The Beginnings of Chinese History: The Bronze Age Flashcards
The first Bronze Age states: Erlitou (c. 1700-1500 BCE) and the Xia Dynasty
First bronzes
Planned city with large compounds (palaces/temples), foundries, elite burials, road grid…
Flourished ca. 1900-1600
Dominated other sites in the middle Yellow River region
Unique center of bronze production
Is it to be equated with Yu’s Xia dynasty, as described in the dynastic histories?
Similar size to taosu (workshops, palaces,) = beginning of Bronze age, first bronze vessels = xia dynasty (1st chinese state) = no direct way to desmonstrate link
Xia = first historical evidence it existed 500 after = the Zhou
Language = similar but no writing
Shang = bones dont mention of Xia
Cant prove that Erlitou is the Xia dynasty = connection of the stories
Founder Xia = Yu the Great = organized people to stop floods of Yellow River
Family of Yu = justification =
Erlitou used vessels for rituals = symbol of elite power and civilization = after too
Bronze = weqpons of elites = ordinary would you wood, bone and stone
The first Bronze Age states: Erligang (16th – 13th centuries BCE) and the Shang Dynasty
Today = zhengzhou = large enough wall to cover 1800 hectares of downtown = 300 hec wall = numerous large buildings and temples = elite corners = creation of high society
More copious and sophiscated bronze = show power cuz rare tin and copper
Ability to have lots of craftpeople = people that arent food, or give food
No writing = authority came from spirit (natural and ancestors) = rituals = sacrifice animals or humans = cook fleash = use vessels to send them to spirit world
Feast = beer and meat to people for followers
Long distance covered = couldnt control all = conqured and ruled by allies and family
Erlitou = capital = no writing survived so no idea
Shang Anyang (1200? – 1045? BCE)
- Shang society
- Shang bronzes
New power = written evidence = capital
Number of capitals, moved capitals (anyang is definitive cuz oracle bones or royal tombs or maybe erligan)
Military = hunts, campaigns
Travel = king camps is where the power is
Politics = complicated = ennemis and alllies not very relaible = important state but not dominant empire
Wriiten record = people they are fightingg = not come from the same backrgound (langugae or culture) = group of Qiang = different to them, not culturally the same
Warriors = weapons with bronze blades = charriots with horses (2 or 4)
also priests = sacrifices to a divinities and royal ancestors
Animal and human = large numbers (500) = captured prisonners of war, followers
If die = important people burried by followers (king) = sacrifice tied up but followers not
Large sacrifice = cut half or beheaded
Royal linage = one family controlled the stage = shared lineage in oracle bones = fundamental basis of rituals
Ordinary people = same as neolithic (same tools or crookes) but king = huge craftmen, silk, build massive buildings
Animals = symbolic (birds=heavens)
Ding = cauldrons
Taotie = typical pattern = dont know what it is (mask in rituals? Animal sacrifice? Just cool? Scare bad spirit?)
Oracle Bones and Keightley, “The Shang: China’s First Historical Dynasty”
Know only from before discovering
Record of the grand historian?=detailed narrative of the shang = general infos = skeptical (20th)
Cant read today = lots are dicifered = list of kings in the records and matches names of kings in their historical book
Bones (tortue, cattle) = write question = fire = crack = diviner
Harvest, disasters, fertility and gender of children, warfare
Shifts of culture, people interracting with, divinatory oractices, cultural values, social standing of different groups of diviners, power dynamics between king and diviners, how time is structured (calendar system that was still used with 60 days), cycle of different category of royal people
Chinese Characters: Where they come from, how they work
Complex language = existed for a while
Come from? = some are based on pictures of objects of the world,
Most are not simple pictures = categories = abstract ideas (lines, up or down)
Most characters aren’t pictures!
1.Ideograms (icon of abstract idea): 一，二，三 (yī, èr, sān) for 1, 2, 3 or 上 (shàng) for up and 下 (xià) for down
2.Compounds: 林 (lín), meaning “forest” = 木+木 (mù+mù), tree+tree
3.Rebus (phonetic loan): 四 (sì) originally meant “nostrils.” But the number 4 was pronounced the same way, so now 四 means 4 and 泗 (also pronounced sì) means mucus.
4.(Most commonly) Phono-semantic compound. 氵is an element meaning “water.” 木 is pronounced mù. 沐 is a word meaning “to wash oneself” pronounced mù. 扌is an element meaning “hand.” 白 (meaning white) is pronounced bái. 拍 is a word meaning “to clap” or “to hit” that is pronounced pāi (pronunciations are similar, not matching – this is common in part due to linguistic change since characters were invented)
Compounds = two together for another meaning
Phonetic = lots have meaning changes = same pronunciation so it changes
Most common = psc = sound and mening toether = radical (related to the meaning) in eng =
Lets poeple of multipal languages can read = particular meaning but not entirely phonetic = ex numerals
The Tomb of Fu Hao (Lady Hao), consort of King Wu Ding
The burial pit of Fu Hao (as currently displayed)
Significant = only tomb that survived and fully intact (unlike king) = oracle about sons = interesting person cuz material culture objects
*Only complete tomb at Anyang (others had been plundered).
*Tomb contained: 3 ivory carvings, ~ 500 bone hairpins, 500 jade objects, 7,000 cowry shells (money). 16 corpses buried along with her in her grave. 200 bronze ritual vessels, 130 bronze weapons
*Weapons suggest Fu Hao herself was involved in conducting war
Bronze vessel from tomb of Fu Hao
Women was involved in war confirmed in oracle bones = leading and raising armies
Other oracle bones = conduct rituals and sacrifices, power posthumusly, ANOTHER THING
Recap
*The Shang is China’s first historical dynasty – oracle bones confirm that later historians had some genuine knowledge about it
*Shang kingship was based to a great degree on divinatory power
*Shang represents earliest period of written Chinese, but already a very fully developed written language (and not just pictograms)
*Complex gender dynamics: preference for sons, but Fu Hao also led armies
*Shang was not the only complex Bronze Age culture in the territory of contemporary China: Sanxingdui
