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Images from the Shang Dynasty (eleventh and twelfth centuries BC)
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Oracle Bones |
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| The Shang Dynasty (precise dates differ from
one source to another, but generally associated with the 16th to the
11th century BC) is the earliest period in Chinese history from which
written records endure. The Shang ruled what is today northeastern
China, from their capital Anyang in modern-day Henan province (click
here for a brief and informative historical and cultural summary,
complete with maps).
Perhaps the most provocative and informative documents of the Shang Dynasty are the "oracle bones," flat bones (especially the shoulder bones of oxen and the shells of turtles) to which heat was applied to produce cracks in the surface. These cracks would then be "read" to divine the will of gods and ancestral spirits. Commonly the circumstances for the divination and the judgment rendered by the diviner were subsequently inscribed on the bone, leaving us with a tantalizing view into the religious assumptions and practices of the period.
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| An oracle bone (ox scapula) showing an array of drill marks where a hot poker would have been applied to cause the bone to crack - c. 12th century BC. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. | A fragment of oracle bone inscribed with characters. United College Library. |
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The characters inscribed on oracle bones is a primitive form of modern Chinese writing, and has required the work of numerous scholars to decipher. Click here for an example of a largely complete inscription and its translation. Translations from these "texts" provide us with a number of intriguing hints about Shang dynasty religious beliefs and practices. What can you discern from the following excerpts? "Will Ti perhaps send down drought upon us?" "It has not rained [for a long time]. Is Ti harming this city [at Anyang]; does Ti not approve [of our actions]? The king prognosticated saying, "It is Ti who is harming the city; [Ti] does not approve." "Shall we pray for harvest to Yue Peak with a burnt offering of three sheep and three pigs and the decapitation of three oxen?" "Is it Father Yi who is hurting the king's tooth?" "Should we perhaps pray for a child to High Grandmother Ping?" "If the king issues a great order to the multitudes saying, 'Cultivate the fields,' shall we receive a harvest?" "The king made cracks and divines: Should we perform a sacrifice and, on the following sacrifice day, follow the Lord X and campaign against the Jen tribe? Will the ancestors above and below provide support and not visit disaster upon us? Will we report at the Great City Shang [that there has been] no disaster? The king prognosticated, saying, 'It is greatly auspicious.'" - from Donald S. Lopez, ed., Religions of China In Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 46-51.
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Grave Goods |
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| The range of objects found buried in tombs of the period also reveal clues regarding religious ideas and practices. What can you deduce about the worldviews, values, practices and communities of this period from the following objects? | |
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| Bronze statue of a kneeling prisoner. Why would such an object be placed in a grave? | Chariot buried in Anyang. Along with the chariot itself were found the bones of the horses that would have drawn the vehicle as well as a human skeleton. |
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| Bronze vessels. Many of these vessels bear mask-like carvings, commonly known as t'ao-t'ieh (details below). What significance might these images have carried for those with whom they were buried? | |
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Department of Religious Studies | School of Arts and Sciences
3700 West 103rd Street s Chicago, Illinois 60655 |
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Prepared for RELST 299: Religious Traditions of East Asia Last Updated: 8/28/02 |
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