The king likes to sacrifice to the living, so where did these people come from?

In Shang dynasty, people really liked to sacrifice. Now archaeology finds that in Shang Dynasty, sometimes thousands of people were sacrificed at a time. Some of these people do come from criminals, but the number of criminals is not enough, mainly prisoners of war and slaves.

At that time, people often fought to the death, not because they were elite troops, nor because they were particularly brave, but because they surrendered at that time and were basically used for sacrifice. Because even if you surrender, you can't live. It's better to fight, and maybe you can survive.

Sacrificial place

As for why we must choose prisoners of war? It is precisely because people in the Shang Dynasty especially worshipped ghosts and gods and ancestors that sacrificing prisoners of war is the enemy of sacrificing ancestors, and they are all young and middle-aged people with very high quality, especially satisfying their ancestors, so they especially like to use prisoners of war as sacrifices.

Although prisoners of war are considered first, sometimes when there are not enough prisoners, slaves will make up for them. Slavery was practiced in Shang dynasty, and the status of slaves was extremely low, and life was like dirt. There were not enough people at the time of sacrifice, so slaves were used to make up for it. When building a house, we should also kill a few slaves to crush the house. So now there is a saying that there are several bones under every building in ancient times. This is true in history, and this rumor is not groundless.

Sacrificial ritual vessels

Moreover, the Shang Dynasty used hieroglyphs, which were generally used for divination. When divining, the bones or nails of wild animals will be burned, but in order to improve the success rate of divination, blood sacrifices are often carried out. Therefore, the life of slaves at that time was very difficult. You should work hard on weekdays. Once it rises, you will be used for sacrifice.

Sacrificial place

Sacrifices in Shang Dynasty were also divided into animals and people. This is the origin of the word beast. Animals used to be hieroglyphics and were called beasts, that is, they were sacrificed with cattle and sheep and were called beasts. Later, they evolved into modern animals. At the earliest time, cursing an animal doesn't mean that you are an animal, but that it is used as a sacrifice. That is the real cruelty.

This is the real source of the word beast, so if someone scolds you in the future, you must be careful. You may not know what he is thinking.