Over the last century, archeologists in China uncovered tens of thousands of ancient “oracle bones,” which are the bones of animals that carry some kind of inscription. The discoveries proved that during the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, humans and animals were often sacrificed in order to change the weather. One inscription on an oracle bone read simply, “Should a man be burnt at the stakes? Will rain follow?” Most of these victims, anthropologists noted, were slaves, prisoners of war, beggars, and cripples. The Chinese believed that by killing off these undesirables, they’d cause it to rain.
In that sense, the ancient Chinese had a lot in common with the Aztecs, who fought wars to secure new victims for their human sacrifices. Those sacrifices included the ritual killing of children on top of a mountain to honor Tlaloc, their god of rainfall.
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