Art, Ritual and Religion: Taoties, Dragons, and Ancestors

What can object from 3000 years ago tell us about our ancestors and their belief systems? Do they still impact our lives today? And if the answer is yes, how?

Following the first session of this series, “Art, Ritual and Religion: An Introduction”, this session focuses on the Shang Dynasty, when the Bronze Age culture and its hierarchical society became ever more complex. Ritual bronze vessels, jade, bone, and ceramic vessels were made specifically for rituals that honor the ancestral spirits. These ritual vessels, designed to hold food and wine, reflected an advanced technology of bronze making that is distinctive to China.

The ruling aristocracy who performed these ritual offerings to their ancestors were aided by a priest or shaman who could communicate with the spirits and deities by practicing divination on sheep shoulder blades or tortoise shells. Both bronze making and divination required the use of fire. All of these objects were embellished with a consistent visual vocabulary of motifs incorporating mostly mythological creatures dominated by the taotie and dragon-like creatures. During the Shang and Zhou dynasty, these mythological creatures served as a link between the world of man and the world of the ancestral spirits and gods.

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