last updated 9/14/99 3AM
Chinese Myth-History Versus the Written Evidence of Xia, Shang, and Zhou
Significant terms:
* cicada
* oracle bones
* I-Ching
* Chinese written characters
* Mandate of Heaven
* ren
* li
Outline of Dynasties, Evidence, and Myth History:
| Period | Evidence | Myth-History written after 500 BC (late Zhou) |
| Xia 2000-1700 | No evidence for one central culture or even writing. There were numerous neolithic centers with distinct cultures in the Yellow River basic and the Yangtze. Pottery is more highly developed in the Yangtze basin. Bronze work is evolving in the Yellow. | Founding dynasty of the Han. Legendary fathers of animal husbandry, farming, the family, and the trades arise. |
| Shang 1600-1045 | First hard evidence of Chinese writing found on bronze vessels and divinations (oracle bones). | Increasingly corrupt rule by Xia tyrants who "needed" to be overthrown because they had lost the Mandate of Heaven |
| Zhou (Western) 1045-771 (Eastern) 770-256 (Spring and Autumn) 770-476 (Warring States to Six Kingdoms) 475-221 |
Record of the Zhou conquering the Shang on bronze vessels and histories written hundreds of years later. | Early rulers exemplary Sons of Heaven, coming from humble origins and ruling benevolently. Ruler as family motif is established along with Mandate of Heaven/Dynastic Cycle concept. *Ren (the Confucian concept of filial humanity) and *li (all related rituals and customs of the state) become a theme of Chinese socio-political consciousness. Contrast what is developing in the Greco-Roman world at this time. |
Until the Shang period around 1600 BCE, there is no evidence of a distinctly Chinese culture. During the Shang period, between 1700 and 1050 BCE, the first written evidence of Chinese civilization appears in the form of oracle bones and I-Ching readings. Many of the symbols used at this time has continued to be used up to the present day in China and Japan. From the evidence of the oracle bone divinations and the I-Ching, we begin to see what the culture was like at the time, and how the people viewed their world at large.
Oracle bones
Turtle shells and bones from Cattle and Pigs. The turtle had some sacred qualities that persist in Asia and other parts of the world to this day.
Professional diviners had a monopoly on the writing and reading. Reliance on a professional, educated class begins at this time. (Contrast this development to phonetic alphabets developing in Mesopotamia and the Greek world which facilitated trade among various non-elite peoples.)
What can you conclude about Shang culture from the theses hints and more in the Oracle bones?
I-Ching
Dragons in the ancient mythology.
Concept of Heaven and Earth interacting, the Yin and the Yang
What can you conclude about Shang culture from the theses hints and more in the I-Ching?
Other evidence from Shang Bronzes and Artwork.
Cicadas
Another source found that Shang corpses have been found with a cicada in their mouths. What could have the cicada represented to them? Here is a link to a burial vessel that uses cicada wing designs.
Here is a site with a lot of Shang Artwork.
Here's a snippet from the current CNN/Time/Asia Week special on China:
[Shang] is the first historically verifiable Chinese dynasty. Believed to have existed for 600 years -- [between 1766 and 1100 BCE]. It is known for its use of acupuncture, elaborate bronze ritual vessels, oracle bones to determine the future and the earliest standardized form of Chinese characters.
The
Shang became the most developed Bronze civilization in the world at the time. It
is on Bronze vessels and oracle bones that we have the first evidence of Chinese
written language. Many of these symbols continue to the present day in China and
Japan.
Human sacrifice is another distinguishing characteristic of the Shang. Upon the construction of new buildings and the burial of prominent leaders, human sacrifice was common. In later dynasties, terra-cotta figurines replaced living sacrifices. Their system of succession was unique and may represent a transition from matrilineal practices of the early Neolithic period to the patrilineal practices of the dynasties after this period. The kingship passed from brother to younger brother, and if there were no more brothers, to the oldest maternal nephew (From a source called "in-contact with china" http://www.china-contact.com/www/history/shang.html).
What does the Shang tell us about the evolving Chinese culture on the edge of the Neolithic (Agricultural) Revolution? How does it appear to set the stage for subsequent Zhou and Han Chinese Civilization?
Passing of the Mandate of Heaven, from Shang to Zhou
According to later reports by Confucian scholars during the recorded during the Zhou period, the Shang rulers had become increasingly corrupt and tyrannical. Between the Shang capital and the western frontier, the Zhou rose against the Shang to defeat them. Several hundred years later, this story of a just victory over tyrants to restore the "Mandate of Heaven" for "All under Heaven (representing the confederation of Chinese states). This account is only written several hundred years after the fact in one of the Confucian classics, the "Book of Documents" (the Shujing). To Confucius, the early Zhou rulers, over two hundred years earlier, were ideal rulers, keeping order through a decentralized, exemplary style of rule of benevolence. King Wu, the victorious king, paid proper reverence to the Shang ancestors by leaving the defeated Shang king's son on the thrown. Confucius gives the Duke of Zhou, although he was only a regent to the young king, credit for securing the whole eastern region of the Yellow plain for the new empire. The exemplary rule of these early Zhou rulers came to represent ideal social relations -- from the Son of Heaven, the emperor, to the farmer's family working on a fief.
It was during a period of decline in the Zhou between 770 and 256 BCE, the Eastern Zhou period, (divided into the Spring and Autum period -- 722-481 BCE. -- and the Waring States period --403-221 BCE.) that China's philosophic and political traditions are born in scholars vying for influence in the decreasing number of states as the stronger ones defeat the weaker. In the writing of its mythic past, Confucius and other scholars around 500 BC create China's myth history tracing a story line that begins with legends of the distant Xia dynasty founders: Fu Zi; the domesticator of the ox and inventor of the family, Shen Nong, the Divine Farmer and inventor of the plough and the hoe, and Huang Di, the Yellow Lord, inventor of the bow and arrow, boats, ceramics, writing, and silk. Archeologists know that during the Xia period, China had numerous Neolithic centers of culture, including trade networks that linked these centers with centers in other parts of Asia and Europe. Confucius and other Zhou conservatives held up a total of five mythic rulers including two more, the Yao and Shun, who came to represent attributes that Confucian scholars believed to be important: Yao is said to have invented the calendar and rituals, or li; and Shun is said to have represented humanity or jen, a concept that makes filial piety the basis for all human relations. In the overthrow of the Xia and the Shang, respectively, corruption had caused rulers to become tyranical and lose their Mandate from Heaven. The ruler must rule benevolently as a father would his family if he is to maintain his Mandate of Heaven according to Confucius.
Confucius's story is not the only one however. Other responses to the moral crisis during the Warring States period stimulated numerous schools who each tried to pitch their ideas on government to the local war lords concerned with maintaining order over their expanding domains.
What were the main schools of thinking and how were they different? Which one won out in the consolidation of states near the second century BCE.?
To be continued. . .