The Status of Cattle in Shang Dynasty

Shang and Zhou dynasties were all countries established by nomadic people, so cattle were not regarded as the strategic resources of the country like the later Tang, Song and Ming dynasties. Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty is recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This bone is a horse bone and an ox bone.

It is also recorded in Zhouyi Ji Jie that killing cattle in the East is not as good as sacrificing cattle in the West. The east neighbor here is Shang, that is, in the Shang Dynasty, oregano was rarely used for sacrifice.

Of course, cattle were also used in agricultural production, at least until the Zhou Dynasty, which was established on the basis of the Shang Dynasty, so it can be inferred that cattle in the Shang Dynasty have been used in agricultural production. The evidence is also in the Book of Changes, in which there is no false prediction: something for nothing ... an innocent disaster, or a cow.

Cattle are also used to pull carts: divination: stop when you see it, and its cattle pull it.

Because for farming, the efficiency of horses is about three times higher than that of cattle, so I don't think cattle will be widely used for farming in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties when there is no shortage of horses.

Therefore, it can be inferred that cattle had been used for farming in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but it was not its main purpose. Its main uses are still eating, offering sacrifices and driving.