crisis and to ask their ancestors to speak with gods to help
ensure weather appropriate to each of the seasons, for good
harvests, and to prevent fl oods. During the Shang Dynasty
and most of the Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1045–ca. 256 b.c.e.) ser-
vants were sacrifi ced to be buried with their masters. Th eir
heads were chopped off with special axes and buried sepa-
rately from their bodies. Why they were buried separately is
not known, but the practice was common enough to occur
even in the burials of some ordinary peasants and soldiers.
Th e servants were expected to serve their masters in the next
life. By the end of the Zhou Dynasty human sacrifi ces at the
burials of nobles and monarchs were rare, though they still
sometimes occurred. Th e sacrifi cing of servants was replaced
by the burying of ceramic sculptures of people. It is likely that
the ceramic fi gures were magically endowed with spirits that
would serve their masters and mistresses aft er death. Th e hu-
man sacrifi ces may have been one of the ancient practices that
Qin Shi Huangdi hoped to end with his rule. His tomb has
China’s most spectacular collection of ceramic sculptures—
thousands of life-size fi gures.
Most archaeologists believe that women took subor-
dinate roles in ancient Chinese religion. Little mention is
known of women divinities, although belief in a great witch
whose body was carved into the lands of the earth seems to
have been widespread. Th e most important female super-
natural being was said to live in the Kunlun Mountains, a
range near modern Tibet. Ancient Shang records on bam-
boo found in tombs mention a mother goddess to the west.
By the 900s b.c.e. this goddess had become the focus of a
cult. She was said to live in a mystical land that existed apart
from the ordinary world, but people could fi nd their way to
it through the Kunlun. She was called Xi Wang Mu, “Queen
Mother of the West,” and was said to have the secret to im-
mortality. In about 113 b.c.e., during the Han Dynasty, an
army was dispatched to northwestern China to secure the
safety of the Silk Road. Another purpose of the expedition
may have been to fi nd the way to the land of the Queen
Mother of the West.
During an era when the Zhou Dynasty was divided
among several states the philosopher Confucius (551–479
b.c.e.) taught his belief that government should be benign.
Although he insisted that he himself had no original ideas
but was only reminding people of wisdom learned by ancient
leaders, he and his followers tried to replace what they re-
garded as irrational religious views with rational ones. Th is
did not mean that Confucianism opposed religion; Confu-
cius insisted on following religious rituals, arguing that in
them people could fi nd ways to communicate properly with
gods and their ancestors. What Confucians opposed were the
practices of folk magic, including witchcraft and human sac-
rifi ce. In religious rituals was rationality; in magic spells and
the invocation of demons was nonsense. Although the Han
Dynasty adopted Confucianism as its philosophy of govern-
ment and Confucius became a venerated fi gure, Confucian-
ism itself was never a religion.
Another teacher of the same era, Laozi (ca. 604–521 b.c.e.),
did found a religion, called Daoism. Credited with writing
Dao de jing (Th e Way and Its Virtue), he advocated self-con-
trol as a way to preserve the body and live long. His followers
created rituals that were supposed to bring the body under
control and subdue the forces within it that made it grow old.
Th e chief god of Daoism was Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor.
Th e Queen Mother of the West was his wife. He was assisted
by many gods. Each year he summoned t hem to his pa lace and
gave each god new duties based on how well the god had per-
formed his work during the previous year. When there were
troubles such as droughts, fl oods, or plagues, Daoist priests
told the god in charge that he was performing poorly, and Yu
Huang took note. Th e off ending god could be dismissed from
his post during the annual review of his work.
Th e parallel between Yu Huang and the Chinese emperor
was intentional. Th e emperor ruled because he was appointed
by the gods, and he had to maintain a good relationship with
them if he was to remain in their favor. Should he fall out of
favor, religious doctrine dating all the way back to the Shang
Dynasty said he should be replaced by someone the gods had
blessed. It thus was the custom for usurpers of the throne to
declare that they were only acting on behalf of the gods. Dur-
ing the second half of the Zhou Dynasty emperors had little
political power but were treated with respect by the rulers of
the various Chinese provinces, because without the emperors
they would have little to justify their own rule. Th e emperor
maintained the fi ction that he appointed the rulers of the Chi-
nese states on t he basis of div ine aut horit y: He was emperor be-
cause of divine favor, and divine favor passed through him to
the various warlords, chiefs, and kings of China’s provinces.
During the 300s b.c.e. the concept of yin and yang devel-
oped. Yin and yang represented the universe as a duality of
opposing forces. Yin was dark, soft , receptive, and “female,”
while yang was hard, bright, active, and “male.” Without yin
and yang in constant opposition, the world would not be pos-
sible. Much folk magic depended on mediating between yin
and yang to fi nd the proper balance between them, and much
that was wrong in the world was attributed to an imbalance
of the two.
During the Han Dynasty an entire department of gov-
ernment was devoted to religious matters. Th ere was much
for the offi cials to keep track of. For instance, the emperor
had to wear particular kinds of clothing at particular times
of year because his clothes were a reminder to the gods to
change seasons at the appropriate times. If he wore the wrong
clothing, disaster could follow, with the seasons becoming
mixed up. Th ere were rituals for him to perform—probably
more than any one person could remember—which meant
the government needed priests who could keep track of what
was needed.
During the second half of the Han Dynasty two things
occurred that would shape Chinese religion for centuries.
First, in about 142 c.e. the mystic Zhang Daoling declared
that he had had a revelation from Laozi telling him to start a848 religion and cosmology: Asia and the Pacific