Why rewriting of China’s history 3,000 years ago matters today
As Beijing targets ‘historical nihilism’ and seeks new narrative of past, Confucius’ cover-up of shocking Shang dynasty facts springs to mind
Abook written about Chinese history 3,000 years ago has become an unlikely bestseller. In Revelation, or Jian Shang in Mandarin, historian Li Shuo concludes, through the study of oracle bone scripts and archaeological discoveries, that the Shang dynasty in the early bronze age had embraced brutal cannibalism and human sacrifices. Furthermore, the book describes how that part of the country’s dark history was rewritten by the succeeding Zhou dynasty, which overthrew Shang in 1,046BC.
According to the book, the Shang rulers believed in day-to-day intervention by gods in human life and offered human flesh to the heavens like the Aztecs did – prisoners of war, slaves and tribal leaders were tortured and slaughtered to “celebrate” occasions such as building a new house or commemorating a deceased noble.
The founding father of the Zhou dynasty,
King Wen, lost a son in a brutal sacrifice and started to question the rituals. His other son, King Wu, overthrew Shang’s rule, and came up with a new ritual system so that people would forget about the human sacrifices.
Li’s book is eye-opening in many ways as it sheds new light on the roots of Chinese culture. The way of life and ideology employed in the Shang dynasty was covered up by Zhou and lost for later Chinese generations.
The book provides a plausible explanation as to how and why it happened, hence the English title Revelation.
As part of the Shang-Zhou transition, the church retreated from Chinese state affairs at a very early stage and Chinese politics has no representation for priests. History is an important source of legitimacy, starting a tradition of the state building up a narrative about the past.
Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher born five centuries after the collapse of Shang, uncovered the truth of the Shang dynasty but agreed with King Wen and the Duke of Zhou to cover up disturbing facts with a unified narrative.
Confucius further articulated these coded messages into classic texts that formed the origins of Chinese beliefs and society’s moral compass. The famous Confucius quote of “do not do to others what you would not have them do to you”, for instance, is a subtle but strong warning against any resurrection of human sacrifices.
In a way that is similar to the transition period from Shang to Zhou, the Chinese state is again working to forge a coherent view of history as the country seeks an elevated standing in the world.
On the one hand, Beijing has targeted “historical nihilism” in a crackdown on narratives that run against official ones, similar to King Wen erasing the records of Shang’s brutal rites.
On the other hand, the Chinese state is investing heavily to build up a fresh narrative on the country’s past, in an endeavour such as the Duke of Zhou’s efforts to establish new rites and belief systems.
But unlike 3,000 years ago, contemporary efforts to shape group memory are much more complicated, as modern technologies have made it easier for individuals to keep a record of what has happened. It is much easier to take a picture by phone than to carve characters on a turtle shell.
Meanwhile, the official narrative, if it is a simplified one, would face questions. Beijing’s claimed triumph over Covid-19, for instance, may not echo with all who endured the draconian quarantines.
Another major difference from the ShangZhou period is that Chinese politics has been demystified.
While ancient Chinese emperors had to adhere to the abstract “heaven’s mandate” for their legitimacy, the power to explain that mandate was not in the hands of priests or even the rulers.
In that sense, it is a good tradition in Chinese history that those in power need to demonstrate performance to prove that they deserve the heaven’s mandate.
Confucius further articulated these coded messages into classic texts that formed the origins of Chinese beliefs