The opening work of "History of Li Shuo and China" started reading the history of China from this book! This book mainly tells about the emergence and transformation of Chinese civilization. From the appearance of Xia Dynasty (Erlitou culture) 4000 years ago to the demise of Shang Dynasty and the establishment of Western Zhou Dynasty 3000 years ago, the time span exceeded 1000 years.

Since the Neolithic Age, primitive religion of killing and offering sacrifices has been formed in northern China. Xia Dynasty (Erlitou), the first dynasty, also followed this kind of human sacrifice culture, and reached its peak in the subsequent Shang Dynasty. Zhou people lived in a secluded place in the west, and there was no tradition of human sacrifice, but they once took refuge in the Shang Dynasty and hunted Qiang people for sacrifice.

Because of Shang Zhouwang's suspicion, Zhou Wenwang was detained as a person in Yindu. Finally, Wang Wen's eldest son, Boyikao, was sacrificed, and Zhou Wang learned the divination and divination skills of merchants, and developed a system of divination and divination in the Book of Changes-recording many events that Zhou Wenwang experienced and recognized, with the ultimate goal of calculating the strategy of "stopping business".

After Wu Wang destroyed the merchant, he imitated the merchant's human sacrifice behavior; After the death of King Wu, Duke Zhou assisted in the administration of state affairs, completely banned the religion of human sacrifice, destroyed the literature records of human sacrifice in Shang Dynasty, and created an idealized historical narrative without human sacrifice and a secular political and moral system based on "morality".

These measures of Duke Zhou initiated a new Chinese civilization. Five hundred years later, Confucius edited the Six Confucian Classics and systematically sorted out the theoretical achievements of Duke Zhou. Duke Zhou and Confucius shaped the Confucian school, and its influence continued until modern times.

In short, with the help of archaeological materials and handed down documents, this book combs the whole process of the emergence, prosperity and extinction of ancient human sacrifice customs, as well as the major turning point of human sacrifice and China's early civilization from companionship to separation, reproduces the great efforts made by the ancients (Zhou people) to end the Shang Dynasty and human sacrifice customs, and gives us a new understanding of the origin of Chinese civilization.