Abstract

Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of that religion has proven elusive. Many scholars have relied on written accounts from the much later Warring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been misled into describing the Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities. Other scholars have generalized about the nature of divinity in Shang time and have recognized the position of the king who as one with Di was divine. Rather than act as an intermediary between the living and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di. The present study follows research recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I label “institutionalized metamorphism”. By “institutionalized metamorphism” a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.

Highlights

  • In art and script of this time. label “institutionalized lmabeetal m“ionrsptihtuistmio”n.aBliyze“dinmsteituamtioonraplhizisemd ”m. eBtyam“ionrsptihtuistmio”naalibzeldiemf iestaimmpolripedhism” a belief is implied in the extent mcoentatrmoloorpvheriTcnpuhomewieinnxeptortehuonresftosmtchpfoeionrtatiSutrmhso.anlonordgpvhekribicnngepuomlthwiieanetofrauolislfonstwhpetirdhiSthshe.aimnpgiodkiewnngtieftihcraattoiaolfnloswpietdhirhainimtd mtidoeaencttiefarictmaitnioonrwpithh oansdisto, aocrertyaiin

  • Hewen refers to a binome, a combination of two graphs into one word

  • The inscription reads: “In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏

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Summary

Introduction

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