Research On Human Sacrifice Of Chu State

When the human sarifice of Chu state has started, it's difficult to trace by inspecting the ancient books. But we can get some information from its class differentiation and the process its getting strong. Xiongtong proclaimed himself king, and at the same time, royalty resulted from general public, government institutions emerged, owners-slaves birthright was set, and the conditions that human sacifice emerged were quite mature. We may see that in early Spring and Autumn Period, human sacrifice should has been occurred, however it's a pity the books hasn't marked, and the archaeological evidence hasn't been found. Archaeological excavations demonstrate: in the middle Spring-and-Autumn Period, mainly in the senior elite tombs, human sacifice appeared, it reached the height in late Spring-and-Autumn Period, faded in the early Warring States period, and further declined in middle Warring States period. Compared to Qin state, human sacrifice of Chu lasted shorter, and mainly in Henan which was influenced by Central Plain culture and Hubei where the political center was. Looking from the way of disposing sacrificial victims, the human sacrifice of Chu was less cruel than Qin's, the location of the sacrificial victims were less complex than Qin's. According to the identity of sacrificial victims, human sacirifice of Chu is divided into three categories:human sacrifice by wives, human sacrifice by the trusted and the favorite, human sacrifice by slaves, and the sacrificial vicitims'identity was single. The female sacrificial victims took a large proportion. In general, instances of human sacrifice of Chu was less than Qin's. It is noteworthy that not all the same period and same level of elite tombs exist human sacrifice in Chu, there are a lot of reasons. In addition, there is such a class of people, they were volunteer to die for spiritual beliefs which were essentially different from human sacrifice, this behavior should regarded to be "martyrdom of spirit". Cai state and Zeng state were subsidiary countries to Chu in a long time, they were influenced by Chu culture. Caihou tomb, Zeng Hou Yi tomb, the number 2 tomb of Lei Gu Dun were Chu culture tombs, but the extent of their funeral culture which was influenced by Chu was quite different. Caihou tomb hardly had the factor of funeral culture of Chu, but human sacrifice of Zeng Hou Yi tomb had much in common with that of the same class of Chu, it should had been influenced by Chu culture. There were 21 sacrificial victims in Zeng Hou Yi tomb, while there were just 1 sacrificial victim in Caihou tomb, this was not only related to the power of both, but also had addition to the political relations of Chu and Zeng, Chu and Cai.The chip wooden figurine is a prototype of the sacrificial figurine, either from its facial features, clothing decoration, body proportion, or from the sculpture, painting techniques, it appears plain and awkward. From the evolution of the figurine burial, it originated in Spring-and-Autumn period, rapidly developed in middle Warring States period, reached its highlight in late Warring States period. From the geographical distribution of it, the figurine burial firstly appeared in Dangyang, Hubei province, later it broke geographical boundaries, but on the whole, it located in the vicinity of the political center of Chu, and its rear Hunan. Speaking from the principle of figurine burial, the tomb generally buried 2-4 wooden figurines in early Warring States period; Dafu (a kind of senior offcials) tomb buried 8-30, the sergeant tomb buried 6-12, the middle sergeant and the corporal buried 2-4 in the middle of Warring States period; The figurine burial extended to civilian tomb, its principles present chaotic state in late Warring States period. The figurine burial as a phenomenon of specific material culture of Chu burial was the product of the Spring-and-Autumn period of social change, and was the result of the slavery's transition to feudal system. The phenomenon thant human sacrifice, the figurine burial or human sacrifice coexisting with the figurine burial was the concentrated reflection of social change at that time. In the funeral of Chu, human sacrifice and the figurine burial were interactive, on the one hand, the figurine burial as a manner of "disguised human sacrifice", there wasn't growth of the soil of the figurine burial if there wasn't human sacrifice, on the other hand, the development of the figurine burial accelerated the decline of human sacrifice.Currently, there are 52 cases (not including the king of Qin tomb) of human sacrifice of Qin, while there are 27 cases (not including Da Xue Jia Wa cemetery and Xiong Jia Zhong cemetery of Chu), which only takes halt of Qin's. Chu state entered the national civilization later, and from the early Spring-and-Autumn period to Chu Dao Wang of early Warring States period, Chu state had been in the system of feudal lords.The human sacrifice of this stage showed that the identity of sacrificial victims were mainly wives, the trusted and the favorite, family slaves, the production slaves were quite rare, this case could be used as an evidence that Chu was not a slavery society. In the late Warring States Period, Chu entered the feudal landlord system, the social class structure had undergone tremendous changes, the owners of number 3, number 4, number 5 tomb of Bai zi Fan of E city may the risers of this change led to. It didn't have mature slavery was the root cause of having less human sacrifice. In Spring-and-Autumn period, Etiquette-and-Music system was on a bad situation, human sacrifice broke the previous level of restriction, the number of sacrificial victims, burial objects and association of ritual had emerged overstepped. Entering into Warring States Period, social change accelerated, the traditional ritual was completely destroyed. The case that human sacrifice appeared in the lower nobility increased, human sacrifice went down. Looking from the disposal of human sacrifice, coffins and burial objects of sacrificial victims, the identity of sacrificial victims and the option of volunteer to die or not, human sacrifice of Chu was relatively human, this was relevant to strong thought of people. Enlightened monarchs and people of insight of Chu realized people's power, and they learned lessons from the former experience, this behavior furtherly promoted the development of thought of people, this was also the reason that the human sacrifice was less. Because of its unique cultural background and geographical factors, in the funeral culture, it reflected as Chu custom between Barbarians culture and Central Plain culture. On the one hand it followed the etiquette of Zhou Dynasty, the upper royal grave which had blood relationship as a link and characterized by Zhao-Mu system existed the custom of human sacrifice and accompany death system, also, some of the barbarian noble of Chu received the custom of accompany death of Central Plains culture. On the other hand, some of the high barbarian noble of Chu refused human sacrifice. Having been moved to Jianghan region for a long time, influenced by barbarian custom, immersed in culture of Yue state, unconsciously, its spirit of culture which had the original ingredients, natural atmosphere, mysterious and romantic means more than the Central Plains culture, gradually it formed a southern school. Among all, wooden figurine burial was the most romantic and creative product.