Shang Witchcraft Study

Shang Dynasty is of absolute religious authority in the history of China ,when the shaman is the ruler of the political life ,the instructor and dominator in the economic life ,and also the creator and successor of culture.Now examing this particular social community once again will be greatly benificial to the research of the history in Shang Dynasty.Beside the preface,this article is divided into five chapters.Chapter 1: From the viewpoint of the developing history of shaman ,the author makes a brief investigation of the shaman before Shang Dynasty ,which is divided into three stages :Yangshao period ,Longshan period and Xia Dynasty in chronological order ,and gives brief account of its developmentChapter 2: The author makes discussion from the shaman of itself in Shang Dynasty and makes an overall investigation of it in detail in three aspects :its definition,classification ,and sex.Chapter 3: This chapter is the core of this thesis. It investigates the activities which the shaman of Shang Dynasty performed. It makes a comprehensive investigation of the professional activities of the shaman of Shang Dynasty from four aspects : their all-powerful , supernatural activities , their activities of providing disaster belief and their medical activities.Chapter 4: It investigates the relationship between the shaman and the society of Shang Dynasty .The author investigates the influence imposed on the society at that time by the shaman from three aspects: politics,culture and science,and then investigates the influence imposed on the shaman by the society ,also from three aspects :divinity -oriented ideology ,social productive force and transportation.Chapter 5: It discuss about the reason why the shaman was so popular in Shang Dynasty from four aspects : political government , ideological understanding ,the original place of Shang Nation and the successive relationship between the culture of Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty.