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Oracle bones serve as the primary source for studies of Shang religion. [2] They focused on the religious life of the king and the royal family. [3] A typical ritual would feature many key roles; David Keightley conjured such a ritual based on actual inscriptional records, attempting to reconstruct a ceremonial scene normally observed by the Shang court.
Ghosts or ancestral spirits, in a general Philippine concept, are the spirits of those who have already died. In other words, they are the souls of the dead. They are different from the souls of the living, in which, in many instances, a person has two or more living souls, depending on the ethnic group. [19]
In fact, ancestral spirits have strong connections with the other section of the Shang's pantheon, the gods of non-ancestral origins. Shang Jia (上甲), the most senior member in Shang royal lineage, was represented on oracle bones by the square component drawn out of the character for "jia", which resembles a "plus" sign. [ 9 ]
Chinese ancestor veneration, also called Chinese ancestor worship, [1] [a] is an aspect of the Chinese traditional religion which revolves around the ritual celebration of the deified ancestors and tutelary deities of people with the same surname organised into lineage societies in ancestral shrines. Ancestors, their ghosts, or spirits, and ...
During a shi ceremony, the ancestral spirit supposedly would enter the personator, who would eat and drink sacrificial offerings and convey spiritual messages. Spiritual messages usually were conveyed in the form of poe divination , or to confirm whether the ancestors consent on the messages requested by the divinator.
Spirits can interact with the world by providing good fortune or causing evil deeds. Ancestors are essential spirits in Hoodoo that intercede in people's lives, providing guidance and protection, and are revered. [268] The practice in Hoodoo of ancestral veneration through prayers and offerings had its origins in Africa.
The state religion of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC) involved trained practitioners communicating with deities, including deceased ancestors and nature spirits. These deities formed a pantheon headed by the high god Di. [2] Methods of communication with spirits included divinations inscribed on oracle bones and sacrifice of living ...
The abode Kaluwalhatian, however, is not to be associated as a place where ancestral spirits go to. The place where good ancestral spirits go to is located below the earth and is called Maca, while the place where evil ancestral spirits go to is called Kasamaan (or Kasanaan), [8] which is also below the earth.