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Who were the ancestors? The origins of Chinese ancestral cult and racial myths

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Li Liu
Li Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC 3083, Australia [email protected]
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Extract

Ancestor worship has been a dominant religious form in ancient as well as modern China. It has shaped thought and behaviour for millennia, and has been used by élites as propaganda legitimizing their political positions. Ancestors can be created and modified, so the nature of the ancestral cult has changed through time. Using archaeological data from China, this article first enables an exploration of the earliest manifestations and the development of ancestor-worship ritual in the Neolithic period; secondly, demonstrates that lineage/tribal ancestors became state deities in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BC); and, thirdly, investigates the process in modern history by which a legendary sage, the Yellow Emperor, was first transformed into the progenitor of the Han Chinese, and then into the common ancestor of all Chinese people.

Keywords

ancestor worshipprehistoryburialChinese nationalismancestorsYellow Emperor
Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 281 , September 1999 , pp. 602 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

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