The Oldest Recorded Paleographical Records That Are Left From China 's Ancient History

The Vedic Age and the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties set the ground work for some of the prevailing spiritual principals of their societies. On the surface, these beliefs appear to be different, but a closer look may uncover some similar experiences and commonalities.

When comparing their religious views, Ancient South Asia and China were very different. In Ancient South Asia, they held that trees and animals were sacred because of their associations with vital forces. In comparison, Ancient Chinese people believed in their ancestor’s presence and they believed in their continuing influence. Family heads, in Ancient China, presided over the rites of honoring their ancestor’s spirits.

- After the invention of paper, the Chinese also began to use it for wrapping

o Later Shang sites found at Erligang in Northwest China hint at an even more complex state and society

Each consisted of two sections—an elevated citadel, or fortress, and a lower residential area.The Shang may simply be one of several early Chinese civilizations. But it is China’s first historical state. That is, the Shang were the first to record their dynasty’s history using a formal writing

In Ancient China, they developed a writing system for preservation. In China, people would use logograms, which are symbols that represent a word or a meaning.In the early days of the ancient Chinese civilization, people would write on oracle bone or tortoise shell.In Ancient India, writing systems were developed for recording data and information. The Indus script used signs and words and it was written from right to left. By 1800 BCE, the Indus valley civilizations started to fall and writing were often used anymore. Ancient Egyptians started to developed a writing system called, hieroglyphics because they needed a way to record important information. They believed that recording data and communicate information about government and religion was essential. Scribes were only ones to write in hieroglyphics and were written from left to right or top to bottom. In Mesopotamia, people started developing a writing system to information. Mesopotamia created a writing system called, cuneiform. Mesopotamian scribes would record important dates and event, and position of the stars. These ancient civilizations started to create their own writing system to record history and communicate information.

The region of China is extensive and profound. “In China lay people did not belong to an institutionalized sect, nor did their religious life have anything to do with signing articles of faint. Religion in China was so woven into the broad fabric of family and social life that there was not even a special word for it until modern times, when one was coined to match the Western term” (Thompson, 1). In China, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are all blended. In the earliest period, Shang Dynasty (2000 BC), people in China had worshipped a lot of different gods (polytheism) such as weather god, river god. People in the Shang Dynasty believed that their ancestors become like gods after they died, so people worshipped their

Shamanism and ancestor reverence are key religions of the Chinese. Shamans are spiritual healers who call on spirits while they are dreaming to relieve an individual from uncertainty or cure an individual from a disease (Laughlin & Rock, 2014). Shamans are seen as elders of the Chinese community and are respected for the tremendous healing power they have on others. Furthermore, ancestor reverence is the respect many younger generations have for their

The people who lived under the Shang Dynasty strongly believed that whenever their ancestors died, they became similar to gods, and deserved to be worshipped as if they too were gods. Each family in the Shang Dynasty would not only worship the gods, but would also worship their own ancestors. Along with ancestor worship, during the late Shang Dynasty, people in ancient China also began to use written oracle bones to try to predict the future and also to communicate with the gods.

At the core of any nation’s culture are its religious beliefs. In China there are the “Three Jewels” Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as described in Lopez (1996). There are small numbers of people practicing other religions such as Christianity and Islam, but these are the three dominant beliefs of the region. While they are separate in content, they have coexisted for several thousand years. Lopez (1996) goes on to say, “Historical precedent and popular parlance attest to the importance of this threefold division for understanding Chinese culture…Buddhism is the sun, Daoism the moon, and Confucianism the five planets…suggesting that although they remain separate, they also coexist as equally indispensable phenomena of the natural world.” Each belief system stands alone, and at the same time needs the other(s).

As explained in World Religions Today, in contemporary culture, the discoveries made through science are usually articulated in the structure of mathematical equations. These mathematical equations serve as proofs of the fundamental truths that the particular science reveals. Analogous to this idea is the symbolism in the Yi-Jing system of East Asian Religions. The symbolization of the Yi-Jing system enriches the conceptualization of the universe as incessantly changing. Within the Yi-Jing system, the yin-yang symbol exemplifies the most familiar representation of these uncovered fundamental truths (Esposito 502-3). In this essay, I intend to explain the meaning of the terms yin and yang and discuss the role they play in Chinese religions generally. Further, I will explain the way in which the symbolism of yin and yang contribute to the Chinese conception of the universe and the way that role is played out in religious practices.

Teiser, Stephen F. "The Spirits of Chinese Religion." Http://afe.easia.columbia.edu. Ed. Donald S. Lopez. 1996 Princeton University Press.

To begin, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia introduced the first forms of written language-Cuneiform. The beginning of writing was an essential tool that transferred thoughts and speech into text. It was extremely important and allowed for the beginning of record keeping of all sorts. “At this point, writing was used only for record keeping, and thus only concrete words(nouns) such as “ox”,”grain” and “sheep” were needed. As society became more complex, the language evolved enabling signs to be used…and eventually abstract thoughts “(Newman 44). The world came to know a unique way of expressing thoughts and learned to convey messages through writing. From then on, records could be kept, history and stories could be recorded and abstract thinking could shine

To begin, Egypt and China had different natural resources, so they developed different cultures and religions. For example, Egypt had access to papyrus which is a reed which can be used to produce to make paperlike things for writing. With plentiful supplies of papyrus, Egyptians were able to use hieroglyphics, which were picture symbols that represented words, and to develop a cursive symbol-form of writing. Egyptians used writing for recordkeeping, poetry, religious hymns, instruction manuals, and stories. However, in China, they had access to cattle and turtles; they used oracle bones, the shoulder bones of cattle and the bottom shells of turtles, to inscribe symbols into. In the Shang writing system, they had several hundred characters which signified a one-syllable word for an object or idea. The Chinese wrote about the king, and other parts of the Shang society. The Chinese and Egyptians developed different writing systems because Egypt had access to papyrus whereas China had supplies of animal bones. Furthermore, the Chinese also used the oracle bones for religion. Interpreters “read” the cracks in the bones which were answers given to the people from their ancestors. Then, these answers were inscribed into the oracle bones. Since the Chinese had access to these oracle bones, their religion mainly centered around divination, which is communicating with ancestors and ancient spirits. In

Firstly, a writing system enable our ancestor to keep record. Some of the example of such records are, the amount of goods stored in the storehouse, taxes owned and the composition of work forces. Record, in another term is known as data. The ability to analyze data become a significant factor in decision-making. For example, the shortage of food supply in the next month is foresee by the storehouse manager when he is analyzing his records. He will then be able to inform the purchase team to take note and ask for the permission to purchase more from the neighbor country. Quipu, a system of knotted cord used by the Andeans function as a mnemonic device to record information is one example.