Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
more approachable and comprehensible than the nature gods or the
high god Di. A special priestly class was probably in charge of this
entire system of divination.
But why did the supernatural order bother to respond to the
questions in the first place? This is where the bronze vessels and the
mass burials come in: The gods and ancestors probably responded
because they were paid to do so, sometimes with blood libations or
offerings. There is compelling evidence that the Shang practiced
human sacrifice. Blood offerings were often made with bronze vessels
by the living, and the presence of bronze vessels in burials also
suggests that the Shang Chinese believed they would be needed in
the afterlife to receive the offerings. (Many bronze vessels were also
used for practical, nonritual purposes such as cooking.) But it would
obviously be against the Shang's self-interest to murder its own popu-
lation for these blood offerings, and this might explain the Shang's
warlike nature. Because the Shang needed a steady stream of sacrifi-
cial victims, it was constantly on a war footing. Prisoners of war were
likely transported back to the Shang kingdom and there maintained
and murdered as needed. These non-Shang sacrificial victims kept
the entire divinatory system functioning.
Ruling over the Shang's religious society was a king, and his rela-
tives served as noblemen who administered areas of his kingdom on
his behalf. Other than this we know relatively little of the political his-
tory of the Shang except for the succession of its kings, whose names
arefoundinscribedonoraclebones.Wealsohaverelativelylittle
information about the Shang's social or economic history. We know
the most about Shang religious life because the only documents the
Shang leaders thought worthy of careful preservation were the oracle
bones, not the details of their day-to-day administration or the lives
of their subjects. Only the king had the right to conduct the divination
ceremonies, and most Shang Chinese probably believed that only the
ancestors of the noblemen were entitled to an afterlife. The Shang
government, therefore, had excellent motivation to keep this entire
system functioning. If the Shang royal house and government were
ever overthrown, there would be no more Shang royal priestly class
to make the offerings and pose the questions and read the cracks.
The communicative link with the supernatural order would be lost,
and the universe would seem chaotic and incomprehensible. Things
such as the weather, diseases, natural disasters, and defeats in battle
would happen for no apparent or discernible reason, and this the
Shang Chinese government found unthinkable. It felt compelled to
maintain and safeguard the ancestral cult at all costs.
