Page "Human sacrifice" Paragraph 44

Funeral human sacrifice was widely practiced in the ancient Chinese state of Qin.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian by Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, the practice was started by Duke Wu, the tenth ruler of Qin, who had 66 people buried with him in 678 BC.

The fourteenth ruler Duke Mu had 177 people buried with him in 621 BC, including three senior government officials.

Afterwards the people of Qin wrote the famous poem Yellow Bird to condemn this barbaric practice, later compiled in the Confucian Classic of Poetry.

The tomb of the eighteenth ruler Duke Jing of Qin, who died in 537 BC, has been excavated.

More than 180 coffins containing the remains of 186 victims were found in the tomb.

The practice would continue for nearly three centuries until Duke Xian of Qin abolished it in 384 BC.

Modern historian Ma Feibai considers the significance of Duke Xian's abolition of human sacrifice to Chinese history comparable to that of Abraham Lincoln's abolition of slavery to American history.