Chinese Civilization

A Sourcebook, 2nd Ed

Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Patricia Buckley Ebrey

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781439188392
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

Chinese Civilization sets the standard for supplementary texts in Chinese history courses. With newly expanded material, personal documents, social records, laws, and documents that historians mistakenly ignore, the sixth edition is even more useful than its classic predecessor. A complete and thorough introduction to Chinese history and culture.

PART I

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

The archaeological record of human existence in China goes back to the remote past. By the fifth millennium b.c. neolithic cultures flourished in several parts of the country. Archaeologists have found village settlements, finely decorated pottery, carved and polished jades, and evidence of ancestor worship. With the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600-ca. 1050 B.C.), the historical and archaeological records begin to coincide; the Chinese accounts of the Shang rulers match the diviners’ inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells found during the past century at the city of Anyang in the Yellow River valley. The Shang had built a strong state on the basis of bronze technology, chariot warfare, and elaborate social differentiation. Shang kings could mobilize large armies for warfare and huge numbers of workers to construct defensive walls or elaborate tombs.

Much fuller historical records survive for the next dynasty, the Zhou (ca. 1050-256 B.C.). The Zhou house originated in what is now Shaanxi province in northwestern China, moving eastward to conquer the Shang and establish their rule over much of northern China. The early Zhou rulers secured their position by enfeoffing loyal supporters and relatives in different regions, thus establishing a social order somewhat like the feudal system in medieval Europe. The early Zhou dynasty was an age when blood kinship was honored and social status distinctions were stressed. Members of the nobility were linked both to each other and to their ancestors by bonds of obligation based on kinship. Ancestors were seen as having great influence over the living, with powers similar to but far surpassing those of the living elders of the clan. Even the relationship between lord and peasant was supposed to be a paternalistic one, the peasant serving the lord and the lord concerned about his welfare.

The Zhou kingdom remained strong for over two centuries, but its position gradually weakened, until finally in 771 B.C., the capital was sacked by non-Chinese tribes. The Zhou rulers then established a new capital further east in the Yellow River valley, marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou. In this period real political power lay with the feudal states. The Zhou king continued to reign only because of the prestige of his house and the fact that no one feudal state was strong enough to dominate the others.

The Eastern Zhou is divided into two major eras, the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 B.C.) and the Warring States period (403-221 B.C.). During these centuries the states attacked and absorbed each other until only a half-dozen powerful ones survived. This period of political strife witnessed social and economic advances of all sorts, including the introduction of iron, the development of infantry armies, the circulation of money, the beginning of private ownership of land, the growth of cities, and the breakdown of class barriers. During this period also there was a gradual expansion of the culture of the North southward into the Yangzi River region, and at the same time elements of the indigenous culture of the lusher southern region were incorporated into the culture of the North.

The political disruption and social change of the late Zhou drew many men’s attention to the problem of how to achieve stability. Those who responded to this challenge included not only military and political leaders but also many philosophers. The foremost philosophers were Confucius (551-479 B.C.) and his followers Mencius (ca. 370-ca. 300 B.C.) and Xunzi (ca. 310-ca. 215 B.C.), who emphasized the preservation of tradition and moral cultivation. They were closely rivaled at the time by the Mohists and Legalists, the former emphasizing frugality, discipline, and universal love, the latter law and statecraft. Opposed to all of these proposed methods of reform were the Daoists, who preached a return to the Dao or Way, the true condition of man, which had been lost through the process of civilization and could be regained only if people were allowed to return to naturalness. The proliferation of philosophy in this period was so great that it came to be known as the period of the “one hundred schools.” Without doubt it was one of the most intellectually creative eras in Chinese history.

The major sources for the Classical period are the oracle bones and bronze inscriptions, the Book of Documents, the Book of Changes, the Book of Songs, the ritual classics, several historical texts, and the essays and recorded sayings of the philosophers. Passages from these texts have been selected for inclusion here first of all to illuminate the Classical period. A second, complementary goal, is to introduce the classics themselves, important because they were studied by so many generations of Students and thus profoundly shaped the thinking of the educated.

1 LATE SHANG DIVINATION RECORDS

The kings of the late Shang (ca. 1200-1050 B.C.) attempted to communicate with the spiritual forces that ruled their world by reading the stress cracks in cattle bones and turtle plastrons. They and their diviners produced these cracks by applying a heated brand or poker to the consecrated bones or shells, intoning as they did so a charge that conveyed their intentions, wishes, or need to know. After the divination ritual was over, a record of the topic and, sometimes, of the prognostication and the result, was engraved into the bone. Those inscriptions, only recovered in the twentieth century by archaeologists and painstakingly deciphered by paleographers, provide direct contact with many of the Shang kings’ daily activities and concerns. Some 150,000 oracle-bone fragments, mainly excavated at the late Shang cult center near modern Anyang, have been preserved, of which 50,000 have been thought worth reproduction. The following inscriptions—most of them from the reign of the twenty-first king, Wu Ding (ca. 1200-1181 B.C.), the heyday of Shang divination as it is recorded in the bone inscriptions—cover the topics that were of major concern to the Shang diviners. As in the first example, many of the early charges were paired, being expressed in both the positive and negative mode and placed in matching opposition on the bone. The inscriptions, as can be seen below, include references to Di, the high god of the Shang. The offering of cult to Di, however, was rarely divined, perhaps because, unlike the ancestors, Di was virtually beyond human comprehension and influence.

Sacrifices and Rituals

[A] [Preface:] Divined: [Charge:] “[We] should offer to Xiang Jia, Father Geng, and Father Xin [the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth kings], one cow.”

[B] [Preface:] Divined: [Charge:] “[We] should not offer to Xiang Jia, Father Geng, and Father Xin, one cow.”

Mobilizations

[Preface:] Crack-making on dingyou [day 34], Que divined: [Charge:] “This season, the king raises five thousand men to campaign against the Tufang; he will receive assistance in this case.” [Postface:] Third moon.

Military Campaigns

[A] Divined: “It should be Zhi Guo whom the king joins to attack the Bafang, [for if he does] Di will [confer assistance] on us.”

[B] “It should not be Zhi Guo whom the king joins to attack the Bafang [for if he does] Di may not [confer assistance] on us.”

Meteorological Phenomena

[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on bingshen [day 33], Que divined: [Charge:] “On the coming yisi [day 42], [we] will perform the you-ritual to Xia Yi [the twelfth king].” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “When [we] perform the yow-ritual there will be occasion for calamities; there may be thunder.” [Verification:] On yisi [day 42], [we] performed the you-ritual. At dawn it rained; at the beheading sacrifice it stopped raining; when the beheading sacrifice was all done, it likewise rained; when [we] displayed [the victims] and split them open, it suddenly cleared.

[B] [Verification:] In the night of yisi [day 42] there was thunder in the west.

Agriculture

[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on [bing-]chen [day 53], Que divined: [Charge:] “We will receive millet harvest.”

[B] [Preface:] Crack-making on bingchen [day 53], Que divined: [Charge:] “We may not receive millet harvest.” (Postface:) Fourth moon.

[C] [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “Auspicious. We will receive this harvest.”

Sickness

Divined: “There is a sick tooth; it is not Father Yi [the twentieth king, Wu Ding’s father] who is harming [it].”

Childbirth

[A] [Preface:] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Que divined: [Charge:] “Lady Hao [a consort of Wu Ding] will give birth and it will be good.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “If it be on a ding day that she give birth, it will be good. If it be on a geng day that she give birth, it will be prolonged auspiciousness.” [Verification:] [After] thirty-one days, on jiayin [day 51], she gave birth. It was not good. It was a girl.

[B] [Preface:] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Que divined: [Charge:] “Lady Hao will give birth and it may not be good.” [Verification:] [After] thirty-one days, on jiayin [day 51], she gave birth. It really was not good. It was a girl.

Disaster, Distress, or Trouble

[A] Crack-making on jiashen [day 21], Zheng divined: “This rain will be disastrous for us.”

[B] Divined: “This rain will not be disastrous for us.”

Dreams

[A] Crack-making on jichou [day 26], Que divined: “The king’s dream was due to Ancestor Yi.”

[B] Divined: “The king’s dream was not due to Ancestor Yi.”

Settlement Building

[A] Crack-making on renzi [day 49], Zheng divined: “If we build a settlement, Di will not obstruct [but] approve.” Third moon.

[B] Crack-making on guichou [day 50], Zheng divined: “If we do not build a settlement, Di will approve.”

Orders

Crack-making on [jia]wu [day 31], Bin divined: “It should be Lady Hao whom the king orders to campaign against the Yi.”

Tribute Payments

[Marginal notation:] Wo brought in one thousand [shells]; Lady Jing [a consort of Wu Ding] ritually prepared forty of them. [Recorded by the diviner] Bin.

Divine Assistance or Approval

[A] Crack-making on xinchou [day 38], Que divined: “Di approves the king.”

[B] Divined: “Di does not approve the king.”

Requests to Ancestral or Nature Powers

Crack-making on xinhai [day 48], Gu divined: “In praying for harvest to Yue [a mountain spirit], [we] make a burnt offering of three small penned sheep [and] split open three cattle.” Second moon.

The Night or the Day

[A] Crack-making on renshen [day 9], Shi divined: “This night there will be no disasters.”

[B] Divined: “This night it will not rain.” Ninth moon.

Hunting Expeditions and Excursions

On renzi [day 49] the king made cracks and divined: “[We] hunt at Zhi; going and coming back there will be no harm.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “Prolonged auspiciousness.” [Verification:] This was used. [We] caught forty-one foxes, eight mi-deer, one rhinoceros.

The Ten-Day Week

[A] On guichou [day 50], the king made cracks and divined: “In the [next] ten days, there will be no disasters.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “Auspicious.”

[B] On guihai [day 60], the king made cracks and divined: “In the [next] ten days, there will be no disasters.” [Prognostication:] The king read the cracks and said: “Auspicious.”

Translated by David N. Keightley

2 THE METAL BOUND BOX

The cult of the ancestors and the practice of divination as a means of learning the wishes of the ancestors remained important in the early Zhou period. This is shown in the story below concerning the Duke of Zhou, brother of the founder of the Zhou dynasty. King Wu. When King Wu died, his son, King Cheng, was still a child. The Duke of Zhou acted as regent for him for seven years but never attempted to take the throne himself. The story here, which begins while King Wu is still alive, shows the duke’s assumptions about the needs, desires, and powers of ancestors.

This selection is from the Book of Documents, a collection of purported speeches, pronouncements, and arguments of the early kings and their advisers. The oldest of these documents date from the beginning of the Zhou dynasty, although the one included here is probably of later date. This book became one of the Five Classics, held sacred by the Confucians. Even though each document deals with a particular political situation, as a group they have been taken to provide an ideal statement of how government should be conducted.

Two years after he had conquered the Shang dynasty, King Wu became ill and grew despondent. The two ducal councillors advised making a reverent divination on behalf of the king. However, the Duke of Zhou said, “We must not upset our royal ancestors.”

The duke then took the burden upon himself. He constructed three altars on a single lot of cleared ground. Then he constructed another altar to the south, facing north. Standing there, he arranged the jade disc and grasped the jade baton. Then he addressed his ancestors, King Tai, King Ji, and King Wen. The scribe recorded his prayer. It read, “Your principal descendant, whose name I dare not utter, has contracted a terrible and cruel illness. Heaven has made you three kings responsible for your distinguished son. Take me as a substitute for the king. I was kind and obedient to my father. I have many talents and skills, and can serve the ghosts and spirits. Your principal descendant is not as talented or skilled as I, nor can he serve the ghosts and spirits as well. Furthermore, he was given a mandate by the imperial ancestor to lend assistance to the four quarters that he might firmly establish your sons and grandsons here on the earth below. There are no people from the four quarters who do not stand in awe of him. Alas! Do not let the precious mandate which Heaven has conferred on him fail. With him, our royal ancestors will always have a refuge. I now seek a decree from the great tortoise. If you grant my request, I shall take the jade disc and baton and return to await your decree.”

He divined with three tortoises, and they all indicated good fortune. He then opened the lock and looked at the writing; it too indicated good fortune. The duke said, “The configuration shows that the king will not suffer harm, and that I, the small child, have obtained a renewed mandate from the three kings. It is the long range that must be considered, and so I await my fate. They will take care of our king.” The duke returned and put the scribe’s record in a metal bound box. By the next day the king had improved.

After King Wu died, the Duke of Zhou’s older brother, Guan Shu, along with his younger brothers, spread rumors around the country that the duke was not benefiting the young king. The Duke of Zhou informed the two ducal councillors, “Unless I flee from my brothers, I will not be able to report to our royal ancestors.” The duke then lived in the east for two years, until the criminals were caught. Afterwards, he composed a poem, called “The Owl,” which he presented to the young king. King Cheng, for his part, did not blame the duke at all.

In the autumn when the grain was full and ripe but not yet harvested, Heaven sent down a wind accompanied by great thunder and lightning. The grain was completely flattened. Even great trees were uprooted, and the citizens were very much afraid. King Cheng and his officers all put on their ceremonial caps and went to open the great writings in the metal bound box. Then they discovered the burden that the Duke of Zhou had taken on himself, how he had wished to substitute himself for King Wu. The two ducal councillors and the king then asked the scribe and all of the officers whether this had in fact happened. They replied, “It is true, but, oh, the duke commanded us not to utter a word about it.”

The king took up the writing and cried, saying, “We need not reverently divine. Formerly the duke worked diligently for the royal family, but I was only a child and did not realize it. Now He...