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The oracle bone script features an ancient form of the character for wu (巫). While the role of wu in Shang religion is not fully understood, [191] they were seemingly a profession that made use of prayer and astrology to act as a medium between humans and spirits. Wu were worshipped after death alongside other Shang spirits.
A Shang oracle text written by the Bīn group of diviners from period I, corresponding to the reign of King Wu Ding (c. 1250 BCE) [1]The Shang dynasty of China (c. 1600 – 1046 BCE), which adhered to a polytheistic religion centered around worshipping ancestors, structured itself into key religious roles with the king acting as head.
It is known that the two zones were separated by Wu Ding, who was the first king and the head of the "late Shang". He founded the West zone for his future successors' burial, apart from the section for his predecessors. Ancestor rituals that honored kings before Wu Ding were conducted in the East zone.
Despite the tendency of Confucian-oriented government officials to suppress wu shamanic beliefs and practice, in the general area of Chinese culture, the force of colonial conservatism and the poetic voice of Qu Yuan and other poets combined to contribute an established literary tradition heavily influenced by wu shamanism to posterity. [84]
Rib of a rhinoceros killed in a royal hunt, bearing an inscription including the character 商 (Shāng, fifth character from the bottom on the right) [2]. The Late Shang, also known as the Anyang period, is the earliest known literate civilization in China, spanning the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding in the second half of the 13th century BC and ...
Shang kings such as Di Yi, Tang, Wu Ding and Tai Jia were addressed in Predynastic Zhou oracle bone inscriptions, being regularly prayed to and offered sacrifices by the Zhou. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ] The fact that the Zhou people adopted Shang spirits into their own recipients of religious honor suggests that the Predynastic Zhou was, before the ...
Taotie on a ding from late Shang dynasty. The taotie pattern was a popular bronze-ware decorative design in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, named by scholars of the Song dynasty (960–1279) after a monster on Zhou ding vessels with a head but no body mentioned in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (239 BC). [15]
Allegedly, Wu Ding was the first to make modifications to sacrificial activities. According to the narrative, the king, advised by his son Zu Ji, sought to limit ancestral sacrifices after receiving ominous omens, intended to be not "generous". Oracle bone script record Wu Ding's other son Zu Jia as the one who changed sacrificial amounts. He ...