Week 2

Sage Kings & First

Dynasties
ASIA 320, UBC

9.14, 2021

Neolithic Cultures
Yangshao & Longshan cultures
Liangzhu culture
Two Competing Stories

• Multi-origin story/ duoyuan 多元

• Single-origin story/ yiyuan ⼀元

Single-origin story/ yiyuan ⼀元

• Invented 500BCE

• Stories about Sage Kings

• Set 4,000 years ago (2,000

years before Confucius)
Book of Documents/ 尚書
Compiled by Confucius
 Yao 堯
• 2,400 BCE

• He was named as Yao, He appeared, He did everything.

• What did he do? Invent a government/ the model to rule to improve

the lives of humans, and to bring order and proper arrangement
to human society

• First, pay attention to the cycles of the sun and moon—calendars—

agriculture (sun), months (lunar)

• Second, delegate his authority to o cials to govern on his behalf

• Third, harmonize the people over whom he ruled

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Shennong/ Yandi
神農/ 炎帝
Chiyou
蚩尤
Yellow Emperor
⿈帝
 Debates on Ancient History
（Gushibian 古史辨 ）

• Doubting Antiquity School/ Yigupai 疑古派

• original story fragmented——The Zuo Tradition /

Zuozhuan 左傳 （500BCE)

• Complete lineage of the Yellow Eemperor——Records of

the Grand Historian/ Shiji 史記 （Sima Qian 司⾺遷 200
BCE)
 “The history of Chinese antiquity was created
iteratively. Ancient texts have been repeatedly
edited, reorganised, tampered with or even
completely fabricated, so the historical narrative of
antiquity as presented in traditional texts was
different at different points of time. As time went on,
the history of antiquity became longer and more
complicated, characters acquired more features,
including more supernatural attributes. This means
that it is not always possible to identify the
"authentic" version of events from antiquity, only
the narrative as stated in a text at a particular time.”

–Gu Jiegang 顧頡剛 （1893-1980）

Li Xueqin, Walking out of the “Doubting of Antiquity” Era (1995)
 The Xia 夏 Dynasty
• Whether the Xia dynasty was
an actual historical reality or
just a later myth？

• No writing archaeologically
discovered con rms the
existence of the Xia

• Some cultural sites eg., Erlitou

⼆⾥頭 （1920BCE-1520BCE)
roughly the same time and in
the same area as the Xia
is recorded in later texts.
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 The Shang 商 Dynasty

• the rst Chinese dynasty historically attested

• 17th BCE- 11BCE

• Jie 桀 (the last Xia ruler)- Tang 湯 (the rst Shang ruler)

• Capital Yin 殷——Yinxu 殷墟 (Ruins of Yin） Anyang,

Henan
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Legitimating the Shang Rule

• How did a single king legitimate that rule, that position of

rule?

• Bronze vessels & dragon bones: the earliest attested form

of writing in all of China & Related to legitimation
 The Shang “Feudal” system

• De ning feature: Territorial Expansion and hence Wars

• Linage Units—Shang apparatus—defend and ght for

Shang

• “Feudalism”: （some) sovereignty over territory delegated

to individuals —nobles from the royal lineage control
territory
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 How the Shang King kept
connections with the relatives?
• Ceremony

• Vessel 鼎 （one type of

bronzes）

• Sets of vessels given and buried

with the receivers

• the kinship ties were supported

by a material culture
Read Vessels Materially
• Casting Bronze Vessels: The Piece-mold Process

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ZUM8OrIko

• Where do these come from?

• Where does the copper and the tin come from that are used to
make bronze?

• Where are they found?

• How are they used?

• Who paid for them?

• How the technology developed?

 Read Vessels Historically

• Bronzes in graves

• Re ect social status of users

• Used in ceremonies: used for making o erings to the

dead by the living
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 Back to Legitimation Problem

• The ritual vessels used to make o erings to ancestors

• Ancestors receive o erings and so have access to

information

• What information? Fortunetelling

• The Shang kings sacri ced their ancestors, and the

ancestors could help the Shang kings by telling the living
what to do.
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 The Shang Religion
• Shang ancestor had exclusive relation with Di 帝/ Shangdi 上帝 (the
High God)

• The High God provided information & Ancestors passed down

• To feed ancestors—to control a territory, to bring in booty from war,

to bring in victims to sacri ce, to have resources to o er—to keep
conquering and exploiting

• If succeed, and the Shang indeed succeeded—a mutual con rmation

• Only the Shang lineage could speak to the High God. The High God
is on our side. This is why you must accept the Shang rule.—
Legitimation
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