Page 52 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

court historian, and then handed out to officials for execution.
From the time of Mu Wang (947-928) onward it became the cus-
tom to preserve these orders by casting them on the bronze ritual
vessels. These inscriptions, which became longer as time went on,
are one of the main sources for the study ofearly Chou history, the
other chief documents being the Book of Songs (Shih-ching), an an-
thology of ancient court odes, ballads, and love songs said to have
been compiled by Confucius, and the authentic chapters of the
Classic of History (Shu-chitig), which tell of the fall of Shang and the
early years of the Chou. These documents bear witness to that
sense of history which is one of the most striking features of
Chinese civilisation, and, as a corollary, to the almost sacred place
held in Chinese life by the written word.
The first phase ofChou history ended in 771 B.C. with the death
of Yu Wang and the shift of the capital eastward from Shensi to
Loyang. By this time the feudal states were growing more and
more powerful, and P'ing Wang, the first ruler of Eastern Chou,
was helped to power by two of them—Chin and Cheng. Before
long the Chou state was declining still further, till eventually it be-
came a mere shadow of its former self, kept artificially alive by the
powerful states that surrounded it solely in order to maintain the
prestige of the royal house, from which the "mandate of heaven"
had not yet been withdrawn. The period from 722 to 481 is often
known as the Ch'un-ch'iu ("spring and autumn"), because the
events of the greater part of it are recorded in the Spring and Au-
tumn Annals of the state of Lu, while for the rest we have the stories
in another classic, the Tso-chuan. The feudal chiefs spent their
time, it appears, in making aggressive and defensive alliances with
other states, in keeping the northern barbarians at bay, and in hon-
ouring the shrunken Chou, which survived, a pale shadow of its
former glory, till its destruction in 256 B.C. at the hands of Ch'in.
CHOU CITIES At the moment, more is known about Shang architecture than
about that of the early Chou, for which we have to rely largely
upon the evidence of the written word. One of the chief sources
for the study ofChou institutions is the Chou-li, a manual of ritual
and government compiled, it is believed, in the Former Han Dy-
nasty. Its authors, looking back through the mists of time to the
remote golden age, present a somewhat idealised picture ofChou
ritual and life; but the Chou-li is not without significance, for its
descriptions were taken as canonical by later dynasts who strove
always to follow the ancient institutions and forms as the Chou-li
presented them. Writing of the ancient Chou city, the Chou-li
says: "The architects who laid out a capital made it a square nine li
[about three miles] on a side, each side having three gateways.
Within the capital there were nine lengthwise and nine crosswise
avenues, each nine chariot tracks wide. On the left was the ances-
tral temple, on the right the Altar of the Soil; in front lay the Court
of State, at the rear the market-place."
For many years it was not known where the seat of early Chou
power lay. Then in the late seventies the remains of an ancient
Chou city with palace buildings were found at Ch'i-shan, about a
32
Copyrighted material