Page 338 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

The Wide View (ZZ) 285

other direction, separates Harappa from the village of An-yang
on the Huan river, a tributary of the Yellow River in north China.

The distance is as the crow flies, and the unfortunate crow would
have to fly across the wildest part of the Tibetan plateau to reach
its destination.
In the year 1300 b.c. a city is rising at An-yang. The river

Huan, cutting deep into the loess soil, here makes a wide curve,
providing a natural moat around three sides of the chosen site.
On the fourth side, towards the south, the defenses are going
up, a broad wall of earth pounded to cement hardness within
the wooden shuttering, which is gradually raised as the wall rises.
Within the area cords mark out the streets, and along them plat­
forms, also of pounded earth, are being constructed, the floors

and foundations of houses, palaces, and temples.
The palace of the emperor and the temple to his ancestors
axe almost completed. The rows of wooden pillars are erected,
and the crossbeams and ridge pole mortised into place. Now

while the roof is being thatched, the outer walls are rising to meet
it; they are built of the universal adobe, earth pounded to a hard­
ness that rings under the mallets and then, when the shuttering
is removed, pared down to a glasslike smoothness.
The Emperor P’an Keng, at whose orders the great city of
Shang is being built, visits the site but rarely. For days at a time

he is out with his army, on the hunts that provide the main royal
sport and at the same time the principal army training. In the
open woodland beyond the millet and rice fields to the east, on
the flood plain of the mighty Huang-ho to the south, or in the

wooded mountains three days’ drive to the west, the foot soldiers
are deployed to envelop a large area, and to drive the game to­
wards the waiting line of chariots, with the emperor in the
center. As the game begins to break cover, the two-horse teams
start forward, the drivers wheeling at the last moment to allow
the nobles to get in a flank shot with their sinew-backed bows, and

the spearman, crouched by the wheel, prepares to spring down
and finish a stricken beast. Excitement mounts as the animals
come in greater numbers and the chariots scatter in pursuit. The
game is mostly deer and hares, though boar—which it is gen­
erally agreed give better sport—are not uncommon, and oc­

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