Zoomorphism and Sacrificial Religion in Early China

Abstract

Animals and zoomorphic motifs are omnipresent in early Chinese art and material culture. Yet the methodologies underlying the explanation of animal iconography remain subject to much debate. One core problem is the question whether received texts can be usefully adduced to explain the range of symbolic or intended meanings that might be expressed in iconographic representations of animals. This paper seeks to add a small piece to the complex puzzle of how texts can relate to images. It explores the issue through the example of animal sacrifice. While texts are replete with descriptions of animals in the context of sacrifice, the motif of the sacrificial animal kill rarely occurs in the visual vocabulary of early China. The paper explores why that may be the case and offers a number of hypotheses derived from information preserved in the received textual corpus.