Prehistoric Chinese religions

Jade bi disc, a ritual object from the Liangzhu culture which had an established ritual system

Prehistoric Chinese religions are religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples in China prior to the earliest intelligible writings in the region. They most prominently comprise spiritual traditions of Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures in various regions of China, which preceded the ancient religions documented by early Chinese dynasties. While many cultures shared similar faith and practices, each developed distinct features in its religious life. Modern studies of these religions are difficult due to the absence of written records in prehistoric Chinese cultures.

Neolithic cultures in China appeared in various regions across the country. An early culture was the Peiligang (c. 7000 – 5000 BCE), of which the Jiahu site was regarded as a prominent variation. Around the fifth millennium BCE, many cultures such as Yangshao appeared and left behind various sites that allow investigations into their religious life. During the fourth and third millennia BCE, the Liangzhu culture flourished in the Yangtze River valley, while the Yellow River valley saw the development course of cultures such as Dawenkou, Longshan, and Hongshan. These cultures are characterized by extensive traditions which indicate beliefs reminiscent of the posterior religion of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – 1046 BCE). Practices such as divination with oracle bones, regarded as important features of later Chinese religions, also appeared during the Neolithic period.

Around the late third and early second millennia BCE, Bronze Age sites emerged in China. Sites such as Erlitou entered a more advanced sociopolitical system and approached the definition of a state. As social stratification was increasingly integrated, evidences for ancestor worship appeareed more clearly. The Erlitou site is widely regarded among Chinese academics to be the site of the Xia dynasty which upheld traditional Chinese religion, despite inadequate evidence for the conflation. Abundant evidence for human sacrificial rituals also appeared during early Bronze Age China.

Many religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric China are claimed to be precursors of the Shang religion, which in turn influenced Chinese civilization due to similar elements among them. Certain traits such as animism, ancestor veneration and pyromancy characteristic of the Shang are found to be existent during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. As such, the cultures are considered to be one among the roots of classical Chinese traditions.

Overview of prehistoric China

Several Paleolithic sites in China have been dated to as early as 1.66 million years ago. By its definition as the involvement of agriculture in society, the Neolithic period in China began at different times in the many regions. The earliest examples of cultivated rice in China were found in the Yangtze River valley and dated to approximately 8000 years ago. Agriculture in China seemed to have begun at the same time with pottery production and sedentary life, a distinction from several other regions. Traces of Neolithic culture in what is now Hebei province have been radiocarbon-dated to at least 7750 BCE, although even earlier signs of agriculture have been found in northern Shanxi. Those evidences possibly mark the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic in the region.

Neolithic cultures

Location of the Peiligang culture

The Peiligang (裴李岗) and Cishan (磁山; 6500 – 5000 BCE) cultures are regarded as the first established farming peoples in China. At this period, settlements were usually of modest sizes and characterized by rudimentary structures. Peiligang and Cishan pottery were usually simple bowls and jars with little surface refinement. The remains of these two cultures suggest the established status of sedentary life and the use of millet as the main cultivating crop. One of the most prominent Peiligang site is Jiahu, with an extraordinary area covering 5.5 ha. Despite Peiligang being a millet farming culture, excavations at Jiahu have yielded examples of rice, suggesting an alternative food strategy. Isolated graphs were also found at this site.

The cultivation of rice in southern China used to be theorized to have begun around 5000 BCE, but more recent research have put the starting date back to as early as 7500 BCE. The date was obtained from radiocarbon datings of some 15,000 grains of rice found in two sites in Hunan. In Jiangxi, evidences suggest that even during 10000 BCE the site of Diaotonghuan had already been transitioning from a wild rice gathering society to a rice farming one. Southern China was also known for early pottery-making, which appeared around the 12th millennium BCE.

Three-legged ding from the Yangshao culture.

Jade pendant from the Hongshan culture

The Yangshao culture (5000 – 3000 BCE) has its type-sites located in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. These sites together with local types in the extended Yangshao area were divided into three phases. Some typical Yangshao societies, such as a village site named Jiangzhai, are considered matrilineal. Concentration of wealth and economic-political domination by stronger villages had already taken place at Yangshao sites. Some academics have proposed that Yangshao during its late phase resembled a 'chiefdom' rather than a 'segmentary lineage system' as previously theorized.

A contemporary culture of Yangshao named Hongshan flourished around the Liao River from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Hongshan settlements were partially allied with Yangshao people in northern Henan and southern Hebei. However, walls and complex residences seen in the Yangshao sites are unknown in Hongshan settlements. The end of Yangshao coincides with the emergence of the Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze River valley, approximately 5000 years ago. Liangzhu sites exhibit traits of an advanced society such as city walls, class stratification, labor division and extensive dam systems. The remarkable production and use of jade were another two characterizing traits of Liangzhu peoples.

Longshan pottery jar

Further regional differentiation during the late Neolithic was highlighted by the Longshan culture which spanned over the entire third millennium BCE. Social integration was further intensified and hierarchies emerged in Longshan sites, together with rammed earth walls that define a more sophisticated social system than Yangshao. The largest Longshan town was found in modern Taosi of Shanxi province. Dated around 2600 – 2000 BCE, Taosi is characterized by extensive elite control and a solar observatory considered among the world's oldest. The Taosi observatory was possibly used by astronomers to produce a calendar that may have been an ancestor of the late Shang religious calendrical system. As a Longshan type-site, Taosi was also an extremely straified society, where only one tenth of its population might have controlled up to 90% of total wealth.

Far from Yangshao, Longshan and Liangzhu, Sichuan province was also a region of prominent Neolithic cultures. The Yingpanshan site and its related Baodun culture flourished in the Chengdu plain before ending around 3700 years ago. While the Sanxingdui site is more popular among ancient Sichuan cultures than Yingpanshan and Baodun, the latter were directly related to Sanxingdui and preceded it by hundreds of years.

Early Bronze Age cultures

The beginning of the second millennium BCE was marked by the rise of state formation in China as the Erlitou culture arose. Erlitou opened a new period different from the previous Neolithic peoples in that it had strong presence of royal authority, an enlarged political apparatus and extensive military powers. Lasting from c. 1900 – 1600 BCE, Erlitou can be described as the first proper Bronze Age culture in China. Excavated at Erlitou sites are not only small bronze objects but also items of much larger size and higher technological complexity.

Bronze items from Qijia sites in Gansu province

The elites at the Erlitou site was already able to exercise authority over source supply and transportation within a considerable area, in addition to their control over up to 30,000 urban residents. Most scholars in China and some among the Western academia consider Erlitou to be the material culture of the Xia, the first traditional dynasty of China that allegedly existed at the same time as Erlitou itself. No evidence, however, is enough to either confirm the identification or reject it.

To the west of Erlitou was the Qijia culture, whose excavation sites are located in the Loess Plateau, Hexi Corridor and even as far as eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It marked Northwest China's transition from late Neolithic to early and middle Bronze Age. All Qijia sites show signs of a sedentary lifestyle with a mix of agricultural and pastoral production.

Emblematic faith

Modern understanding about prehistoric Chinese religions is hindered by a lack of contemporary writing. Therefore, it has mostly been acquired through archaeological works at culture sites as well as the already-documented Shang state religion. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson contends that belief systems of ancient cultures are best understood through examinations of their artworks. It is argued that metamorphism was a central aspect of religions in China since at least the late Neolithic.

Cosmology

The Neolithic Chinese during the fifth and fourth millennia BCE already incorporated in their faith the image of the northern celestial pole as a symbol of divinity. The region they concerned was formed by six stars Alioth, Pherkad, Thuban, Mizar, and Kochab. This area was in their perceptions a source of protection for the dead by communion with high stellar powers.

The mixed human and fish face of a Banpo face, which bears religious beliefs

The 'AZ' motif on Liangzhu jade cong. the motif regularly appears on many jade objects.

One village representing the Yangshao culture is Banpo, which lasted from 5000 to 3500 BCE. Found at Banpo, as well as Jiangzhai and several other Yangshao sites, are ceramic bowls decorated by a face created by mixing human faces and fish together. This pattern likely represented certain religious beliefs of the Banpo people and may even reflect a metaphorical meaning.

Some theorize that the face could be an early symbol of the solar power in which the villagers believed. John C. Didier projects the Banpo face motif to the sky area around the northern pole and finds that it aligned with stellar patterns surrounding the pole during the period of Yangshao. Didier takes this as evidence that Banpo villagers held beliefs in the celestial area and might have attributed myths to them. The rectangular shape at the center of the face could be identified with the mouth of a deity to whom Banpo people offered goods, and the fish imagery might also be gods as well.

Banpo villagers also featured in pottery images of a horned ungulate head. To Didier, this bears the same meaning as the human-fish face of repose. The deisgn may trace its origins to a celestial projection, before finding itself associated with ungulates. Because these animals were to the people an important source of food and clothing, it combination with the celestial sky indicates the villagers' belief in the polar authority to provide them with this beneficence.

The Niuheliang ritual construction complex that represents the Hongshan culture also reflects the presence of astronomical perception. A rectangular platform at the center of the ritual plaza may have been a mimic of the Banpo face of repose and constituted of the same projected stellar patterns. Thus, it could be that Hongshan people had ritualized the sky and the polar center. The attention that Hongshan and Yangshao peoples was likely transmitted to the Liangzhu in the Zhejiang area, which certainly had close connections with most Neolithic cultures in the region. The Liangzhu also featured the 'AZ' (anthropo-zoomorphic) motif on its artifacts, which bears resemblance to the taotie pattern of the Shang dynasty. This 'AZ' probably represented ancestral gods or at least Neolithic cult recipients. A seven-point pattern found in Qijia sites is related to Liangzhu and might trace its origins to as far as Bactria.

Deities

Objects of divine influence were already present during the Xinglongwa culture (c. 8500 – 7000 BCE) which is known for jade manufacturing. Jade items found in Xinglongwa sites symbolize the significance of agriculture. Shaped like ordinary farming tools, these items indicate a belief in powerful spirits who controlled nature and had the authority over the human realm.

The Niuheliang Hongshan temples feature clay statues of naked women with enormous sizes up to three times a normal human. They were added by a mask which used to be part of a statue depicting pregnancy. Despite the lack of writing to support their claim, some scholars deduce that these figurines symbolized the Hongshan 'Mother Goddess' and her entourage. The grandeur of ritual complexes found in Hongshan sites strongly indicate the worship of fertility goddesses along with former humans. It is also agreed that there existed an 'earth mother' whom Hongshan people treated as a fertility deity and might represent what later literature called the 'Sovereign Earth Mother'. The belief in such goddess, as also evident in Niuheliang, was related to ancestor worship in which the fertility deity herself was a mythified ancestress.

The dragon seemed to be a very significant mythical animal to Neolithic Chinese cultures, which had it as a major iconography emblem. The creature, which might be an exaggeration of the snake, was strongly associated with water and the transcendent realm. A combination of numerous animals like fish, serpents, birds and deers, the Neolithic dragon exhibit extraordinary power to move between what was above and below.

The famous pig-dragon jade pendant of Hongshan would signify a dragon assisting the goddess and as such being a symbol of fertility. The mythical dragon was integrated with the pig image as a result of the Hongshan culture being dependent on agricultural and domestic fortune which the pig symbolized. This symbolic dragon of Hongshan was likely transmitted to many other cultures. The Niuheliang excavator Sun Shoudao traces the evolution of the emblematic image from Hongshan through Longshan and Erlitou to the Shang. The connection was suggestive since the Shang themselves produced varieties of the same dragon found at Hongshan, and the Shang writing script even had two characters resembling the creature's shape.

To the south of Hongshan settlements, the Liangzhu culture maintained a strong religious presence and is sometimes described as a theocracy. Some consider the 'AZ' motif of Liangzhu to depict their most divine being. This god is half-human and half-animal, combing ancestral worship and totemism. The emblem signifies the unification of ancestral and nature cults in one deity, carrying the spiritual world of Liangzhu peoples. Hayashi Minao also argued that the Liangzhu believed in the sun god and its light, and that they employed the AZ-decorated cong to worship that deity.

Life and death

Jade cong in Neolithic China

Works of jade from various cultures show an early belief in the life-and-death cycle in Neolithic China. There existed an underworld in this faith, guarded by the jade-represented dragons with powerful flexibility from the evil spirits. The celestial region projected by those cultures, aside from providing post-mortem security, also served to assure the living of a continued existence after death. Therefore, to the Neolithic Chinese, life and death were interconnected with the mysteries of the night sky's pole. Life and death were also associated with cicadas and silkworms that were often depicted through jade artifacts. In other words, the Neolithic Chinese consider death a process of physical transformation and transition to a new life, similar to the metamorphosis of cicadas and silkworms. This belief likely resulted from understandings of insect lifecycles prevalent in silk-textile producing cultures around 3500 BCE.

Kingship and authority

The authority holders of the Liangzhu culture is also regarded as representing godly powers on earth, allowing the society to exist in centralized rule as well as the unity of faith. Divine authority was conveniently utilized by Liangzhu rulers to achieve their own ambitions and secure their leading position, therefore establishing them as the highest ruling class in society and link their regime to the gods. Since the Liangzhu people's deity manifested itself on the celestial pole area, only the elites were able to reach out to it through wearing stellar emblems. As the ones who communicated with deities, Liangzhu rulers had their words 'unquestionable' and they were seen as messengers of spiritual voice.

Rulership of the Hongshan culture appears to be vaguely derived from divine-sanctioned authority. The Hongshan area was probably divided into different chieftainships with varying degrees of relationship to one another. Hongshan chieftains did not have both sufficient authority and leadership techniques, so they based their right to rule upon references to religious authority together with personal charisma and military successes.

Ritual facilities

Temples and altars

A large collection of ritual constructions have been excavated at the Niuheliang Hongshan type-site. Altars were constructed meticulously out of stones, with a large labor force directed by a centralized control, all for honoring former elite figures. These altars were built in separated locations from residential areas. As argued by Didier, some temples and altars were modeled after the celestial patterns. For example, there was a square stone ritual platform placed next to another concentric circle one, on the center of which was a rectangular altar lying concentrically enclosed within a second square; all the concentric shapes formed an altar of worship. Feng Shi interpreted this structure to have functioned as both an altar to heaven and another to the earth, although Didier suspected the likelihood of both serving heaven.

Niuheliang altars usually accompany burials, in which case they are shaped into circular stone lines. To the northeast of these burial altars is the location of a temple dedicated to the aforementioned 'Mother Goddess'. This temple was itself a part of the site's ritual complex. Its partly excavated structure includes a subterranean room with a stone floor and plastered walls that likely used to be decorated by mural paintings. It also contains a stone altar dedicated to Mother Goddess statues. Surrounding the proper temple was a two-part wall filled with ceramic cylinders. The wall itself was made of wood supported by multiple layers of mud or thatch, and is likely to have gone through burnings.

At the Hongshan site of Dongshanzui, altars have also been excavated. Being open-air, they constituted a part of an extensive walled structure. Both two altars were built out of a hard-packed yellow earth layer framed by smooth granite stones of various colours, each measuring 0.2 to 0.3 cm. long. The altars were supported by two platforms, one rectangular and another circular of a smaller size. Excavated in the circular platform are fertility figurines, whose special location suggest an utilization for ceremonial purposes. Concentric circle designs have also been identified at Dongshanzui.

Ritual constructions of the Liangzhu culture was influenced by their cosmological faith in the celestial square area. Found in two Liangzhu sites of Fanshan and Yaoshan (Zhejiang province) were cardinally oriented rectangular grounds raised to 4 meters above the surrounding earth. At the center of each platform lay square altars with side measuring 20 meters; this is also where famous Liangzhu jades were discovered. This construction design not only confirms Liangzhu's close relationship with other Neolithic cultures, but also indicates a strong belief in astronomy uphold by its peoples.

During the late Neolithic, there were virtually no constructions specifically dedicated to religious practices. Coming into the Bronze Age, the largest type-site of the Erlitou culture was sectioned into different specialized areas. Located at the center lay the temple complex. They accompanied the palaces and stood on rammed-earth foundations, which covered an area of about 7.5 hectares.

Materials

Pottery jar from the Majiayao culture

Bronze jue goblet from the Erlitou site in Henan

The term that academics employ to refer to Neolithic Chinese ritual materials and the objects made from them is 'ritual paraphernalia' (lǐqì 禮器) They were produced with great workmanship and intensive labor, suggesting their use by the political elites. These objects were often painted with zoomorphic and even ornimorphic images. Despite minimal knowledge about their use, it is clear that these objects were utilized for ancestor worship.

Jade were used in a wide variety of Neolithic cultures including Xinglongwa, Hongshan, Majiabang (5000 – 3200 BCE), Shijiahe (2600 – 2000 BCE), Liangzhu, Longshan, and Qijia. During the middle fourth millennium BCE when social inequality was developing, jade was introduced to rituals, and its use in religion became dominant in the Hongshan, Dawenkou and Liangzhu cultures. Three particular jade objects were used by multiple cultures spanning various regions: cong tubes, bi disks, and yazhang tablets. Cong and bi were employed in spiritual communications.

The pottery developed by Yangshao peoples spread to the Majiayao culture and even further into Xinjiang and Central Asia; Majiayao designs are decorated by a variety of patterns including the swastika symbol. Pottery examples from the Shandong Longshan culture were molded into rectilinear shapes of extreme thinness, with black surfaces polished to a metallic appearance. Many types of bronze objects from the subsequent Erlitou period showed similar traits with the Longshan ceramic ones. The Chinese sinologist Li Chi and fellow proponents traced the origins of ritual bronze designs in China to works of pottery during the Neolithic. However, the now-abundant source of excavated materials has rendered their argument unsubstantiated. Erlitou's own pottery works were also derived from that of Dawenkou in Shandong.

Early bronze ding of the Erlitou culture

Bronzes came into use as one of the primary ritual objects around 1700 BCE. The first Chinese ritual bronzes came from the Erlitou culture. They consist of ten small jue goblets, nine of which appear to have no decorations and the other bearing simple artistic lines and dots. The tenth goblet may have been a turning point in Chinese ritual bronzemaking and might have resulted from a mistake during the process. Other Erlitou ritual bronzes include the jia, the he, and the famous ding. The latter, which are tripods, traced their origins back to Neolithic versions that had appeared around two thousand years earlier in cultures such as Yangshao. A typical pottery ding from the fourth millennium BCE had their flat legs positioned radially and leg edges either pinched or serrated. The early bronze ding were probably copied from their pottery counterparts.

Practices

Oracle bone divination

See also: Oracle bone

A turtle shell used for divination during the Shang dynasty.

The form of early Chinese divination was pyro-osteomancy (or pyromancy), denoting burning animal bones to seek answers to human inquiries. Oracle bone divination with scapulae and turtle shells was a source of state power for the late Shang dynasty (c. 1250 – 1046 BCE). These materials had already been in use during the early Neolithic period for divinatory purposes, but turtle shells appeared to be rarer than ox scapulae or sheep bones. Divination with turtle shells was prevalent among cultures of the eastern Chinese coast and along the Yangtze River, such as Daxi, Dawenkou and Majiabang. Neolithic Chinese divination persisted over a long period of time and, similar to the Shang dynasty, was linked to politically sanctioned ritual specialists. It is also likely that aside from the familiar pyromantic bone tradition, peoples in Neolithic China also practiced divination with materials inaccessible for modern archaeology.

Radiocarbon dates of Neolithic Chinese oracle bones

Site / culture	Uncalibrated date (BP)	Calibrated date (BCE)	Laboratory designation
Fuhegoumen	4600 ± 110	3321 ± 179
Kangjia	4115 ± 75	2709 ± 120	BK-91040
Kangjia	4130 ± 80	2716 ± 119	BK-91039
Yangbai	3750 ± 70	2172 ± 109	ZK-2255
Yangbai	3530 ± 70	1867 ± 91	ZK-2256
Dahezhuang	3570 ± 95	1924 ± 131	ZK-15
Dahezhuang	3540 ± 95	1887 ± 123	ZK-23
Early Erlitou phase I	3457 ± 30	1799 ± 59	ZK-5261
Late Erlitou phase IV	3270 ± 32	1556 ± 43	ZK-5242a

From the mid-fourth millennium BCE, pyromancy began to take roots in China. Some assumed that Neolithic pyromancy was linked to the cult for the dead which was then developing. The practice might have resulted from coincidence. In other words, the Neolithic Chinese might have noticed bone cracks when they were sacrificing heated meat for the spirits, and might as well interpreted them as spiritual responses.

An early example of pyromancy in China was a scapula of a sheep or deer, identified to have been found in either Inner Mongolia or Liaoning province. Radiocarbon-dated with calibration to 3321 ± 179 BCE, the bone exhibits burn marks deliberately inflicted upon its distal blade. It constitutes a collection of Late Neolithic divination examples coming from North China, which also includes the sites Jungar Banner (Inner Mongolia), Fujiamen (Gansu province). Examples from the south include a sheep scapula excavated in the site Xiawanggang in Henan province, dated either to the late Yangshao or Longshan period. Despite the presence of these bones at an early point, it was only during the middle third millennium BCE, during the dynamic Longshanoid period, that divination became properly established.

Type-sites of the Longshan culture provide typical examples for necessary divination by independent practitioners. Representative of Longshan are at least 20 scapulae in Kangjia (Lintong, Shanxi). Although they date back to the early third millennium BCE, similarities shared with late-millennium Longshan oracle bones have been determined. Unlike their Shang counterparts, Longshan bones were neither pretreated nor inflicted with drilled holes and chisel marks before the burning process. Divination marks are scattered on the bones with no clear regulating principles.

Excavations have revealed similar examples from various places. Some come from Longshan sites such as Yangbai (Wutai, Shanxi), Taosi, and Shangpo (Xiping, Henan). In addition, there are also bones from the Qijia culture site Dahezhuang (Gansu) and the previously mentioned Xiawanggang samples.

Elaborate pyromancy developed gradually and haphazardly as cultures transitioned into the Bronze Age. Although the elaboration shift was most significant in the Central Plains, the earliest notable pretreated bones are found in the Lower Xiajiadian culture in the Northeast which also enclose the oldest oracle bones. In these cases, diviners drilled holes into bones before burning in order to control cracking. One such bone has on it up to 37 holes. Elaboration took hold in the Erlitou culture slowly – in fact, oracle bones in the Erlitou site throughout four phases do not have drilled hollows on them, indicating the absence of pretreatment prior to heat application – but the culture eventually adopted the tradition which it would then be passed down to the Shang.

Theory of early shamanism

Further information: Shamanism and Chinese shamanism

Shamanism as a term has various definitions, and its exact meaning has been a topic of contention among academics of cultural anthropology. It currently does not have a conclusive and unitary definition. David Keightley offered that in the contexts of ancient Chinese studies, a shaman could be defined as a medium between the spirit and human worlds, one who travelled to the realm of gods and demons by epilepsy and autohypnotic trances for spiritual communication; in other words, his soul would depart from his body during the concerned ceremony that he performed. The shaman's techniques, according to Keightley, included but was not limited to dancing, ventriloquy and juggling.

The authoritative voice in the field of ancient Chinese shamanism is K. C. Chang, who in the 1980s introduced his theory about the topic. Chang viewed Neolithic imagery of the Yangshao, Longshan and Liangzhu cultures as representations of shamanic visions or metamorphosis. Chang also contended that the shamans in early China were similar to Siberian ones, and that shamanic power was vested in the ruling elites who monopolized as head mediums. Many sinologists, including Keightley, have expressed disagreement with Chang's shamanic hypothesis.

Evidence from the Chinese Neolithic suggests practices reminiscent of shamanism. During the Yangshao period (5000 – 3000 BCE), artifacts such as dancing figures in a pot excavated in Datong (Qinghai), depictions of skeletons and human-headed frogs, as well as a hermaphroditic human figurine in Liuwan (Qinghai) have been interpreted to be resonant with shamanism. The famous jade cong tubes of the Liangzhu culture, whose design encloses circles inside squares, have also been identified as possibly bearing shamanistic meanings. Chang commented on these jades:

...as shamanistic symbols or tools, the circular shape symbolizing heaven, the square shape symbolizing earth; the hollow tube is the axis mundi connecting the different world and the animal decorations portray the shaman's helpers. In short, the cong encapsulates the principal elements of the shamanistic cosmology.

— K. C. Chang

As many cultures in Neolithic China believed in the intimate interconnection between death and life, their religious activities were also related to communication with the dead. However, Keightley argued against Chang that there was little empirical strength to prove the existence of shamanism in the cong imagery. He advocated for a thorough inspection of the seemingly shamanistic practices as a way to discover their true nature.

Mortuary rituals and sacrifices

Early Chinese cultures expressed considerable dedication to postures of the dead. Already by the end of the fifth millennium BCE, human corpses had been buried in identical postures and with regards to similar orientations. The Neolithic mourners followed the tradition of burying the dead in full-length postures, either supine or prone and were willing to invest additional effort in preparing the required space. Burial orientations also emerged during the fifth millennium BCE; eastern cultures during the Neolithic interred the dead with heads pointing to directions between east and north, while northwestern peoples oriented the dead to the west and northwest. Burials in Henan were special in that corpses were directed towards the south. The preference for orientation was very strong and even influenced secondary burials; an early example was the Yuanjunmiao cemetery in Shaanxi (around 5000 – 4500 BCE) whose secondary burial skeletons were interred imitating primary orientations. Neolithic orientation traditions were evidently dictated by contemporary religious and cosmological thoughts; however, they likely varied based on geographical regions or social status of the dead.

Chinese secondary burials had appeared since the beginning of the Neolithic, and such burials began to be collectively practiced in the early fifth millennium BCE. The living upheld the dead in mind, and their concern to the dead extended beyond initial burials. It is likely that between the original interment and the secondary one, the living dedicated considerable attention for the dead in some forms of commemorative cultist practices. At Yuanjunmiao, the majority of burials were collective ones. This practice might also have appeared in Dawenkou sites around the transition from the fifth to fourth millennium BCE. Secondary-buried corpses may share a grave with a primary one or lie within its own grave. The extent of these burials indicate the existence of communal rituals conducted by the dead's kinsmen at the time of the second interment, but it is not known whether the rituals were hosted by shamans.

Most of Yangshao burials belong to the secondary, Banpo type. Collective burials mainly existed during the Banpo phase of Yangshao; most during other times feature single-person burial practices. The dead who shared common graves were likely those whose deaths had been close in time. Based on certain criteria that suggest female supremacy in Yangshao burials, some academics proposed that the Yangshao society was matrilineal.

The Neolithic Chinese also practiced urn burial, although the tradition seemed to be restricted to burials of children. Urn burial was most practiced in Yangshao sites around the Yellow River and Wei River valleys, and mourners seemed to follow established principles in arranging bones in the urn. Covering urns were lids with beautiful decorations and other characteristics, suggesting that they used to belong to the dead children and their decorations were solely for pleasing the deceased.

Dou vessel of the Dawenkou culture.

As settlements increased in number, funerary traditions were conducted more frequently and, as a result, mortuary values associated with them were further articulated. Already during the Neolithic, mourners had formed distinctions between vessels buried near the corpses and those at greater distances. Such classification is demonstrated by about four burials of that type at Banpo. By the third millennium BCE, the presence of several vessels such as the dou and bei in eastern graves indicate the presence of funeral banquets. Examples evident in Dawenkou suggest larger numbers of feasting mourners during male interments. Also at Dawenkou, bei goblets were buried as representations of vitality as well as resistance to death and sterility. Spatial differences of Longshan human remains arose as a result of kinship. The deceased of this culture were also buried with artifacts adorned by motifs similar to the taotie of the Shang.

Mortuary use of dogs in prehistoric China appeared in the Peiligang culture and extended several millennia into the late Liangzhu sites. Other cultures with evidence of dog burials include but are not limited to Yangshao, Longshan, Hongshan, Dawenkou, and Majiabang. Dog burials before the Yangshao period have only been confirmed at the Peiligang Jiahu site. It spread to the Han river area during early Yangshao times, to the Huai river area during the Dawenkou period, and to the lower Yangtze during the late Liangzhu-early Longshan. The burial of dogs may be associated with beliefs that they offer the dead owners spiritual protection or accompany them in the afterlife, and in generally they imply ritual meanings. Aside from dogs, the Neolithic Chinese also used pigs and tortoises as mortuary animals.

Traditional accounts

Some classical Chinese literature from the Zhou and Han dynasties make references to the remote past. For example, the Guoyu ('Discourses of the States') from the Eastern Zhou period (771 – 256 BCE) describes religion in the earliest times:

In ancient times men and spirits did not intermingle. At that time there were certain persons who were so perspicacious, single-minded, and reverential that their understanding enabled them to make meaningful collation of what lies above and below, and their insight to illumine what is distant and profound. Therefore, the spirits would descend into them. The possession of such powers were, if men, called hsi (shamans), and, if women, wu (shamanesses) … In the degenerate time of Shaohao [c. 27th century BCE], however, the Nine Li threw virtue into disorder. Men and spirits became intermingled, with each household indiscriminately performing for itself the religious observances which had hitherto been conducted by the shamans. As a consequence, men lost their reverence for the spirits, the spirits violated the rulers of men, and natural calamities arose.

— Discourses of the States, ch. Discourses of Chu

According to traditional Chinese historiography, the tradition of venerating deities was already ongoing during the Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC) that directly preceded the Shang. For example, the Xia's second sovereign Qi was described in multiple texts as a spirit-medium who communicated with Shangdi and performed sacrifices to the deceased. The Book of Documents also mentions Shangdi receiving annual sacrifices from Emperor Shun – one of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors whose reign predated even the Xia.

References

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