The state religion of the Shang dynasty (), the second royal dynasty of China, involved trained practitioners communicating with deities, including deceased ancestors and nature spirits. These deities formed a pantheon headed by the high god Di. Methods of communication with spirits included divinations written on oracle bones and sacrifice of living beings. Much of what is known about Shang religion has been discovered through archaeological work at Yinxuthe site of Yin, the Late Shang capitalas well as earlier sites. At Yinxu, inscriptions on oracle bones and ritual bronze vessels have been excavated. The earliest attested inscriptions were made , during the reign of king Wu Dingthough the attested script is fully mature, and is believed to have emerged centuries earlier.
Religion played an important role in Shang life and economy. Aside from divination and sacrifices, the Shang also practised burials, posthumous naming, and possibly shamanism, with facilitation from a diverse ritual culture. The royal adherents constantly worshipped the deities through those ceremonies, the scheduling of which was facilitated by Shang astronomers via the invention of a sophisticated calendar system based on a 60-day cycle. Regional estates maintained independent practitioners but worshipped the same deities for common purposes. Those acts of worship, which were formalised over time, were held for divine fortune along with prosperity of the late Shang state.
Originally derived from prehistoric Chinese religions, many aspects of the Shang religion first appeared during the Early Shang, developing gradually throughout the Middle and Late periods. After 1046 BC, the Zhou dynasty, which conquered the Shang, continued to assimilate elements of Shang religion into its own traditions. Elements of Shang beliefs and practices were integrated into later Chinese culture, with some even having legacies reflected in the traditions of countries within the Sinosphere. Various traditional texts of the Zhou and later Imperial dynasties make references to Shang beliefs and rituals, albeit with considerable differences from the actual religion.
Definition
The spiritual system as practised by the Shang has been described as a religion, and some scholarssuch as Robert Enocharacterise it more specifically as a state religion. The sinologist David Keightley defined the Shang tradition described in oracle bone inscriptions as "religiosity" instead of "religion", due to the limited scope of what these texts offer about Shang subjective experience with the spiritual aspect. This tradition has also been referred to as a royal cult, with an intimate relation to the power of the Shang king.
The Shang religion did not rely on any scriptures to narrate its faith. Modern scholarship instead understands it through oracle bone inscriptions which act as the main textual evidence, together with archaeological remains of ritual activities such as sacrifices. These sources mainly describe the religion in royal and elite contexts, but parts of the information they offer may have as well been concerned by the common people.
Beliefs
There are disputes concerning whether Shang religious beliefs were bureaucratic or at least proto-bureaucratic, with sinologists such as Keightley supporting such theories while Eno rejects them. The Shang articulated a pantheon led by a supreme being and filled with deities of various origins, particularly ancestral and natural. Despite its diversity of spirits, Shang religion was dominated by ancestor worship, with core tenets of belief centred on relationships between the living and the dead.
High God Di
The head of the Shang pantheon was Di (), the 'High God'. In many oracle bone inscriptions, Di is described as presiding over a hierarchy of spirits, including former humans and nature deities, of which all were under Di's control. The Shang sought to understand the will of this high deity through the practice of divination using oracle bones.
The Shang believed that Di exercised authority over both the natural and human worlds, which included controlling the climate, influencing the harvest, and overseeing the outcomes of battles. Di expressed approval or disapproval over the everyday actions of humans, and was thought to be capable of either providing aid or sending down disasters. Di was virtually the only deity who could issue commands (). While the Shang conducted rituals to ensure Di would not harm them, there is no evidence that they made sacrifices to Di as they did to other spirits, implying a significant distinction in how Di was perceived.
The identity of Di has been the subject of debate. Some scholars proposed that the Shang conceived of Di in a manner similar to the Judeo-Christian God. Another approach conflates Di with the legendary Emperor Ku, the third of the Five Emperors mentioned as preceding the Shang in Sima Qian's Shiji (). Emperor Ku could be the same as Kui, a spirit addressed as "High Ancestor" in at least four Shang inscriptions. This might prove to be useful for the Shang king, who accordingly was seen as sharing portions of the High God's power.
Another view is that Shang religion did not conceive of a high god as such, and that Di was a generic word applicable to all divine powers. Eno advances four grounds: the absence of sacrifices to Di; inconsistent usage of the term, such as inscriptions where Di appears together with named royal ancestors; its apparent use as a plural; and its use as an honorific in naming the deceased father of a reigning king. He argues that di denoted not a single supreme deity, but whatever portion of the pantheon was being treated as its apex in the context of a given divination. While agreeing with Eno against the existence of a singular High God, John C. Didier differs from him in the nature of Di's multiplicity.
Nature spirits
Nature powers were typically addressed by the Shang only when the need for general blessings or assistance against natural calamities were urgent, and they seemed to have less influence than ancestor spirits. Among the nature spirits were wind gods, which were associated with the four cardinal directions and the four seasons. Winds also seemed to be associated with the phoenix, which is mentioned as Di's messenger. Rituals were conducted to appease the wind gods, and to pray for successful harvests. The wind itself appears as a deity, and there are other spirits that could control winds.
Some nature powers were responsible for crop failures, which were detrimental to the Shang whose economy was based on agriculture. Such spirits include the Mountain Power Yue (), which modern scholars identify as Mount Song, and the River Power He (), a god representing the Yellow River. Yue and Hewhich influenced state matters such as harvests and warwere the only nature spirits with clearly defined roles, and the Shang practice of treating them as ancestor-like deities was likely to allow them to exercise their authority together with ancestor spirits. Also recognised by the Shang, the Earth Power She ()or Tu () in Shang inscriptionswas associated with protection from misfortune, and potentially with the feminine.
Some inscriptions refer to gendered spirits such as the Mother of the West () and Mother of the East () who respectively controlled sunset and sunrise. Some identify these two spirits as goddesses of celestial objects, while others say that they were more likely earth deities with possible origins from agricultural and fertility cults.
Night and dreams were possibly associated with an owl deity, with references to owls found in Shang inscriptions and art. Dance and sacrifices acted as Shang prayers to the rains. The Sun was an independent deity to which the Shang prayed for harvests, although it did not usually receive rituals. Similarly, worship of the Moon is existent but rarely seen in Shang texts. Shang kings also worshipped the spirit of the Huan River, which served as a place where they conducted rituals. Oracle-texts mention a certain 'Shang River' and its own river spirit, whose name may be the origin of the dynastic name itself.
Ancestor spirits
The Shang upheld beliefs in royal ancestor spirits, most of whom were former kings and queen consorts. The ancestor list grew through time, as the death of each reigning king added him as an ancestor. Six Predynastic ancestor deities were recognised: Shang Jia () Bao Yi () Bao Bing () Bao Ding () Shi Ren () Shi Gui () The Shang referred to these Predynastic ancestors as the , with the junior five called the . The Shang dynastic line was recognised to begin with Shi Gui's child Da Yiand ultimately ended with Di Xin, the final Shang king. All Shang kings whose both father and son also ruled as kings were grouped as mainline ancestorsa lineage anachronistically referred to as the dazong ()and formed the major subject of Shang ancestor worship, at the expense of collateral ancestors.
Shang ancestor worship possessed characteristics of an impersonalised cult, in which the spirits of dead royals were deprived of their individuality upon becoming ancestors. These spirits constituted what modern scholars describe as a "generational hierarchy", with the power of its members determined by seniority. Predynastic ancestors were the most powerful, with the power to influence weather and crops. In contrast, recently dead ancestors might only cause personal trouble, such as haunting the living king with nightmares. Ancestor spirits could intercede with the High God Di, and they could also inflict severe calamities if they were not appeased with the proper rituals.
The Shang to a certain degree revered female ancestor spirits, including the mothers and consorts of mainline kingsexcept for the wives of the first four Predynastic ancestors. Shang texts mention female ancestors causing the king's illness, and they occasionally refer to angry and unfriendly ancestresses who would thereafter receive offerings. However, female ancestors generally did not receive a similar level of reverence as male ancestors, being the focus of only one-sixth of Shang rituals, possibly due to the fact that their jurisdiction was seen as being limited to reproduction. Women attested in oracle bone inscriptions included Mu Ji (), Bi Bing (), and most prominently Fu Hao, the consort of Wu Ding, who was referred to as Mu Xin () and Bi Xin () after her death.
Former Lords and other deities
Within the Shang pantheon there existed a group of ancestor-like spirits that were probably recognised by a general population outside of the royal clan, and it was also some of these spirits that later reappeared in traditional Chinese literature. The most prominent spirits in this groupwhich the Shang called the but referred to by modern scholarship as the include Wang Hai () and Nao (, alternatively read as Kui or Jun). The powers of these two outranked those of the highest Shang ancestors, ranging from affecting the weather to influencing the king.
Also mentioned as Former Lords were Ji () and Wang Gen (). This category also comprised spirits whom modern scholars identify as former Shang ministers with the postmortem ability to curse the living, such as Xue Wu, Xian Wu, Huang Yin, and Yi Yin; the latter was accompanied by a consort named Yi Shi, and was able to control rain and ensure good harvests. Also in the Shang pantheon was E (), whose categorisation status was unclear, and Mo Xi, who in later literature was mentioned as a consort of the last Xia dynasty ruler Jie.
Cosmology