Religion

Religious Practices in Shang China By: Stephanie Suda

According to Howard Smith, “In 1766 BC, the Shang dynasty was highly developed when it came to religious tradition because of its group of ancestor spirits, its intricate mortuary rituals and its sophisticated sacrificial system, must have long developed in prehistoric times.” (Smith, 1968) The mortuary rituals consisted of blessings in the form of offerings and some of the offerings included bronze vessels. (Bray, 2003) These offerings were important because the spirits of the ancestors were in charge of man’s well-being. (Bray, 2003) The spirits made predictions on whether or not good things were to come in the future based on the weather, warfare, and wealth. (Bray, 2003) However, not everyone had the fine treatment of intricate mortuary rituals and its sophisticated sacrificial system because of inequality. Through these religious ceremonies, inequality developed because not everyone could afford expensive offerings, and therefore they would not receive a good well-being from the spirits of the ancestors. Those of higher status received elaborate mortuary rituals and had a better opportunity for good well-being. Therefore, religious beliefs and ceremonies propose to maintain and legitimize inequality in Shang China.

My first argument is that of tombs 5 and 18 which proposed to maintain and legitimize inequality in Shang China. The items in the tomb 5 provide evidence that those of higher status were treated with the utmost respect. For example, at Anyang, the tomb of the consort Fu Hao, tomb 5, is the only royal Shang tomb that consisted of a member of the Shang royal family to have been found unlooted. (Ebrey, 2004) It consisted of four hundred sixty-eight bronze objects including one hundred thirty weapons, twenty-three bells, twenty-seven knives, four mirrors, four tigers or tiger heads, seven hundred fifty-five jade objects, sixty-three stone objects, five ivory objects, five hundred sixty-four bone objects, eleven pottery objects and six thousand, nine hundred pieces of cowry shell. (Ebrey, 2004) There were also the remains of six human dogs and sixteen human slaves. (Ebrey, 2004) It is not the quantity of items that defines a person's wealth but that of the quality of items is what matters. The more important items in this tomb that define the wealth of tomb 5 are the bronze vessels, the weapons, the jade, the bone objects, the cowry shell, and the human remains. The human remains represent significant importance to the nobility because it represents human sacrifice. In conclusion, the objects in the tomb represent the importance of the deceased based on the quality of the items which reflects inequality because not everyone had items that were of significant value in their tombs.

Tomb 18 contained an individual who had a clear connection to Ziyu, a crown prince. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) The individual was definitely a female because of the headdress located in the tomb. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) The tomb stored ninety burial gifts which included forty-three bronze items, four pottery items, eleven jade items, twenty-eight bones, and four seashells. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) The bronze objects contained bronze vessels and weapons. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) There contained sixteen ritual bronze vessels in pretty good condition. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) In the same tomb, there was a jade dagger with red color inscription written with a brush. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) However, even with all the items in the tomb, there were no inscriptions or special designs which concluded the lack of both rank and wealth in the deceased. (Linduff & Sun, 2004)

In comparison to tomb 5, even though the person in tomb 18 seemed to come from a wealthy family, they lacked the rank and wealth because their tomb did not contain inscriptions or special designs. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) It seems as though there was no powerful family behind her that could have secured her position in court. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) Thus, the elaborate headdress was considered as power play in terms of sexuality. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) She might have been considered a favorite kept mistress of the king and she was offered as a sacrifice to him and buried in his tomb beside him. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) In conclusion, the woman in the tomb was of lower social status since she was a concubine of a man with higher social status. Even though she was with the king, she was not considered wealthy because she was not considered noble blood; she was only a kept mistress. She only had elaborate items because she might have been a sacrifice for the king which represents inequality because she was a woman of lower status being sacrificed to the king. A person is only wealthy when they come from a blood line of wealth, not if they have relations with a wealthy person. She was not only a person that came from lower status but the items in her tomb did not represent items with quality. This proves inequality because a wealthy individual compared to a person of lower status does not recieve the same burial rituals. However, this helps to maintain and legitimize the importance of rituals considering those who deserve it, not those who are pretending to be wealthy because the individual is with someone of higher social status. Tomb 5 and 18 proved that wealthy people are treated differently than those of lower social status in order to maintain inequality in Shang China.

My second argument is based on the significance beyond the grave and how wealthy people had an advantage of this significance in comparison to those of lower social status. The importance of the items in numerous tombs reveal that the religion of Shang China was dominated by the concern for life and significance beyond the grave. (Smith, 1968) Those of royal or noble blood had more elaborate tombs that were constructed. (Smith, 1968) The tombs were provided with rich furnishings that included a collection of funerary bronzes, and all the objects were necessary for an existence of an after life. (Smith, 1968) Items that might have deposited with the corpse may have included carriages, utensils, sacrificial vessels and weapons. (Smith, 1968) Weapons and sacrificial vessels were very common in the tombs because war and sacrifice were the two most important enterprises of Shang times. (Smith, 1968) According to Thompson, “The quantities of other goods accompanying the deceased to the grave indicate that the Shang kings were thought to require in their spiritual existence the same sorts of things they had needed during their mortal span.” (Thompson, 1989) In other words, the items that were followed to a deceased person’s grave were carried over into spiritual existence. This provides evidence that wealthy individuals were important in mortal span and in the spiritual existence. The more valuables a person could offer in the mortal span, the better their life would be in spiritual existence because elaborate tombs were ceremoniously buried, but they dwelt above in high Heaven. (Smith, 1961) In conclusion, those who had elaborate tombs were considered to be in high Heaven and this provided inequality towards lower status people. My next argument is that bronze vessels are evidence for inequality because they are only affordable to wealthy individuals. In relation to the tomb of the consort Fu Hao, bronze vessels were used by the wealthy to offer food and wine in sacrificial ceremonies. (Bray, 2003) Bronze vessels were very expensive and only the wealthy could afford them. The offerings are important because the Chinese believe that the spirits of ancestors in the supernatural world are in charge of a man’s earthly well-being. (Bray, 2003) In other words, the living needed to show respect to the deceased in order to receive a good well-being from the spirits of the ancestors. The wealthy individuals had an advantage over the everyday people because the wealthy individuals were able to provide more offerings which gave them a better advantage towards a better future; especially because the bronze vessels were only affordable to the wealthy individuals. Once again, the lower social status individuals were at a disadvantage because they could not afford bronze vessels which interfered with their well-being. My argument with feasting is that it causes inequality because those with more money can offer more items for feasting rather then an ordinary individual. The evidence for graveside feasting suggests that enlisting the aid of the dead contained more importance than forming alliances with the living. (Bray, 2003) However, forming alliances was still an important factor because the feastings created a debt towards the deceased. A form of repayment might have been blessings in order to respect the deceased while helping man’s well being. In this case, everyone had their benefits because the deceased were being well respected and the living individuals were pleasing the gods in order to help man’s well being. (Bray, 2003)

Funeral feasts provided evidence of inequality because the more offerings given during a feasting meant that the person deceased was of great importance. Funeral feasts were intended to make a new ancestral spirit in order to help his or her descendants by assisting in warfare and weather control, and providing health, long life and wealth. (Bray, 2003) These blessing were obtained only through ancestral spirits, by treating them well through sacrifices and ceremonies on certain days. (Bray, 2003) Inequality did not only appear in the deceased but also in the living. The predictions of whether or not a person would have a good well- being depended on whether or not they went through with their blessings on the appropriate days. If not, their lives would be in jeopardy of obtaining everything they would want out of life. Overall, religious beliefs and ceremonies propose to maintain and legitimize inequality in Shang China. First, tomb 5 and 18 provided evidence that only the wealthy received the best offerings. Tomb 5 was a wealthy woman who had many valuable items in her tomb with inscriptions and that was why she had so many offerings. On the other hand, tomb 18 was of lower status with some valuable items in her tomb only because she was a kept mistress. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) If she had items in her tomb with inscriptions or specials designs, this would have proved that she was a wealthy woman. (Linduff & Sun, 2004) Next, there was the evidence of the bronze vessels which only wealthy individuals could afford. (Bray, 2003) In addition to bronze vessels, other offerings were important because pleasing the gods was important to man’s well being. (Bray, 2003) This was an advantage to the wealthy individuals because they were able to offer more to the gods in order to ensure warfare and weather control, health, and wealth. (Bray, 2003) Funeral feasts were of importance because the offerings received showed that a person was more important because people cared. The offerings in the tombs determined where an individual was of either higher social status or of lower social status. If individuals were not wealthy, they did not have a fair advantage to anything which was the reason for inequality. Inequality separated the rich from the poor which was a distinction in burial rituals and ceremonies.

Bibliography

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6) Linduff, K, & Sun, Y. (2004). Gender and Chinese Archaeology//.// Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press