Page 36 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

By about 1500 B.C. the Bronze Age culture was widely spread
over northern, central, and eastern China, as our map shows.
Spectacular sites of this prc-Anyang stage have been discovered at
Chengchow. The lowest strata at Chengchow are typical Lung-
shan Neolithic, but the next stages, Lower and Upper Erh-li-
kang, show a dramatic change. Remains of a city wall more than a
mile square and sixty feet across at the base have been uncovered,
together with what were probably sacrificial halls, houses, bronze
foundries, pottery kilns, and a bone workshop. Large graves were
furnished with ritual bronze vessels, jade, and ivory, while the
pottery included both glazed stoneware and the fine white ware
first found at Anyang. It is possible, though by no means proved,
that Chengchow was one of the early Shang capitals, although
precisely which one has not been definitely established.
To the same stage of Shang civilisation belongs P'an-lung-
ch'cng in the Yangtsc valley. There in 1974 were discovered the re-
mains of a large palace and richly furnished tombs, whence comes
the noble ritual tripod vessel, called a ting, illustrated here. At the
time of writing it is not known whether this supposed palace was
the seat of a Shang feudal chief or district governor, or of an inde-
pendent ruler—although some bronzes are inscribed, they do not
yield this kind of information—but the presence of so important a
city so far to the south is a clear indication of the extent and gran-
deur of Bronze Age civilisation by the middle of the second mil-
lennium B.C.
All that we have seen of Bronze Age culture so far was but a
preparation for the climax of the Shang at Anyang, a region which
the succeeding Chou conquerors called Yin. Over half a century
of excavation there has given us a detailed picture of the city and
of its social and economic life. Chinese historians today, follow-
ing orthodox Marxist doctrine, describe Shang and Chou as pre-
feudal slave societies, and indeed the contents of the royal tombs
at Anyang alone are enough to show that, under the Shang, slaves
were many and brutally treated. But it seems that elements of feu-
dalism were already present, for the inscriptions on the oracle
bones indicate that successful generals, sons, and even wives of
the Shang rulers were enfeoffed, while small neighbouring states
paid regular tribute. Prominent among the officials was the chen-
jen, who, as a scribe, composed and probably wrote the inscrip-
tions on the oracle bones, and, as a diviner, interpreted the cracks
that appeared in them when a hot metal rod was applied to one of
the holes bored into the back.
These inscriptions were generally engraved, though a few were
written with brush and ink. Over three thousand characters have
been identified, about half of which have been deciphered; they
were written in vertical columns, moving either to the left or to
the right, apparently according to the dictates ofsymmetry. In the
early stages at Chengchow the oracle bones were mainly scapulae
of pig, ox, or sheep; in the final phase at Anyang tortoise shells
were used almost exclusively, fastened together with thongs
passed through holes at each end, as is shown in the pictograph for
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