Human sacrifice is a religious practice in which living human individuals are consumed to worship natural and ancestral spirits. Ample evidence of this practice during the Yin-Shang period is furnished by oracle-bone inscriptions, which are extant from ca. 1200 B.C.E. This paper addresses the issue of female human sacrifice in Shang-dynasty oracle-bone inscriptions both from the point of view of religious studies and from a socio-historical perspective. Proceeding from a systematic overview of the various categories of female human sacrifice in the inscriptional record, the paper analyzes the social status and origins of the victims in order to better understand the specific functions and peculiarities of female human sacrifice under the Shang.

人祭是以人作为祭品祭献神灵的一种宗教仪式。甲骨文作为一种特殊的 文字载体，记录了殷商时期人祭这一宗教现象。本文从社会历史学和宗教学的角度， 以殷商甲骨文为研究材料，对其中有关女性人牲辞例进行了整理，归纳女性人牲的 种类，分析女性人牲的身份和来源，研究女性人牲在殷商人祭活动中的作用与特点。

Abstract
 1. Introduction
 2. Types of Female Human Sacrifice
  2.1. The Term nǚ 女 (“Women”)
  2.2. Did the Shāng Sacrifice “Mothers” (mǔ 母)?
  2.3. The Term qī 妻 (“Dependent Women”)
  2.4. The Term qiè 妾 (“Maid-Servants”)
  2.5. Further Terms for Non-Elite Women
  2.6. The Term wū 巫 (“Spirit Mediums”)
  2.7. Other Terms for Women Sacrificed by Burning
 3. Conclusion
 NOTES
 <中文摘要>

• Christian Schwermann(University of Bonn Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies Department of Sinology) | 史克禮
• Wang Ping(Center for the Study and Application of Chinese Characters, East China Normal University) | 王平