Page 544 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

The Chu absorbed elements of other cultures as well from time to time. Two types of
bronzes associated with Yue culture appear after the Chu vanquished the Yue state in 334 BCE:
the Yue-type ding tripod (which has a broad belly and thin lid decorated with a cloud-and-
thunder pattern in parallel lines, and three slender legs placed toward the outside of the ves-
sel), and the Yue-type mao spear, with a groove at the center of the blade, a pattern decorating
two sides and a pattern resembling the character for "king"on the lower part. After 278 BCE,
when General Bai Qi of the Qin dynasty destroyed the Chu capital of Ying, the state moved to
Chen (present-day Huaiyang, Henan province), Juyang (Taihe, Anhui province ), and Shouchun
(Shouxian, Anhui province), where Chu remains from the late Warring States period still retain
relatively distinct cultural characteristics. Although most of the ceramic ding vessels from Chu
tombs in Pingliangtai, Huiyang, Henan province and Yanggongxiang, Changfeng, Anhui
province have Chu-type long legs, a few have Qin-type short legs. The Qin style is also evident
in square bricks with petal-shaped cloud patterns and ceramic tile-ends with curved cloud pat-
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tern from the Chu city of Bojiatai in Shouchun. The influence of Qin in the region of Yangzi
Gorges and Hubei appears following the eastward movement of the Qin military. It may be that
Qin influence had already spread to the last Chu capital before Qin vanquished the Chu state.
Nevertheless, even with the appearance of other cultural influences, the Chu culture, after
the middle phase of the Spring and Autumn period, retained distinctive characteristics from its
beginning to its end.

C O N C E A L E D C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S IN CHU T H O U G H T AND B E L I E F
On the one hand, the archaeological relics of a culture reflect its technological capabilities —
a function, in part, of the material and natural environment; on the other, they reflect belief
systems. The Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou), from the beginning of their establish-
ment in the middle Yellow River valley, had a strong impact on the belief systems (including the
rules of ritual) of the states that they subjugated. To greater or lesser degrees, their cultural
characteristics penetrated the regions of the Yellow, Yangzi, and Pearl River valleys. Chu culture
also exerted such an influence.
At the dawn of its civilization, China's belief system — like that of many cultures in the
world — was permeated by shamanism. Shamanism endured until the late Spring and Autumn

period, when it was gradually displaced by the philosophy, political thought, and ethics of hun-
dreds of philosophical schools. However, shamanism continued in the Chu region, a legacy
evidenced in a report in the Chi yue chapter of the Lu shi chun qiu that "the Chu's decline came
from performing the music of shaman." References of similar import appear in Wang Yi's Xu
(annotation) to the Chu ci (Songs of Chu) and the Jinge (Nine songs): "In the south, the old Chu
city of Ying along the Yuan and Xiang Rivers maintained a belief in ghosts and favored
sacrifice." The Di li zhi chapter of the Han shu also mentions that "the Chu... believed in

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