Page 540 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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of the Shang. The Shi ji (Records of the historian) by Sima Qian, reports that at the end of the
Shang period the first leader of the Chu people Yuxiong was enfoeffed as "a lord of Chu" (Chuzi)
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by King Wen of the Zhou state. The phrase "the Lord of Chu came to report" (Chuzi laigao) is
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found in Zhou period oracle-bone inscriptions from the Zhouyuan, Shaanxi province. The
texts also make reference to geographical origins. We learn that Yuxiong's son Xiongli was en-
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feoffed at a "place in the Sui mountains." The Sui mountains may be the Jing mountains in
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Hubei province, from which the Sui (or Ju ) River flows. During the Shang and Zhou periods,
the state of Chu was also referred to as "Jing-Chu," which appears to be a reference to the
mountains in the same region. In the era of King Cheng of the Zhou, Xiongli s grandson
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Xiongyi settled in a place called Danyang. A reference from the Spring and Autumn period
(770-476 BCE) attributed to a governing official named Zige in the Chu court of King Ling
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confirms this: "In olden times our late King Xiongyi reigned in the Jing mountains." On the
basis of that reference, we can place Xiongyi's "Danyang" in the Jing mountains, not far from
the settlement of his grandfather, Xiongli. What these texts tell us is that the Chu people estab-
lished a state between the late Shang and early Zhou periods, when they were active in the val-
leys of the Ju and Zhang rivers.
The precise location of Danyang, however, remains the subject of debate; it warrants men-
tion here because the origins of the Chu people are naturally a function of the location of their
earliest settlement. Several theories, relying on references in early literary sources, propose
more precise identifications for the site: (i) Zhijiang county in western Hubei province in the
Yangzi valley; 14 (2) Zigui county, also in Hubei province; 15 (3) Danyangjun, in in present-day
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Tangtu, Anhui province; and (4) north of the Dan River at the intersection of the Dan and the
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Xi Rivers. The latter identification has been proposed by three scholars — Qian Mu, Gu Jie-
gang, and Tong Shuye.
The origins of the Chu people are similarly the subject of controversy. Hu Houxuan be-
lieves that they emigrated from the east, while Wang Yuzhe places their point of origin in the
central area of Henan province; their move eastward to Danyang, he argues, occurred at a later
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date. The problem with these theories is that late Shang and early Zhou cultural remains
from these various areas differ greatly in character. Moreover, a site equivalent in scale and
complexity to that founded by Chuzi, the earliest Chu lord, has yet to be found. Thus, in spite
of the numerous historical references and the relative abundance of archaeological discoveries,
the origins of the early phase of the Chu state remain uncertain.
Be that as it may, the characteristics of an archaeological culture — particularly its proto-
typical characteristics — may accumulate and endure over a long period. On the basis of this
assumption, we may attempt to trace the early stages of Chu culture in reverse — by examining
the cultural characteristics of remains from the later periods.
Since the 19805, studies of the origins of Chu culture have been based on inferences from
the cultural characteristics of Chu tombs from the later Warring States period. With respect to

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