Early Chinese Civilization


Their kings were buried in coffins in immense pits with two or four sloping access ramps. A dog was sacrificed and placed immediately under each coffin, and numerous treasures (5,801 articles in one particular tomb) were buried along with the monarch. Among the most valuable of these objects, and ranking as status symbols, were cult vessels of bronze and war chariots, with horses and charioteers previously killed and buried along with them....A grim feature of Shang burials was the sacrifice of large numbers of human victims in groups of ten. They were ceremonially beheaded with large axes, also found in the tombs. These were prisoners taken in war or captured from nomad shepherd tribes on the western borders of Shang. [China: Its History and Culture, 15]

The Shang Pantheon
From Divination to Sacrifice
Sources of Chinese Tradition, 10.]
The chief glories of Shang art and craftsmanship are the magnificent vessels of bronze. These vessels, in a number of carefully prescribed shapes, were designed primarily for use in sacrifice to ancestors and gods, but they were also used to mark occasions of royal favor, such as the granting of a fief or an honor to a noble. Possession of bronze vessels was a conspicuous sign of wealth and a means of preserving it in the family....Shang bronze-working attained an extremely high standard, scarcely excelled anywhere else at any date. The rise of Shang bronze techniques appeared until recently to have been very rapid, and this led to speculation that knowledge of bronze casting might have been introduced from West Asia, then applied and developed in China. But discoveries in the 1970s have revealed examples of earlier, thinner, and much more primitive bronzes, which point to a long development within China itself. It now seems likely that the Chinese invented the casting of bronze independently. [China: Its History and Culture, 17]