Shang Tang's Prayer 汤祷桑林 | Chinese History - The Shang Dynasty E10

Well, if you've been following the channel for a while, or maybe even before the channel started on Facebook You would have noticed that in the past few days. We've gone through a bit of rebranding well Basically the old channel name and the old brand was used was actually a holdover from the time when I was Planning for different a different kind of content for the channel and Because I already registered the domain, built the website and everything else It was I felt it was a bit of a hassle to change the name When I you know pivoted to doing Chinese history on YouTube and so yeah, I finally decided to bite the bullet and Go through the massive rebranding and change all the URLs where they could be changed and Yeah, so The links and everything that I post in the description box would reflect that here on out and The links on the older videos will be slowly updated to reflect this change and yeah, I'm that guy now Anyways enough of that small update in today's story. We're still going to talk about Shangtang Specifically now that the Shang dynasty has been built and he is now officially king of the new kingdom Why do the Chinese consider him one of the four sage kings? In fact, the only one that's counted among the ranked Who's not from the age of myth. So in today's story, we're gonna talk about an event that propelled him to that status So yeah, here we go Hello and welcome to the show, my name is Api Ngo and I am that Chinese history guy and In this show we share the myths legends and histories of the Chinese people More than 6,000 years of stories one video at a time So before we carry on remember to give a thumb to the video and a sub to the channel And if you would like to support the channel and this little project beyond the thumb and the sub you can do so on our patreon page the links are available here and down in the description box below all Patrons get access early access to the videos before everyone else on YouTube and tier 2 and above patrons would get a free copies of Every e-book that I would be releasing in future The first one should be coming by the first quarter of 2021 and of course a top tier patrons would get a free copies of my physical books even when they are published and released and I guess Yeah, without much further ado on to the story Now in the early days of the Shang Dynasty under Shang Tung's reign a massive drought that lasted for Seven years broke out across the land and crops failed livestock numbers reduced drastically and people died from thirst and dehydration The land was basically a barren landscape of death and devastation As far as the eyes could see Now the great King Tang and his entire court were shaken to the core and deeply concerned By this natural catastrophe that broke out so soon after they came to power And so Shang Tung decided that he will go You know see the devastation for himself and to fully understand the extent of this destruction that Had affected his people and his subjects Now when they reached the banks of the now almost dried up Rue river He saw that the people were desperately praying to the heavens for rain that had not fallen in the land for years Now scores of topless men Prostrated themselves on the ground with incense burners on their heads You know praying and hoping against all hope that the scented smoke of the incense would carry their Desperate pleas and prayers to the heavens and you know Many of them, you know died in the process from dehydration where they prayed on the ground and not even feeling a tinge of Mercy or moisture from the gods above that they were so desperately praying to Now seeing how much his people and his subjects were suffering the great King Tang ordered an altar to be set up where he would personally beg the heavens for rain and Tang would personally offer up sacrifices and prayed for heaven's mercy while his court historians are delivered a series of royal self demolitions to seek the gods Clarification on what he had done wrong to you know subject his people to this suffering Now did the king cause sufferings to his people? Were there officials of the court that had turned corrupted and were taking bribes? you know were there villains spreading malicious rumors and untruths across the land and You know were there women interfering in the rule of the realm or were the palaces too Extravagant and were the royal projects too excessive and too wasteful however after days of prayers and sacrifices There were no answers or no rain to be had the heavens were unmoved by the rituals and the worships Now to further prove his sincerity to the heavens above, Shang Tang disregarded his courtiers advice and he disrobed and Prostrated himself on the ground just like his subjects were doing at the place and He prayed sincerely and with all his heart to the heavens However, even that changed nothing the Sun still beat down viciously on his bare body Ignoring all their pleas for respite from the endless drought Now by this time the great King Tang came to the conclusion That the heavens still felt that he was not sincere enough in his prayers and worship and thus he ordered a new Altar to be built in a different location to organize a more formal worship ritual ceremony Now the new location chosen for this ceremony was on a hilltop Covered with a thick mulberry forest and the court shamans a divine that livestock Sacrifices would you know not be enough to appease the heavens this time Human sacrifices will be needed for it to really work Now when the great King Tang heard what the shamans had said he told them you know this the whole Intention of this ceremony of this worship ritual is to beg the heavens mercy for my people for my subject so how can I in good conscience use them as Sacrifices to be offered up Now if a human sacrifice is really needed then offer me up as the sacrifice that the gods need Sacrifice me to the heavens to appease their wrath Having said that he shaved off his hair trimmed his nails Cleansed his body and then ordered his followers to build a big pile out of firewood before handing a torch To one of them with the following strict order He told his follower the torchbearer if there is still no rain Three-quarters past the hour of noon that is proof that I had somehow angered the heavens Light the pile without any hesitation I would gladly offer up my life in exchange for the rain that will save the lives of My people and my subject He then sat upon the pile and he prayed with all his heart to the heavens Oh great heavens above Please show mercy to the people spare them your wrath If I have sinned it is not for the people to pay the price And if the people have sinned it is my responsibility to pay for them Please Oh great heavens do not punish the people and cause them sufferings for my own incompetence now time passed quickly and soon approached the appointed hour and just as the Torchbearer was about to set the pile alight a great wind rose on the hill and the sky turned dark Black clouds rushed in from all corners of the sky as far as the eyes can see Thunder roar and lightning struck a great rain fell upon the land The rivers and the streams filled up the irrigation channels and the drains filled up and water flowed across the land both rain and tears of joy flowed down the people's faces and When the rain passed the people of the land thanked their king with the most solemn and grand Ceremony that they could afford and these events was later known as tongues prayer at the mulberry forest or Tongue Tao Sang Ling now this story spread far and wide and the people exclaimed About tongues benevolence and self-sacrificial spirit, you know, which in in turn Elevated him to the status of the last of the four great sage kings of ancient China You know alongside Yao Shun and Yu now the the the thing is Kang was the only King or ruler Inducted into that Hall of Fame who was not actually from the age of myths Now many of you might feel that you know, what's the big deal this fellow just prayed to the heavens and he Conducted a worship ritual and he just you know made a proclamation that he was willing to sacrifice himself In place of in place of the people I mean anyone could say that it could be just another one of his propaganda ploy Which we know how much Shang Tang and the early Shang court were Fond of and were good at now to put the whole event in context and why it was Deep that was great enough to elevate his status to that of a sage king. We have to understand that Shang dynasty worship rituals were the most important rituals And the most important events in fact in the realm Worshipping the heavens and ancestral worship were actually even more important than you know military matters and war and conflicts now these worship rituals were usually bloody affairs with large quantities of Livestock used as sacrifices to be offered up to the heavens and all the ancestors And I think we have mentioned this in Previous episode that human sacrifices and ritual barriers were also very Very common during the Shang dynasty now talking about ritual barriers Oftentimes we would find you know concubines favorite servants Trusted lieutenants and you know slaves of a noble household being buried alive together with their deceased Lords and masters so as to be able to serve them in their afterlife And it's not uncommon for archaeologists to find these ritually buried servants and right-hand men or advisors in the mausoleums or the tombs of Shang dynasty royalty nobles and even just wealthier common slave owners or landowners now the tradition of Humans being used as a ritual sacrifices in worships and other ceremonies Started way before even the foundation or even the Xia dynasty It was a tribal practice from way back then and it was you know already a well-established I think you could call it a cultural tradition by the time of the Shang and The people that were used in these sacrifices were commonly known as a human livestock Yeah, not very nice And they were used in all kinds of rituals prayer ceremonies Ancestral worships, you know foundation laying ceremony and rituals for large-scale Palace constructions or you know when you're praying for rain When they needed to appease the mountain spirits or the river deities, etc, etc, etc human sacrifices would be used and these Human livestock would be killed and offered up to the gods and the heavens or whatever spirits and deities they were praying to and many of the early bone scripts that were unearthed were actually accounts of these rituals and the detailed accounting of the sacrifices offered in them and on Record based on what archaeologists have found from these bone scripts and the oracle bones the biggest human sacrifice recorded in these oracle bones told of a single ceremony that used more than 300 people 300 People as Human sacrifices to be offered up and based on the accounts in these oracle bones, it's estimated that at least 14,000 human sacrifices were made during the Shang dynasty and with the reign of Wu Ting alone accounting for more than 9,000 of them Now with that in mind and with this background information and context in mind Now we can look at Shang Tang's declaration that he would offer himself up as a sacrifice in place of his subjects We can look at it through this lens and just think of how big of a deal that was and how important that was sound and how Self-sacrificial it was sound to the people of that time and it definitely took on a deeper Significance in the context and that's why in a way we can say that this was an event that finally Elevated him and cemented his position as one of the four sage kings of ancient China Well, I hope you enjoyed this little story and that bit of trivia as much as I enjoyed telling it And if you did don't forget a thumb for the video and a sub for the channel And as usual, I do look forward to your comments and the banter that we have down in the comment section below Let me know which part of Chinese history. Are you most looking forward to? hearing and If you have some knowledge from games or whatever Which part of Chinese history are you most familiar and interested in? Yeah, tell me in the comment section below I would love to hear from you. And yeah, I do personally go through all of them I do personally reply to all of them whenever possible. And so Mm-hmm Leave all your feedbacks, comments, thoughts Anything. Yeah, and that's it for today and I will see you in the next episode