Human Sacrifice Rituals of Ancient China
How did ancient Chinese prepared for their Afterlife World?
In ancient China, people believed that their souls would not disappear after they die but would continue to live in another world. Therefore, since ancient time, there has been a lot of ritual for burial. There was a folk tradition that fathers die then kill sons, husbands die then kill wives and concubines, masters die then kill slaves or followers. Their bodies would be buried in the same tomb. Human sacrifice is one of the cruelest rituals.
Archaeological excavations show that, as early as the Neolithic era, extra objects were buried with bodies. Some potteries with painting or simp color would be buried with bodies. Besides, archaeologists discovered some joint tombs that usually included one male adult and some females. Those females included not only adult women but also children and babies. In most joint tombs, females all bent on their knees, showing the subordinate status of women in the patrilineal society at that time. According to common sense, men and women in these joint tombs couldn’t die at the same time, so it is only possible that after the death of men, women would be sacrificed and then buried. These archaeological evidence show that China’s earliest human sacrifice began with males’ wives and concubines.
Later, slavery appeared in China. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties(around 1600B.C.~256B.C.), slave owners had luxurious life when they were alive. After death, they wanted to maintain the same enjoyment in another world as they did before. Hence, along with beautiful antique copper and bronze wares and jades, they were also buried with a number of slaves who, they expected, would still serve them in the “dead” world. Normally, one slave owner would order to bury a certain amount of slaves based on his social class. In a Chinese ancient text Mozi, it says, “after emperors and noble die, the maximum number of human sacrifice could be hundreds while the minimum could be dozens; After generals and officials die, the maximum of human sacrifice could be dozens while the minimum could be several”.
In a king’s tomb of the Shang dynasty, archaeologists found that there were about 400 slaves who were buried with their owners in total. The heads and bodies of those slaves were put in separate places, which proved that those people were killed first and then buried. Archaeologists also discovered that the soil under the skull was purple, probably stained by blood. Most of the slaves found in tombs were young people under the age of twenty, and some were even children who would never have a chance to grow up. Because of this ritual, tombs from that era became mass graves full of slaves’ bones and blood.
The darkness of human civilization lasted for a long time. Slavery finally collapsed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period( 770~ 221 B.C.). Kings of several little kingdoms established feudal systems. Reform has led to the end of human sacrifice, and the figurines that replaced human sacrifice started flourishing. After people realized the value of labor, the past human sacrifice got changed a lot though most people still believed in the “dead world”. Except for various beautiful clothes and jades, owners of tombs would use some figurines to replace living people for burial. The figurines’ roles included the tomb owners’ guards, chefs, singers, concubines, and other various characters. To make sure the quality of their afterlife, owners would want their wooden or clay servants to have vivid expressions and surpassingly excellent dress. Some of their fake servants’ s limbs were equipped with tenons that make their arms and legs move up and down easily just like a real person.
Like in Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum, the most figurines are the warrior figurines with an average height of about 1.8 meters and the tallest one is above 1.90 meters. Those Qin warriors held bronze weapons including bows, crossbows, arrowheads, beryllium, spears, etc. as if they were ready to fight for their emperor at any moment. Bronze weapons have been buried for more than two thousand years. Due to the amazing anti-rust treatment, they are still bright and sharp as new.
If you were a maid or government officials born after 221 B.C., you might think you don’t have to worry about your life after your master dies because of the end of human sacrifice. Well, that is too early for you to relax. In the river of history, people never stop torturing each other and themselves.
During the Liao Dynasty (907~1125A.D.), the human sacrifice became popular again. In 926A.D., the first emperor of the Liao Dynasty, Yelu Abaoji, died on the way back to the capital after an expedition. According to the nomadic custom, the queen of the former monarch is responsible for government affairs before a new monarch gets elected. She is also the organizer of the election. The queen of Yelu Abaoji, Shulü Ping, did not want her eldest son, prince Yelu Bei, to be the next governor of her kingdom. She made full use of this favorable opportunity to eradicate political enemies by burying them alive with her dead husband. At Yelu Abaoji’s funeral, she stood up and asked all officials who might become her enemies later, “Do you miss our brave emperor?”. When people said yes, she asked them to “go and company our great emperor” in his tomb since they were so close to him. There was one smart official who refused. He said, “mentioning about the relationship with our great emperor, no one here can compare to you, your majesty. If you are willing to company our great emperor, we definitely will follow you”. But it did not scare the queen. She took a sharp sword and cut off her whole right arm after hearing their requests. And then she started crying “my sons are still young, and new emperor hasn’t been elected. I can’t leave now. My arm can replace me temporarily in the cold tomb. Now, it’s your turn”. Shulü Ping killed hundreds of officials and buried them with her right arm underneath next to her husband’s body. Then she became the real controller behind the emperor for decades.
Human sacrifice became a way to achieve personal goals rather than to maintain the enjoyment of the afterlife for the death after the Liao dynasty. Sometimes queens or new emperors would force officials or some royal family members who might become their enemies to commit suicide after former emperors die. Old emperors would order to sacrifice powerful people who might not be controlled by the new emperor when the old emperor was dying. Outside the royal family, human sacrifice was also widespread among common people. Stepsons killed stepmothers to inherit fathers’ property. Stepmothers killed stepsons to make sure their own sons inherit all of the money. Everything is possible when people are greedy.
To maintain the stability of society and avoid resistance, powerful people usually brainwashed others to believe that being buried with emperors, masters, and husbands to serve in their afterlife is a great honor. Additionally, people in power would directly give a huge amount of money or noble title to those sacrificers and their families or followers.
Like in the Ming dynasty, imperial concubines who did not have any kids would be hung to kill and then buried with dead emperors. It was because there was a high risk for young concubines to cheat on dead emperors and shame the whole royal family. Also, feeding lots of useless women in the palace was too costly. According to historical records, Xuande Emperor had two queens and twelve concubines. But only four women had kids. The other ten women were forced or volunteered to suicide after Xander Emperor died. Authority rewarded their family with money and noble title even beyond a general. Therefore, nobody even their family tried to save those poor women’s lives. And nobody cared about women’s will.
Some emperors banned human sacrifice through imperial order later. However, government officials still rewarded sacrificers at the same time, which made it hard to abolish the human sacrifice system. In some villages, common people still sacrificed humans secretly while they knew it was illegal.
Until the foundation of the Republic of China, due to the constant influx of new ideas and scientific thinking, the fundamentals of human sacrifice were abolished and the cruel ritual eventually disappeared.
As a personal note, the death of human sacrifice system might also be the consequence of people having fewer kids than in ancient time once concubines system was abolished. It becomes harder to buy people’s lives with money when their parents have only one or two kids. Further, a complete legal system can stop this crime effectively.
Anyhow, repealing human sacrifice shows the development of Chinese society.
References
- Tomb entrance, Sun chengwen, https://sunchengwen.artstation.com/projects/Qwr4x
- Joint tomb. Shangyou News, 07 April, https://wap.cqcb.com/shangyou_news/NewsDetail?classId=2708&newsId=3950684
- Slaves’ bones. Shi Xi She Qu, 08 July 2020, http://qdcypf.com/q-637030.html
- Warriors figurines. Daily Headlines, 21 November 2018, https://kknews.cc/zh-cn/culture/vy5kzrq.html
- Shulü Ping, the Chinese queen. Daily Headlines, 24 April 2018, https://kknews.cc/history/4lxa842.html
- Imperial concubines. Dayday News, 12 September 2019, https://daydaynews.cc/zh-sg/history/116154.html
- Zhang Peng. (2019, November 12). Who was the first one to make figurines? https://chiculture.org.hk/sc/china-five-thousand-years/2351
- Zhang Anqi.(2020,March 16). The human sacrifice system of the Yin and Shang dynasties destroyed their ruling. https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/113585800
- Interesting history. (2019, February 22). What if imperial concubines refused to die?http://m.qulishi.com/article/201902/320189.html
- Hu Li Chen Xi. (2020, June 12). Why the system of human sacrifice was restored in Ming Dynasty? https://www.zhihu.com/question/34918475
- Can Yingfu.(2020, November 05). When did the human sacrifice system be abolished? http://www.qulishi.com/article/202011/454659.html
