Week 2

Sage Kings & First

Dynasties
ASIA 320, UBC

9.16, 2021

• https://b.socrative.com/login/student/ or google
‘socrative student’

• Room Number: ASIA100

Oracle Bone Inscription

• A ceremony of getting information: Divination

• Dragon/Oracles Bones

• Bones pretreated
Proceed with Divination
• 1. Inscribe Divine Charges/ Buci ⼘辭 (Spells applied to
the future)

• 2. Bore and chisel pits or hollows

• 3.Use a hot bronze poker to cause cracks—10 cracks for

each questions

• 4. Read the cracks and Inscribe the result

• (5) Inscribe Veri cation

fi
 Paired Divine charges:

Right: We will receive millet harvest.

我受漆（shu ⿉）年

Left: We may not receive millet harvest.

我弗其受漆年
Pits and Hollows on the
back of the bone

T-shaped cracks
Result of the Reading

The king, reading the cracks, said:

'Auspicious. We will, in this case,
receive harvest.'
 A: "Crack-making on Yimao ⼄卯
(day 16), Que divined: 'It may not
rain."' （negative charge)

B:"Crack-making on Yimao,
Que divined: 'It will
rain.' (positive charge)

The king, reading the cracks,

said: 'It will rain; it will be a Ren
壬-day.' (Reading)

On Renwu 壬午(day 19), it really

did rain." (Veri cation)
 
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 Single/ unpaired charges:

In the ten days there will be no disaster.

旬亡禍
 Functional Change

• Previously: Attempt to discover the unknown

• Now: Attempt to express the desired result

• What if the NOW attempt fails?

• The King shall always be right.

Fei Wang buci ⾮王⼘辭
• cf. Wang buci 王⼘辭

• produced on behalf of or personally by members of the

royal family and elite persons, that is, for people other
than the Shang kings

• 5% of extant Shang oracle bone inscriptions

• Huayuangzhuang East (HYZ) 花園莊東地

• Daily life of people other than the kings

 • HYZ 3.1: 丙⼘⼜(有)由(怞)⼥⼦其告于帚(婦)好若

Divined on Bing: Wu has unhappy women. If our lord
reports (it) to Lady Hao, (it) will be favorable.

• HYZ 37.25: ⼄卯歲且(祖)⼄豭⾿⼀


On Yimao, sacri ce (to) Ancestor Yi some boars (and)
o er one bowl of aromatic ale.

• HYZ 195.3: ⾟亥⼘⼦ (以)帚(婦)好⼊于 (戎) 


Divined on Xinhai: Our lord will lead Lady Hao to enter
into Rong.
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 open access
https://library.oapen.org/
handle/20.500.12657/23217
What is the importance of the Shang Dynasty wth
regard to Chinese history?
 The Importance of the
Shang
• David Keightley, late Professor, UC Berkeley

• “Early Civilization in China: Re ections on

How It Became Chinese” 2013

• How the culture of China di ers from that of

other great civilizations？

• How did China become Chinese?

• China became Chinese in the Shang

Dynasty
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Kylix by the Penthesileia Painter. Munich, Antikensammlung. Photograph: Hirmer
Fotoarchiv München.
 Greek Heroes: Achilles

“dirty hands”

tragic, negative examples

not to imitate
Chinese Heroes/ Sage Kings

Shang Tang

virtuous man

models for all of their people

people willing to serve

 Optimism

• the willingness to accept large, roughly de ned moral

ideas—like "benevolence" or "righteousness"

• renzhi ⼈治"government by men'' vs fazhi 法制

"government by laws."

• "government by men'' passed on to the Zhou and

reformed in the Qin （221BCE) fi
• Quiz 1 due 23:59, 9.26

• Group 1 Presentation, 9.23