Religion of the Shang dynasty

The state religion of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC) involved trained practitioners communicating with deified beings, including deceased ancestors and supernatural gods. Primary methods of spiritual veneration were written divinations on oracle bones and sacrifice of living beings. The Shang dynasty also had large-scale constructions of tombs, which reflects their belief in the afterlife, along with sacred places. Numerous Shang vessels, as well as oracle bones, have been excavated in the kingdom's capital Yin. They reveal a large number of honoured deities, most of which came from the Shang's extensive observations of the surrounding world. Headed by the god Dì, the deities formed a pantheon.

The Shang kingdom's religion, accounting for a large portion of court life, played an important role to its adherents. The deities worshipped received various honorary ceremonies. The Shang astronomers created a sophisticated calendar system based on astronomical observations. Complying with the calendar, diviners and sacrificial practitioners conducted liturgical rituals aimed at the gods. Regional estates maintained independent practitioners but worshipped the same deities for common purposes. Systemic spiritual ceremonies to deities, formalized over time, were held for divine support and prosperity of the late Shang state.

The Shang religion originated in the Yellow River valley, heartland of the Chinese civilization from 1600 to 1046 BC. It was the first thoroughly documented Chinese religion, with the first Shang bone texts dating back to, during the reign of Wǔ Dīng (c. 1250 – c. 1200 BC) and over 1000 years before the end of ancient China in 221 BC. Throughout over two centuries, the dynasty increased its cultural influence and experienced cultural exchanges by means of war. After 1046 BC, the Zhou dynasty, which replaced the Shang, gradually assimilated elements of Dì into its governing beliefs. Over the following millennia, many elements of the ancient religion were reflected in the later religious system of the Zhou dynasty, as well as the systems of imperial China (221 BC – 1912 AD). Shàngdì remains an important figure in Chinese culture, and the calendar originally used for religion is now important in traditional events of China and influenced countries.

Beliefs
The Shang people's religious perception was polytheistic. They believed in a supreme being leading smaller spirits, including natural gods and ancestral deities, and focused on a cosmological concept centered around a celestial northern pole, which housed the most sacred gods in the Shang pantheon.

Dì
The highest of the Shang gods was Shàngdì ̣上帝, full form Dì 帝. In many oracle bone inscriptions, Dì is described as a being who controlled natural forces as if controlling individual spirits in a hierarchy, which made him distinguished from the other worshipped gods. Dì did not give messages in preserved scriptures, and his will could only be known through oracle bones. There are various abilities attributed to the high god, mostly described on oracle bones not directly but through pairs of affirmative and negative statements.

Dì exercised authority over the natural world, often by giving commands (lìng 令). This god could influence phenomena related to agricultural activities on which the Shang depended, by commanding the weather and climate, as well as dictating harvests and, occasionally, supplying humans with food if proper "calling out" rituals were conducted. Dì also had an impact on military actions, usually by indirectly helping royal forces in conquering hostile states, by protecting the Shang king in royal inspections, or by forecasting divine will for military support by sending natural phenomena such as rains. Furthermore, he was the power that gave approvals (ruò 若) to humans' everyday decisions and actions. The Shang also believed that while Dì could aid them in various aspects, he could also harm them by his power. Numerous Shang texts record disastrous events thought to be caused by Dì's will, including droughts, defeat by enemies, or even the king's health deterioration. The Shang offered carried out divinations to ensure Dì was appeased and to avoid calamities; however, Dì was not offered sacrifices as his power transcended human attributes.

Dì's identity has been a subject of debate, with various approaches proposed. This system of structured spirits featured Dì as the apex, hence making him corresponding with the "leading" role of Zeus in Ancient Greece and Tiān in Zhou dynasty.

Some scholars link Dì with the existence of the Emperor Kù 帝喾, who was mentioned in Sima Qian's Shiji as the Shang dynasty's progenitor, and who was addressed High Ancestor in more than four inscriptions. Many prominent scholars support the view that Dì and Kù actually represent an identical power, making implications for the current understanding of the religion's theology profound. Some historians assert that if the Shang system of gods featured the highest and supreme deity as a primal ancestor of the rulers, then the monarchs themselves would be acceptedly seen as possessing divine powers. In other words, the kings would be perceived as embodying the power of Dì (or Kù), being the "thearchs" by birth.

There is another explanation, derived from studies of Dì in linguistic contexts, that the religion did not possess a "High God" in its pantheon and that Dì was a generic word for the collectivity of all divine powers. Some claim that Dì could not be a part of Shang ancestors despite Dì's presence in ancestral titles, since ancestors could not destroy the capital city the way Dì could. Eno also argued that since Dì was included in some ancestral titles, then if it referred to a High God, the spirits would rival Dì in power, which was unlikely. He proposed another suggestion in which Dì referred to all spirits.

Natural deities
Among spirits of nature worshipped by the Shang, the wind (fēng 風) was often mentioned. Winds were associated with the phoenix Fèng 鳳 as well as the four seasons, and controlled by four wind gods of the cardinal directions (fāng 方) corresponding to four types of wind. These four winds as well as responsible deities together represented Dì's cosmic will and carried his authority to affect agriculture. Rituals were conducted to appease the wind gods for their mercy (níngfēng 寧風), as well as to pray for years of successful harvests (dìfēng 禘風). Although there were wind gods, there were also harmful winds, along with other spirits having the same power both in the ancestral and natural targets of worship.

As a result of their dependence on agriculture, the Shang people deified and worshipped many deities whose natural manifestations affected productivity. In particular, the possibly female-gendered Earth Power, named Shè 社 or Tǔ 土, was associated with protection from misfortune. This deity might be manifested in the human world by representation of the Shang's tribal neighbour Tǔfāng 土方, with which the Shang maintained agricultural relationships. The Shang natural cult also included the mountain power Yuè 岳, rains (yǔ 雨), snow (xuě 雪), diseases (jí 疾), locusts (zhōng 螽), and the River Hé 河. Importantly, spirits assigned to these locations were able to wield destructive powers, manifested through events like floods.

Some oracle bone inscriptions refer to gendered spirits of the cardinal directions, namely the Mother of the West (Xīmǔ 西母) and Mother of the East (Dōngmǔ 東母). These spirits were clearly identified as recipients of sacrifices, of which examples were yellow oxen and dark dogs. Although some identified these two spirits with the Sun and Moon, others claim that they were more likely to be spirits associated with directions and were therefore earthly deities. The worship of such mother-earth spirits might have originated from agricultural cults and representation of fertility goddesses.

It has been realized that several spirits of the natural world were treated in a similar manner as were the ancestral deities. Such spirits were Yuè 嶽 and Hé 河, which were the deities of the River and Mountain mentioned above as the two natural gods worshipped regularly. Sacrificial rituals dedicated to these spirits resembled those dedicated to Shang ancestors, and Hé was even occasionally addressed as High Ancestor (gāozǔ 高祖). Such identification makes it difficult to modern scholars to clearly differentiate between the natural and ancestral sections of the Shang cultic pantheon.

Ancestral powers
The Shang dynasty established a complex ancestral cult. They identified six predynastic ancestral spirits which include Shàng Jiă 上甲, Bào Yǐ 報乙, Bào Bǐng 報丙, Bào Dīng 報丁, Shì Rén 示壬, Shì Guǐ 示癸, and a dynastic line starting from Shì Guǐ's child Dà Yǐ 大乙 and progressing to the last king Dì Xīn 帝辛. Several deceased spirits of the monarch were responsible for his well-being, even to his dreams about them, as shown in a bone inscription in which Dà Jiă was addressed as the cause of the king's nightmare. Their rituals, as a result, was aimed at their immediate predecessors and conducted for the purpose of solving personal issues. Power of ancestral spirits varied in correlation with their seniority: the earlier the time frame of the ancestors, the greater their impact on the state. Shàng Jiǎ and the five other leaders of the Predynastic Shang were addressed the Six Spirits, the beings who dictated harvests.

Ancestresses were also revered, especially consorts of main-line kings or mothers of kings. Oracle bone inscriptions mention some of the most important female Shang ancestors, who were grand royal consorts of the kings, and inquiries to whom illustrate beliefs in their spiritual role. They were perceived as being unfriendly and angry on some occasions, and after such divinations they received offerings. Some notable names in oracle bone divinations were Bǐ Jǐ 妣己, Bǐ Gēng 妣庚, Bǐ Bǐng 妣丙, and most prominently Fù Hǎo 婦好 who was referred to by her posthumous names Mǔ Xīn 母辛 (Mother Xīn) and Bǐ Xīn 妣辛 (Ancestress Xīn).

There were several mysterious spirits addressed as ancestors, whose identity has not been fully comprehended. There were Former Lords (xiāngōng 先公) like Wáng Hài 王亥 and Náo 獶,  whose names are pictographic characters. There were also similar individuals revered along ancestors like Yī Yǐn 伊尹, his perceived consort Yī Shì, and Mò Xǐ 妺喜.

Cosmology
The Shang believed in the divinity of an area surrounding the Ecliptic Pole, featuring the squared graph 口 mapped by four stars surrounding the pole at the time of the Shang dynasty. In Shang script, 口 denoted the modern stem dīng, possibly through oral expressions, and was related to Shang lineal descent. This shape also seemed to have been used as model in temple designs.

Tāotiè faces
The tāotiè 饕餮, which featured regularly on historical Chinese cultural artefacts, was present during the Shang dynasty. The Shang tāotiè motif depicts spirits through representation of animals, a tradition inherited from synthesizing earlier cultures' designs like Yangshao and Liangzhu. Several interpretation of the specific meaning of tāotiè to the Shang have been given. While some speculate the tāotiè motif to have conveyed no meaning to the Shang rather than serving for decorative purposes, most of the evidences point out that this was indeed a centrally religious aspect. Scholars claimed that since the tāotiè appears on Shang ritual vessels and ceremonial axes, it was not carved for decorations. These faces all bear strong resemblances with the polar area concerned in Shang cosmology. Specifically, the Shang tāotiè features nasal ridges surrounded by dots, a similarity to the ecliptic pole and its adjacent stars. John C. Didier asserted that these similarities indicate that the depicted figures were divine spirits with crucial importance to the Shang people.

Shàngdì and Xiàdì
The Shang dynasty believed that Dì was bipolar, that is, he was divided into two counterparts, of which Shàngdì was the heavenly representation. Shàngdì, as Dì's component, was a manifestation of the sky through the polar square. In the Shang people's perception, the counterpart Shàngdì was housed by the sacred northern pole. Also in Shang beliefs, indicated by oracle bones, this squared polar area on the sky, containing the god's cosmic divinity, was composed of main-lineage ancestral spirits through the generic name Shàngdì, representing Dì's will to act favourably towards humans. Already in oracle bone script, there are two frequent characters depicting Shàngdì, one features the squared shape at its centre, and the other has two horizontal parallel lines, which in turn was associated with heavenly divinity and thus to the square itself.

Conversely, the Shang believed that Shàngdì, as Dì's manifestation of "heaven", had a negative counterpart associated with "earth". Many character versions depict the earthly counterpart of Shàngdì 上帝, named Xiàdì 下帝, composed of adopted deities and opposing people, and represented Dì's negative actions towards the human realm. For example, one of Shang's long-term opponent, the Tǔfāng (Earth Territory), seemed to have been seen as a part of Xiàdì themselves. Therefore, Dì was believed to be both Shàngdì – heaven and positive – and Xiàdì – earth and negative, which was why he possessed the power to cast destructive power on the Shang.

Totemic "bird" belief
In Shang beliefs, there exists a "bird" belief which is a synthesis of both natural and ancestral elements. The names of several Shang ancestral and semi-ancestral spirits such as Wáng Hài and Kuí embody a bird symbol that seems to have been held sacred by the Shang people. Some academics claim that this "bird" belief was related to the Shang founding myth in the later traditional history as described by Chinese classical texts; the myth itself tells that the Shang progenitor Xiè 偰 was born after his mother stepped on a mysterious dark bird's footprint. Some argue that this bird was a totem, a symbol in Shang perception, and some others attempted to trace the origins of this particular religious image.

Practices
The Shang dynasty's religion centered on systematic rituals that influenced traditional Chinese rites. Main Shang rituals include divination, liturgical sacrifices, invoking prayers, and funerals. There was also an "archery ritual" as Li Feng terms it, demonstrated in a inscribed bronze turtle rewarded by the Shang king to an individual named Zuòcè Bān 作冊般. Oracle bones also reveal spiritual rituals such as holocaust, ale libation and exorcism. Often, the Shang people performed with ritual music and dances in religious sanctuaries.

Divination
Divination was one of the most important aspects of the Shang religion, directed at gods who exercised power over human actions. Oracle bones, which consist of ox scapulae, tortoise plastrons, and carapaces, were the main materials for divinatory documents. The oldest bone texts were radiocarbon dated to c. 1250 BCE, belonging to Wǔ Dīng's reign. The king and his court wrote about various topics, including warfare, agricultural successes, personal well-being, and weather, using the calendar for arranging days on oracle bones. Assigned a very frequent task, ritualist groups conducted their divinations in various situations, such as in temples or while hunting. Writers inscribed inquiries on the bones, then heated the bones and interpreted bone cracks. Inquiries (or "charges") contain particles implying desired preferences, and some contain more detailed information such as verification. On some occasions, the king and his scribes may prognosticate upcoming days thought to be "unanimous". It has also been argued that Shang divination was to get answers not from direct but indirect communication with spirits.

Many Shang divinations were concerned with warfare. It was characterized by numerous military expeditions to all directions, for example to Guǐfāng 鬼方. Regional governors, who had their local commoners serving as military conscripts, were required to prepare to assist the royal army in combat, and divinations were made to determine such chiefs suitable for action, mobilization of the army, as well as their responsibilities in battle. Numbers mattered, as the Shang inquired about the sufficient number of soldiers and the number of captives they could obtain. Aside from these, prognostications about enemy offences also featured themselves on bones, such as a prediction about foreign attacks upon the state.

Additionally, divinations were carried out to determine suitable days for public works and royal commissions. Such examples were walling cities, which was important to defend the area's urban centers from foreign invasions, and giving orders to civil officers who monitored economic activities ranging from opening new lands to supervising peasants and directing craftsmen.

It has been recognized that there are divinations not made on behalf of the king, and that the aristocracy could have specified groups of diviners. A relative of Wǔ Dīng, whose oracle bones lie in modern-day Huāyuānzhuāng East, made divinations on affairs happening in his estate; his inscribed bones numbered up to 537, containing personal divinations and bone receipt records. The patron seemed to divine about various topics, of which the most frequent are constructing temples in his estate, visits from Wǔ Dīng and the royal entourage, internal issues happening in his own land, or warfare-related affairs. Modern counts show that the prince honoured more than 20 royal ancestors in his inscriptions.

Liturgical sacrifices
The Shang religion is a typical example of a sacrificial system, in which the number of offerings mattered, and which was aimed at obtaining divine appeasement. The demand for such sacrificial materials spurred technological innovations for late Shang society.

The sacrifices that were not living beings were mainly bones, jade, and bronzeware items. Some of the bone products were shaped into hairpins or arrowheads, such as those discovered in the tomb of Fù Hǎo. Jade was present through inheritance with previous cultures in China proper, such as Longshan and Liangzhu. Bronzes became prevalent after substantial increases in production around c. 1500 BCE and then Wǔ Dīng's rule. Offering ceremonies involved bronze vessels with short inscribed characters, such as the dǐng 鼎, the access to which seemed to be an exclusive authority granted to the king and male heirs in rituals. There were also accepted minor materials like ceramics and stones.

Some species of animal, after being hunted, served as offerings, both to the ancestral and supernatural sections of the religion's pantheon. There are four types of animal sacrifice, regarding two criteria. Usually, canine species were killed to be consumed by both natural and ancestral deities, often by means of body dismemberment. Sheep were intended for a wide range of ancestors, spanning through generations from the progenitor Shàng Jiǎ to much nearer ancestors such as Pán Gēng 盤庚. Other sacrificed fauna include oxen, goats and elephants buried in royal tombs. These sacrifices became increasingly institutionalized among classes.

The Shang dynasty also practiced human sacrifice, which Guo Moruo claimed to be conducted on a large scale. Human sacrifice was a defining feature of Shang religion, with the degree of practice larger than any other Chinese dynasties. The Shang particularly sacrificed the Qiāng 羌 who were either captured or sent by neighbors as gifts. Except some prisoners who were spared to be slaves, the rest, including women, were killed and their remains sacrificed to Shang ancestors. A single sacrifice alone could require hundreds or even thousands killed. These victims were subject to different killing methods when offered to different spirits, such as being drowned if the recipient was the Earth Power, and being burned to death if it was among the river powers.

Sacrificial terminology
Inscriptions contain a rich number of words related to sacrifice. Such lexicon includes xīshēng 犧牲 'animal sacrifice', rénshēng 人牲 'human sacrifice', nǚ 女 'females', qī 妻 'dependent women', and qiè 妾 'servants', all of which referred to subjects of sacrifice. Some oracle characters denote terms for general sacrificial methods. Some of these names are dòu 豆 which refers to methods of killing sacrificial humans in bronze vessels, shān 刪 denoting single human sacrifice, or shì 氏 meaning ritualized offering at temples.

Liturgical year of sacrifice
Sacrificial schedules eventually evolved into a liturgical calendar. A year was sectioned into three periods, filled with five sacrificial rituals: jì 祭, zài 洅, xié 劦, róng 肜, and yì 翌. The first third was to perform jì, zài and xié sacrifices, the second for róng sacrifice, and the last for yì sacrifice. At the beginning of each third, a ceremony honoring all recipients called gōngdiǎn 工典 was held, and in every weekend, priests would make an inscription announcing the sacrifices for the next day. Some academics, such as Hu Houxuan and his son, argue that jì was the opening ritual.

In his 2011 work, Adam Smith tabled the sacrificial schedule of the late Shang practitioners, inscribed on a group of oracle bones by Huáng, a scribe living during the reign of the last three kings. During this period, the Shang's planned sacrifices evolved into a liturgical year of 36 weeks. Five "opening" weeks were intended to announce upcoming rituals. Each sacrifice commenced the week right after the announcing one, while the thirty-sixth week was left blank as to prepare for a new offering cycle.

From recording texts of diviners Chū and Huáng (living at different periods), rules of choosing daily recipients have also been projected. Aside from the rule that ancestral spirits would receive offerings on days based on their posthumous name, there were also other ones which regulate rituals throughout the later reigns. Due to the fall of Shang, the last two kings did not receive sacrifices after death.

Shamanism
Inscriptions on Shang oracle bones suggest a complicated religious system which communicated with the spiritual world via ritual performance (bīn 賓) and the utilization of "numinous" media like bones and bronze. This type of communication, as some scholars point out, can be interpreted as communication "without direct encounter". Other interpreters of Shang ritual bronzes, such as K.C. Chang, assert that this perception is not satisfactory, and that the Shang dynasty's religion must have borne considerable shamanic elements.

Oracle bone script features an ancient form of the wū 巫 ('shaman'). The wū seemed to function as a medium between humans and spirits, and after death the wū was worshipped together with other Shang spirits. Nevertheless, the roles of wū during the Shang dynasty is yet to be fully clarified. It is uncertain whether the Shang wū actually referred to shamans, who get into altered states of consciousness, or to another kind of practitioners who used other practices to communicate with the spirits. Victor Mair supported the view that the wū of the Shang dynasty resulted from earlier connections with western Asia. He examined archaeological and linguistic evidences, and concluded that the Shang wū was etymologically and culturally related to the Zoroastrian maguš, denoting priests that communicated with spirits through rituals and manipulative arts rather than shamanic characteristics like trance and mediation. David Keightley also disagreed with the interpretation of the Shang wū as 'shaman'.

Funerary practices
The largest place for the afterlife lay in the Royal Cemetery, located in what is now Xibeigang, Anyang, serving as the resting place for the elites, and was split into two directional zones probably to serve Wǔ Dīng's own political purposes. The king would be buried in a wooden chamber, with many servants (as much as 400), animals and bronze products such as vessels and weapons. Several tombs also served for the purpose of rites, and were topped by ancestral shrines. The Shang king was the organizer of burials and funerals which came with them, as when Wǔ Dīng held ceremonies for burial of his father Xiǎo Yǐ 小乙 and his son Zǔ Jǐ 祖己.

The number of tombs in Xibeigang reveals nine kings whose reign at Yin constituted the late Shang period, but the last king was not buried due to his reign being vilified by the Zhou dynasty. Extensive studies reveal that Xibeigang tombs were intended to built in a complex manner, which indicates the buried individuals' relations to one another. Studying the cemetery's overall structure, scholars also pointed out that tomb positions harmoniously matched the northern celestial pole, which housed Shang ancestors in the form of Shàngdì.

The Shang site of Subutun features a four-ramped tomb which was the only one of that type discovered outside the Shang capital, and might house either a local rival or a favorite of the Shang king. Another site at Tianhu features Late Shang traditions mixed with indigenous cultures, and might have been the lineage cemetery of a Shang local leader.

Posthumous naming
Aside from the supernatural beings, the ancestors of the Shang kings were also revered. Those included both dynastic and pre-dynastic ancestral individuals, who were given posthumous names, based on a structured system of typically utilizing calendrical names for days. There were 10 weekdays whose names were used for ancestors: jiǎ 甲, yǐ 乙, bǐng 丙, dīng 丁, wù 戊, jǐ 己, gēng 庚, xīn 辛, rén 壬, and guǐ 癸.

Scholars have inferred rules that could influence king's posthumous names, such as naming after first day of inaugural year, restraint from naming guǐ for dynastic spirits, and avoiding the same name as the previous king. Royal consorts of the Shang kings were given stem names not compliant with rules as for the kings.

Posthumous names of some kings might be related to Shang cosmology, especially name with stems jiǎ, dīng and yǐ, which were probably projections of the celestial square. By being referred to by such stems, the spirits became perceived as powerful gods whose will significantly affected the living realm.

Some prefix indicates the addressed subject's familial relationship with the reigning ruler, and often with a much broader sense than their modern meanings:


 * Relatives who were two or more generations before the incumbent ruler would be referred to as zǔ 祖 ("grandfather", "great uncle") and bǐ 妣 ("grandmother", "great aunt").
 * Fù 父 ("father", "uncle") and mǔ 母 ("mother", "aunt") were used for spirits of the previous generation.
 * Only the graph for males of the same generation is found, which is xiōng 兄, ("older brother", "cousin").
 * The king's sons and nephews were referred to as zǐ 子. The word is sometimes understood as a surname, while some understand it as "Prince".

Temples
Ritual constructions were conducted throughout the course of the late Shang state. The general design of temple compounds (zōng 宗) consisted of an elevated hall (táng 堂), a courtyard (tíng 庭), a gate (mén 門), and sacrificial pits (kēng 坑). Sanctuaries also generally seemed to have connections with beliefs in the celestial square. Chen Mengjia saw the word 口 as a notation for an altar; others also see it as a kind of temple ritual. Wang Guowei offered that 口 resembled an ancestral tablet (dān 匰) and an altar or shrine to an ancestor (shí 祏). Didier further pointed out the connection by noting that the squared form features twice in the Shang character 'temple' (宮).

The king and his priests were responsible for hosting temple praying rituals, sometimes using foreign labour for preparation processes. It was a prerogative of the Shang king, as the chief priest, to perform special prayers aimed at invoking spirits, as suggested by the ritual verb zhù 祝 that shows the king praying in a sanctuary holding ritual objects. Additionally, praying ceremonies involved many dancers, mediators and scribes, who were granted exclusive access to the sanctuaries. Different temples were intended for hosting deities; for example, the Great Altar (大示) hosted Shang royal members, while the Bēng 祊 altar hosted natural gods. There were also separate temples, each reserved for a single spirit. Rituals were on a regular basis, often with ritual music.

Practitioners
The Shang king was seen as the religious apex, actively involving himself in communication with the pantheon's gods by praying, divining and hosting rituals in order to assure that the spirits would give him guidance. The Shang court had priests for assisting the king, divided into specialized groups, despite not being bureaucratic as conventionally described. These groups typically include:
 * Diviners (duōbǔ 多卜), supervised by a chief diviner (guānzhàn 官占). They worked with shamans (wū 巫). Many were named on bones.
 * Astronomers (xī 羲, hé 和) and astrologers (shǐ 史), tasked with determining days and months. They also made observations of Mars and many comets, a notable feat.
 * Dancers (wǔ 舞), and music directors (gǔ 瞽). As inscriptions show, they danced holding oxtails. Some academics linked the dance wǔ 舞 to the wū 巫.
 * Liturgists (zhù 祝), who appeared several times in inscriptions.

It is agreed that religious professions of the Shang had to be acquired through forms of schooling. Texts written by Wu Ding's scribal officials contain the word 學 'to learn' which can come with a ritual name to imply a course of ritual education for people. In addition, there are inscriptions that seem to be used for teaching, described by Guo Moruo as "finely written and orderly, as though engraved by a teacher (xiānshēng 先生) to serve as a model (fànbĕn 範本)". However, some academics rule out that possibility, claiming that those inscriptions were for engraving practice. Other suggestions have been proposed. It is also generally believed that the Shang might have institutionalized training locations for religious teaching.

Regional practices
Practices outside of the Yinxu cult center existed, although evidences are not plentiful. Divinatory practices were present at the pre-Yinxu city in present-day Zhengzhou, where four separated oracle bones inscribed with characters have been excavated. These inscriptions are relatively short and have a similar style to Yinxu writings. Other than Zhengzhou, oracle bones have also been unearthed in Jinan,  as well as Shaanxi, the homeland of the Zhou dynasty, and believed to be from the last decades of the Shang's existence. Shang bronzes from outside lands seem to display both Shang and local characteristics, such as those collected from Hanzhong, Shaanxi.

It is believed that common people during this period played a role in religious activities. There are possibilities that the populace might have participated in seasonal festivals and sacrificial offerings, and they might as well have been involved in religious activities carried out by regional lords. At the Shang village of Guandimiao, oracle bones and tombs nearly identical to those of Anyang have been excavated, offering evidence for common rural practice of the Shang religion.

A portion of inscriptions were made by the prince possessing the Huayuanzhuang oracle bones in Róng 戎, a Shang-conquered region and his residence with religious institutions parallel with the royal cult. He ordered an ancestral temple with spirit tablets to be built there, and made sacrifices with both local and imported materials. This prince also authorized several relatives to participate in sacrifices, ale libations, and musical rituals. Some of Wǔ Dīng's divinations refer to Zǐ 子, which was a territory ruled by the Shang state and associated with Fù Hǎo, and which was sometimes sanctioned to practice Shang sacrifices.

Kingship and sovereignty
The Shang kings maintained rule over their land by conferring power upon local leaders under their direct or indirect control. In some cases the leaders were royal relatives who together with the king ruled the Shang state, but in other situations, they were only non-relative allies, hence making their relations with the state unstable. The Shang kings' ability to control these lords under their sway, arguably, resulted from the spirits whom the kings worshipped.

Scholars have studied Kuí 夔, a mysterious deity, and presented a theory suggesting that Kuí's cult was the result of incorporating other beliefs. According to this, spirits worshipped by submitted polities were adopted into the Shang pantheon and worshipped with Shang spirits. The king's role helped him consolidate influence over newly annexed polities.

The nature of kingship was also derived from the deified beings. Ancestors such as Shàng Jiǎ, and generally the Six Spirits, had great influences over important national affairs and wielded considerable power like universal deities. The Shang kings, as direct descendants of these deities could be considered, and claimed to be, "living deities on earth".

Masculinity
The system furthermore affected the continuation of Shang kingship. Although the Shang tradition allowed female individuals to participate in government, it was still a patriarchal society, in which influences of male ancestors overwhelmed that of their feminine counterparts in scale. The person responsible for functioning as head of the clan and head of religious practice had to be a male, who would carry the royal title Zǐ 子 and pass it to subsequent generations. As such, conception of male children was considered a serious matter by the Shang dynasty, which expensed a considerable of divinations on this aspect. It is observed that ancestral intervention played a role in deciding the children's gender, although oracle bones show that the Shang also considered the birthday to be related to gender formation. This may be demonstrated through the conception of Fù Hǎo, which was of interest to Wǔ Dīng; during her pregnancy, diviners carried out careful divinations predicting the her baby's birthday, with a verification on the event of giving birth.

Precursors
Before the dawn of organized states in China, the area was inhabited by various tribal confederations, with each of the tribes practicing its own system of beliefs, often based on ideas of animism, totemism and shamanism. Many ancient tribes in pre-dynastic China shared a common belief in the spiritual world. The spirits were thought to possess divine powers, being able to intervene in and dictate the living matters. That led to the necessity of direct communication with the spirits, through means of mystics. A group of specified individuals, known as shamans, arose and took responsibility for conducting their respective tribe's religious rituals. Cultures in the future heartland of the Shang dynasty had practiced sacrifices and funerals. Also in many regions of China, Neolithic cultures had utilized bony materials from various types of cattle for divination, such as the Longshan and Yangshao cultures.

In the Zhou dynasty's historical narrative, the tradition of honoring and venerating deities had already been existent during the Shang's predecessor Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – 1600 BCE). The Book of Documents also mentions the Shang high god Shàngdì receiving annual sacrifices by Emperor Shùn 帝舜, even before the Xia dynasty. Although these periods are often considered mythical, their corresponding site of Erlitou (c. 2100 – 1500 BCE) offers evidence of bronze-using religious activities that were later adopted and developed by the Shang dynasty, like temples, divination and sacrifice.

Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty's religion inherited the characteristics of its predecessors. Its beliefs, rituals of sacrifices and funerals bore resemblances with those of prehistoric beliefs. Early Shang kings created bureaucratic positions for religious practice, which were later diversified and further specialized. The religion was widespread, influencing other major Shang cities, as in the case of an inscribed bone in Daxinzhuang that have multiple divination texts.

During the late Shang period (1250 – 1046 BCE), the religion achieved its mature status. Many kings of the late Shang were deeply religious and actively involved themselves in those matters. Some monarchs made sacrificial reforms, such as Wǔ Dīng, whose reforms were documented in the Shàngshū 尚書, and Zǔ Jiǎ 祖甲, who was indicated by oracle bones to have initiated reforms. Changes also occurred in diviners, who formed various groups following one another through reigns, according to modern consensus. Scholars classify diviners based on periodization and employment.

The late Shang state showed cultural interactions with other cultures in China proper. In most cases, religious influences of the Shang dynasty left an impact on its vassal states. For example, the state of Dapeng also practiced human sacrifice and included the Earth Power Shè 社 (or Tǔ 土) in the Shang pantheon into their list of worshipped deities. From the 1200s BCE onward, religious influence of the Shang reached its largest vassal state Zhou. The polity embraced Shang theology into its beliefs, and the Shang also likely included Zhou dead ancestors into the collective Dì godhead as well.

Influence on the Zhou religion
In 1046 BCE, the Shang dynasty under the regime of Dì Xīn collapsed and was replaced by the victorious Zhou dynasty, which used the practices of Shang religion to explain his fall. The Book of Documents contains a chapter claiming that Dì Xīn discarded all the sacrificial traditions and therefore lost the blessings of his royal ancestors as well as of the Zhou supreme god.

Calendar
The Shang liturgical calendar was adopted by the Zhou,  although it is uncertain whether the Zhou court reset the day counting after the dynasty's establishment. The Shang name for the count of years, sì 祀, was replaced by the Zhou term nián 年 which originally meant "harvest" but whose meaning was altered. The calendar was greatly revised through the regime's eight centuries of existence, and the diversification of its use took place during the Warring States period when cultural distinctions became more apparent. Uses of calendrical means by the Zhou kings was more complex than their predecessors Shang in that astronomical observations became integrated extensively to calculate and predict important forthcoming events. The Zhou monarchs invented different terminologies and separated methods for their own ancestors' veneration. A new system for posthumous naming dead relatives was devised, based on the virtues of rulers; still, some people during the early Zhou used the old tradition, including exceptional Zhou kings.

Worshipped deities
The head of the Shang pantheon, Dì, became assimilated and identified with Heaven (Tiān 天) of the Zhou dynasty, while still keeping its separate identity in early Zhou times. Through time, the original figure and the Shang-attributed powers of Dì was forgotten, since Heaven was more philosophically complicated and was associated with more terminology as well as legendary tales. But overall, Tiān still recalled Dì's meaning as a driving force of the kings' reigns: the Mandate of Heaven, invented by the Zhou dynasty, was the key concept of a monarch's right to rule over the country up until the end of monarchy in China in 1912 CE. Dì was identified with the Jade Emperor by practitioners of Taoism; also possibly, the counterpart Shàngdì became transformed into the form of the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黃帝) during the Zhou dynasty. During imperial Chinese dynasties, the tradition of "Sacrifice to Heaven" became popular, and Shàngdì was made the main recipient of the event's sacrifices. In 221 BCE, when Qin Shi Huang created the title Emperor for himself, he combined Dì with the character Huáng 皇 ("august") to obtain the term.

The early Western Zhou kept the Shang tradition of inscribing, on oracle bones, inquiries to Shang ancestral deities, such as Dì Yǐ 帝乙, indicating their former status as a state recognizing Shang suzerainty over them.



Other practices
There is evidence that religious activities of the state of Chu during the Eastern Zhou were related to the Shang religion, due to similarities between their artistic motifs. Mass human sacrifices practiced by Shang was critically reduced, though still employed. Oracle bones gradually ceased to be inscribed once the Zhou dynasty began, and the regime compiled a new way of divination and prediction, the I Ching 易經, written between the 10th and 9th century BC. The populace in later dynasties practiced different funeral and sacrificial traditions, mainly due to the influence of Confucianism, Taoism, and other currents; however, there were still some parallels between the two dynasties regarding sacrifices. The role of women in religion notably changed after Shang.

Legacy
The Shang high god Dì remained to the present day through his heavenly component Shàngdì, who is still worshipped in countries of the Sinosphere. The word Shàngdì is sometimes used to denote the Christian God,   and the Jade Emperor.

Traditional festivals in China, Vietnam and other influenced countries make use of the sexagenary cycle. The lunar calendar's organization of days names the years, months, days and even hours after the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. There are various folk tales attributed to this calendrical system, many of which appeared much later.

The Shang rituals left behind a bronze-using tradition that deeply influenced later religious activities. Bronze vessels produced by the Shang dynasty constitute greatly to the cultural heritage of ancient Chinese civilization. Additionally, they also include bronze inscriptions, one of the first two written forms of Chinese, providing insights into epigraphic studies of the language.

Mentions in later accounts
Although later Chinese beliefs were influenced by the Shang religion, many features such as the calendar and the worship of spirits were attributed to earlier periods than the Shang which was thought as a continuation of those traditions. Dynasties such as the Zhou and Han attempted to understand Shang religion by poetry and anecdotes.

Zhou dynasty
During the Western Zhou period, the perception of Dì and Shàngdì, as presented, was mixed with that of Tiān. Already in the very earliest years of Zhou, Dì had been seen as accompanied by Zhou ancestors. During king Wu's reign (1046 – 1043 BCE), Zhou officers inscribed on a tureen about King Wen of Zhou 周文王 assisting Dì on high. Dì and Tiān were used interchangeably in the same inscriptional contexts. For example, King Li of Zhou (reigned 857 – 842 BCE), commented on the power of Shàngdì: "The king said: I am but a small child, yet unstintingly day and night, I act in harmony with the former kings to be worthy of august Tian .... [I] make this sacrificial food vessel, this precious kuei-vessel, to succor those august paradigms, my brilliant ancestors. May it draw down the spirits of those exemplary men of old, who now render service at the court of Di and carry forth the magnificent mandate of august Di..."

Some important Chinese classical texts composed during the Zhou dynasty critically presents the Zhou's interpretation of various Shang religious practices. For example, the Book of Documents points out the importance of ancestral reverence to the Shang rulers, in that ancestral spirits exercised great authority over the living, as it describes Pán Gēng perspicaciously believing in the powers of the Shang high ancestor Táng to send down calamities on unworthy men. Additionally, this text highlights Shang divination by shells and bones, by referring to alleged events such as Pán Gēng emphasizing on his officers who did not 'presumptuously oppose the decision of the tortoise shell'. However, the Zhou writers also seemed to focus on criticizing the lavish lifestyle and ignorance of the late Shang kings, and Western Zhou works do not mention Shang human sacrifices as well as female Shang deities, both playing significant roles during the Shang.

Some Zhou people also mentioned the lack of available Shang religious texts, which caused inadequate understanding of their rituals. Confucius, in particular, asserted that the documents preserved by the Shang dynasty's royal members in Song were not enough for him for an extensive comprehension of the ancient ceremonial codes.

Han dynasty


Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, writing 1,000 years after the Shang dynasty's collapse, delved into its religion. He claimed that the Shang people were marked by their utmost devotion to divination and sacrifices, and had decayed from the mark of piety into a state of superstition, which Burton Watson considered substantiated claims that resonate with evidence collected from modern archaeology. He also described Shang alleged shamans like Wūxián 巫咸, as well as ministers Fù Yuè 傅說 and Yī Zhì 伊挚, who were possibly men with shamanic capabilities. Sima Qian went on to describe the sacrificial rituals of the Shang dynasty, commenting on virtuous kings who emphasized on worshipping high ancestors, and detailing the negative impacts of offending the gods committed by Wǔ Yǐ and Dì Xīn. Sima's posthumous names in terms of both stem and prefix for late Shang kings largely match those given by the Shang inscriptions. However, his descriptions of the Shang religion is not without flaw, as it was colored with characteristics of the Han dynasty during which Sima lived.

By the time of the Han dynasty, the perception of Dì had been significantly altered. While the character retained its meaning as "High Deity", it was used mainly as a prefix or suffix to add to another word for deifying its meaning. Some examples from Han dynasty texts containing such combinations are Huángdì and Yāndì. Nevertheless, the Han dynasty also worshipped a cosmologically associated god titled Shàngdì, whose divinity was similar to that believed by the Shang. In particular, the Han-era Huainanzi, a compilation of debates led by imperial prince Liu An, describes Dì as stretching out "over the four weft-cords of Heaven..." and lying on a polar referential star like in Shang dynasty, the star Kochab (Beta Ursa Minoris). Han texts identify Dì with Tàiyǐ 太一, the "Great One", who was believed to be worshipped by the early Zhou.