01:840:211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Hongaku, Shangdi, Oracle Bone
Document Summary
Understand religions in politics/ policies (how to govern) Does involve sacrifices to other deities - bring out divine order . Here and now (forms of government and such) Religion during the shang ( ) dynasty (16th century bce: c. 1550-1040 bce) (cid:3247)texts(cid:3248) (questions written) - with fire touch: ash. Question were written on them (fire touch: fracture) Go see a shaman/priests (wealthy ones) interpret: response from a certain god) Worship of a pantheon(nature) influence human destiny and natural events. Belief in an afterlife: worship of and reciprocal exchange with deceased royal ancestors, and the idea that kings could enter heaven after death. Human sacrifice was also part of the funerary culture. The highest deity was di ( ) (cid:3247)emperor(cid:3248) or (cid:3247)lord(cid:3248) also called shangdi ( ) (cid:3247)highest emperor,(cid:3248) (cid:3247)celestial emperor(cid:3248) In the early zhou ( ) dynasty (c. 1040-221 bce), di was replaced by tian( , (cid:3247)heaven(cid:3248)) as the highest deity. Rich evidence of writing: hundreds and hundreds of texts.
