Page 33 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

istcd. then perhaps remains would be found of the even earlier
Hsia Dynasty.
The Chinese traditionally believe that they arc descended from
Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, who lived for a hundred years.
He succeeded Fu Hsi, who first drew the magical diagram pa kua
(the "eight trigrams") from which the art of writing is descended.
Shen Nung, the Divine Farmer, invented agriculture and discov-
ered the use of medicinal herbs. Then came Yao and the filial
Shun, the ideal rulers, and finally Yu the Great, who founded the
Hsia Dynasty. In these legendary figures the Chinese personified
all that they held most sacred: agriculture, good government, filial
piety, and the art of writing. Now it is believed that all these per-
sonages were invented or took on these roles at a much later date.
Yii, Yao, and Shun appeared first in late Chou literature. Huang Ti
was probably invented by the Taoists. As for the Hsia, before the
rise of Shang there were, as we saw in Chapter i, many primitive
communities, and one of those conquered by the first Shang ruler
may have been called Hsia. Such communities form a connecting
link between the late Neolithic and the full flowering of the
Bronze Age.
Until 1950 our knowledge of Shang culture was derived almost
wholly from the remains of the Shang at Anyang, founded by
King P'an-keng around 1400 B.C. and finally conquered by the

12 Rtiiul veucl, ling. Bronze.
Excavated at Chengchow, Honan.
Middle Shang period.