Page 53 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

4<J Hoard ofbronze vessels excavated at
Chuang-po. Fu-feng. Shcnsi. Western
Chou period.
hundred kilometres west of Sian. The Chou continued to rule
from Ch'i-shan for some years after the conquest. Closer to Sian
on either side of the Feng River, archaeologists have for thirty
years been unearthing rich remains from Chou tombs, and hoards
of bronze vessels most probably buried when the capital was hur-
riedly moved to Loyang in 771 B.C.
Later in the Chou, as the independent feudal states proliferated,
the number of cities grew. Some were very large. The capital ot
the state of Ch'i in Shantung, for instance, was a mile from east to
west and two and a half miles from north to south, surrounded by
a wall of tamped earth over thirty feet high. The capital of Yen in
Hopei was even larger. These late Chou cities and their attendant
princely cemeteries form an almost inexhaustible mine of trea-
sures for the archaeologist and art historian.
The Book of Songs contains several vivid descriptions of ancestral ARCHITECTURE
halls and palaces. Here is part of one of them, translated by Arthur AND SCULPTURE
Waley:
To give continuance to foremothcrs and forefathers
We build a house, many hundred cubits of wall;
To South and east its doors.
Here shall wc live, here rest.
Here laugh, here talk.
Wc bind the frames, creak, creak;
We hammer the mud, tap, tap.
That it may be a place where wind and rain cannot enter.
Nor birds and rats get in.
But where our lord may dwell.
As a halberd, even so plumed.
As an arrow, even so sharp,
As a bird, even so soaring,
As wings, even so flying
Arc the halls to which our lord ascends.
Well levelled is the courtyard,
Firm arc the pillars.
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naterial