Three Dynasties and the Rise of Civilization in China

1
Three Dynasties and the Rise of Civilization in
China

• Xia, Shang and Zhou
• 4,400-2,256 years ago (2200-256 BC)
• The Path to Political Authority through
• Individual status in hierarchically organized
  clans and segmentary lineages
• Exclusive access to heaven and heavenly spirits
• A network of regional polities with significant
  resources
• Merit of living rulers, mythic and real, if
  benefit to the populace
• Writing, to record position in the kin system and
  to spiritual (ancestral) wisdom
• Wealth (especially cast bronze) and its aura
• Military apparatus including chariot-divisions
  and bronze weapons

2
Xia, Shang and Zhou

• Xia 4400-3750 y.a. (2200-1750 B.C.)Ssu Clan
• Founder Great Yu, of supernatural birth, selected
  by Shun, 5th of the 5 legendary emperors to rule
• Xia reigned for 14 generations (about 32 yrs
  each) with 17 kings (27 yrs)
• Unworthy Xia King Chieh was displaced by Tang of
  the Shang
• Shang 3750-3100 y.a.Tzu Clan
• Clan founded by Hsieh, of supernatural birth,
  perhaps 4200 y.a.
• 13 generations of kings prior to overthrowing Xia
  in e. lowlands
• Shang reigned for 18 generations (ca 35 yrs) with
  31 kings (21 yrs)
• Unworthy Shang King Chou (Ti Hsin) overthrown by
  Wu Wang of Zhou
• Zhou 3100-2256 y.a.Chi Clan
• Founder Hou Chi, claimed a descendant of the
  Supreme God, also of supernatural birth and with
  a western origin (late comers to statehood)
• 15 generations prior to over-throwing Shang (ca.
  3540 y.a.)
• 32 generations reigned (ca. 26 yrs) and 39 kings
  (ca. 21 yrs)
• Fictive leader among many powerful states ca.
  2770 y.a. one lesser state among several major
  warring states 2580 y.a. under Chin domination
  by 2256 y.a. but continued in name to 2221 y.a.

3
Sources of Evidence Xia, Shang Zhou

• Contemporary texts (on Shang Zhou ritual bronze
  vessels, on animal shoulder blades and turtle
  shells)
• Recorded oral tradition compiled 2700-2400 y.a.
  and known as the Confucian classics Yi, The Book
  of Changes (Yi Ching) Shih, The Book of Odes
  Shu, The Book of Documents Chun Chiu, The
  Spring-and-Autumn Annals and commentaries San
  Li, The Three Books of Rituals.
• Poetry from central China compiled in Chu Tzu,
  The Elegies of Chu philosophical works such as
  Lun Yu, The Confucian Analects, and Meng Tzu
  (Mencius) and several books known as the Bamboo
  Annals, unearthed 1700 y.a.!
• Artifacts in stone, clay, wood, bamboo, silk and
  bronze
• Settlement information (palace remains, town
  walls, etc.) excavated over the past 80 years
  from Xia, Shang, Zhou and earlier.
• Testable theories of cultural systems and sources
  of culture change.

4
Extent of Xia, Shang and W. Zhou Dominion

• Use Chang map p.1 as base and draw
• 1. Xia, showing pre-dynastic Shang to east ca.
  4200 y.a.
• 2. fade out Xia and expand Shang add
  pre-dynastic Zhou to west ca. 3540 y.a.
• 3. fade out Shang and expand W. Zhou on the same
  base map ca. 3100 y.a.

5
Clans Lineages, Towns New Communities, and
Political Relationships in the Three Dynasties

• Three clans, Ssu, Tzu and Chi, among many,
  founded the Three Dynasties and their rise and
  fall in state leadership is a continuum of 2000
  years.
• Each clan was stratified based on proximity to
  the founder (his eldest son, and so on) and
  consisted of lineage groups that were also
  stratified and, individuals had different
  political status.
• New communities formed when a member of the
  rulers lineage was sent to do so, along with
  labor military forcesthis splitting off from
  the main stem of the lineage created a new
  (junior) lineage line, beholden to the ruler and
  of lesser status.
• The focal point of the segmentary lineage was the
  planned, walled town, an administrative center
  (of the rulers state itself) with the rulers
  and new founders ancestor temples, palaces,
  markets, earth altar, etc. ideally, the main
  gates and doors opened to the south.
• A myriad of towns existed, inhabited by members
  of discrete clans and lineages, and these towns
  were linked in political hierarchies according to
  the kin relations and interactions (marriage,
  etc.) of their leaders.
• Over time, the number of towns and states
  decreased in number.
• Insert chang 22 idealized plan of Loyang

6
Moral Authority and Coercive Power During the
Three Dynasties

• With many clans claiming divine descent, there
  was competition for rulership hence the concept
  of Heavens Mandate or deservedness to rule.
  Shang deserved to rule because of the failures of
  the last Xia king Zhou because of the last Shang
  rulers despotism. Individual states were gobbled
  up by stronger ones over time.
• The new dynastic founder also claimed rule based
  on merit (one of the later Confucian ideals) and
  could back up the claim as needed through the
  lineages.
• The lineage itself was the focus for coercion, at
  the lowest level led by a male with military and
  civic duties over 100 or so householdsany
  defiance could be punished. At the highest
  level, the ruler was the supreme head of all
  lineages, and responsible for maintaining order
  throughout the kingdom.
• Rituals (li) codified rules of behavior (set
  examples) and were undertaken in the ancestral
  temple (where the heroic clan ancestors and
  lineage founders were maintained). The ruler
  performed rituals for all the people, and so on
  down the line.

7
Shamanism, Divination, Ritual and Political
Authority during the Three Dynasties

• The king inquired into many future events and
  prognosticated on them, thereby serving the
  people well through this wisdom.
• The act of prognostication required special rich
  clothing, dancing, music, etc. (divine
  courtship is a term some apply). The goal was
  to woo the god down from heaven for consultation.
• Evidence of divination through scapulamancy is
  ancient6,000-7,000 y.a.-- using animal shoulder
  bones/scapulae.
• Insert figures of scapulae, Chang 52-53
• Later we have the archived Shang scapulae and
  turtle shells which record some questions asked
  of and some answers given by the gods to the
  king, often through an ancestor.
• Associated in the divination were animal
  sacrifices and the use of bronze ritual vessels
  hence, we look to art for further insights into
  rituals that were central to the king maintaining
  and justifying his political authority.
• Shamans originally handled religious matters
  between heaven, locus of all wisdom, and earth
  thus, access to that wisdom was necessary for
  political authority. In the Three Dynasties,
  particularly Xia, Shang and early Zhou, the king
  was the head shaman, assisted at court by other
  specialists.

8
The Role of Art in Political Authority during the
Three Dynasties
9
The Role of Writing in Political Authority During
the Three Dynasties

• Myth says that writing was invented in the court
  of the Yellow Emperor.
• 88 symbols on pre-Xia village pottery, beginning
  8,000 y.a., include many identical with early
  Chinese characters.
• With only one or a few/site, often spatially
  distinct, few repeated among sites, they may be
  emblems of leading families, lineages or clans.
• Insert yangshao emblems Chang p. 83
• Power of the written word in China seems to be
  associated with knowledge wisdom that the
  ancestors assisted the king divine from heaven
  (and not records of commerce as in Sumer).
• Knowledge wisdom of past experience is
  associated with predicting contemplated
  actionsand a central purpose of traditional
  historiography in China, along with the writing
  on bones, shell and bronze, is to sanctify the
  ruler his political authority.

10
Bronze as a Medium of Political Authority in the
Three Dynasties

• Bronze ritual vessels were used during divination
  rituals and they were a form of wealth,
  sactification of power and history. Designs of
  animal go-betweens and elaborate cast ritual
  objects symbolize power and authority.
• The Nine Bronze Tripods (chiu ting) were symbolic
  of legitimate dynastic rule, beginning with Xia
  and the Great Yus rule they were said to have
  transferred to Shang and later to Zhou.
• Bronzes were also symbols of wealth power in
  the narrower sense, because of the technology
  associated with them (mining, smelting,
  transporting, alloying, casting and
  finishingbefore use in rituals or consumption
  through burial).
• Insert shapes from Chang p. 102 map 104

11
The Rise of Political Authority During the Three
Dynasties 1 Neolithic Foundations

• How did the 7 inter-related factors that enabled
  political power to concentrate in the hands of a
  ruling elite come to be?
• In Yangshao neolithic sites we see villages that
  are planned and segmented, possibly into
  unilinear kin groups marks on pottery reinforce
  the settlement evidence for clans and lineages
  and painted pottery depicts shaman-like
  characters wearing animal helpers.
• In contemporary and later Dawenkou sites to the
  east we see scapulamancy use of the wheel for
  finishing pottery non-utilitarian pottery shapes
  indicating early industrial specialization
  large, wood-chambered and rich tombs attesting to
  increasing wealth and social differentiation,
  especially of males burials indicating lineage
  cemeteries wealth in the form of jades other
  symbols of authority ability of some to
  commandeer labor to construct large tombs etc.
• In various slightly later neolithic sites we see
  clay ancestor tablets in the form of phalli
  towns with thick walls indications of armed
  conflict ritual objects and pottery with animal
  masks similar to those found on Shang bronzes
  (e.g., animal mediums for communicating with
  heaven) evidence of inter-regional trade in
  goods for the high status individuals.