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Religions of China in Practice Edited by Donald S. Lopez is a truly excellent book. It's a collaboration of many scholars, each picks a text they find significant and translates it from Chinese into English and includes a preface for background, why it's important, and points of interest. (37 texts in total!) So it's a great reference source as well as an interesting read. The book, as Stephen Teiser explains in the introduction is a break away from merely looking at Chinese religions through the "Three Teachings" and instead look at it from a more holistic point of view. The categories they used for division were, The Unseen World, Communicating with the Unseen, Rituals of the Seen and Unseen Worlds and Earthly Conduct. I still have about a 100 pages left to finish but I have to write up a specific two chapters for my class tomorrow so thought I'd include them here in the more generic book review.
The First was by Robert Eno, "Deities and Ancestors in Early Oracle Inscriptions". Because of the nature of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions the works translated here are much shorter, being questions used for divination rituals. However these are can be used to show many of the religious practices of the Shang as often the questions being asked were what type of ritual should be performed. Sometimes the divination can be seen as a formality and sometimes it shows a lack of distrust, as questions will be asked more than once.
The oracle bones also give a detailed description of the Shang pantheon as you can see who was sacrificed to when. The most numerous of the pantheon are the royal ancestors. The secound most important group was cultural heroes, this is interesting as what has been deemed "Chinese Popular Religion" throughout the imperial age saw many cults to fallen heroes, these cults were often seen as both "excessive" and "heterodox" and were often the victim of imperial persecution. The third group of deities were the nature spirits who also received sacrifices. As well as the Shang Deity Di who the Zhou incorporated into their ideal of Heaven.
Stephen Bokenkamp wrote on "The Record of the Feng and Shan Sacrifices". He translated an eye witness account, that of a minor official, of the imperial sacrifices from 56 CE. These sacrifices were considered to be some of the most important Imperial sacrifices performed. Though there are actually only records of them being performed 6 times in the 2000 years of Imperial history. The rite described here was the 3rd time that the sacrifices were performed. Bokenkamp describes little of the context or the history of the rites, for that I would recommend Matthew Lewis' essay "The Feng and Shan sacrifices of Emperor Wu". While Lewis is looking at an earlier performance of the rites he has a great deal of insight into the Han period and what people were arguing about at that time.
The First was by Robert Eno, "Deities and Ancestors in Early Oracle Inscriptions". Because of the nature of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions the works translated here are much shorter, being questions used for divination rituals. However these are can be used to show many of the religious practices of the Shang as often the questions being asked were what type of ritual should be performed. Sometimes the divination can be seen as a formality and sometimes it shows a lack of distrust, as questions will be asked more than once.
The oracle bones also give a detailed description of the Shang pantheon as you can see who was sacrificed to when. The most numerous of the pantheon are the royal ancestors. The secound most important group was cultural heroes, this is interesting as what has been deemed "Chinese Popular Religion" throughout the imperial age saw many cults to fallen heroes, these cults were often seen as both "excessive" and "heterodox" and were often the victim of imperial persecution. The third group of deities were the nature spirits who also received sacrifices. As well as the Shang Deity Di who the Zhou incorporated into their ideal of Heaven.
Stephen Bokenkamp wrote on "The Record of the Feng and Shan Sacrifices". He translated an eye witness account, that of a minor official, of the imperial sacrifices from 56 CE. These sacrifices were considered to be some of the most important Imperial sacrifices performed. Though there are actually only records of them being performed 6 times in the 2000 years of Imperial history. The rite described here was the 3rd time that the sacrifices were performed. Bokenkamp describes little of the context or the history of the rites, for that I would recommend Matthew Lewis' essay "The Feng and Shan sacrifices of Emperor Wu". While Lewis is looking at an earlier performance of the rites he has a great deal of insight into the Han period and what people were arguing about at that time.
