The Shang Dynasty had a very important tradition, which was sacrifice.
No matter big or small, they must use tortoise shells to divine good or bad luck, and then make different sacrifices to heaven based on the divination results.
Thousands of tortoise shells were unearthed from the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, all of which were used by merchants at that time for divination.
And among the gifts they offered to heaven, in addition to various domestic animals, a very important part was living people!
The process of carrying out this tradition is quite bloody, and the number is very large.
It is precisely because of this cruel human sacrifice ceremony that the average life span of the Shang Dynasty people can only reach about 18 years old, and living to 30 years old is considered a long life.
At that time, there was also a very strict hierarchical system among humans. Below the royal family were the nobles, below the nobles were the civil servants, and then there were the common people and slaves.
The status of slaves was like that of pigs and dogs in the society at that time. Most of them could not even speak. They were locked up and thrown in cages from birth, and were often used as human sacrifices.
At that time, the Xiqi Zhou people were not the aborigines of the Shang Dynasty. They migrated here later and were called Qiang people.
They used to be mountain people living in the deep mountains. They didn't know how to read and had no skills. They were good at hunting and fighting. After joining here, they were much shorter than the merchants in Chaoge City in the Central Plains.
Each sacrifice in Chaoge City requires a large number of living humans, and these Qiang people naturally become the best tribute to God.
In the oracle bone inscriptions that have been unearthed, the word "ji" for sacrifice is shaped like holding meat with hands and placing it on the altar. This meat represents the living human flesh that was sacrificed.
After the Zhou clan surrendered to the Shang Dynasty, the entire Xiqi had to be responsible for offering human sacrifices to the Shang Dynasty every year.
These living people can come from their own tribe, or they can come from their conquests against other tribes. This is a bloody past...
The Shang Dynasty's views on the Zhou people can be seen from the character "zhou" in the oracle bone inscriptions. The character "zhou" in the oracle bone inscriptions is written with the word "yong" filled with dots.
And this writing method of dots full of small dots represents blood in oracle bone inscriptions. "Yong" plus "blood" is the merchant's view of the Zhou people.
The process of human sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty was very cruel. A very common method was to cut the human in half and hang them on the altar together with the pigs and cows. After his blood had dried, the whole sacrifice could be performed.
Considered complete.
In addition to this, there are other sacrificial methods such as digging out the heart separately and boiling it in boiling water.
The sacrifices at this time can no longer be counted as human beings. They are just like pigs, cattle and dogs, which are just a kind of food offered to God by the people of the Shang Dynasty.
According to historical research, after the sacrifices were completed, the merchants, royal families and nobles would share the sacrifices to share the gifts from God.
In a Shang Dynasty bronze boiler unearthed in the 1970s, archaeologists found a human head inside. The head had obviously been cooked, and the bones had been hollowed out in many places.
This is evidence that merchants initially used human sacrifices and cannibalism.
It seems that not only the gods, but the overall mentality of the entire human society at that time was also very bloody and cruel.
After Emperor Xin of Zhou Dynasty of Shang Dynasty came to the throne, he publicly refused to carry out cruel human sacrifices. He refused to eat the sacrifices and even ordered the abolition of all human sacrifices, thus erasing this inhumane history.
Because most of the sacrificers were Xiqi Zhou people at that time, when facing these Qiang people, Emperor Xin of Shang Zhou showed great mercy and mercy.
However, his behavior was regarded by the Shang Dynasty clan at that time as weakness and abandonment of tradition. They smashed the sacrificial vessels and cursed Emperor Xin to heaven for punishment.
Later, it was also for this reason that when Ji Fa, King Wu of Zhou Dynasty, finally broke through King Chaoge's city, the nobles at that time did not show the proper resistance and even cooperated internally and externally to overthrow King Zhou's rule.
Among these bone fragments, there is also a special record.
At that time, King Zhou had an older brother named Wei Zi. He thought that he was the best candidate for the throne, but in the end it was King Zhou Di Xin who succeeded him.
So he held a grudge and united with some ministers who were dissatisfied with Emperor Xin for not offering sacrifices to Emperor Xin, and colluded with King Wu of Zhou. When King Zhou was attacking Dongyi, he cooperated with King Wu of Zhou and led the army into Chaoge Gate.
From this point of view, Emperor Xin of Shang Zhou was not only not as cruel and immoral as the legend says.
On the contrary, he was an emperor with a very sense of justice and compassion.
At the very least, he cherishes human life very much and will not abuse it lightly.
Moreover, these tortoise shells clearly record many facts that happened at that time. Emperor Xin, the king of Shang Zhou, was very accomplished.
He was good at conquering and fighting. During his reign, he expanded the territory, built the court, established offense and defense, and improved the system. He made great contributions to the economy and politics of the time.
It is unlikely that such a accomplished and merciful king would suddenly become angry because of some disrespectful remarks made by Boyi, turn him into meat soup, and force his biological father to eat it.
In the same way, he would not be stupid enough to do something that goes against family ethics, to teach others to take advantage of him, and to cause such big trouble for himself. All of this is so unreasonable.
Therefore, from the perspective of these actual evidences, what Bai Fengxian said is indeed an ironclad fact.
And what Chen Zhi had speculated before was basically not wrong.
It seems that the mediocre tyrant King Shang Zhou 5,000 years ago was indeed greatly wronged.
And the martial kings Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya who replaced them at that time were not as glorious as the legends...
While Chen Zhi was studying this information, Jian Di, a black bird, came back more than once.
During this period, she followed Chen Zhi's orders to spread the news about finding the Cooking God.
However, as of today, there is still no news.
Now among the surviving demigods, no one dares to disobey Chen Zhi's wishes, and no one dares to lie easily.
But they all said that they had never even heard of this ancient god.
It seems that this cooking god has really disappeared from this land of China for too long.
Just when Chen Zhi thought this line was completely hopeless, suddenly, something unexpected happened...