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William

Watson

litor

VNIEL

CHINA

«7-5L>

CHINA Until the last few years, the archaeology of China has been a matter of fragmentary knowledge, speculation, and uncertainty. Since the war, however, much new information has come to light and, above all, the results of research have been organized so as to be available to scholars in a field where previous books have become out of date more rapidly than in any other. A new picture is being built up of early China, which is now presented to the English

reader for the

first

time.

There are two reasons for

this spectacular

excavation in China had lagged far behind the West in the techniques of digging and recording, so that many of the finds valuable and often very beautiful were unlocated and undated in themselves and so of limited value to the archaeological historian. Now, however, controlled excavations are conducted there with standards of precision comparable to those expected in the West. Secondly, the results of this research have, especially since 1949, been more and more fully documented in learned periodicals. The task of assembling the evidence and comparing material relics from all over the vast territory of China is now much easier than hitherto. Sites previously excavated inadequately and objects already forming parts of museum collections are being reinterpreted and are gradually falling into place in the general pattern.

progress.

—

Firstly,

—

Mr. Watson's expert knowledge of Chinese him to keep pace with this advance.

enables

Much

of the information contained here has never before been published in English. To the new material, moreover, he has been able to apply the critical standards current

European and American archaeology, and book which the specialist will find an important addition to knowledge, and which will be a source of pleasure

in

so to produce a

to every reader interested in Chinese history

and

its

background.

See back flap for information on the author

Ancient Peoples and Places

CHINA

General Editor

DR.GLYN DANIEL

Ancient Peoples and Places

CHINA BEFOKE THE

HAN DYNASTY

William Watson

PHOTOGRAPHS LINE DRAWINGS AND 3 MAPS

77 65

FREDERICK

A.

PRAEGER

Publishers

New

York

•

Washington

THIS

IS

VOLUME TWENTY/THREE

IN

THE SERIES

Ancient Peoples and Places

GENERAL EDITOR: DRGLYN DANIEL

BOOKS THAT MATTER Published in

in the

United States of America

1961 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers

111 Fourth Avenue,

New

Second Printing [with All

York, N.Y. 10003

corrections)

1966

rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-14103

©

William Watson 1961

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION I

Palaeolithic sites

Microlithic Cultures in the

II

ii

THE PALAEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC PERIODS The

22 28

Gobi

Desert, Mongolia and Manchuria

31

The Yang Shao Neolithic Culture The Kansu Neolithic Culture The Lung Shan Culture Neolithic Cultures in the Southeast

37 41

THE EARLIER BRONZE AGE: THE SHANG DYNASTY

48

54

Storage Pits

57 58 67

The Chronology of Shang

Sites

The Great Shang Tombs

69

Ritual Bronze Vessels

75

Bronze Casting

79 82

Arms Pottery

Augury The Shang II

7

94 99 State

THE LATER BRONZE AGE: THE CHOU DYNASTY

103

109

Tombs

114 120 122 126

Arms

131

Religion and Feudal Ceremonial Fortified Cities

Architecture

Iron

and the Chariot

I4O

IV

THE ART OF THE BRONZE AGE Motifs of the Sbang Period Innovations of the Early Cbou Period

The Middle Cbou Period Interlacery and local

Northern Styles

Bronzes of the Cb'u State Some Unorthodox Funeral Art

An

Independent Bronze

Art

I48

150 157 160 162 168 178

in

Yunnan Sculpture and fade Carving

180

184

TEXT REFERENCES

187

BIBLIOGRAPHY

192

SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS

204

THE PLATES

20$

NOTES ON THE PLATES

253

INDEX

261

1

ILLUSTRATIONS plates

2

i,

3

4 5

6

Earth impressions, Hsi Pei

8

Royal Shang tomb, Hsi Pei Musical stone,

ii

Chariot burial,

12

Stepped

13

15

Shang Bronze Shang Bronze Shang Bronze

16

Limestone

17

Shang Shang Shang Shang Shang

18 19, 20, 21

22 23

Kang Kang

Wu Kuan Ts'un Wu Kuan Ts'un

Shang tomb,

io

14

Ta

pit burial,

Ssu

Ta

Kung Kung

Ssu

ritual vessel, tsun ritual axe, yueh ritual vessel, tsun

figure

of seated

man

Bronze

ritual vessel, bo

bronze

ritual goblet,

bronze

ritual vessels, yu, chia,

ku

bronze

ritual goblet, chiieh

24

Oracle bones Early

26

Shang bone handle

27

Horse's head as bronze pole

Chou

bronze harness mounts

finial

vessels, ting,

30

Shang bronze ritual Shang carved white

3

Bronze

yu

ritual vessel,

kwng

clay vase

34

Shang bronze

35

Inscription from kuei

36

Bronze harness mount, and pole Bronze statuette of serving/man

37

li

ceremonial halberd, ko

25

28, 29

3 3,

at

7 9

32,

Pan P'o Ts'un, Shensi Flexed burial grave, Pai Tao P'ing, Kansu Storage pits, Pan P'o Ts'un, Shensi Pottery bowl, Pan P'o Ts'un, Shensi Funeral urns, Kansu Yang Shao culture

Excavations

ritual vessels, ting, kuei

finial

PLATES

38

Bronze bridle cheek'piece

39

Bronze axlccap and linclvpin from chariot

40

Bronze

41

Bronze openwork plaque

42

Bronze axe^head

43

Winged

44

Bronze plaque of tiger and deer

45

Bronze plaque of tiger

46

ko, Shou Hsien and inlaid bronze spearhead Bronze sword with Scythian^type hilt Bronze sword of Classical Chinese type Bronze sword and scabbard Iron bivalve axe mould, Hsing Lung Hsien Earth impressions of chariots, Liu Li Ko

47 48

49 50 5i

52

68,

ritual vessel, ting

tiger as

bronze handle

Bronze halberd,

Inscribed

53

Bronze

bell

54

Bronze mirror

55

Bronze

56

Gilt

57

Bronze

58

Bronze inlaid table-leg

59

Silver/gilt inlaid belt'hook

coffin

handle

openwork dagger handle tiger

man

60

Bronze

statuette

61

Bronze

flask, pien

62

Inlaid base,

63

64

Jade cup, Late Chou jade dragon

65

Late

66

Late

67

Late

69

Inlaid gilded'bronze belthooks

70

Inlaid bronze belthook

71

Carved wooden head, Ch'ang Sha Carved wooden monster, Hsin Yang Bronze spearhead, Shih Chai Shan

72 73

of serving hu

Chin Ts'un Chin Ts'un

Chou jade sword guard Chou ritual jade pi Chou jade slide

8

plates

74

Bronze ornament, Shih Chai Shan

75

Painting on

76

Lacquered

77

Painted design,

figures

1

Map

Ch'ang Sha Ch'ang Sha Hsin Yang

silk,

shield,

of modern

China showing

2

Palaeolithic stone tools, p.

3

Mesolithic tools, p. 31

sites,

p.

20

27

4

Neolithic stone axes and knives, p.

5

Pottery Kilns,

6 8

Yang Shao pottery, p. 43 Painted pottery, Kansu Yang Shao culture, p. 43 Pottery head, Kansu Yang Shao culture, p. 47

9

Map

7

10 11

12 13

14 15

16 17 1

19 20 21

22 23

24

Cheng Chou,

showing find' spots oj

34

p. 40

neolithic sickles, p.

Lung Shan pottery, p. 53 Sector C, Hsiao T'un Anyang, p. 65 Plan and section oj storage pit, Hui Hsien, Plan of great tombs, Hsi Pei Kang, p. 70 Great tomb, Wu Kuan Tsun,p. 73

68

Ritual bronze vessels of the Shang period, p. 77 bolts, pp. 82, 83 Emblematic characters, Shang period, pp. 84, 8$

Arrowheads and cross-bow

Bronze Bronze Bronze

Shang period, p. 86 of the Shang period, p. 86

halberds of the sacrificial knife

socketed axes, p. 87

Knife and spearheads, Late Shang, pp. 88, 89 Key to chariot burial, Ta Ssii K'ung, p. 91

Jade animal amulets, Ta Ssii K'ung, p. 93 Development of pottery, bronzes, stone axes and

26

oracle bones, pp. 96, 97 Bone pins of the Shang period, pp. 98, 99 Table of earliest form of Chinese writing,

27

Pottery of the Western

2$

p.

49

p. 101

Chou period, p. 112

28

Map

29

30

Plan of Chao Wang Ch'eng, p. Engraved decoration, Hui Hsien,

31

Plan of tombs, Pan

of Feudal States, p- 115

(

Po

1

23

p. 12$

Tsun,p. 128

FIGURES

32 33 34 35

36 37

38 39

Bronze

trigger

mechanism of cross-bow, p. 134

Li Ko, p. 13J Bronze swords, p. 138 Bronze sword with hand' and' serpent mark, p. 138 Bronze halberds, p. 140 Bronze spearheads, Chung Chou Lu, p. 141 Reconstruction of chariot, Liu

40

Iron edges for axe and spade, p.

41

Pottery of 6th' 4th centuries B.C., p. 146

42

Designs from Late Shang bronze

43

44

Jade amulets of Later Shang period, p. 155 Bronze pole finial of Later Shang period, p. i$6

45

Decorative motifs from bronzes, p. 160

46 4j

48 49

50 51

$2 53 57 $5

56 57

$8 $9

10

Plan of great tomb, Ku Wei Tsun,p. 130 Plan of shaft grave, Ch'ang Sha, p. 133

1

43 vessels, p. 151

Harness cheek'piece of bronze, p. 161 vessel, Hsin Cheng, p. 162 Dragon motifs, Hsin Cheng, pp. 162, 163

Design from bronze

Dragon diaper motif, Hsin Cheng, p. 164 Bronze hu, Chao Ku,p. 166 Bronze tau, Chia Ko Chuang, p. 167 Design from bronze vase, p. 168 Decoration from bronze hu,p. 169 Dragon and tiger designs, p. ijo Bronze vessels and bells, Sbou Hsien, p. 171 Bronze openwork ornament, p. 172 Bronze belt'hooks, pp. 172, 173 Decoration from lacquered box, p. 173 Decoration from lacquered toilet box, p. 174

60

Silver inlaid design, p. 174

61

62

Painted pottery, Shao Kou, p. 175 Design from lid of bronze tou, p. 176

63

Bronze

64 6$

Figures from musical instrument, p. 179 Decorated socketed bronze axe, p. 181

66

Decoration from bronze drum, p. 183

67

Limestone owl, p. 185

68

Ritual jades of the Shang period, p. 186

inlaid belt'hook, p.

177

1

Introduction

Unlike

some nations

described in the books of

the present series, the Chinese people

is

not difficult to

Yellow river from time immemorial. Even the Palaeolithic race, whose bones have been found there, shares some physical peculiarities define historically. It has occupied the valley of the

with the present inhabitants. While the archaeologist may point out culture'traits which connect with other regions, he discovers

no evidence of

movements from without of a size and coherence likely to determine thenceforth the racial and cultural constitution of the land. The manner and the time of the tribal

colonisation of the great Central Plain of north China, sup'

posing such a thing were ever a definable historical event,

is

beyond knowledge and conjecture alike. Within the larger sphere of eastern Asia the Chinese people as we know it today is better defined by language and culture than in anthropological terms. In general a distinction of the physical type may be observed north and south of the Yangtze river,

a boundary

tural division

which corresponded

between the

relatively

in early times to a cul'

advanced

civilisation

of

and the more primitive south. The popular and brown^eyed, is com/ paratively taller and much of it has the Mongol characteristics of yellow skin, slanting eyes and prominent cheek-bones. But other individuals are lighter of skin, with rounder eyes and flatter cheek/bones. In the south the average height is less, the skin is browner and the Mongol characteristics are rarer. We may assume that the periodic infiltration of tribes from the Central Plain

tion north of this line, black'haired

the north into the settled region of the river valley, a constant

theme in the rulers for

early histories

thousands of

which caused anxiety to Chinese had begun long before these

years,

1

China barbarians appeared as a threat to the half of the second millennium B.C.

Shang

The

state

result

in the second

of this contact

is

some groups of the north Chinese them to the Turkish, Tibetan and

reflected in physical traits in

population which

Tungusic

races.

relate

In the south anthropologists speak of a similar

admixture of elements belonging characteristically to the peoples of south-east Asia. In both areas

it is

assumed

that these extran/

eous racial elements fused with an autochthonous Chinese stock,

though the definition of a pure Chinese

strain

seems to

elude anthropologists, and, fortunately for the theme of this

book, has no bearing on cultural noticeable today are

no

is

The

distinctions

greater than those existing in

and

race of multiple origins, local differences. It

history.

clear,

similarities

any great

preponderate over

however, that the expansion of the

Chinese southwards in the past (culturally the process may be observed from Neolithic times) displaced as well as absorbed peoples of somewhat different ethnic character.

Lolo of south-west China surviving

at

The Miao and

the present day as

'national minorities' are unsinicised remainders of a population

which once covered

whole of the southern region. History records that peoples allied to these, no longer distinguishable from the Chinese population, once occupied territory farther east than their present home. Neolithic and Bronze Age civilisation first arose in China in the region extending westwards from the coast approximately between the 35th and 40th parallels of latitude, comprising the lower and middle course of the Yell ow river as far as its abrupt northward turn on the boundary ofShensi province, the

thence extending westwards along the the river basins of central

zone

is

well defined.

The

Kansu. a lluvial

To

Wei

river valley into

and south this plain of Hopei is bounded the north

by quasi/steppe land on the north, while the northern tracts of Shansi, Shensi and Kansu pass into desert. Kansu is mountain^locked to west, and south, and the succession of east-

12

Introduction

west mountain ranges (Pei Ling Shan, Ch'in Ling Shan, Huai Ling Shan) continuing eastwards through Shensi and

Honan marks

the southern limit of this primary cultural area.

In the south-east, where the mountain line ceases, the land drained into the river Huai, and here the lowlying

around the lower Yangtze, rich in lakes and marsh,

is

tracts

are easily

from the Central Plain. The region we have defined coincides approximately with the distribution of the loess, a fine, compact and permeable soil, fertile and easily worked, which is believed to have been carried accessible

by wind from hither Asia during the Pleistocene period

as a

concomitant of the climatic changes which produced the

Age. In Kansu it lies in great depth, often exceeding 200 feet, and in places is eroded into fantastic narrow ravines. The regime of erosion and the sudden heavy rains which cause it, cease as we pass eastwards through Shensi pro' vince, and from the junctions of the Wei with the Yellow river begins the Central Plain proper. Here the loess has been redeposited by soil/sated rivers which ever tend to raise their beds above the level of the plain and spread their fertilising floods. Th is^ is the regio n where uncontrollable flooding has caused periodic disasters" throughout Chine se history aird where the greater possibilities of irrigationhave helped the farmer with the problem of watering the porous loess. On the

glaciations of the Ice

—

loess ter ritory

of both kinds

nortFT^hjna, though we

flouri shed the Neolithic cultures

shall note differences

remains found in the area of primary Plain.

The

loess

of _

between the

and in the Central

natural route of expansion lay in the south/east

towards the mouth of the Yangtze.

The T'ai

western edge of the Central Plain follows the line of the

Hang

divides

range,

off the

province of Shansi. rain

which descends from

the far north

high parallel valleys which

The same

grassed

continues westwards into Shensi.

constitute

and the

and welWatered To judge from the ter/

13

China occurrence of sites, this upland area was Neolithic farmers; although no ley, it

less

frequented by the

and bar/

less suitable for millet

was more favourable than the plain

was the home of the Chou people,

for grazing horses.

It

the ultimate conquerors of

the Shang.

South of the Shensi plateau the line of the Ch'in Ling Shan beyond the Wei river begins the succession of high mountain chains which bar the

way

of Szechwan, whose

rivers

lithic culture

mountain/locked,

to the

area

flatter

The Neo'

drain into the Yangtze.

of Szechwan connects with a tradition extending

along the Yangtze valley, and borders with the Neolithic tradition

of the Central Plain only

at its

To

province and the Huai river basin. impenetrable separate

mountains

of

a region of frequent

north,

and in

low

early times

inimical to agriculture

the west rise the

Anhui all

but

Yunnan and Sikang which

China from Burma and

The s outh angLiOji th/east is

extension into

the Tibetan plateau.

China beyond the Yangtze wooded than the

oi

hills, still better

probably covered with dense

and l ong

r esistant

forest

to the penetration

of

from the north Civilisation spread slowly there from the middle of the first millennium B.C. Only in the last century B.C. were Chinese armies moving freely on the

cultural influences

.

southern seaboard.

The purpose of

this

book is to give a brief account of the China as revealed by archaeological

material culture of ancient study.

It is

well to recognise at the

cession of Stone, Bronze

start that

and Iron Ages and

are less clearly definable in

China than

their subdivisions

in Europe,

where

system of archaeological classification was evolved. often have occasion to point this contrast with the

We

this

shall

West. If

as a

farming economy pra ctised

exclusively with stone tools, then

we may say that large tracts Age long after the discovery

Neolithic ^culture

is sit fined,

of China remained in a Neolithic

H

sue

the familiar

Introduction

of bronze and even survived for some time

become the normal material of the country.

parts

the early

economic

What

is

for tools in the

after

had

iron

most advanced

more mysterious in the light of West, iron itself was slow to

history of the

replace bronze in the manufacture of weapons. Bronzccasting first

appears in a form which would correspond in the West to a

advanced stage of the technique, having many points comparable to the 'Late Bronze Age' of Europe; and iron was relatively

cast some centuries before it was forged, thus confounding our Western preconception of the natural development of this technique. The period here designated the Later Bronze Age

Age

comprises also a stage equivalent to the Early Iron

of

Europe.

Western archaeologists were surprised

of these

learn

to

departures from the cultural sequence established by long study

They were sometimes inclined by supposing that China had been subjected

in the West.

to

account

to the

for

it

same kind

of acculturation from without that so often determined the course of events in Central and Northern Europe. Here in^

from the higher civilisations of Near East and the Mediterranean, at particular times and by determinable routes, created fairly well defined and intelli'

fluences spreading ultimately

the

gible

cultural

successions.

The development of

China did not depend on such

To

Chinese archaeologists

it

culture in

parcels of external influence.

appears unnecessary to

stress

the

evidence against diffusionist views which brought civilisation to

China from Egypt, Mesopotamia

We

should also note

China

that

is

of early

confined to information which the archaeologist

can provide, and disregards the

much

or the Caucasus.

at the outset that a description

literary tradition, necessarily

can contribute to cultural history. For example, we get a jejune picture of the lives of the Nee lithic and Bronze Age farmers unless we take into account

forgoes

peasants'

that the latter

songs

which were anthologised

in

literary

and

15

China

Ching, the 'Book of Odes' present form betwe^ n_jbe-4iirath and

usually moralised dress in the Shih

w ork

This fifth

reached

The

rpnmnVs R.r

must in period,

its

part reflect

material

.

is

basically traditional an
*» ha1 y J^ercLThe shape of theJiQw, which had no imperishable parts, canoe seen in some emblematic symbols cast on bronze vessels. The arc had a double curve and the upper tip is often .curved .

ARMS Fig. ij Fig.

16

qfrnn^ly nntwprds.

Euman less

figure in

Tts Jjpngffr,

than aboji tibur

fe et.

A

been built of a number of with horn.

It is

when

it

appears alongside a

some oFthe symbols, seems

bow

strips

of

this

to

have been not

shape can only have

of wood, possibly combined ,

Compound bow which eastern Asia as long as the bow

the ancestor of the

remained the standard type in

/

was employed. 8 Its double curve affords a p owerful thrust over a short pull, a nd in this respect it was ideajJoF shooting fro mjhe

^o n finH

,

c,

spearheads.

shang period.

Scale approx. 1:$

89

1 3

China

KEY TO FIGURE 22

I II, III

IV

Human

VII Trace of timber of the

skeleton

VIII Trench cut

Skeletons of horses

Trace of timber of the

V Trench

made

shaft

IX

to receive the

Bronze

Gold

3

Cowrie

XI

26

bell

Black ashy

Domed

soil

disk of mother^of'pearl

28 Bone tube

shells

Bowshaped

29 Tang of bronze arrowhead

object of bronze

30-31 Bronze axle/caps

6 Stone blade

32

Bone ornament

7 Bronze arrowheads

3 3

Eight

domed

disks of bronze

8-io Bone tubes

34 Seven

domed

disks of bronze

1

Bone arrowheads

35 Bronze ring with spur

12 Socket of a bronze axe 1

Bronze

36 Bronze arrowhead 37 Bone tube

chisel

domed

14-15 Bronze arrowheads

38 Bronze

16 Bronze knife

39-40 Bronze ornaments from the

17 Stone point 18

Bone tube

19

Domed

disk

disks (about 58)

yoke

41-42 Harness yokes of

mother^of'

pearl

20 Bone tube

43-44 Triangular plaques of bronze 45 Bronze

domed

disks

(17

46 Bronze domed disks (about 58)

22 Fragments of stone point

47-48 Bronze cheek'pieces

Bone ornament

24 Bone tube 25 Bow'shaped object of bronze

in

number)

21 Disk of mother'of'pearl

23

90

of red lacquer paint

27 Bone ornament

foil

4 Bronze plaque 5

box

X Traces

the wheels

2

Trace of lower timbers of the

Trenches made to receive

i

receive the

axle

shaft

VI

to

axle

49-50 Bronze domed

disks

51-52 Bronze ornaments from foreheads

horses'

The

Earlier

Bronze Age:

the

Shang Dynasty

»v«v»V»VV4v*

^it^wt ^

..TJ

30.

i

i

*•

=

li

...£'"7.:;.;:;:;.

£aii

21 I

>3

>^ A/ it*™

2j

!

era 37.

vr

j

/rch sir

*^-w

v\

^^>


wer northwards in

have encountered the opposition of the Shansi tribes and to have stopped on the line of the T'ai

mountain its

barrier

tributaries

and

dwelt

Hang

mountains. Beyond

this

Yellow

and

farther west along the

tribes

who

river

appear in history as the

Chou

and whose eastward advance o verthrew the Shang and occupied their capital in 1027 B.C. Already in the time of Ting there is mention of a Chou chieftain allied to the Shang. At this time the Shang king is preoccupied with confederacy,

Wu

attacks in the north/west of his territory. In oracle^bone periods

IV and V,

the age of the last four kings, in the late twelfth

and

105

China eleventh centuries B.C., the military oracles are chiefly con/

cerned with hostile peoples

who

appear to inhabit the

east or

from an inscription on a bronze vessel found in Shantung that Chao, the last of his line, undertook a major expedition to the east. It may have been this distraction south/east. It appears

which gave

the

Chou

their opportunity. 14

In the light of the oracle sentences, perhaps inevitably from the nature of them, the cracy.

The king might

Shang

state

appears as a kind of thee

himself act as an augur, increasingly so

in the later periods of the oracle" sentences. sides the

named

names of which some ritualists

He

is assistedj

be/

augurs, by other individuals designated by

recorded in the

are applied also to the earliest

Chinese

shamans and

literature.

of priests of this kind may have included the

The

activity

and communication with the world of spirits and ghosts which is still the role of the village medicine/man in some primitive communities of the Far East. In the ancestors are gods

ecstatic trance

official religion

the royal

whose favour must be ensured, but their less than those of the deity called Shang

powers appear to be

Supreme Ruler, who is able to visit the state witri storm and blight of crops and other disasters. Some _of the sacrifices Ti,

i.e.

reflect

animistic beliefs which, like the presence of shamans,

suggest the nature of the popular religion over

system was raised. Heayenly__hdLrigs were, besides

Shang

who

which

the official

received sacrifice

Ti, the Sun, Clouds, Rain,

Wind and

Western Mother and Eastern Mother. Gods of theearth were Earth itself (denoted by a symbol later used in tTte^nelining of altar, originally representing perhaps an earth mound), the Four Directions, the Mountains and Rivers. In outlying territories the Shang kings appear to have exer/

Snow, and

the

power through officers who figure in the oracle titles of Ho, Po and T'ien. At the end of the Shang period at least, they stood to the king and each other in some kind of feudal subordination, and so foreshadowed the

cised their

sentences under the

106

The

Earlier

Bronze Age:

the

Shang Dynasty

more developed feudalism of the Chou. On the border of the Shang country were the 'regions', /tf«£, some of which accepted Shang suzerainty, while others periodically were at war with the central power/The wisdomof calling on the local terri/ torial rulers to join in a royal punitive expedition was also put j

to the oracular test:

'Ting Mao. The King took an oracle and interpreted. Shall we join our force of T'ien to our force of the Po and punish the Po of the Yu region?' 15

There

named

is

evidence of slavery^ with which some

in the sentences seem to be specially concerned.

which

various terms slaves

officials

may

are interpreted

reflect distinctions

as

among them. The hole show how human beings,

of status

causts observed at royal funerals

whether they were slaves or prisoners of war, might be ficed as chattels.

But it is difficult to accept the view

by Chinese authorities of a that systematic slavery

The

denoting clasjes__of

'slave/state',

was the

basis

sacri/

now adopted

with the implication

of the economy.

On

the

other hand the oracle sentences tell us nothing of peasants be/ yond the mention of the grains which they cultivated. There is slight evidence in the sentences that irrigation was practised, though the great co ncern with the prognostication of rain and the prospering ofcrops suggest that it was not very extensive.

The

of characters denoting grain

identification

is

beset

with

doubts. Varieties of millet are believed to have provided the

main crops and

the mention of rice,

which could hardly be

cultivated without carefully controlled irrigation,

As in the in the

known tmued

picture

West, the to us

is

uncertain.

we have formed of Bronze Age communities

life

of the peasants of Shang times

than that of

to cultivate

with stone hoes and digging

reap with stone knives. Before the spread of iron, available to them.

The

is little

more

They con/ and to metal was not

their neolithic forebears.

sticks,

kings of Shang, with their extrav

agant hunting expeditions, their bloody funeral

pomp,

their

107

:

China

and eventual

charioteers, their priest/like role

more

the

and

vessels

nstruments of

survived the

Chou

in

Age

deification, are

world, both east

west.

The bronze i

Bronze

familiar figures of the

consigned to Shang graves were primarily but they

sacrifice ,

fall

times.

of Shang and attained

The Shang

inscription appropriating cestor, the series

fulfilled also

vessels

them

a social role,

political

importance

sometimes have a brief

for sacrifice to a particular an^

individual being denoted by one of the calendar

often symbols.

The

briefest ins criptions

name

the

by a single character, stating that he 'made a pre cious

Ancestor

vessel for (sacrifice to)

mula

is

(e.g.)

maker

sacrificial

Ting'. Often this for^

preceded or followed by an emblem, distinct from the

ideographs of the ordinary

script.

Sometimes only the emblem

appears, or the maker's name, or 'vessel' with the ancestor's ritual

calendar symbol.

that the

Although

emblematic characters

the theory

are totemic

is

marks,

now it

rejected

seems clear

that they are a personal designation of some kind, probably the

signature of a clan or great family.

On a few vessels assigned to

Shang a fuller formula appears, e.g. The King was in the East Hall. The King

the latest decades of l

Keng

shen.

augustly came.

The

stowed

of cowrie

5 strings

sacrificial vessel for

Minister

Hu

shells.

followed him.

They were used

Ancestor Ting,

to

He

be'

make

a

In the 6th month, in the

King's 25th year

The

inscription describes a royal

currency (or at

least a

award of cowries, a form of

valuation of goods), and the recipient,

using the gift to honour an ancestor, has recorded it and announced it piously to his ancestors. The dedicatory texts, far more frequent, in which there is no question of a royal gift, suggest that some form of clan organisation persisted in the upper class of the Shang population and was the basis of an ancestor worship like that practised by the kings.

108

Chapter

The Later Bronze Age: c onquest of the Shan^ The of house of Chou and

Chou Dynasty

the

by_the rulers

territory

the political arrangements

the

which ensued have been regarded by Confucian

III

histori ans as a

THE FEUDAL EMPIRE OF THE CHOU

revolutionary upheaval, the most important event in the early history

of Chin a. According toliistorical tradition the motive

Chou

for the

attack

was

to chastise the

Shang king

debauchery and neglect of the public weal. Moral

of this kind

propagated in the older parts of the Shu Ching,

is

which were composed in the earliest

Chou

kings.

of

early decades

found also in inscriptions cast of the

for his

justification

on bronze

Chou

rule. It is

vessels in the reigns

The Chou were

later believed to

be

which they instituted and public and private loyalt ies

the o riginators of the feudal ord er

of the

therefore the fountain-head

upon which Confucius founded

his ethical system..

Yet be/

cause a reigning dynasty must be recognised as culturally superior to the peoples of the outer territories of the empire, the

Chou

once

are presented at

as political saviours and, until the

eve of their conquest, as cultural barbarians. There are indica-

was not

tions that this

so,

but the archaeological evidence for

the cultural status of the western region

period

most

Age

is still

very slight.

It is

interesting discoveries

culture in

From

China

the histories

perhaps in

will be

made

and from

first

The

this direction that the

concerning the origins of Bronze

something can be gleaned of the dynastic successors.

during the Shang

in the future.

Shang

the

oracle sentences

earlier history

centre of the

of the Shangs'

Chou kingdom

lay at

on the upper courses of the Ching and upland country suitable for both agriculture The Chou potentate mentioned in oracle sen-

in western Shensi,

Wei

rivers , in

and drovin g.

tences of the time of the

Shang king

Wu

Ting

is

called 'hou^

109

China ('marquis')

and seems

to belong to a

group of local

rulers so

who normally accepted the suzerainty of Shang. In the case of Chou it must have been an uneasy submission from the start. One sentence queries the auspices of a punitive expedi' designated

by the Shang king against the Chou, in which the forces of the royal clan were to be joined to those of a hou called Ch'uan. The latter, in the light of later tradition, may denote the ruler of nomadic peoples in the north-west, probably tion

occupying the northern

The Chou were quarter themselves.

wards and rivers.

tracts

of Shansi and Shensi. 1

apparently expe riencing pressu re from this

They were

at first

later to the south, farther

obliged to

move

westy

downstream on the Shensi

Here, in the vicinity of the modern Si/an Fu, were built

Feng and Hao From fliese the camp aign against the Shang kingdom was eventually l aunched The Cfiou state was powerful en nngh even by the midd le" of the Shang period t o arouse the fears of theHangs of the^^finttaTTiain an d provoke an attack by them. An enemy who could threaten the Shang state must have possessed kmpyp wpapnm, and a considerable military organisation. Even after the conqueit of 1027 B.C. the Chou kings r emained in their capita l in sout h Shensi The fortress city of Ch'eng Chou (not to be confused with Cheng Chou!) which they built in Honan nea r Loyang, from which to dominate the Central Plain, remained a secondary the cities^o f

.

.

.

capit al until 771 B.C.

Then

th e loss of the western territories to

invading Junp; nomads a reversal aided by a palace intrigu e, co nfined the kinp;s to the Honan capital and made of it the ,

centre of the s ion

Chou

tt ate.

between a Western

This event

is

taken to mark the divi^

Chou and an

Eastern

Ch ou

period

Cl027-77I. 771-222 B.C. ).

The

forces led

by the

Wn

Wang against Shang some of wEom appear to have

Chou king

consisted of a federation of tribes,

been of Turkish or Tibetan origin. T3ut the bulk of people over

no

whom

the

Chou

kings ruled in their western homeland

The Later Bronze Age: cannot have been nomadic In the Shang .

denoted by an ideograph (which representing a

s quare field

that the choice of the

is

texts the

the character

divided into four.

symbol was an allusion

It is

Chou still

Chou Dynasty

the

are

used)

quite likely

to their practice

of agriculture, a recognition that the Cho u, l ike the Shang themselves and unlike the majority of the Shang's enemies, based their power on a farming peasantry In contrast to

this,

whom

Wu

.

the term ch'uan^JAo^, used to denote the people

Ting was prepared to use in an attack on Chou, may allude to their n omadic Ji fe, in which the dog was specially important for droving.

Upon

S hang king his so n was enfeoffed b y Shang territory in Hona n. Shortly afterwards Wu Wang's son and su ccessor Ch en g Wang, assisted by Wu Wang's brother, the Duke of Chou, who acted as regent, was obliged to crush a Shang revo lt. The S hang vassal was executed_ and a Chou ruler, another royal brother was set over his territory as marqui s of the feudal state of Wei Other members and relative s of th e Chou royal the defeat of the

Wu Wan g

in part of the central

,

.

clanjfrf*^ gpf nvfr tV^ states of

Yen (Hopei) Lu (shantung), ,

a nd Ch*! (Shantu ng). These four were the

first

great feudatories .

nder them were^eventually ranged hundreds of small fiefs.

The

first

concern of ih e

Chou

city

leade rs, as ot the leaders

ofthe nomads' armies in Asia inlater times, was to reward the

commanders who had served un der them. The whole of northern Ch ina was garrisoned by troops loyal to the Chou king, whose own territory under direct rule was confined to the r egion around the ea stern capital at^ Loyang The £hou partitioning^ of theempire into fiefs and the in' stitution of five classes of hereditary nobilit y continued a method of decentralising power which we see fore shadowed in Shang^ times, it was now more minutely and systematically regulated Obeisance an d tribute^ pa ssed up the ranks ofthe feudal hie r^ .

.

archy to the king

at the top.

The

nobles were required" to

in

China

Fig. 2 j Pottery of the Western

B.C.

Chou period,

late

nth^early 8th centuries

Scale approx. 1:10

journey periodically to the capita l. But in practical

affairs the

was more taken up with the sub/ and administration of the lands granted them in fief. Although the fe udal state s were under an obligation to supply garrison troops to the Chou kin g, no large army was permitted to be formed under his control. Military assistance _was lfp f ^ fk» Wnp; by th ^ states acting independen tly. IrTtnis lay the germ of the inter/state rivalries, the le aguing "togeth er, the creation of new states and the swallowing up of older ones attention of the feudatories

jection

112

The Later Bronze Age:

which determined hundrecTvears

home was

.

at a

Chou Dynasty

the

the course of Chinese history for eight

from

the start the king in his north/western

disadvanta ge, for he was neares t at hand to stem

the inroads of nomad s, badly placed to enforce his policies

Fig 28

on

the feudatories, and, having a greater proportion ot semi'

nomadic people in his territory, perhaps less able to build his power upon a settled peasantry than were the feudal rulers of the eastern parts of the Central Plain. Even the semblance o f a c entral p ower passes with the defeat of King Yu in 771 B.C. and the move oi his successor P'ing to the capital at JLoyang The t erritory he relinquished reconquered from the pretender and his barbarian supporters, b ecame the fief of Ch'in whose expansion westwards centuries late r was to close the chapter of feudal history and imit£lhe empire under a single comman d. In the centuries after 771 B.C some score of feudal states con' .

,

,

.

tended togeth er, using the apparatus of feudal allegiance to

Chou

means

as a

while could

hegemony

ally

own

The Chou king

fo7"a

himself with the strongest contender

The

to their

ends.

.

which had Shantung peninsula and by its position astride water routes had become an important centre of trade. It also benefited from a state' organised monopoly of salt, produced from the sea^— an advant' age which Chou itself is said to have enjoyed in the Fen River valley of its homeland. From Ch'i the hegemony passed to other northern state s, a ll of which w ere gradually compelled t o sink their differences as a~threat gr ew trom Hsiao/Tun period There is no doubt that at least during the t

ieh

Plate

20

.

latter

toire

part of the occupation of the northern capital the reper/

of ornament and the

skill available to

render it in metal had

An innovation at Hsiao T'u n was to c ombine

greatly increased.

masks and dragons with sm all gpnmpTrir fl^u^s. S piral s and hooks in engraved line cover the raised portions of the main elements an d the whole is set on a groun d of small, tight spirals of circular and SdUaf'dd 'Shape, the thunder pattern so named from its resemblance to a character ot the script. The

the

l

,

effect gives

a res tless confined

movement

to the design, like the

an elementary sea/creature. borne simpler schemes found at Hsiao T'un come close to the Cheng Chou style, the fr iezes prornament being rendered squirming

ot the cilia ot

which has the appearance of being engraved on a flat surface. But on nobl e r vessels this o rnament is renned, rep eated arid elaborated to cover the whole available surface, set in horizontal band s and divided vertic^ ally h y prominent Hang es, the deeper ot which have rows of

e ither in thin raiseoTine or in a line

T/shaped c uts just tailing to penetra te their thicknes s. The" 't hunder pattern is an addition to this evolved decor, and is ne ver found with the simpler designs At the same time, as the 1

.

horror vacui seizes the

rh omboi and

s cale

draughtsmen, ihey introduce zigzags.

pat terns.

The

final

stage in the log ical

de velopment oTthe ornament seems to be reached

of the designs are raised in hi gh t

wo

sometimes in

~

parts

relief at

when horns and ears project into space, and may be made in the shapes of animals.

levels,

vessels

relief,

when

w hole " '

153

— China

This rich st yle must have matured in the la ter part of the Hsiao Tun period perhaps not before the end of the twelfth ,

century B.C

.

It is vessels

The

sionally.

carved ornament of the fine white pottery cor'

responds to this

Plate 30

material

so decorated that bear inscriptions occk'

style

with only such differences

would account

as the different

for. Stylised birds , s nake s

and cicadas

are included in the bronze decoration L wlnle entire vessels take

the shapes of rams, elephants

and owls. But the field in which was still strictly limited. If

the draughtsmen could experiment

we

discern magical intent in the swathing of sacred vessels in

monster

masks and

£

^-

dragons

—and

we may imagine

inescapable

that

conclusion

seems

the craftsman conforming to

superstitious custom.

Beginning with the ornament of ritual narrow but powerful convention dominated no

vessels, this

in the embellishment of

less

The

weapons and

utilitarian objects.

formal and dramatic potentialities of the few conventions

were exploited more intensively than was ever done in similar circumstances elsewhere in the ancient world, whether in

Maya and Aztec Shang approaches most

Egypt, Greece of the Geometric Age, or the cultures of Central

America which

the

closely in spirit.[The great bronze vessels

the

Shang dynasty seem

symbol of the magical

of the

to culminate the quest for

rite

of

memberment which was lesser extent the k'uei

naturalistic

Plate 15

ting

into

f

dragon.

The

arresting

intact as

t

ao

t'ieb,

and

to a

and comparatively found on a famous

Hsiao T'un, rams' heads such as those on the in the British Museum, the elephants and owls formed

vessels,

at

were probably

all

animals which were slaughtered The manner in which the art into three categories,

acceptable

as

representing

in the royal sacrifices.

motifs are combined shows d ivision of the motifs o f Shang Karlgren places together the bovine

interesting divergencies. In his

154

an

art resisted the dis'

apt to overtake the

bovine masks, the deer mask

excavated

great tsun

decades of

sacrifice."!

Certain designs used in Shang bronze

Plate 14

last

The Art of the Bronze Age

Fig. 43 Jade amulets. Later

Shang

period. 14th' 11th centuries

B.C.

British

Museum.

Scale 2:3

mask, intac t

t'ao t'ieb, t'ao t'ieh

with a coher ent 'body', cicada

and vertical k'uei. Tnp^ mntifi nr r^combined into all-over ornament which is free of the tendency to linear ela boration and d issolution. Trie 'dissolved fao t'ieb, a form ol bird 111 Wllll'h the tail has become separated from the body, and repetitive minor geometrical figures associated with these, are never com/ bined with motifs taken from the first group. third list, com/

F&47

A

prising the less abstracted

t'ao t'ieh,

the varieties of horizontal

and another series of geometric figures, makes use of motifs which appear combined indifferently with

k'uei,

the intact bird

155

China

Fig.

44 Bronze pole

Later

Jinial.

Shang period. 12th' nth century B.C. British

Museum. Scale 1:2

elements belonging to either of the two other groups.

Karlgren argues that the forms and greater

first

group, with

its

plasticity, represents a style

From

this

more coherent of

earlier date

than that which made use of motifs belonging to the second group, though the two

may have overlapped

for a time.

This

conclusion has not been generally accepted; the evidence from

Cheng Chou,

as

we have

seen, tends to disprove

an

andjhe

'dissolv ed' styles ot

attac hed

t

o

No less

al ternative

differe nt

It is

it.

pos'

explanation, that the more naturalistic

sible, as

ornamenTwere

the

work

ot artists

bronze ioundries.

than the creators oFthe later animal

art

of the steppe

nomads of central Asia, the Shang artist could observe animals and portray them with unaffected naturalism,

sympathetically

w henever laid aside,

t

he c onventions of the ornamental

buch

subjects as the side

style"

miflht be"

view of deer with reverted

156 f*

The Art of the Bronze Age heads on a wine bucket (yu), 1 profiles of Przewalski's steppe

on bronze 2 and of deer, hare and birds among the small jade amulet plaques, are sensitively drawn without decorative bias. The realism and expression of the head, and the stance of a zoomorphic vessel can create a vivid illusion of life even when the form as a whole is fantastic. These horse in the

are hints

emblems

cast

of a naturalistic

art practised

alongside the hieratic

convention proper to the sacral bronzes and funeral

Have £6me

down

to us.

The

Chinese, too specialised in

its

hieratic style

is

gifts

Plate 27 Fig. 44

which

fundamentall y

forms and application to have

had any influence beyond the Yellow river valley to the north and west. But the naturalistic animal art belongs to a wider tradi tion. Some of its most striking products at Hsiao T'un were the horse and ibex heads decorating the handles of the bronze knives found in the graves of the later period. These, with the Bronze Age of southern form of the knife and the style of the animal ornament. We cannot be certain in which direction the artistic influence passed between Siberia and China. Future research may solve the problem by revealing something of the as

we have

seen, are links

Fig. 21a

Siberia, both in the

bronze culture of north Shensi and Kansu, territory,

The

i.e.

the intermediate

during Shang times.

artistic traditions

no

less

than the political

of the innovations OF THE conquest of state

to be overthrown by the Chou 1027 B.C. Students of the bronze vessels and their inscriptions have paid more attention to the problem of distip g"t>hi n p; ^ re Shang from early Chou than to any other. Since the number of

Shang were due

Bronzes assured of a Shang date by excavation

is

small

com/

pared with those which survive without documentation, the

argument has turned inevitably on intrinsic features and on the evidence of inscription. By this means Karl/

generally

gren demonstrated that

Shang seems

style

many

or namental motifs of the late

survived into tHe tenth century B.C. Indeed, he

finally

to have

despaired of establishing any simple

157

China criteria earliest It

distinguishing

for

Shang

vessels

from those of the

decades of Chou.

has often been assumed that the changes seen in the bronze

vessels after

1027 B.C.

new

inferior taste

and

masters corrupting the art be/

queathed to them by Shang. But

Chou

of the

are the result

technical resources of the

it is

more probable

that the

people were already familiar with monster masks and

dragons in their homeland in Shensi, that they shared mytho/

and artistic traditions broadly with the Shang, even if their art had a distinct local character. Unfortunately excava / tions have thrown no light on the nature of Chou art before their move eastwards to conquer Shang in 1027 B.C The earliest inscribed and datable bronze vessel from the western region is a ho wine pourer from Bin T11 TVun in Shens i which belongs to the reign of King u, in the later tenth century B.C. But there are many signs that the Chou brought logical

.

M

something of their

own

into the culture of the Central Plain.

In the decoration of the bronze vessels the changes that occur so on after

me rely

1027 B.C. are too sudden and too positive to be T he expansion of the bronze

the result of defeneration.

inscriptions in the

and elegant

Chou reigns, their sophisticated language suggest that the Chou scribes were not

first

script,

merely pupils of their Shang predecessors, any more than the

ornament of the Chou bronzes were entirely dependent on what they copied from Shang art. In one case at least, a bronze kuei bowl set on a square pedestal in a manner unknown at Hsiao T'un the phrasing of the inscription makes

designers of the

,

one strongly suspect that

it

was

cast before

Wu Wang's defeat

of the Shang. 3 It is

certain that after

morrow of the and

158

fall

1000 B.C.

of the capital

at the latest, if not at

on

the very

Hsiao T'un, th e graphic

out ot

bronze deco rs most charac teristic of Shanft art fel l fashio n. 1 he most typical and eccentric S hang shapes,

the ku t

cbtieb, cBia

relief

and the zoomorphic

vases, ceased to be made'.

1

The Art of the Bronze Age

The

dissolved

t[ao t'ieh

among

s olid designs are favoured

r

scrollery

and the

beco

me

More

rarer.

outlines are often frilled

wi th

ows of hookylike quills not seen before. At times the relief is__ and is concerned more with producing a startling

grotesque,

p rofil e than with enlivening

the interest of surface ornament.

Deep jagged

some of the

flange s overload

the only innovations, one

shapes. If these were

Chou

might speak of

art as

barous exaggeration of features present in germ in

But

s imultaneously,

or very shortly afterwards,

a bar/

Shang

t here

art.

appea r

Plate 34

more refine d shapes and ornament which do not derive fr om Hsiao Tun. The kuei of the Marquis of Hsing p reserved in the British Museum illustrates one of these. The motifs of the decor are d epicted in a thin raised and rounded line on a plain ground The r estraint of the ornament and the dignity of other

.

th e vessel contrast utterly with the plastic extravaganzas of other

p ieces which must be nearly contemporary.

From the l ate eleventh century B.c.:t ne tense u pward move/ mentof the profile characteristic of the Hs ifln T'n n vessel^ ewes way to heavier more inert shapes with curves spreading i n the lower part The handled kuei and the vu wine bucke t, in

Plate

3

.

which

this c hange in the feeling for

are comparatively

r are

among

form can

best be followed,

known

with certainty to

vessels

h ave been excavated in or aroun d Hsiao T'un. hand, both figure in a number ot tomb

sets

On

the other

of sacral

vessels

thought to be of late S hang date found farther to the south/west "

in the same province, near as the eastern ca pital

here

is

of the

Lovang first

,

the place due to be chosen

Chou

rulers . 4

Their appearance

perhaps a cultural sign of the encroachment of the

which culminated in the defeat of the Shang king. The role which the Chou rulers assigned to

Chou

the ritual

bronzes pronzes in rneir their poli political tical ceremonial ensured tn the of e dispersal 01 t

hese throughout the

t heir

Shan

control,

in

J

te rritory

which

th ey

had brought under

he inscribed kuet recently tnnnrl

Kiangsu

testifies at

once both to

at

Vpn Tun

this dispersal

and

Plate 33

to

159

China the independence of the

Chou

tradition of bronze craft, for

its

shows that the vessel was cast in or just after the reign of King Ch'eng at the end of the eleventh or the very

inscription

beginning of the tenth centuries B.C. Kuei of the shape seen

at

Yen Tun Shan, with high

foot,

natural than the

continued to be made well into the

and four heavy handles surmounted by animal heads (the form of these is sometimes reminiscent of a deer head, but they are no more t'ao t'ieh),

tenth century. Often the

Fig. 45

hooked

bowl was

set

flanges

on a high base or on four be based on the t'ao t'ieh

low feet. The decoration might still though occasionally a pair of heads with gaping jaws face each other in side view. But before iooo r.c. a form of con/ ventionalised bird with long' tail a nd p]nme ipvaH ed the decoration,

and in

its

was

larger versions

the basis of

some of7

tKeJinest designs of the tenth century .

In the middle and

THE MIDDLE

later part of the

Western

Chou

period

CHOU STYLE

950-771) the c ommonest vessels are a new type of tinjr with hemispherical bowl set on bul ging curved legs, kue i with

Plate 32

l

( c.

id

and

large monster^head

o fa food container termed

hand les, and

a re ctangular version

The de coration

fu.

is

coa rser, being

and tw isteci/and/ popular. For the first time

oiten designed in a broad Hat band. Rolled Fig. 4$

rolled dragons of a

crh prnp r eminiscent

^t

new kind ra

are

tge/scale repetitive fig ures,

in detail of the dragon pattern.

One

g eometric, o r motif

freq uent

two recumbent Gs set either side ofa sm all boss whic h eye. The motifs are developed as seermtnJ2e_theve^ geomejucaljfjgures in a spirit quite distinct from the more

"rfqprnh jes

Fig. 4$ Decorative motifs ljatt

160

ntb'i8tb

centuries

from

B.C.

bronzes,

The Art of the Bronze Age qgganic formulas o f the older

style s.

In the light of the

later

Chinese bronze art the rise of the Middle Chou style even more signific ant f n the re placement of the Shang

history ot

^

is

tradition

by the

of the

style

Where and when

early

the middle

but the choice must

certain,

T he

Chou period Chou style was .

lie

evolved

between central

is

un/

Honan an d

example of the decumbent Gs motif is the decoration of the neck and lid of the ho from P'u Tu Ts'un in southern Shens i, which belong to the late any bronze vessels with ornament of sinu^ tenth century B.C. .ous dragons in the broadband manner come from excavations at Hsin Chen^ in Honan from tombs which range in date from about 900 B.C. to the late seventh or early sixth centuries. These were not systematically recorded, but the excavations at the cemetery of the Kuo state in Honan (p. 135 above) produced southern Shensi.

earliest datecT

?

M

,

gravcgroups

several intact

ot

bronze vessels similar in shapes

Fig.

Harness

46

cheek'piece

bronze.

of

8tb^yth

B.C.

century

Museum-

British

Scale 1:2

and ornament the age of the

B.C.

we

are

to the earlier part

of the Hsin

Cheng

find.

Since

Kuo

tombs is deemed not to descend below 655 on ftood ground in attributing the broadban d

stvlfLof dragons to the

Figs.

4J-49

two centuries between 900 and 700 B.c? Hsin Cheng and Kuo graves cover the

The b ronzes of the when the Chou

rulers were experiencing great pressure from the barbarians inhab iting the north-western region en^

p eriod

closed in the great loop o f the Yellow riven Attacks by the

Tung c ompelled the king to move his seat to Loyang in 771 Between 660 and 6^0 the Ti held the terri-

B.C. (See p7 113.)

Wei

tory of

Loyang of

in north

in 64 8

Cheng

Honan.

W

ith the

and then proceeded

lying south ot the Y ellow river.

had marr ied a Ti

Jung

King Hsiang who royal domain ,

was driven from his in 63 $ s poradic inroads of nomads c ontinued century.

One

princess,

into the sixth

archaeological trace ot this infiltration

the spread of c rouched burials along the (see p.

they attack ed

to operate against the state

128 above).

The

Yellow

is

probably

river valley

degree of contact between the settled

161

Chinese. and nomadic peoples in the north-west

we may

sup/

pose to have t?een much closer than is implied in the h istories' rfmtrsgf hpfwppn P.kinpcp aprl 'barbarians', Ethnically the two groups were akin a^d the pponnmi c aspects of separated Fiji.

4J Interlaced

dragons

from

Hsin

Cheng,

Honan. 8th 'early jth

century

it is

which

for either.

not surprising, even as early

a

bronze vessel found at

them were not immutable

In the light of these events

life

B.C.

as the ejghth or seventh centuries art ajrt

which two o r three of theHoomajJof

B.C ., to find trends in Chinese

centurieTTat er can be identified in the

on

thf_ Asiatic steppes ,

hrnn7es anddecorated knives

.

The nomads ha d

for pure geometric pattern, spirals,

th eir harness

ong taste beading, rope-tw istxa"d a

str

p laits, which they combined with their fantastic animal themes Some of these minor geometric motifs appear on the Hsin .

Fig- 47

""

INTER'

LACERY AND LOCAL NORTHERN STYLES

A

'

great feature of steppe_art as

laceryl Pattern

with which

horses they were so

much

patterns

weaving the

we know

it

lines

seem

almost

of their

as

horsemen and breeders of Th e S hang and earl y

concerned.

figures,

deliberately

to

avoid

inter-

however complicated. But

Star-

162

later is inter-

of t his kind was probably inspired by the plaiting

of ropes a nd thongs

Chou

——

"""

Cheng v essels.

at

&M>

.

The Art of the Bronze Age

Hsin Chen g

interlacery appears, at

.

ribbonvlike dragons

whose

ot the ninth century.

The

is

ancestry

is

first

timidly, applied to

date of these dragons at

perhaps a hundred years

later.

on vessels Hsin Cheng

to be sought

The b and of

interlacery

Fig. 48a, b

is

o ften decorated in engraved line with a repeated figur e: a brie fspiral curling

on

^g\ rl

to the

bj^eofan_elongated_triangle—-the

The dragon has be/ rnm^ ynprply^ajonp line, usua lly doubled, terminatin g in a head which gets increasingly"" bird/like. I nterla ced pattern Volute anH

tr

of the

art historians.

Fig. 49

appears also in tight, squared unit s. In the transformation of

fhed r^on bend s we maj Lsee an InrTuence from, or perhaps the o rigin of, the griffin head which figures so prominently in s teppe art.

Last to appear are units of pattern consisting of tight/

packed curved and hooked elements with a scatter of eyes, un/ except as a degeneration of interlaced pattern from whtr4j fhp rrnccing ar e omitted This o ccurs on a series of tal l v ases which resemble so closely pieces we shall presently des/ cribe from a tomb 600 miles away to the south-west, at Shou Hsien in Anhui province, that one might think them products

i ntelligible

.

fi

of the same workshop.

Fig.

48 a,

b,

Dragon

motifs used in the decoration of bronze vessels

found

at

Hsin Cheng

Honan. jth Century B.C. (from rubbings)

163

China

•^^SP^^^^S^^^^ Fig. 49

Diaper of

century

B.C.

The

interlaced dragons on a bronze vessel.

s maller

on the latest' Hsin (^heng clearly^ casting moulds with a stampr^Taj

repe titive units of design found

looking groups

oi

we re impressed o n as we can tell tfiis

blliuzL to the

llll'ihuil

a nd early Crh nlL periods

ornament has a

vlsslK from

WdW iim

when

lesotled to in the Sha_n g

in the best

vi tality inse parable

model necessary for each piece.

164

Hsin Cheng, Honan. jth'6th

1

wor ks

the bronze.

irom the individual

wax

he use of the stamp and the

— The Art of the Bronze Age covering of surfaces with the small identical motifs which

which was to per ^ On the Hsin Cheng sist until the end of the Chou period and vessels decorated on their main surfaces by this means it animals modelled monotony of compensate for the as if to fully in the round were added as handles, bases or finials. Tall vases stand on a pair of tigers, and tigers with reverted heads cling to the sides. Tortuous dragon/handles reflect the same

it

encouraged

set

a fashion in decorative art .

—

On

baroque tendency.

these animals curled snouts,

Fig. 48a

hear ts

formed of double rounded claws and th e and brief spiral set over the main limb joints

shapeol ears, feet

^pecu liar^circle

Plate 41

Plates 44,45

jujjTonventions which recur in steppe

art, whether of southern China. 5 They are common in Chinese art of the middle Chou period, from the late seventh to the fifth centuries, and their special connexion with

Siberia or of the

Ordos region

bronze harness trappings

of

Plate

42

Plate 43

another pointer to the north-west,

is

and of

the region of horse^raising

fraternisation

of Chinese

and nomad. Before tracing the history of the late

Yellow

takes us south of the

bulent

Ch'u

state,

we may

of Li

style,

which

of the tur^

glance at two local variants of the

animal'interlacery style in the north. after the village

Hsin Cheng

river into the territory

Yu n i

One

of these

is

named

Plate

40

the north-east corner of Shansi

was made and oval SsSEE wtrh inf orming

province, where an important find of bronze vessels

n 1923 Here the spherical deep lids and ring/base. or three small

i

.

with engraved dragons

,

w hich

friezes

on

feet ('ting) are

covered

of apparently continuous interlacery of

closer inspection proves to be a repetition

of identical stamped

units.

The

rib bon

o f the interlacery

is

with close spirals and neaMriangle s not much different from those we noted in Hsin Cheng. V olutes are placed at the

Tilled

e nd of a

where It turns in a right angle. This ornament often includes a stylised iulMace animal mask based on a ramVhead, and the lids are decorated with ribbon, or

at points

165

China naturalistic sheep, buffalo or birds, three sensitively

the

stumpy

legs.

The masks

"but the resemblance magic.

of each on a

vessel,

modelled in the round. Monster masks surmount

The

vessels

is

a revival of the

s uggest

remote. There

may have been

t'ao t'iek

no longer the hint of

is

used in

sacrifice,

but

they'

have now acquired a secular elegance, suited to more festi ve and mundane occasions. The panels of decoration are often se parated

by a

relief pattern

plaited rope.

ot

bronzes belong probably to the centuries B.C.

Chou

are

seventh or the sixth

late

some of the most

attractive

products o f

art.

Ornament

Figs, so, si

They

The Li Yu

re lated to that

c avated in 1953 at

Chia

of Li

Yu

is

Ko Chuan^

seen on bronzes ex^ n ear T' ang Shan in

Hopei province One of these is a fit/, a nearly globular ves sel which appears for the first time about ^00 B.C ., and another a .

y/',

Figs. S2,

166

S3

a water container,

mad e here to

a notably individual design. 6

But one elegant vase introduces a style ot decoration unxnown at Li Yii or Hsin Cheng. It consists of a nimated huntin scenes fi gures of men and animals crisply drawn in pane formed by the plaited rope carrying/cradle which is simulated ,

Ku near,

Fig.

so Bronze hu. From Chao

Hui

Hsien, Honan. Height 37-8 cm.

The Art of the Bronze Age

m bronze on the sides of the vase. and

deer

The animal s include boar, would appear to be real game fanciful among them and a creatureresemblin% an

birds^ which

phoenix/like bird

elephan t, which

is

.

no

is

less

imaginary in

A

elc

this setting, since

phant have not lived wild in Central China in

historical times.

The huntsmen are armed with spears and one is followed by a number of similar hunting hu are preserved in col'

dog

.

A

'

but hitherto no find/place had been recorded.

lections,

shows

bowmen

One

shooting at birds with arrows to which cords

are attached (intended

probably to help in recovering them),

and a chariot driven by a man wearing an animal mask, as if a kind of sympathetic magic were part of a hunting ritual. Another famous piece includes a hunting scene with others illustrating a great variety of activities. Another hunting hu, the only inscribed piece which is known, commemorates a sacrifice at a place in the territory of Yen, in the modern pro/ vince of Hopei. The Yen state maintained its i ndependence from the eighth century B.C.

until

it

was overthrown by Ch'in

sho rtly b e fore the unification of 232 B.C

eluded the modern Hopei and extended

We

.

Its

territory

in/

Fig.

51

tou, from

Chuang,

Bronze

Chia

Height

Shan.

3S'S cm

-

far to the north-east.

can readily imagine that in the sixth century B.C. the

population of

this

region stood to tribes inhabiting Manchuria

and the forested tracts beyond the Amur river in much the same relation as the Chinese of the north/west did to the Jung and Ti. Here as in the north-west cultural i nfluences emanating from the barbar ians could be transmitted

Some such connexion may J

'hunting

style

.

it

presents oi the

whether in Africa or

li

ne on

plastic

S ome

China

the style

hunt in progress

is

anoma/

are curiously

rock drawings of primitive huntsmen,

reminiscent of the

lian isthmus.

P lain 7

aiTOllng for the appearance of the~

in the state of Yen In

lous: the pictures

to the Central

at the

figures

opposite end of Asia in the Kare/

of tigers and dragons represented in

F& 54

Chia Ko Chuang recall the flamboyant animals of Hsin Cheng vases, but the scales and dots flat

Ko

Vang

surfaces at

167

China

which

fill

variant of

They which was now due

the outlines arc distinctive.

an animal

style

Hopei

are the

to spread

from

the Central Plain into the Yan^tse vallev._

BRONZES OF THE CHU STATE

soo B.C. the lo weaving region south of the Huai

x3y

mountains^ forming the mi ddlebasin of the Yangtze with

its

Yang river

system of lakes and tributaries, was under the control

of the powerful Ch'u

whose rapid expansion and aggres / now a dominant feudal states. factor in the politics of the large number of bronze vessels, weapons and ornaments that have reached collections during the past thirty years came from tombs in the vicinity of S hou Hsien, a city of the state of Wu, which wa s annexed by Ch'u in 473 B.c .LChis sudden appearance ot fine "bronze'Craft in an area in which no metallurgy seems to have s ion

against

state,

northern 'neighbours was

its

A

F& 55

been practised in the

earlier

and sinicisation of a people on as barbarians rpT he Ch'u

Chou

period

whom art

Much

of it so closely resembles the

found

southern

Hsin Cheng

style to

a sign of the wealth

had looked

appears in bronze fully fledged

vessels

at

is

the northerners

that

be derived from

it.

style of the later

.

group of

one might think the new But the very abundance of

Hsien suggests that there was here an inven/ bronze centre which produced its own version of the

the finds at_Shou t ive

,

ornament and animal motifs

now

fashionable farther north,

possibly influenced by a local artistic tradition

Fig.

52 Decoration of a bronze vase ('hunting hu')

Copenhagen. $th Century B.C. Scale approx. 1:3

168

in

the

which had not

Kunstindustri' Museum,

The Art of the Bronze Age

Fig.

55 Decoration on a bronze hu. $th'4th century B.C. The scenes include bow and the picking of mulberry leaves (top register); shooting

target

practice with the

pounding

rice

birds,

(?) and playing music on bronze bells and musical stones (middle register);

a battle on land and water (lowest register); National

Museum,

previously been expressed in metal.

We

Peking. Scale, approx. 1:3

may assume

these times a trade in finished bronzes passed

from

that

b

state to state

from one workshop to another. The motifs found on the bronzes from Shou Hs ien were taken by Karlgren to define a Huai style, s o called after t he rive r ideas travelling rapidly

on which

the

town

stands.

The

stylejreyeals the

same

partial

169

China Plates 54, 55

I

kin ship with the animal

\

northern

I

J

/

/

ER

J

|| .\

14

15

0^

4

-

1

s

•a** J' 16