This thesis is an attempt to identify the major symbolic themes of Shang ritual bronze imagery. I maintain that in order to understand the symbolism of bronze decor, it is necessary to study ways in which these bronze vessels were used in rituals. To do this I analyze archaeological finds to determine what vessels formed ritual sets, paleographic data to determine the ritual purpose of the bronze vessel and art historical data to analyze the significance of certain themes. Utilizing such combined data I address specific questions concerning the function of the bronze vessel in Shang ancestor rites, and with this religious background as a foundation I address the significance of bronze vessel decor.

Based on paleographic data and typological comparisons of bronze vessels I propose that ritual bronzes were used in specific wine, meat and grain sacrifices, and in scheduled rites to royal ancestors of the Shang ruling house. Certain ritual vessels, specifically identified with sacrifices, are the jue-wine vessel with the guo-sacrifice, the ding-vessel with the shang-sacrifice, and the gui-vessel with the zai-sacrifice. I argue that these and related sacrifices play a major role in scheduled ancestor rites known as the Five Rituals or Wuzhongjisi.

On the basis of Shang bone inscriptional terms I identify certain practices, such as, the "mask-wearing sacrifice," which are directly related to the animal imagery dominant in Shang bronze decor. The "mask", as worn in this little known sacrifice, appears to be a vehicle for the way in which spirits of deceased ancestors were perceived and for the representation of such spirits in the animal images on bronze vessels. The imagery on bronzes may thus be a representation of the "transformed spirit" of the deceased in animal guise. I am able to support this hypothesis on the basis of combined art historical and bone inscriptional evidence, including that gained from an analysis of the animal image prototype, the "masked" human image present in Longshan and Erlitou period jades. Ritual imagery symbolized the very power it sought to overcome through sacrifice: the influential ancestor spirit conceived in a transformed, frequently savage guise.