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In addition to the nature deities which were implored to give fertility, to send rain, or to prevent floods and storms, the Shang also worshipped deceased rulers and even dead ministers as a kind of intermediaries between man and the highest deity, Shang Ti. This practice may be regarded as the forerunner of "ancestral worship" which became so typical of later China. 3 Transition to feudalism
"Of course, he has a nose to smell joss sticks, and eyes to see an ivory skull, but didn't he say I was talking nonsense when I spoke about Shang Ti scowling from a porcelain vase?" he shrilled. "Yes. For all that, I don't think he missed the least hint of your meaning." Furneaux gazed at Theydon fixedly. "Sorry," he said, with an acid tone that was almost malicious.
With a shrill scream Sheeta was after him a scream which awoke an almost equally uncanny cry in the throat of the terror-stricken Chinaman. But Kai Shang reached his cabin a fraction of a second ahead of the panther, and leaping within slammed the door just too late.
In B.C. 1766 T'ang the Completer, founder of the Shang dynasty, set to work to overthrow Chieh Kuei, the last ruler of the Hsia dynasty. He began by sacrificing to Almighty God, and asked for a blessing on his undertaking.
I know it to be true, for I overheard Matai Shang tell his daughter Phaidor that he had seen him in Kaor, at the court of Kulan Tith, Jeddak. A jeddak does not wed a married woman, nor will Salensus Oll thus violate the bonds of matrimony." Salensus Oll turned upon Thurid with an ugly look. "Is this the surprise you held in store for me?" he cried.
Then he turned and left the garden, taking Dejah Thoris with him his hand upon her shoulder. Thurid and Matai Shang went also, and as they reached the gateway the black turned and laughed again aloud in my face. What could be the meaning of his sudden change toward me? Could he suspect my true identity?
For answer he sprang upon me with his sword, and so suddenly, at that, that I was like to have gone down before his first rush. So there was nothing for it but to give him what he sought, and that as quickly as might be, that I might not be delayed too long in this chamber while Matai Shang and Thurid made way with Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of Ptarth.
Then Matai Shang grasped her about the waist and dragged her away through a door leading within the tower. For an instant Thurid hesitated, and then, as though fearing that the Father of Therns would escape him with the Princess of Helium, he, too, dashed from the balcony in their wake. Phaidor alone retained her presence of mind.
I put them here in the first place, because they are the oldest pieces in the collection. There are only five of them. The sovereigns of the dynasty of Shang who occupied the throne from B.C. 1766 to 1123. They traced their lineage to Hsieh, appears in the Shu as Minister of Instruction to Shun.
We saw in the Shu that the name Shang gave place to Yin after the time of Pan-kang, B.C. 1401 to 1374. 'great Ti sacrifice, when the principal object of honour would be the ancient Khu, the father of Hsieh, with Hsieh as his correlate, and all the kings of the dynasty, with the earlier lords of Shang, and their famous ministers and advisers, would have their places at the service.
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