Jian Shang | The Zhouyi is not merely a book of divination—it is also a blood-soaked archive of Shang-dynasty human sacrifice! Uncovering the violent first half of Chinese civilization that was erased

What are we talking about this time?

If you opened a bronze ritual cauldron from the Shang dynasty 3,000 years ago, what you saw might not be pork, but a young girl’s skull. You think the Zhouyi is a profound and inscrutable book of philosophical divination, but what if I told you it is actually a detailed forensic report recording how to dismember living people and how to roast human flesh—a “Survival Guide” for planning a coup against a brutal regime? What would you make of that? Let’s take a deep dive into Jian Shang: The Transformation from the Shang to the Zhou and the Rebirth of Huaxia (by Li Shuo).

Highlights:

• The archaeological truth that overturns our understanding: Why say the Shang dynasty was a theocratic hell built on institutionalized “human sacrifice” and “eating people”?

• The dark code of the Zhouyi: A new reading of the hexagrams. What, exactly, did King Wen see in prison? Is “Xian” really a love story?

• The bloody original sin of the Zhou people: The so-called “sage” King Wen and the Zhou clan were originally the “helpers” who helped the Shang dynasty capture human victims?

• Huaxia civilization’s “amputation to survive”: How did the Duke of Zhou, through an unprecedented “historical erasure,” bury centuries of bloody memories and establish the moral undertone of Chinese civilization?

Jump to a section

• 00:00 The people in the cauldron: Uncovering the dark-red undertone of Shang civilization
• 04:20 The truth about Shang human sacrifice: Why did the gods need people to be “eaten”?
• 12:30 The Zhou people’s original sin: From “shepherds hunting people” to “Shang kings hunting animals”—a survival contest
• 16:40 The prison of Ji Li: What was King Wen’s real purpose in performing the Zhouyi in prison?
• 19:40 The terrifying hexagrams on closer inspection: “Xian” isn’t a love story, but a dismemberment manual
• 25:50 The death of Yu Hou: King Wen’s ultimate spiritual collapse and rebirth after eating his own son’s flesh
• 29:40 The Battle of Muye: How Jiang Taigong trampled on turtle shells and shattered the terror of theocracy
• 31:20 The Duke of Zhou’s monumental cover-up: How “erasing history” allowed Huaxia civilization to be reborn
• 37:00 Conclusion: Civilization is built on the forgetting of the wilderness

This book

• Title: Jian Shang: The Transformation from the Shang to the Zhou and the Rebirth of Huaxia
• Author: Li Shuo
• Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press
• Publication date: 2022-10
• ISBN：9787559852533