iran. Another part of the believers moved from Persia to Guzalat on the west coast of India from the beginning of the eighth century, and lost contact with Gabar. They resumed contacts after the mid-15th century. After the seventeenth century, they formed a unique social group near Mumbai, known as the Pasi people.

According to statistics in the 1980s, there were about 100,000 Pasi people, most of whom operated industry and commerce, and had an important influence on the Indian economy in life.

Ahura Mazda is the highest god of Zoroastrianism, also known as Ormuzd

Ahura Mazda is a good god representing light in the dualism of good and evil. He fought a long battle with Ahriman, an evil god representing darkness, and finally won the victory.

Creation is divided into seven stages: sky, water, earth, plants, animals, humans, fire

To fight, Ahura Mazda created the world and man, first of all, creating fire. Zoroasd's birth is the result of the victory of the good god Ahura Mazda. The essence of Zoroasd produces a son every thousand years. He appointed the third son as the savior to completely eliminate the devil and bring mankind into the kingdom of light, justice and truth.

According to one of the classics of this religion, "Genesis", it means that the universe has been good and evil since eternal times, and the two gods have existed, and the middle is spaced in void. The two struggle with each other, so the creation process begins.

The myth of the religion divides world history into four stages, each with three thousand years, totaling 12 thousand years:

In the first phase (the first three thousand), Ahura Mazda created the spiritual world without material forms, all of which were prototypes;

In the second phase (three thousand to six thousand years), the two sides fought in the material world. Angela Manuel killed the original cow. The bone marrow of the original cow produced plants. The species was purified and produced good animals. Later, he killed the original man, Gayumath, whose corpse turned into metal. The species was purified and preserved. Forty years later, the first pair of male and female ancestors of human beings were born. They were like rhubarb (a herbaceous plant for many years). They hugged each other closely and reproduced human beings, but they were tempted by the evil gods and fell;

The third phase (6,000 to 9,000 years) Mazda fought fiercely with Angela Manuel, and each other won and lost.

In the ninth millennium, Zoroastrian was born according to the will of the good God. Its birth marks that the world will enter a new era, and will preach the religion, lead the people to fight against darkness, and suppress the evil God;

The fourth stage (nine thousand years to ten thousand years), Zoroastrianism will spread to the world and continue to fight. In order to save the world, Zoroastrian's third son will be born at the end of this stage and become the incarnation of righteousness, namely the Savior. He will completely eliminate the demons, achieve the final victory, and guide mankind into the kingdom of light, justice and truth. This is the highest ideal of the religion. These myths will be later inherited by other religions. For example, the Savior of Judaism will come and establish an ideal thousand-year kingdom has similarities.

The religion advocates that in the struggle between good and evil, people have personal free will, good will be rewarded, evil will be rewarded, and what will be treated after death? It depends on the degree of piety and personal performance of worshiping Mazda during his lifetime. Buddhism also inherits this idea. The religion also divides the activities of life into three categories: thought, speech, and action. There are two types of good and evil in each category, and they are linked to heaven and hell. Those who do good will receive good rewards, and those who do evil will receive evil rewards.

Those who follow good will gradually enter the kingdom of heaven, first enter the heaven of good thinking, second enter the heaven of good speaking, then enter the heaven of good deeds, and finally enter the heaven of light, that is, the heaven of eternity

The religion also believes that the soul is reincarnated. It is said that after a person dies, his soul stays on his body for four days to check his thoughts, words, and actions throughout his life. On the fourth day, he enters the bridge of judges. A group of dogs guard him. If he does good, a girl will be welcomed and lead him to the road to heaven. If he is evil, he will be a female ghost, and lead him to the path of hell and suffer forever.

This shows that the religion has already appeared in the world religion. Whether the believers are saved is not innate, but depends on faith and thoughts, speeches, actions during their lifetime

The judgment is divided into two types: one is that on the third day after the death of a person, a goddess named Daena was taken to the referee's bridge for trial.

Daena means conscience. After judgment, the good will enter heaven, while the evil will enter hell, and those who are mixed with good and evil will enter the third realm, which is dark, without happiness, and without sorrow.

The second is: all souls must be judged last at the end of the world, and human souls can be resurrected from sin and resurrection.

Zoroastrian dualism has had different influences on Manichi that were popular in Persia and Central Asia, Semitic religion in the Middle East, Judaism, heretic Gnosticism in Christianity, Pythagoras, Heraclitus in Greek and Roman philosophy, etc.

The main classic of Zolostrianism is "Zent-Avesta", also known as "The Ancient Persian Sutra", which is the only classic for studying Persian religion. The doctrine is summarized as theological monism and philosophical dualism. It believes that there were two gods in the early stage of the universe, good and evil. The good god is Ahura Mazda, which means the Lord of wisdom, light, life, creation, good deeds, virtue, order, and the incarnation of truth. The evil god is Angelamannou, which is darkness and death.Death, destruction, lies, and evil deeds. In the end, the good god defeated the evil god and became the only master of existence in the world. In addition to recording Iran's religious myths, hymns, rituals, and precepts, the ancient Persian scriptures also include its national origin, history, folk legends, heroic epics, etc.; the descriptions of angels and devils in Persian religion, as well as their apocalyptic concepts and the judgment of the end of the day, undoubtedly had a certain impact on Judaism at that time, and were later inherited by Christianity.

Avista means the same as the Indian Veda, which is the meaning of wisdom, and the meaning of holy dictation

The sage is the ancient Persian holy, but this annotation is written in Pahlavi language, namely Persian, which mainly records the life and doctrine of Zoroastrian. It originally had twenty-one volumes. After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he believed that the Persians who believed in Zoroastrian were too brave to fight, so he destroyed all the classics of Zoroastrianism. The only volume of Avista survived was only one volume, and a complete twenty-one volume copy left in Greece was later lost. During the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, the Zoroastrianism was revived. This volume of "Avista" was pieced together and made up into twenty-one volumes, but it was no longer the same as the original version.

In the early third century AD, Vorocchix I of the Silent Dynasty ordered to re-collect and organize and record the oral content in words. After the establishment of the Sassanid dynasty, this work continued, and the twenty-one volume of "Avista" was finally completed during the reign of Shapur II. This scripture mainly records Zoroasted's life and doctrine.

The existing "Avesto Notes" was translated and written in the Palavi (Borapo) of medieval Persian after the ninth century. It is composed of several scattered classics and is divided into six parts:

One, Jesna, is the book of sacrifice

The hymns sung by the priest when offering sacrifices to God are the subject of "Avista"; among them, "Gatta" (translated as "Song of God") is the ancient part of the entire sutra, with a total of seventeen chapters

The language, rhythm and format it uses are different from other parts of "Avista", mainly rhyme

Many scholars believe that it is a work in the first half or mid-term or even earlier in the sixth century BC. It is said that "Gatai" is a record of Zoroasted's own preaching, so it is a must-read scripture for believers in daily life;

2. Vespalat, the book of the gods, also known as the book of small sacrifices, is about praises to various patron saints;

3. Vitivedath, that is, the book of exorcism;

4. Yester, the book of praise, is the content of praise to various deities and angels;

Five, Kurda, also known as Little Avetesto, is a short hymn or prayer book;

Six, other scattered and fragmented hymns. From the content, the sutra is a collection of ancient Persian religious myths, legends, history, etc. Some of them appeared before Zoroastrian, and Zoroastrianism was compiled according to its own needs.

In addition, there are classics and historical documents written in Palavi, Persian or Indian local languages: Nask, which is a summary of Avista, written in the ninth century; Religion Act, known as the Zoroastrian encyclopedia, explains the philosophy, morality and history of the religion, written in the ninth century; Genesis describes the creation of the world, the nature of the creation, good and evil, the judgment of the end of the world, etc., written in the ninth or eleventh century, and there are texts from Persian and Indian.

In addition, the "Islamic Theologian" and "The Legend of Seyn" (the earliest existing manuscript was 1,692 years old) written by Zoroastrians in Persia after moving to India from Persia, which describe the distribution of Zoroastrianism and the history of spreading to the Indian subcontinent, etc.