Introduction
Understanding Chinese religion of Shang and Zhou
Under the Shang, the kingship communicated with the ancestors and powers through divination. Under the Zhou, the notion of *Tian*, Heaven, and the Mandate of Heaven gave a moral dimension to political legitimacy: an unjust ruler could lose his mandate.
The inscriptions on turtle scapulas and shells ask questions about harvests, wars, births, weather and sacrifices.
To be retained
Four essential principles
- Under the Shang, the kingship communicated with the ancestors and powers through divination.
- The inscriptions on turtle scapulas and shells ask questions about harvests, wars, births, weather and sacrifices.
- The royal ancestors could influence events and act as intermediaries to higher powers.
- the link between ancestors, rite, political order and Heaven has long-term shaped Chinese religious thought.
Small timeline
A tradition shaped by history
Origins and training
The inscriptions on turtle scapulas and shells ask questions about harvests, wars, births, weather and sacrifices.
Historical developments
After the conquest of Zhou, the ancestral rites were reorganized.
Ritual life and teachings
The royal ancestors could influence events and act as intermediaries to higher powers.
Seed and rediscovery
The crises of the end of the Zhou then favoured Confucian, Taoist and other thought schools.
History and development
The inscriptions on scapulas and shell of turtles ask questions about harvests, wars, births, weather and sacrifices. After the conquest of Zhou, the ancestral rites were reorganized.
The crises of the end of the Zhou then favoured Confucian, Taoist and other thought schools.
Worldview, beliefs and practices
Royal ancestors could influence events and act as intermediaries to higher powers. Offers of food, alcohol, animals and sometimes humans accompanied court rites.
Bronze vases manifested rank, ligatory memory and relation to the sacred. Music and ceremonial scheduling contributed to social and cosmic harmony.
Texts, symbols and transmission
Oracular bones, bronze inscriptions, Book of Documents, Book of Odes, Book of Mutations and ritual texts transmitted later. Symbols: ritual bronze, dragon, ancestral altar, divinatory graphies, Circular sky and square earth in later cosmologies.
What research can and cannot say
The classical texts have been published for centuries; they do not always describe directly the oldest practices. Archaeology allows to confront dynastic memory and material data.
References