When Lu Jin opened his eyes, he was already bound in a sacrificial pit by the river in the final years of the Shang dynasty.
The drums sounded three times, and the sluice gates opened. Twenty captives and two children were to be drowned alongside him.
The priests said that sacrificing the living to the River God would prevent floods the following year.
But in the ritual vessels, Lu Jin saw the flames left behind by generations of human sacrifices. He burned the names on the sacrificial list and led the others out of the pit. Then, in an abandoned stronghold, he established a code: no sacrificing the living to the gods, no handing escaped slaves back to their masters, and only those who earned it could receive the people’s offerings.
From Chiqiu to the Hundred Lands, from escaped slave to king of men, the Shang king demanded that he bow to the ancestors, the Zhou people demanded that he acknowledge Heaven’s mandate, and the gods demanded that he hand over all the people of the world.
Jin threw the last piece of sacrificial bone into the fire.
"If the gods cannot protect the people, then the people will choose another god."
