The Study Of Animal Worship In Shang Culture

The Shang Dynasty was a time of strong religious authority,with numerous gods and complex rituals.Animals played a unique role in this period.On one hand,animals were sacrificed in rituals,while on the other hand,some animals were worshiped as natural gods.They appeared widely in the decorative patterns of bronze and jade artifacts,with majestic and mystical shapes,reflecting the beliefs and spiritual world of the Shang people.This paper investigates the issue of animal worship in Shang culture,using birds,dragons,and tigers as representative examples.The study is structured into three levels.The first level primarily focuses on physical materials and summarizes the development trends and decorative characteristics of various animal patterns found on Shang bronze ritual vessels,weapons,chariots,tools,and jade artifacts.The unique features of the different animal patterns are identified.The second level analyzes the meanings of oracle bone inscriptions related to the three types of animals,and explores the role of animals in religious rituals and ceremonies.The third level examines the beliefs and spiritual core of bird,dragon,and tiger worship in Shang culture by analyzing animal patterns,oracle bone inscriptions,and relevant historical documents.This paper argues that the Shang people’s perception of birds was complex and diverse,encompassing both worship and fear.The phoenix was regarded as a messenger of the gods,but bird cries were also seen as omens of disaster.This contradictory mindset was a significant factor in the later reversal of the image of owls.The Shang people’s belief in dragons was mainly reflected in precipitation,as the dragon image originated from thunder and was originally a symbol of the thunder god.Later,it was given new divine roles as a rain god,water god,and rainbow god,which is confirmed by oracle bone inscriptions and historical documents.The ancients imitated the sound of thunder with drumming to worship mountains,rivers,and spirits of heaven and earth.The tiger was a protective deity of the Yin and Shang royal families,and one of the earliest animal gods worshiped by Shang people.Tiger-shaped relics and traces are often found in the tombs of Shang kings and high-level aristocrats,reflecting the strict hierarchy and exclusivity of the royal tombs.These three types of animal worship were important aspects of early natural deity worship,and their motivation was closely intertwined with the Shang people’s agricultural production,military warfare,and religious ceremonies.This is in sharp contrast to the connection of animal worship with moral cultivation and political ideals after the Western Zhou period.