This work analyzes the historical evolution of the zhouji 周祭, the series of cyclical sacrifices dedicated to non-royal and royal ancestors, first implemented during the reign of the king Zu Jia 祖甲. This cycle allows for anthropological observations about the structure and historical evolution of the Shang royal lineages. The cycle can be considered as a ritual aiming to establish a consensus between them since all the types of royal succession were acknowledged. It was also a memorial ritual since it began with Shang Jia 上甲, representing the clanic identity of the Shang as a whole. We also analyze a type of cyclical sacrifices (beng 祊) implemented from the reign of Wen Ding 文丁 on, a memorial ritual with a much more limited scope, linked to an attempt to establish a strict line of royal succession between father and son. Contrasting those two cycles allows for a much better understanding of the anthropological and political stakes of the last stage of Shang society, and particularly the tensions between linages’ memories. We will, in the conclusion, attempt to show that those tensions were due in part to one of the characteristics of monarchy as such.
