"Sacrifices to the Earth Mother?"
Di Xin frowned as he looked over the information Wen Zhong and the other two had presented. "Since ancient times, our human race has revered Human Sovereign Xuanyuan as the lord of earth deities, and Earth Sovereign Shennong as the lord of agricultural gods. If we add the Earth Mother now, will people think we are being disrespectful toward these two Holy Sovereigns?"
Di Xin's words sparked much discussion within the Shang Dynasty, and many felt that he had a point.
Worship of the Earth Mother had been quite prevalent during humanity's early years.
After all, people lived upon the land, and farming could not be separated from the Earth Mother's protection. The related beliefs and sacrifices, even if they were not mainstream, had never been insignificant.
Yet after the conflict between Heaven and Earth, the Earth Mother had fallen and given rise to the underworld, while the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ascended to Heaven. Her status had consequently become increasingly awkward.
Beyond the loss of the Earth Mother's mythology and the opposition between Heaven and Earth, the greater issue was that among the Earth Mother and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the functions of the Human Sovereign and Earth Sovereign overlapped considerably with hers.
Xuanyuan the Yellow Emperor, as the Earth of the Five Elements, encompassed much of the authority over the land, while Shennong the Flame Emperor was a widely recognized god of agriculture.
The human race could not possibly place the Earth Mother in the primary position while making the Earth Sovereign and Human Sovereign secondary.
There had been some rituals with the Human Sovereign and Earth Sovereign as the primary deities and the Earth Mother as secondary, but most had shown no divine response.
From then on, the already