Yin Shang killed the living and sacrificed the dead. How many living people are recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions for human sacrifice?

The Temple of Heaven is an important royal sacrificial place in ancient China.

"State affairs are nothing but worship and jealousy." China's traditional culture attaches great importance to offering sacrifices to gods. In the culture of Yin and Shang dynasties, whenever important decisions and choices are made, we should predict good and bad luck and sacrifice ancestors to protect the gods.

Sacrifice requires sacrifices to show the piety of sacrifice. In the belief of businessmen, the different types and quantities of sacrifices often affect the effect of sacrifices. The usual sacrifices are divided into two categories, one is the sacrifices of animals such as cattle, sheep and tapirs (pigs) in captivity, and the other is daily necessities such as jade, silk, food and drinks. In addition, there is a very special sacrifice, the living! In Shang culture, man is the most precious and practical of all sacrifices.

Sacrificial scene

First, how did the human sacrifice come about? It sounds creepy now, but in the Shang Dynasty and earlier, human sacrifices were used to it.

Such cruel customs and habits are related to cannibalism of human beings in primitive society. The cannibalism here is not the human tragedy of cannibalism caused by natural disasters in history, but just the instinct of biological survival and reproduction. After all, human wisdom and civilization evolved step by step from primitive times.

Primitive social life picture

With the evolution of human society, barbaric cannibalism has disappeared. However, as a real social phenomenon in history, it still exists, that is, the custom of sacrificing living people is widespread in slave society.

This statement is not groundless. Xi 'an Banpo site (6000-6700 years ago) is the representative site of Yangshao culture in Neolithic age in China. Archaeologists found a chopped human skull under the ruins of a house, next to a clay pot. The pottery unearthed under the house is used for sacrifice, so the skull left "intentionally" is obviously a sacrifice in this sacrifice.

Restoration map of Banpo site

In the recent Longshan culture, in many circular pits, there are many bones of men, women and children, as well as sacrifices of other animals, which is the further development of human sacrifices. In the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the scale and shape of this kind of human sacrifice pit became larger and larger, which meant the progress and development of society.

Sacrificial Pit in Yin Ruins Cemetery

What's the point of human sacrifice?

Like Banpo, skulls were placed under houses or buildings, because the houses they lived in were vulnerable to natural disasters, which made them afraid of nature. Therefore, when building a house, they kill and sacrifice to seek the protection of the gods.

Like Longshan culture, in the circular pit, the number of bones of men, women and children varies, and there are other sacrifices, mostly around houses and residences. As far as the accumulation of soil layers is concerned, some of them are as many as five or six stories, and the time is not the same, which shows that such circular pits were places where people were sacrificed at that time, not tomb pits.

This habit continued from Longshan culture to the Shang Dynasty and gradually disappeared in the Zhou Dynasty. The phenomenon of human sacrifice in this period is also very clear, that is, sacrificing ancestors and natural gods to seek peace and happiness for the living.

Yin ruins in Anyang

Second, the prosperity of the wind of human sacrifice in Shang Dynasty. The phenomenon of human sacrifice in China's history has been developing continuously since primitive times, and it reached its peak in Shang Dynasty, both in scale and quantity.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions recorded many historical events in Shang Dynasty. Among the Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered before 1974, 1350 pieces mentioned human sacrifices. In terms of quantity, it reached 500 people at most. It is inconceivable to kill more than 500 people as sacrifices in one sacrifice.

During the 273 years since Pan Geng immigrated to Di Xin, the number of "employing people" that can be counted reached 13052. In addition, 1 145 Oracle Bone Inscriptions did not record the number of sacrifices. According to the calculation of at least one person in each Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the sum of the two can reach nearly 15000 people.

oracle bone script

Numerous human sacrifice pits were found in Yin Ruins in Anyang, which shows that the Shang Dynasty reached a crazy level in human sacrifice.

Why is the wind of human sacrifice so fierce in Shang Dynasty? In the Book of Rites, Confucius summed up the characteristics of belief in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, among which the characteristic of businessmen is "respect for gods", that is, respect for the gods of ancestors. All the activities of the Shang king should be divined through Oracle bones, asking whether the gods are feasible and praying for blessing.

Driven by such a belief in respecting gods, the nobles of Yin and Shang dynasties demanded very high sacrifices. There are thousands of animal sacrifices such as cattle and sheep. In order to show respect for God, the most precious human sacrifice will naturally not be lacking.

In the consciousness of Shang people, people will live in another world after death. This awareness has been observed by many people until today. While worshipping the gods, they will also bring many sacrifices to make themselves live a good life in another world. In the Shang Dynasty, in addition to food, clothing and money, nobles also had a special service group-slaves, so they sacrificed to the living and supplemented slaves for their dead ancestors.

Archaeological site of Yinxu in Anyang

In addition, the nobles in the Shang Dynasty "respected ghosts and gods" and sacrificed a large number of living people to the dead, not only for the ideal world, but also for practical considerations. By worshipping God and offering sacrifices, rulers put on the cloak of God for their real life, realize the sanctification of power, and thus control ordinary people.

After the Western Zhou Dynasty and Shang Dynasty, the cultural customs of Zhou people were very different from those of merchants, and they did not have a strong "worship of God" complex like merchants. In the design of political system, Zhou people are also much more clever than businessmen. No matter in reality or in thought, the enthusiasm of Zhou people for ghosts and gods was not as good as that of Yin Shang, and the phenomenon of large-scale human sacrifice gradually disappeared.

The Image of Yin Merchants in Film and Television Plays

The merchant's reverence for sacrifice is unimaginable for later generations. In addition to ancestors, merchants also divined and sacrificed natural phenomena such as thunder and lightning, wind and rain, sunrise and sunset. In the sacrificial system of Yin Shang Dynasty, there are two kinds of ancestor gods and natural gods. This ritual habit had a far-reaching impact on the sacrifice of later generations. Today, in the sacrificial activities of China people, sacrifices to ancestors and nature still occupy a major position. However, the phenomenon of human sacrifice with living people as sacrifices has been submerged in the dark clouds of history.