Metamorphosis and the Shang State
Yi 異and the Yi ding異[fang方]鼎
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4314067 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Childs-Johnson (0000-0001-7359-192X, Independent Scholar, 530 Mowbray Arch Norfolk, VA 23507, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 95 |
| Publication date | 2019-02-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel10020095 |
| OpenAlex | W2913855006 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of that religion has proven elusive. Many scholars have relied on written accounts from the much later Warring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been misled into describing the Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities. Other scholars have generalized about the nature of divinity in Shang time and have recognized the position of the king who as one with Di was divine. Rather than act as an intermediary between the living and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di. The present study follows research recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I label "institutionalized metamorphism". By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits
Divinity · Political science · Scholarship · Theology · Worship · Chinese history and philosophy · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |