Prehistoric Chinese religions

Prehistoric Chinese religions are religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples in China prior to the earliest intelligible writings in the region (c. 1250 BCE). They most prominently comprise spiritual traditions of Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures in various regions of China, which preceded the ancient religions documented by early Chinese dynasties. While many cultures shared similar faith and practices, each developed distinct features in its religious life. Modern studies of these religions are difficult due to the absence of contemporary written records.
Neolithic cultures in China appeared in various regions across the country. An early culture was the Peiligang (c. 7000 – 5000 BCE), of which the Jiahu site was regarded as a prominent variation. Around the fifth millennium BCE, many cultures such as Yangshao appeared and left behind various sites that allow investigations into their religious life. During the fourth and third millennia BCE, the Liangzhu culture flourished in the Yangtze River valley, while the Yellow River valley saw the development course of cultures such as Dawenkou, Longshan, and Hongshan. These cultures are characterized by extensive traditions which indicate beliefs reminiscent of the posterior religion of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – 1046 BCE).
Around the late third and early second millennia BCE, Bronze Age sites emerged in China. Sites such as Erlitou entered a more advanced sociopolitical system and approached the definition of a state. As social stratification was increasingly integrated, evidences for ancestor worship appeared more clearly. The Erlitou site is widely regarded among Chinese academics to be the site of the Xia dynasty which upheld traditional Chinese religion, despite inadequate evidence for the conflation. Abundant evidence for human sacrificial rituals also appeared during early Bronze Age China.
Many religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric China are claimed to be precursors of the Shang religion, which in turn influenced Chinese civilization due to similar elements among them. Certain traits such as animism, ancestor veneration and pyromancy characteristic of the Shang are found to be existent during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. As such, the cultures are considered to be one among the roots of classical Chinese traditions.
Several Paleolithic sites in China have been dated to as early as 1.66 million years ago, with the existence of early humans such as the Peking Man, a Homo erectus that lived approximately 770 thousand years before present. By its definition as the involvement of agriculture in society, the Neolithic period in China began at different times in the many regions. The earliest examples of cultivated rice in China were found in the Yangtze River valley and dated to approximately 8000 years ago. Agriculture in China seemed to have begun at the same time with pottery production and sedentary life, a distinction from several other regions. Traces of Neolithic culture in what is now Hebei province have been radiocarbon-dated to at least 7750 BCE, although even earlier signs of agriculture have been found in northern Shanxi. Those evidences possibly mark the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic in the region.
The traditional Chinese viewed the cultural formation of China as a continuous expansion of civilization from the Central Plain to the frontier areas regarded as 'barbarian' lands. This view resulted from traditional Chinese historiography which represented unitary political states. The location of the early Yangshao culture, discovered in 1921 by Johan G. Andersson, used to be thought of as evidence for this observation.
In the 1970s, a more complex view of early China replaced the old bipolar theory as a result of extensive archaeological works and the application of scientific methods. Pioneered by archaeologists Su Bingqi and Yin Weizhang, it put the traditional cradle of Chinese civilization on equal grounds with many other regions regarding contribution to early China's formation. Although the theory formed independently, it bears strong similarities to Western contemporary theories of social development, and thus received support from the West.
During the first decades of the People's Republic of China, Marxist historiography dominated studies of the Chinese past. The West at the same time held the widespread view of universal social evolution. Later, the universal theory was challenged by a new model which identifies technology and ecology as primary factors for sociocultural progress, giving rise to an evolutionist line of social developments going from human bands to tribes, chiefdoms and then states. The tribal stage in its simplest form was characterized by 'segmentary lineage systems', which some scholars utilized to refer to the social organization of the Yangshao sites.
The cultivation of rice in southern China used to be theorized to have begun around 5000 BCE, but more recent research have put the starting date back to as early as 7500 BCE. The date was obtained from radiocarbon datings of some 15,000 grains of rice found in two sites in Hunan. In Jiangxi, evidences suggest that even during 10000 BCE the site of Diaotonghuan had already been transitioning from a wild rice gathering society to a rice farming one. Southern China was also known for early pottery-making, which appeared around the 12th millennium BCE.
Neolithic cultures in the region may be divided into two large complexes, the Northwest (or Northcentral) and the East Coast. Cultures in these two complexes interacted with one another, and together they influenced the formation of Shang culture in the second millennium BCE.
The Peiligang (裴李岗) and Cishan (磁山; 6500 – 5000 BCE) cultures are regarded as the first established agricultural peoples in China. At this period, settlements were usually of modest sizes and characterized by rudimentary structures. Peiligang and Cishan pottery were usually simple bowls and jars with little surface refinement. The remains of these two cultures suggest the established status of sedentary life and the use of millet as the main cultivating crop. One of the most prominent Peiligang site is Jiahu, with an extraordinary area covering 5.5 ha. Despite Peiligang being a millet farming culture, excavations at Jiahu have yielded examples of rice, suggesting an alternative food strategy. Isolated graphs were also found at this site.
Contemporary cultures of Peiligang and Cishan include Dadiwan, Luoguantai, and Lijiacun or Baijia, which belonged to the Northwest. Agriculture of these cultures might have had originated from northern Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. The Houli culture in Shandong (c. 6200 – 5500 BCE) shared similar characteristics, but traces of millet agriculture have yet to be found here.
The Yangshao culture (5000 – 3000 BCE) has its type-sites located in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. Yangshao sites until the 1990s numbered up to over 800 compared to only 40 of Peiligang, indicating a tremendous increase in the population. Each site usually consists of a residential area, a cemetery and kilns. These sites together with local types in the extended Yangshao area were divided into three phases. Some typical Yangshao societies, such as a village site named Jiangzhai, are considered matrilineal. Concentration of wealth and economic-political domination by stronger villages had already taken place at Yangshao sites. Some academics have proposed that Yangshao during its late phase resembled a 'chiefdom' rather than a 'segmentary lineage system' as previously theorized.
Cultures in the East Coast emerged together with Yangshao, albeit with distinct material culture. The Dawenkou culture arose in the Shandong region since 4300 BCE and lasted until the middle third millennium BCE, during the same period as Yangshao. The early Dawenkou was an egalitarian tribal society with little evidence of prestige goods or burial differentiations. Social ranks appeared in this culture during its middle phase (c. 3500 – 2900 BCE), and by the late phase it had been characterized by hierarchically ordered social groups. Dawenkou maintained interactions with Yangshao, demonstrated by similarities among their ceramics.
Another contemporary culture named Hongshan flourished around the Liao River from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Hongshan settlements were partially allied with Yangshao people in northern Henan and southern Hebei. However, walls and complex residences seen in the Yangshao sites are unknown in Hongshan settlements. The end of Yangshao coincides with the emergence of the Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze River valley, approximately 5000 years ago. Liangzhu sites exhibit traits of an advanced society such as city walls, class stratification, labor division and extensive dam systems. The remarkable production and ritual use of jades were another two characterizing traits of Liangzhu peoples, with the number of jades reaching tens of thousands.
Further regional differentiation during the late Neolithic was highlighted by the Longshan culture which spanned over the entire third millennium BCE. Social integration was further intensified and hierarchies emerged in Longshan sites, together with rammed earth walls that define a more sophisticated social system than Yangshao. The largest Longshan town was found in modern Taosi of Shanxi province. Dated around 2600 – 2000 BCE, Taosi is characterized by extensive elite control and a solar observatory considered among the world's oldest. The Taosi observatory was possibly used by astronomers to produce a ritual calendar that may have been an ancestor of the late Shang religious calendrical system. As a Longshan type-site, Taosi was also an extremely stratified society, where only one tenth of its population might have controlled up to 90% of total wealth.
Far from Yangshao, Longshan and Liangzhu, Sichuan province was also a region of prominent Neolithic cultures. The late Neolithic Baodun culture flourished in the Chengdu plain before ending around 1700 BCE. Other significant sites in the Chengdu plain include Yingpanshan (c. 3300 – 2600 BCE) and Gaoshan (c. 2500 – 2000 BCE) which housed elaborate residential and utilitarian complexes.
The Chinese Bronze Age commenced around 2000 BCE. Bronze Age cultures inherited religious traditions of the Neolithic, with various identical practices ranging from iconography to burial patterns. The emergence of early states in the region correlated with the increasing prevalence of public religious activities.
The beginning of the second millennium BCE was marked by the rise of state formation in China with the emergence of the Erlitou culture, which descended from the previous Longshan culture and was heavily influenced by Longshan cultural characteristics. Erlitou opened a new period different from the previous Neolithic peoples in that it had strong presence of royal authority, an enlarged political apparatus and extensive military powers. Lasting from c. 1900 – 1500 BCE, Erlitou can be described as the first proper Bronze Age state in China, with its sites featuring not only small bronze objects but also items of much larger size and higher technological complexity.
The elites at the Erlitou site were already able to exercise authority over source supply and transportation within a considerable area, in addition to their control over up to 30,000 urban residents. Most scholars in China and some among the Western academia consider Erlitou to be the material culture of the Xia, the first traditional dynasty of China that allegedly existed at the same time as Erlitou itself. No evidence, however, is enough to either confirm the identification or reject it.
To the west of Erlitou was the Qijia culture, whose excavation sites are located in the Loess Plateau, Hexi Corridor and even as far as eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It marked Northwest China's transition from late Neolithic to early and middle Bronze Age. All Qijia sites show signs of a sedentary lifestyle with a mix of agricultural and pastoral production. Their bronzes include daggers, axes, rings, and mirrors.
The Sanxingdui culture existed in Sichuan at roughly the same time with the Shang dynasty in the Central Plain. Hundreds of bronzes and jades have been excavated there, many of which suggest that Sanxingdui had a different cultural and religious system from the Shang.
Modern understanding about prehistoric Chinese religions is hindered by a lack of contemporary writing; therefore, it has mostly been acquired through archaeological works at culture sites as well as inference from the already-documented Shang state religion. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson contends that belief systems of ancient cultures are best understood by examining their artworks; she also argues that metamorphism was a central aspect of religions in China since at least the late Neolithic.
Scholars have interpreted antique jades as representations of cosmological objects, such as wind, clouds, Earth, and Heaven. For example, some jades disks are perceived as symbols of Heaven, its dome, and nature's cycle.
The Neolithic Chinese during the fifth and fourth millennia BCE already incorporated in their faith the image of the northern celestial pole as a symbol of divinity. The region they concerned was formed by stars Alioth, Pherkad, Thuban, Mizar, and Kochab. This area was in their perceptions a source of protection for the dead by communion with high stellar powers.
One village representing the Yangshao culture is Banpo, which lasted from 5000 to 3500 BCE. Found at Banpo, as well as Jiangzhai and several other Yangshao sites, are ceramic bowls decorated by a face created by mixing human faces and fish together. This pattern likely represented certain religious beliefs of the Banpo people and may even reflect a metaphorical meaning.
Some theorize that the face could be an early symbol of the solar power in which the villagers believed. John C. Didier projects the Banpo face motif to the sky area around the northern pole and finds that it aligned with stellar patterns surrounding the pole during the period of Yangshao. Didier takes this as evidence that Banpo villagers held beliefs in the celestial area and might have attributed myths to them. The rectangular shape at the center of the face could be identified with the mouth of a deity to whom Banpo people offered goods, and the fish imagery might also be gods as well.
Banpo villagers also featured in pottery images of a horned ungulate head. This likely bears the same meaning as the human-fish face of repose, and may trace its origins to a celestial projection before finding itself associated with ungulates. Because these animals were to the people an important source of food and clothing, its combination with the celestial sky indicates the villagers' belief in the polar authority to provide them with this beneficence.
The Niuheliang ritual construction complex that represents the Hongshan culture also reflects the presence of astronomical perception. A rectangular platform at the center of the ritual plaza may have been a mimic of the Banpo face of repose and constituted of the same projected stellar patterns, so it could be that Hongshan people had ritualized the sky and the polar center. This attention was likely transmitted to the Liangzhu in the Zhejiang area, which likely had close connections with most Neolithic cultures in the region. Liangzhu artifacts also featured a motif, academically referred to as the shoumian. Also called the 'anthropo-zoomorphic' ('AZ') motif, this pattern probably represented ancestral gods or at least Neolithic cult recipients, and may be an ancestor of the later Shang taotie pattern. Other late Neolithic cultures in the eastern region developed similar motifs which prevailed until the Western Zhou period. A seven-point pattern found in Qijia sites is related to Liangzhu and might trace its origins to as far as Bactria.
Objects of divine influence were already present during the Xinglongwa culture which is known for jade manufacturing. Jade items found in Xinglongwa sites symbolize the significance of agriculture. Shaped like ordinary farming tools, these items indicate a belief in powerful spirits who controlled both nature and the human realm.
Niuheliang Hongshan temples feature clay statues of naked women with enormous sizes up to three times a normal human, along with a mask which used to be part of a statue depicting pregnancy. Some scholars deduce without written evidence that these figurines symbolized the Hongshan 'Mother Goddess' and her entourage. The grandeur of such ritual complexes suggests the worship of fertility goddesses along with former humans. It is also agreed that there existed an 'earth mother' whom Hongshan people treated as a fertility deity and might represent what later literature called the 'Sovereign Earth Mother'. The belief in such goddess, as also evident in Niuheliang, was related to ancestor worship in which the fertility deity herself was a mythified ancestress.
The dragon seemed to be a very significant mythical animal to Neolithic Chinese cultures, which had it as a major iconography emblem. The creature, which might be an exaggeration of the snake, was strongly associated with water and the transcendent realm. A combination of numerous animals like fish, serpents, birds and deers, the Neolithic dragon exhibit extraordinary power to move between what was above and below.
The famous Hongshan pig-dragon jade pendant, also found at the Shijiahe site, signifies a dragon assisting the mother goddess and as such being a symbol of fertility. The mythical creature was integrated with the pig image as a result of the Hongshan culture being dependent on agricultural and domestic fortune which the pig symbolized. This symbolic dragon was likely transmitted from Hongshan to later cultures such as Longshan and Erlitou, and finally to the Shang dynasty. The Shang themselves produced varieties of the same dragon found at Hongshan, and the Shang writing script even had two characters resembling the creature's shape.
To the south of Hongshan settlements, the Liangzhu culture maintained a strong religious presence and is sometimes described as a theocracy. Some consider the anthropo-zoomorphic motif of Liangzhu to depict their most divine being, which was half-human and half-animal and symbolized a blend of ancestral worship and totemism. The Liangzhu likely worshipped the sun integrated with a divine bird, a practice similar to the Hemudu culture (5500 – 3300 BCE) which also worshipped both the two.
Not enough evidence is available to conclude whether the religion of the Sanxingdui culture was monotheistic or polytheistic, and whether this religion included attempts to control nature. No overt representations of gods are found at Sanxingdui, but its people likely engaged in the worship of an all-knowing deity, as well as of mountain spirits and the Sun. Archaeologists have unearthed several bronze trees from Sanxingdui, each of which is decorated by many birds. The meaning of these trees may be interpreted in several ways, including an intermediary between the natural and the sacred, or possibly a link between the Sun, the animal realm and fertility.
Much evidence suggest the importance of totemic animals. Totemic beliefs likely made their appearance in Chinese history at the same time when various different traditions began to culminate in a more unified culture in the Central Plain. There exist emblems found in the East Coast featuring bird headdresses which were likely related to some form of bird totemism and bird worship.
Yangshao-era depictions of snakes have led some academics to identify them with Fuxi, a legendary ancestor depicted with a snake body. The Taosi site yields a bowl bearing an ear snake image, likely a water-associated religious symbol embodying reptile worship. Also related to water were frog symbols, which might signify good fortune and the image of the full moon. Some representations of fighting dogs and fish during the late Yangshao period suggest a context of the afterlife. It might reflect a belief that these battling dogs symbolized guardians of two different worlds struggling to protect a lost human soul.
Works of jade from various cultures show an early belief in the life-and-death cycle in Neolithic China. There existed an underworld in this faith, guarded by the jade-represented dragons with powerful flexibility from the evil spirits. The celestial region projected by those cultures, aside from providing post-mortem security, also served to assure the living of a continued existence after death. Therefore, to the Neolithic Chinese, life and death were interconnected with the mysteries of the night sky's pole. Life and death were also associated with cicadas and silkworms that were often depicted through jade artifacts. The prehistoric Chinese considered death a process of physical transformation and transition to a new life, similar to the metamorphosis of cicadas and silkworms. This belief likely resulted from understandings of insect lifecycles prevalent in silk-textile producing cultures around 3500 BCE.
As early as 3000 BCE, the Neolithic elites had claimed for themselves the ability to both see the divine naturalistically and understand them schematically. It is reflected by a universal aesthetic convention of that time which embraced both naturalistic and abstract representations.
The authority holders of Liangzhu were also regarded as representing godly powers on earth, allowing the society to exist in centralized rule as well as the unity of faith, with divine authority conveniently utilized by Liangzhu rulers who communicated with spirits. Since the Liangzhu people's deity manifested itself on the celestial pole area, only the elites were able to reach out to it through wearing stellar emblems. Rulership of the Hongshan culture appears to follow a similar approach, though more vaguely. The Hongshan was probably divided into different chieftainships with varying degrees of relationship to one another. These chieftains did not have both sufficient authority and leadership techniques, so they based their right to rule upon references to religious authority together with personal charisma and military successes.
During the early state formation period, the elites might have monopolized religious activities, and likely secured political stability through their own responsibility to communicate with the gods. At Sanxingdui, both secular and religious power were probably concentrated in a single individual. Sanxingdui culture conflated the sun with the ruling elites. This way, the power and influence of the ruling class was maximized and penetrated into virtually every aspect of communal life. Many Sanxingdui bronze objects may represent such religious leaders, with social ranks clearly defined.
At the Hongshan type-site of Niuheliang, altars were constructed in separation from residential areas with a large labor force directed by a centralized control, all for honoring former elite figures. An example among them was a square stone ritual platform placed next to another concentric circle one, on the center of which was a rectangular altar lying concentrically enclosed within a second square; all the concentric shapes formed an altar of worship. Feng Shi interpreted this structure to have functioned as both an altar to heaven and another to the earth, although Didier suspected the likelihood of both serving heaven.
To the northeast of Niuheliang burial altars is lay a temple dedicated to the aforementioned Mother Goddess, dated approximately to c. 3630 BCE. This temple appears non-Chinese in nature, being symmetrical and having strict component distinctions housed with a surface resembling the Chinese character ya (亞). Its partly excavated structure includes a subterranean room with a stone floor and plastered walls that likely used to be decorated by mural paintings. It also contains a stone altar dedicated to Mother Goddess statues. Surrounding the proper temple was a two-part wall filled with ceramic cylinders. The wall itself was made of wood supported by multiple layers of mud or thatch, and is likely to have gone through burnings.
Excavated the site of Dongshanzui were two open-air altars that constituted a part of an extensive walled structure. Both altars were built out of a hard-packed yellow earth layer framed by smooth granite stones of various colours, supported by two platforms. Excavated in the structure are fertility figurines, whose special location suggest an utilization for ceremonial purposes. Concentric circle designs have also been identified at this site.
Found in two Liangzhu sites of Fanshan and Yaoshan, Zhejiang, were cardinally oriented rectangular grounds raised to 4 meters above the surrounding earth. At the center of each platform lay square altars with side measuring 20 meters; this is also where famous Liangzhu jades were discovered. This construction design not only confirms Liangzhu's close relationship with other Neolithic cultures, but also indicates a strong belief in astronomy and the celestial square.
Remains of a sacrificial mound about 2000 m in area have been identified among facilities in a Longshan site in Anhui. The structure was a long earthen area with jagged edges, with features such as a ridge, several postholes, an elongated series of posthole pits, and burned surfaces. Particularly, a square earthen stage was situated at the center of the mound. These features existed alongside tombs that were built upon the mound during China's imperial era.
During the late Neolithic, there were virtually no constructions specifically dedicated to religious practices. Structures at the Bronze Age Erlitou site implies the existence of a temple-palace construction. Located at the center of the site lay the temple complex, which accompanied the palaces and stood on rammed-earth foundations, covering an area of about 7.5 hectares. Excavated at Qijia sites are six stone circles with diameters measuring about 4 m; these constructions were used for certain religious activities which were upheld by the Qijia, lying next to burials and contain many bone fragments. Analysis of Sanxingdui and an ancient site beneath modern Chengdu reveals that one was dedicated to economics and another to rituals; some mountain symbols have been interpreted as 'flat altars inside a tent-like structure'. It was also possible that architectural orientations were influenced by celestial motions.
The term that academics employ to refer to Neolithic Chinese ritual materials and the objects made from them is 'ritual paraphernalia' (lǐqì 禮器). These objects were often painted with zoomorphic and even ornimorphic images. They were produced with great workmanship and intensive labor, suggesting their use by the political elites. Despite minimal knowledge about their purposes, it is clear that these objects were utilized for spiritual worship.
Jades embodied spiritual meanings to the prehistoric Chinese. They were used in a wide variety of Neolithic cultures including Xinglongwa, Hongshan, Majiabang (5000 – 3200 BCE), Shijiahe (2600 – 2000 BCE), Liangzhu, Longshan, and Qijia. Jades were certainly related to religious beliefs. Three particular jade objects were used by multiple cultures spanning various regions, consisting of cong tubes, bi disks, and yazhang tablets; cong and bi were employed in spiritual communications. Jades possess their own characteristics varied with culture; for example, Dawenkou jades are represented with ornamental and refined tools, while those of Longshan usually include blades. Longshan and Liangzhu jades are precursors of the later Erlitou artifacts made from the same material.
The pottery developed by Yangshao peoples spread to the Majiayao culture and even further into Xinjiang and Central Asia; Majiayao designs are decorated by a variety of patterns including the swastika symbol. Pottery examples from the Shandong Longshan culture were molded into rectilinear shapes of extreme thinness, with black surfaces polished to a metallic appearance. Many types of bronze objects from the subsequent Erlitou period showed similar traits with the Longshan ceramic ones. The Chinese sinologist Li Chi and fellow proponents traced the origins of ritual bronze designs in China to works of pottery during the Neolithic, although the now-abundant source of excavated materials has rendered their argument unsubstantiated. Erlitou's own pottery works were also derived from that of Dawenkou in Shandong.
Bronzes came into use as one of the primary ritual objects around 1700 BCE. The first Chinese ritual bronzes came from the Erlitou, consisting of ten small jue goblets, nine of which appear to have no decorations and the other bearing simple artistic lines and dots. The tenth goblet may have been a turning point in Chinese ritual bronzemaking and might have resulted from a mistake during the process. Other Erlitou ritual bronzes include the jia, the he, and the famous ding. The latter, which are tripods, traced their origins back to early Neolithic versions that had appeared millennia earlier in cultures such as Peiligang and Yangshao. A typical pottery ding from the fourth millennium BCE had their flat legs positioned radially and leg edges either pinched or serrated. The early bronze ding were probably copied from their pottery counterparts.
Examples of ritual bronzes at Sanxingdui are bird-man statues, bronze altars adorned by majestic birds, bronze heads, and bronze trees. Sanxingdui also produced bronze collared discs decorated with birds, which probably was used by priests in rituals.
Neolithic inhabitants in Shanxi and Shandong utilized ritual alligator drums, which were likely invented by the latter. These paraphernalia were identified first in Dawenkou sites, then appeared in the Longshan contexts such as Taosi. They symbolized high social status and functioned during ceremonies.
There is evidence to assert that Sanxingdui had certain people whose professions lay in religious matters. They might be priests specifically trained and with formally recognized status, whether they were magicians, sorcerers or spirit intermediaries. Numerous standing figures and bronze heads unearthed in its culture sites' ritual pits might represent such religious practitioners. The standing figures would then symbolize the supreme religious authority, likely a high priest or a leader.
Sanxingdui religious wardens were different from diviners of the Shang dynasty in that while the latter communicated with the spirits via turtle plastrons, the former were entrusted to assume the persona of spirits during ceremonies. These people were represented by bronze works, such as life-sized heads sometimes decorated by gold masks or small depictions of ritual practitioners. Some works symbolize them conducting rituals to mountains.
Rituals likely involved female participation. Among Sanxingdui material depictions of humans, there exist an instance of a female wearing a mask with heavy eyebrows and an angular mouth, taking part in rituals. The depiction of this woman is without intricate decorations like that of men, signifying a difference in religious roles that the two genders assume. Female contribution to Sanxingdui cultic practices was possibly more significant than what current evidence suggests. Similar to Sanxingdui, women of the Hongshan culture may also have assumed priesthood, managing their temple complex and ritual activities taking place there. These individuals might be granted the right to adorn themselves with pig pendants.
Pottery vessels were often buried outside the deceased's wooden chambers, suggesting their use for food or drink by survivors. The quantitative differences of these vessels, therefore, suggest that funerals of exalted individuals required attendance from a large number of mourners.
Scholarship on early rituals in China focused on private rituals, such as oracle bone divination and prestige funerals, which the elites utilized as a means of securing power. However, in the region there also existed public rituals which were held in open areas and often with mass participation of commoners. Public rituals bonded together members of the community and played a role in promoting a common identity.
The form of early Chinese divination was pyro-osteomancy (or pyromancy), denoting burning animal bones to seek answers to human inquiries. Oracle bone divination with scapulae and turtle shells was a source of state power for the late Shang dynasty (c. 1250 – 1046 BCE). These materials had already been in use during the early Neolithic period for divinatory purposes, but turtle shells appeared to be rarer than ox scapulae or sheep bones. Divination with turtle shells can be found in cultures such as Peiligang and was prevalent among cultures of the eastern Chinese coast and along the Yangtze River, such as Daxi, Dawenkou and Majiabang. Neolithic Chinese divination persisted over a long period of time and, similar to the Shang dynasty, was linked to politically sanctioned ritual specialists. It is also likely that aside from the familiar pyromantic bone tradition, peoples in Neolithic China also practiced divination with materials inaccessible to modern archaeology.
Pyromancy began to take roots in China around the mid-fourth millennium BCE. Some assumed that Neolithic pyromancy was linked to the cult for the dead which was then developing. The practice might have resulted from coincidence; the Neolithic Chinese might have noticed bone cracks when they were sacrificing heated meat for the spirits, and might as well interpreted them as spiritual responses.
An early example of pyromancy in China was a scapula of a sheep or deer, identified to have been found in either Inner Mongolia or Liaoning province. Radiocarbon-dated with calibration to 3321 ± 179 BCE, the bone exhibits burn marks deliberately inflicted upon its distal blade. It constitutes a collection of Late Neolithic divination examples coming from North China, which also includes the sites Jungar Banner (Inner Mongolia) and Fujiamen (Gansu province). Examples from the south include a sheep scapula excavated in the site Xiawanggang in Henan province, dated either to the late Yangshao or Longshan period. Despite the presence of these bones at an early point, it was only during the middle third millennium BCE, during the dynamic Longshanoid period, that divination became properly established.
Type-sites of the Longshan culture provide typical examples for necessary divination by independent practitioners. Representative of Longshan are at least 20 scapulae in Kangjia (Lintong, Shanxi); although they date back to the early third millennium BCE, they posed similarities to late-millennium oracle bones. Unlike their Shang counterparts, Longshan bones were neither pretreated nor inflicted with drilled holes and chisel marks before the burning process. Divination marks are scattered on the bones with no clear regulating principles.
Excavations have revealed similar examples from various places. Some come from Longshan sites such as Yangbai (Wutai, Shanxi), Taosi, and Shangpo (Xiping, Henan). In addition, there are also bones from the Qijia culture site Dahezhuang (Gansu) and the previously mentioned Xiawanggang samples.
Elaborate pyromancy developed gradually and haphazardly as cultures transitioned into the Bronze Age. Although the elaboration shift was most significant in the Central Plains, the earliest notable pretreated bones are found in the Lower Xiajiadian culture in the Northeast which also encloses the oldest oracle bones. In these cases, diviners drilled holes into bones before burning in order to control cracking; one such bone has on it up to 37 holes. Elaboration took hold in the Erlitou culture slowly – oracle bones throughout all four Erlitou phases show the absence of pretreatment prior to heat application – but it eventually adopted the tradition which would then be passed down to the Shang.
Shamanism as a term has various definitions, and its exact meaning has been a topic of contention among academics of cultural anthropology; it has yet to have a conclusive and unitary definition. David Keightley offered that in the contexts of ancient Chinese studies, a shaman could be defined as a medium between the spirit and human worlds, one who travelled to the realm of gods and demons by epilepsy and autohypnotic trances for spiritual communication; in other words, his soul would depart from his body during the concerned ceremony that he performed. The shaman's techniques, according to Keightley, included but was not limited to dancing, ventriloquy and juggling.
The authoritative voice in the field of ancient Chinese shamanism is K. C. Chang, who in the 1980s introduced his theory about the topic. Chang viewed Neolithic imagery of the Yangshao, Longshan and Liangzhu cultures as representations of shamanic visions or metamorphosis. He also contended that shamanic power was vested in the ruling elites who monopolized it as head mediums. Many sinologists, including Keightley, have expressed disagreement with Chang's shamanic hypothesis.
Evidence from the Chinese Neolithic suggests practices reminiscent of shamanism. In particular, occupants of some burials at the Niuheliang site might be shamans. Dancing figures have been identified in a Yangshao-era pot excavated in Datong (Qinghai). Those figures together with depictions of skeletons and human-headed frogs, as well as a hermaphroditic human figurine in Liuwan (Qinghai) have been interpreted to be resonant with shamanism. The famous jade cong tubes of the Liangzhu culture, whose design encloses circles inside squares, have also been identified as possibly bearing shamanistic meanings. Drawing from ideologies current during the Zhou to Han dynasties, Chang commented on these jades:
This was met with criticism by Keightley who argued that there was little empirical strength to prove the existence of shamanism suggested by the cong imagery, and that such existence may be inspected via observations of how the prehistoric Chinese practiced funerary traditions. Aside from the description, Chang also proposed a connection between early Chinese shamanism and that of the Maya civilization in the Americas, with a possible common ancestor emerging in the Transbaikal region.
Burial is a type of religious activity. According to Richard Pearson, several meanings of Neolithic Chinese burials have been inferred:
Such views were proposed by many Chinese academics. However, Western archaeologists have found some of the statements problematic.
Early Chinese cultures expressed considerable dedication to postures of the dead. Already by the end of the fifth millennium BCE, human corpses had been buried in identical postures and with regards to similar orientations. Eastern cultures interred the dead with heads pointing to directions between east and north, while northwestern peoples oriented the dead to the west and northwest. Orientation preferences were arguably strong and even influenced secondary burials; an early example was the Yuanjunmiao cemetery in Shaanxi (around 5000 – 4500 BCE) whose secondary burial skeletons were interred imitating primary orientations. These orientation traditions were dictated by contemporary religious and cosmological thoughts; however, they likely varied based on geographical regions or social status of the dead.
Prehistoric peoples in the region practiced secondary burials, in which the majority of skeletons having been removed from their primary burial pits. These interments appeared during the early Neolithic and began to be collectively practiced in the early fifth millennium BCE. These burials were ritualized, and the deceased were only considered dead after their skeletons had been laid out properly in their graves. This practice might also have appeared in Dawenkou sites around the transition from the fifth to fourth millennium BCE. Secondary-buried corpses may share a grave with a primary interment or lie within their own grave. The extent of these burials indicate the existence of communal rituals conducted by the dead's kinsmen at the time of the second interment, but it is not known whether the rituals were hosted by shamans.
Most of Yangshao burials belong to the secondary, Banpo type. Collective burials mainly existed during the Banpo phase; most during other times feature single-person burial practices. The dead who shared common graves were likely those whose deaths had been close in time. Based on certain criteria that suggest female supremacy in Yangshao burials, some academics proposed that the Yangshao society was matrilineal. Rank differentiation in Yangshao interments was also evident from grave goods made from prestige materials.
The Neolithic Chinese also practiced urn burial, although the tradition seemed to be restricted to burials of children. Urn burial was most practiced in Yangshao sites around the Yellow River and Wei River valleys, and mourners seemed to follow established principles in arranging bones in the urn. Covering urns were lids with beautiful decorations and other characteristics, suggesting that they used to belong to the dead children and their decorations were solely for pleasing the deceased.
As settlements increased in number, funerary traditions were conducted more frequently and, as a result, mortuary values associated with them were further articulated. Already during the Neolithic, mourners had formed distinctions between vessels buried near the corpses and those at greater distances. Such classification is demonstrated by about four burials of that type at Banpo. By the third millennium BCE, the presence of several vessels such as the dou and bei in eastern graves indicate the presence of funeral banquets. Examples found at Dawenkou suggest larger numbers of feasting mourners during male interments. Also at Dawenkou, bei goblets were buried as representations of vitality as well as resistance to death and sterility.
Longshan mortuary traditions reflect its changing social order. Disparities in various grave characteristics such as size, structure, and grave goods suggest social hierarchies present in Longshan. Spatial differences of its human remains also arose as a result of kinship. The deceased of this culture were also buried with artifacts adorned by motifs similar to the taotie of the Shang.
Mortuary hierarchies of Longshan were similar to those of Erlitou, whose burials also suggest clear distinctions in social status among the interred. Elite graves of Erlitou feature the ercengtai perimetral design, and each of them contains remains of wood coffins, mattresses, cinnabars. Human skeletons in these graves were laid supine, often with the same set of grave goods – two wine vessels, a ge dagger-axe, a qi battle-axe, and accompanying jades. Graves of Erlitou commoners feature neither ercengtai design nor cinnabar layers but still contain various grave goods. There were also burials reserved for slaves.
The Bronze Age Qijia burials also reflect inequality in both wealth and social standings. Qijia interments were collective and their grave goods generally consist of pottery, stones, jades and bronzes. At a site in Gansu, some graves have up to 83 pottery artifacts while some have little or nothing at all. At Dahezhuang, some burials feature up to 68 bone fragments compared to only one such fragment in others.
Sacrificial rituals in China traced their origins back to the Paleolithic. Archaeological works from Yuzhou, Henan, demonstrate that the tradition of burying sacrifices had already been existent in the Central Plain during the Longshan period. Evidence from the Shandong region suggests that sacrificial pits were closely associated with ancestor worship.
No traces of sacrificial rituals have been found at the Baodun site during the same period. Sacrifices in the Sichuan area was likely influenced by that practiced in the Central Plain. Later in Sichuan, the Sanxingdui sacrificed men in order to call for help or glorify the divine cosmos. Stone figures of slaves depict them kneeling naked with hands bound behind their backs, and may as well depict sacrificial victims offered to appease deities, whether they were mountain spirits, the sun, or the omniscient god. Aside from humans, the Sanxingdui also offered ivories which were considered ritually important, and bronze masks. Sacrificial rituals were conducted as the Sanxingdui people hoped for the gods to eliminate catastrophes. These rituals consist of a burning step and a following procedure in which burnt sacrifices were placed into sacrificial pits.
Animal burials were prevalent in the Yangshao, Longshan and Erlitou cultures, representing offerings to the dead. They served as a key to hierarchical enhancement and also as a way for mourners to provide the dead with food in the otherworld. In addition to being postmortem food, they were also consumed by mourners who participated in feasting.
Mortuary use of dogs in prehistoric China appeared in the Peiligang culture and extended several millennia into late Liangzhu sites. Dog burials before Yangshao have only been confirmed at the Jiahu site. They spread to the Han river area during early Yangshao times, to the Huai river area during the Dawenkou period, and to the lower Yangtze during the late Liangzhu-early Longshan. Dog burials may be associated with beliefs that they offered dead owners spiritual protection or accompany them in the afterlife, and might be related to their ceramic depiction as guardians of lost souls.
Aside from dogs, the Neolithic Chinese also used pigs and tortoises as mortuary animals. The burial of pig skulls and mandibles took root in North China as early as the sixth millennium BCE, spreading to the south during the middle and late Neolithic. Burial of pig skulls was very prevalent in most Yangshao, Longshan and Dawenkou sites, as well as large sites in the north. These interments seem to be spatially ordered and were usually accompanied by rich amounts of prestige goods, suggesting that pigs were seen as symbols of socioeconomic superiority. In some sites such as Taosi, several large tombs contain whole pigs instead of pig parts.
Since the Longshan era, both humans and animals have been buried near manmade structures as part of rituals associated with construction. Later with the intensification of warfare in the region, war rituals were conducted near walled buildings with human victims, gradually replacing pottery as the main component of war ritual offerings. Examples of such rituals have been found at Taosi and Shimao, and persisted until the Zhou dynasty.
Although direct evidence of alcohol at the Jiahu site has yet to be found, it is likely that its inhabitants utilized it for ritual use, possibly during burials. Some excavations in Gansu province revealed what remains of a floor painting in black carbonized pigments dated partly to the Majiayao culture. The humans of the painting are depicted as silhouettes and standing cross-legged, suggesting possible contexts of sympathetic magic, dance, sexual customs and hunting rituals.
Many classical Chinese accounts are employed by archaeologists in understanding the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures. Some classical Chinese literature from the Zhou and Han dynasties make references to the remote past which they perceived as a succeeding line of primordial rulers in the Central Plain. For example, the Guoyu (國語; Discourses of the States) from the Eastern Zhou period (771 – 256 BCE) describes early shamanism:
Various spiritual activities were credited to the time of the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黃帝; trad. 2698 – 2598 BCE). One such act of religion is allegedly the practice of tortoise-shell divination; the Annals record that the Yellow Emperor in the seventh month of his 50th year, having received consultations from his sage men, commissioned a recorder to divine on shells. The emperor was also thought to have practiced sacrifice, as indicated by the Warring States-era Bamboo Annals referring to one occasion of him sacrificing at the Luo River. The ancient historian Sima Qian (c. 145 – 86 BCE) credited the Yellow Emperor with worship of spirits, mountains, rivers, as well as heaven and earth.
Also traditionally placed during the third millennium BCE, the Emperor Zhuanxu was described as listening to the spirits in regulating human thoughts and actions. He also educated people to sacrifice to the spirits the purest materials with utmost reverence. Sima Qian wrote in his work that a great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor called Ku also attempted to understand the spirits and worship them.
The Emperor Yao (traditionally placed during the late third millennium BCE) commissioned the Xi and He to make calendrical calculations with astronomical motions. Yao also appears in the Bamboo Annals to have practiced sacrifice on his 53rd year, which the Annals place around the early 21st century BCE. His successor Emperor Shun worshipped by sacrifice many beings, including the Six Honored Ones, hills, rivers, and hosts of spirits. In the classical Book of Documents chapter 'The Counsels of the Great Yu', Shun is quoted as consulting the spirits by tortoise shells, as Yu the Great counseled him to submit ministers to divination.
As Shun received appointment as emperor in the temple of Yao's ancestors, Yu the Great also received his own in Shun's ancestral temples. Confucius worded in the Doctrine of the Mean that Shun had established such a temple.
Traditional Chinese accounts describe deity veneration as also present during the Xia dynasty (2070 – 1600 BCE) that purportedly preceded the Shang. For example, the Xia's second sovereign Qi was described in multiple texts as a spirit-medium who communicated with the high deity Shangdi and performed sacrifices to the deceased. In the Book of Documents, Qi gave a speech in which a belief in Heaven and spirits of the land is reflected. The classical text describes Xia rulers believing that they possessed Heaven's appointment to punish those deemed unworthy.