Dragons of the Shang Dynasty: The Hidden Faces

Julian Jaynes, Art/World, 1980, 4, 9, 5.
Reprinted in Marcel Kuijsten, Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness (Julian Jaynes Society, 2006).

Excerpt: … Also consistent with other bicameral kingdoms is the slow transition of the Shang away from the bicameral mentality, until in its last phase at Anyang, it is reduced to communicating with its dragon god with oracle bones – even as Mesopotamia at approximately the same time was discovering their gods’ decisions in animal entrails and stars. Indeed, I suggest that the reason the Zhou so easily engulfed the Shang is because the dragon-god was failing and easily replaced by the ancestor gods of the Zhou. …