宗教生活是人類文明的重要環節之一，研究先秦「華夏民族」的宗教活動，這了是「宗教史」問題之外，也與文化、社會、哲學、史學等問題的研究，有著密切的關係。然而遠古時代，文獻不足徵，故本文在可信的文獻資料中，以「甲骨文」、「金文」，以及《六經》中的《書經》與《詩經》為主。從骨骨卜辭中，殷商時代提多神信仰，而上帝則被視為人間與自然界的最高主宰。雖然，《尚書》把上帝人格化，具有喜、怒、憐恤之情。但是，到了西周，《書經．周書》與金文所表現的「天道」觀，非常相似，上帝的觀念逐漸與形上的「天道」觀念混合。例如，在鐘鼎銘文中，上帝基本上只代表著一個象徵公義、德行的神明，祂是藉著「天命」來表現祂的公義。在另一方面，周王的德行又出於遵守上帝所「啟示」的律令，而是出於人類德性的自覺。此外，「天命」仍德行為依據，在這個意下，天命的流行與人類的自我造命沒有差別，這個佑定避免了定命論的思想。進一步說，西周社會已逐漸形成一神教，並以上帝意旨作為德範的基礎。這種天道思想，由墨子繼承下來，作為其所謂「天志」的理論基礎。因此，順著「天志」或《書經》、《詩經》的天道觀，先秦的先夏民族原可發展出「一神教」的宗教生活。但是，事實上並沒有如此，其中最主要的原因，在於東周以後，儒家以人文精神取代了宗教信仰。到了孟子，更企圖為德教的人文精神進一步建立理論基礎，他一方面提出四端說，另一方面又以心性取代天道。家既沒有開拓出宗教，然而，宗教生活卻又是人類文明的一個重要環節，故到了東漢，一方面從印度傳入佛教，另一方面，道教也在中土醞釀而出。

This paper entitled The Religion of the Hua-Xia People in the Period of Pre-Qin intends analyze and to analyze and to reconstruct the religious phenomena which date to late Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It is without doubt that religion is an important aspect of human civilization and the Pre-Qin religion is inextricably concerned with the studies of cultural, social, philosophical and historical problems at that time. The source materials of this paper are jiaguwen (which means oracle-bone inscriptions), jinwen (or zhongdinwen, the bronze inscriptions), and the Confucian Classics of Shujing and Shijing. The oracle bone inscriptions were inscribed on the tortoise carapaces or ox scapulae found at the site of the last capital of Shang Dynasty near present-day anyang, Henan Province, and the jinwen which became widely used during the late Shang and Eastern Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1150-771B.C.) is represented by the in the inscriptions cast or carved on ancient bronze vessels (bells and tripods) of the shang and Zhou dynasties. Both of the Jiaguwen and jinwen are pictographic scripts which provide us with a detailed description of the topics of religion. Although the oracle bones reveals to us an early pantheon including deities of religion. Although the oracle bones reveal to us an early pantheon including deities of sea, mountain, wind, myriads of ancestral spirits and other nature power, they show also that the concept of Shangti, the High God, was developed at the time of Shang. The jinwen, Shujing and Shijing exhibit a monotheism at the time of the Zhou Dynasty, and God (tien) was characterized on the one hand as anthropomorphic deity who appeared as an arbitrary power, and on the other hand as a guiding principle of man’s destiny or fate. God, for instance, did not seem to have a special preference for the Zhou people over other people. God took the mandate away from the last king of Shang because he was oblivious to the welfare of his subjects, and gave it instead to the founder of Zhou dynasty, who was virtuous and kind to the people. His determination was arbitrary in the sense that the human fate was determined solely by the deeds that man had done. God related to mortals not as a principle (in the sense of fountainhead) of salvation, but as a principle of justice. In short, God was the overseer of man’s mind and deeds, particularly those of the kings. This concept of monotheisms as well religious thinking, however, were not maintained further by Confucians, although Mocius (Moti) regarded the will of God (tienzhi) as the ultimate norm in this ethical theory.