Early China: A Social and Cultural History

by Li Feng

  While the discovery of the ancient bones with writing soon became known in intellectual circles particularly in Beijing and Tianjin, it took about ten years for scholars to understand the historical significance of the bones as remains from the Shang Dynasty. By 1911, the end of the Qing Dynasty, some 2,000 newly collected oracle bones were published by Luo Zhenyu, the ultra-famous scholar collector in China, and they greatly enriched the contents of these rare divinatory inscriptions. In a series of essays published between 1915 and 1920, Wang Guowei, the other pioneer of oracle-bone scholarship, based on examining a number of sacrificial tables recorded on the bones, successfully reconstructed a list of Shang kings extending as far back as the pre-conquest Shang ancestors. When he compared this list with the Shang royal genealogy recorded by Sima Qian in his Grand Scribe’s Records, he found only the ancestor Bao Ding (pre-dynastic P4 after Shang Jia) (Fig. 3.4 above) was switched in his position in the transmitted source (in the Grand Scribe’s Records, he is the first ancestor immediately after Shang Jia). Another mistake is the place of Zu Yi (King 12) who was a son of Zhong Ding (King 9), but was mistaken in the latter source as a son of Jian Jia (King 11). Despite these mistakes, the information given by Sima Qian is proven to have been largely accurate with regard to Shang royal genealogy.

  As for the provenance of the oracle bones, it was eventually tracked down to a place called “Anyang” in northern Henan, which is a middle-size city today. This came as no surprise as there is strong evidence in the Han Dynasty sources that explicitly identifies Anyang with the capital of the eighteenth Shang king, Pan Geng. As late as the Han Dynasty, the area on the south bank of the Huan River near Anyang was still called the “Ruin of Yin” (Fig. 4.1). Further studies of the oracle-bone inscriptions confirm that they were indeed divination records of the Shang kings from Wu Ding (King 21) to the end of the Shang Dynasty. The records of the first three kings after the move including Pan Geng himself have not been identified among the current corpus of oracle-bone inscriptions, and there has been the question of whether these earlier kings were buried in Anyang. But this question has now been answered to everyone’s satisfaction by an important archaeological discovery made in the new century (see below). Tradition says that after King Pan Geng’s historical move, doubtless to present-day Anyang, for 273 years the Shang never relocated their capital again until the fall of the dynasty. But the second half of the statement, however, does not seem to be precisely true.

  Fig. 4.1 Anyang or the “Ruins of Yin.”

  The Late Shang Metropolis: Royal Life and Economic Power

  With a rudimentary background already learned from the oracle bones and the historical records about the site, from 1928 until the breakout of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, fifteen large-scale excavations were planned and executed in Anyang by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. With a series of important reports published prior to and during the war, Anyang soon became an internationally known archaeological site. From 1949, the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, took over the excavation of Anyang, and continued to turn out important discoveries over the next fifty years. With the additional excavation of two large tombs in the royal cemetery and the finding of two large storage pits filled with oracle bones, one being published only recently, and the numerous bronzes and other types of artifacts, we now know a fair amount about this immense site and its material wealth – the center of the Shang civilization. The total area of the Anyang site is estimated at 24 km2 (or 2,400 ha) which is at least 45 times bigger than any second-level settlement and perhaps 200 times bigger than the small villages that existed at the same time on the North China plain.

  The center of this huge city complex is located right below the bend of the Huan River flowing southeast along the edges of the Shang royal palace zone (Fig. 4.2). The name Huan (river) was in use already during the Shang Dynasty, the same graph appearing on both the Shang oracle bones and bronze vessels. The palace zone is protected on its south and west by a deep moat 1,800 m long, though no wall was found along it. Because of its better condition of preservation in comparison to the city core of Zhengzhou, we have a much clearer picture of the internal organization of the palace zone located on gently rising ground overlooking the Huan River. The entire palace complex is composed of as many as fifty-three large-scale building foundations, divided by the archaeologists into three clusters, and the function of each cluster can be determined with some confidence. Cluster B, located at the center and composed of twenty-one foundations, was apparently the focus of the entire zone. It was centered on two large foundations in the early construction period, and an 85-m-long later foundation (B8) was superposed on the early ones. Numerous small burial pits were found under the buildings or surrounding the compound particularly to its west, suggesting perhaps the ritual/religious function of at least some of the buildings in this cluster. It is very likely that these buildings once hosted the activities of the Shang kings and the divinatory officials of the Shang state. Cluster C is located close to the southwest corner of Cluster B and is dominated by the main foundation C1, which is surrounded by smaller strips of buildings and by a large number of sacrificial pits. The excavators considered Cluster C to have been temples constructed later than Cluster B, perhaps some time towards the end of the Shang dynasty. Cluster A, located to the north of Cluster B, is composed of fifteen buildings, mostly oriented north–south with doors open to the east. Very few sacrificial pits were found in this area; therefore, the excavators consider it to have been the living quarters of the Shang king and his family.4

  Fig. 4.2 The Shang royal palaces in Anyang.

  All wooden structures were constructed on tamped earth platforms. It is clear that the process of construction was accompanied by ritual killings and sacrificial activities which continued even after the completion of the building project. Walls were also built by tamping earth up with wood columns as the interior supporting structure and their surface was carefully treated.

  Crossing the Huan River north is the large area referred to as Xibeigang, where the Shang royal cemetery was located (Fig. 4.3). In this open area surrounded today by a wall that demarcates this onsite museum, a total of thirteen large tombs were found and divided in two groups.

  Fig. 4.3 1, Plan of the Shang royal cemetery; 2, royal tomb no. 1001.

  The western group comprises seven tombs with four long ramps and another unfinished huge pit. Separated by some 200 m, the eastern group comprises one tomb with four ramps and four others with one or two ramps. Taking tomb no. 1001 as an example, the tomb pit is about 10 × 10 m with a wooden chamber originally constructed at the bottom of the pit; in each corner of the chamber a human guard with a bronze dagger was buried. Human skeletons were also found at the bottom of the ramps and in the layers of the earth that filled in the huge pit. Certainly human sacrifice was an important character of Shang civilization and an integral part of Shang burial practice. In that regard, the most astonishing demonstration of this point is the sacrificial pits located in the vast areas surrounding the large tombs in the east group. To date, more than 2,500 sacrificial pits have been found of which about 1,500 have been excavated, yielding ten to fifteen skeletons (with heads or without) in each pit. There is no doubt that these are the remains of the sacrificial humans said in the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions to have been offered to the deceased Shang kings buried in the huge tombs. At least 30,000 human victims were offered in this way in the religious sacrificial activities that took place in the royal cemetery.

  The cultural and religious meaning of the burial remains in Xibeigang has been well understood by scholars. But since so little has been excavated from the royal tombs themselves (due to looting which seems to have taken place soon after the fall of Anyang), there is disagreement with regard to the identification of the tombs with particular Shang kings. There are two essential points on which scholars differ from each other. The first point is whether only tombs with four ramps (eight in total
) belonged to the Shang kings, or whether the royal burials also included pits with only two ramps (three in total). The second point is whether all twelve Shang kings were buried in Xibeigang, or whether some of them might have been absent from the royal cemetery.5 Based on new knowledge of the pottery sequence accumulated over thirty years, in 1981 members of the Anyang Archaeological Team rejected the possibility that the first three kings, Pan Geng, Xiao Xin, and Xiao Yi, who also ruled from Anyang, were buried in the royal cemetery in Xibeigang. This leaves only the eight tombs with four ramps which they identified with the eight Shang kings from Wu Ding (King 21, in tomb no. 1001) to Di Yi (King 28, in no. 1003), leaving the unfinished no. 1567 to be the tomb of the last king, Di Xin.6 Recent archaeological discoveries in Anyang suggest that the absence of the first three kings from the cemetery in Xibeigang is very probable, since another Shang center, which is chronologically earlier than the building foundations in the palace zone and the royal tombs already known, indeed was also located in the Anyang region (see below).

  The Huan River, given the relatively warmer climate during late Shang, must have been more abundant in water then today, providing an important lifeline through the Shang metropolis. The oracle-bone inscriptions record Shang kings making repeated offerings to the deity of the Huan River. The river also offered a suitable resort for the Shang king and his attendants to carry out various kinds of ritual activities and entertainments, as vividly shown by the recently discovered bronze turtle, the Zuoce Ban yuan (Box 4.1). Recent archaeological fieldwork has revealed a large pond, located on the western edge of the royal palaces and connecting to the Huan River, and this might have provided a convenient location for the Shang king to board a boat for tours on the Huan River. On the two banks of the river were numerous smaller residential sites such as those excavated in a number of locations crossing the river to the east. On the west bank, the areas close to the palace zone, as recent archaeological discoveries show, might have been taken up by blocks of elite residences, including the palaces of the Shang royal princes. Further south is an area called Miaopu where archaeologists have located the remains of a large-scale bronze-casting foundry. Tombs of middle or small sizes have been found in numerous locations in Anyang, but the largest concentration of such burials seems to have been located in the so-called “Western Zone” of Anyang, the broad area to the west of the palace zone.

  * * *

  Box 4.1 Zuoce Ban’s Turtle: An Example of an Inscribed Shang Bronze

  Bronzes began to be inscribed in the early phase of Anyang. However, only a handful of inscriptions on bronzes from the entire Anyang period (mostly from its later half) offer a narrative context, while the majority is composed of single-graph marks that are considered to be family emblems. This bronze was cast in the shape of a turtle measuring 21.4 cm from the head to the tail, with four arrows standing on its back and side. Along the central line on the plastron thirty-three characters were cast in four columns (Fig. 4.4). The content of the inscription explains well the origin of the bronze turtle, situating it in the historical context and geographical environment of Anyang:

  On the bingshen day (#33), the Shang king floated the Huan River in a boat and captured a turtle. As it happened, the king shot four arrows and none of them had missed the target. Coming up on the bank and returning to the royal palace, the king decided to offer the turtle to Zuoce (Document Maker) Ban who was very likely to have been in the king’s entourage. The king verbally commanded Ban to cast the story onto a bronze to be treasured. Apparently, not only did Ban cast a bronze with an inscription to commemorate the royal award, but actually cast a bronze turtle with four arrows shot on it. The archery ritual performed from a boat continued to serve as a royal game during the Western Zhou period.

  Fig. 4.4 Zuoce Ban’s turtle.

  * * *

  The beginning of the twenty-first century has brought important new discoveries that shed light on the level of complexity of the economic life in Anyang with particular regard to craft production. In 2003–4 a large cluster of bronze-casting facilities was uncovered in an area of 380 × 100 m to the north of Xiaomintun on the western periphery of Anyang, yielding as many as 70,000 pieces of molds and about 100 clay models of bronze vessels and numerous other types of objects. This is the largest bronze-casting site ever found dating to the Shang Dynasty, and it provides important new information about the organization, production process, and technology of bronze manufacture in Anyang, which await further analysis. Shortly afterwards, in 2006, about 34,000 kg of processed bones were excavated from a 10-m-wide trench that was a part of an immense bone workshop estimated to have had a total area of 17,600 m2, located to the north of Miaopu in the southern part of Anyang. Included are bones from predominantly large bovines (and some from pigs) that were there cleaned, cut, and made into various types of implements. A recent analysis has estimated the output of the bone factory to have been 77 bone artifacts per day, with a total of more than 4 million items over the 150 years when the workshop was in operation. The high figure raises the possibility that the workshop produced not only items for use by the local Anyang elites, but perhaps also artifacts traded in markets beyond Anyang.7

  The Tomb of Lady Hao and Advance in Bronze Casting

  In 1975, a spectacular discovery was made in Anyang – the excavation of the tomb of Lady Hao – which nicely alleviated the disappointment of archaeologists at having found so little in the royal tombs in Xibeigang. Although not a royal tomb itself and therefore much smaller in that regard, the occupant of the tomb is believed to have been the politically most active wife of the most powerful Shang king in Anyang, Wu Ding (King 21). Oracle-bone inscriptions from the reign of the king offer plenty of information about this royal lady. King Wu Ding once divined that Lady Hao would give birth to a royal prince; he also divined for her good fortune on a military campaign along with a famous Shang captain. Another inscription records her mission to recruit, perhaps, soldiers in a locality away from Anyang. Other records have Lady Hao herself leading an army of more than 10,000 soldiers on campaign against the Qiang people to the west of Shang. Lady Hao was doubtless the most accomplished royal woman in the entire Anyang period.

  Her tomb (no. 5) was not in Xibeigang, but about 150 m to the west of Cluster C in the western part of the royal palace zone, evidently suggesting her special status and close relationship to the reigning king, certainly Wu Ding, who must have wanted to keep her spirit in close reach. Above the tomb pit was the foundation of her temple, and it was actually this very earth foundation that kept the hands of the tomb robbers away from her tomb. Nearly 2,000 artifacts were unearthed from this tomb, including, most importantly, as many as 468 bronze vessels and weapons (Fig. 4.5) and 755 beautiful jade items, making it the richest tomb ever excavated in Anyang.8 Certainly, one can only imagine how much could have been found in any of the huge royal tombs if they had not been looted. Some of the bronzes on which Lady Hao is referred to as “Mother Xin” were likely cast by her son while others were probably used by herself on various ritual and religious occasions before they were buried with her. They represent the highest level of bronze manufacturing during the late Shang Dynasty.

  Fig. 4.5 Bronze vessels unearthed from the tomb of Lady Hao.

  Bronzes from the Anyang period used to be famously divided by the art historian Max Loehr into five different styles, each representing a stage in the evolution of bronze art from simpler to more complex (Fig. 4.6).9 Styles I and II, the two earliest types, are single-layer broad bands and thin linear patterns that were popular largely in the Erligang to the early Anyang period. However, the discovery of the tomb of Lady Hao suggests that the most elaborate style V, representing the latest stage in Loehr’s evolutionary model, already dominated the decorative pattern on bronzes cast for/by Lay Hao in the early Anyang period. In other words, Max Loehr’s analysis is methodologically simply unsound as the chronological sequence of bronzes in Anyang; instead, it is valuable only as a system of stylistic classif
ication.10 It seems likely that the choice from among styles III–V for use on bronzes depended entirely on the preference of the artists and their patrons, mediated also by considerations of the economic resources they would have liked to commit to achieving a certain aesthetic standard. On the other hand, standards for dating can be better based on analyses of changes in vessel shape and their grouping in funeral contexts as demonstrated already by numerous archaeological studies.

  Fig. 4.6 Styles of bronze décor from Anyang, identified by Max Loehr.

  In general, it can be said that high-quality bronzes from Anyang such as those for Lady Hao are products of an industry that was technically more advanced than that in the previous Erligang period. For instance, Lady Hao’s bronzes exhibit a clear preference for a square vessel body as seen in the various types of food and wine vessels; they are more difficult to manufacture than vessels with a round body. Another important advancement was the casting of bronzes in various types of three-dimensional animals or birds such as the owl zun from the tomb of Lady Hao or the so-called “Man-Eating Tiger” in the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. The production of such beautiful pieces required not only high aesthetic standards, but also skills to execute high-precision work. Apparently, artisans in the royal workshop of Anyang were able to handle large-scale casting, and the masterpiece of such extraordinary dimension is the square ding cauldron cast for “Mother Wu” (Fig. 4.7). This huge cauldron, discovered in 1939 and now back on exhibition in the onsite museum of Anyang, measures 1.33 m high and weighs 875 kg, being the largest bronze vessel ever known to the world. It has been estimated, in view of the relatively small size of furnaces used in the royal workshop in Anyang, that in order to cast a huge bronze like this, more than 1,000 artisans must have had to work at the same time in a well-organized production line, excluding those who might have shaped its clay model and had molds taken from it in a piece-mold production process.