Tomb of Fu Hao

The location of the graves of their queens is not known. However, the discovery of intact Burial M5 in 1976, which housed the remains of FU HAO, has enlarged the understanding of the wealth of royal women’s graves and their possible location at Anyang. This tomb, which belonged to a consort of King Wu Ding, contained considerable wealth, expressed in bronzes and jades of outstanding quality The base of the pit was lined with wood to form a chamber, in which lay nested and lacquered wooden coffins. Sixteen individuals, a number that included men, WOMEN, and children, accompanied the primary burial. Some burials were placed in wall niches on each side of the tomb; others rested within the grave fill, which was composed of layers of stamped earth.

This tomb is most renowned for the wealth of the mortuary offerings for the dead person. Among them are 468 bronzes, including the most significant group of ritual wine and food vessels known from Shang contexts. Some of these were inscribed with the name of Fu Hao, thereby for the only time in the history of Shang studies illuminating the burial of a person specifically named in the oracle bones. The grave also contained about 7,000 cowry shells, 755 items of jade, hundreds of bone ornaments, and three rare ivory cups decorated with turquoise inlay The two largest bronze vessels weighed 120 kilograms (264 lbs.) each. Several other cemeteries at Anyang contained the graves of the population at large. These seem to have been structured along lineage lines, as the senior members had the largest and best furnished chambers.

Workshops

As at Zhengzhou, greater Anyang incorporated a series of specialist workshops. One of these at Miaopu, dedicated to the casting of ritual bronze vessels, covered one hectare (2.5 acres). Another bronze workshop specialized in casting tools and weapons. Bronze weapons were clearly a vital element in the maintenance of the Shang dynasty. They include dagger axes, spearheads, and arrowheads.

Shields were strengthened with bronze, and this metal was used in the components for chariots. There were also ceramic centers, bone workshops, and an area dedicated to making stone artifacts. One pit, for example, contained as many as 1,000 sickles, some of which were incomplete. Bone workshops produced a wide variety of items, including hairpins, awls, and arrowheads.

PROVINCIAL CITIES

The oracle bones often mention centers beyond the capital but under Shang control, and one example of such a site at Panlongcheng, in the middle Chang (Yangtze) Valley, has been examined. it had been occupied between about 1500 and 1200 b. c.e. As was Zhengzhou to the north, it was surrounded by stamped-earth walls, and much evidence of industrial activity was located beyond this central area. it is, however, much smaller, the walls enclosing an area of only 7.5 hectares (18.75 acres). The local ruler lived in a palace raised on a stamped-earth platform in the city, but again the extramural area included a bronze-casting area, complete with the remains of copper slag and broken crucible fragments. Many of the bronzes were placed in the cemetery that was evidently restricted to the elite members of the community; one such grave contained 63 bronzes, including ritual vessels, weapons, tools, many items of jade, and the skeletons of three sacrificial victims. There are two other cemeteries at this site, one containing moderately wealthy individuals, and the other poor graves with only a pottery vessel as a mortuary offering.

TAIXICUN is a second major provincial Shang site, located in Hebei province. it covered at least 10 hectares (25 acres), within which excavations have revealed houses of between one and three rooms constructed of stamped earth and unfired clay brick, in addition to the foundations of a much larger house. Sacrificial remains of humans and animals associated with the large residence suggest that it was occupied by an elite member of the community. The cemetery contains a small number of well-endowed, graves including fine bronze vessels, weapons, jades, gold ornaments, and oracle bones. One burial incorporated a ledge to retain sacrificed bodies. Other graves, however, were markedly poorer and contained only ceramic vessels and the occasional bronze. Pottery shards include scratched written graphs, and a particularly interesting find, an ax, was made from meteoric rather than smelted iron. Far to the north, a grave has been found at Pinggu in Beijing, where a second meteoric iron ax has been found together with Shang ritual bronze vessels. It is intriguing to note the presence of gold ornaments more typical of the lower xiajiadian culture than that of metropolitan Shang.

SUFUTUN is a further important site dated to the period of the Shang dynasty. it is located to the east of Anyang, in Shandong province. Four elite graves were excavated, and the wealth of mortuary offerings indicates the presence of a royal center. One of the four graves followed the layout well known at the Shang capital, having a central rectangular tomb chamber linked with a large main entrance ramp and three entrance passageways. The junction of the ramp and the tomb chamber was choked with the remains of human sacrificial victims, among which 47 individuals were counted. There were also five dog skeletons. More than 4,000 cowry shells were recovered, symbolizing wealth and fertility. The grave pit was surrounded by a podium in which three ancillary burials were placed. The northern wall of the podium contained two further pits for large ceremonial bronze axes. This grave in all probability was that of a regional king of the state of Bogu, which is mentioned in the oracle bones as a Shang ally.

RAW MATERIALS

The wide reach of the Shang kings involved not only dependent settlements, but also the control of sources of vital raw materials. Oracle-bone texts make it clear that the success of the millet and rice harvests was of paramount importance in providing the surpluses necessary to sustain the court, and the symbols used in the writing system include hoes, spades, and probably a plow. The king owned agricultural estates and sent royal labor gangs to open new land in his name. Officials were given instructions to develop new estates. The Shang landscape, however, appears to have been dotted with villages associated with millet fields. Cultivation of this crop was probably afflicted by natural pests and inclement weather conditions, if the oracle divinations are any guide. Domestic stock was also important, and the bone workshops of Anyang processed the remains of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and horses. Some of the cattle shoulder blades and ribs were further used in divination. One oracle text described the provision of 50 pairs of ox scapulae for this purpose.

Supplies of copper and tin were of major strategic importance for providing the ritual vessels that were used in feasts to propitiate ancestors, as well as casting weapons and tools. Jade was an essential raw material for satisfying the elite; hundreds of jades were found in the tomb of Fu Hao. The nearest known source to Anyang was nearly 400 kilometers away. Cowry shells were a currency unit, and some of these had to be from warm tropical seas thousands of kilometers to the south. Turtle shells for use in divinations also had to be transported from the Chang Valley or farther south still. Hence the control of sources or, failing that, the trade routes was necessary to maintain these important links in the trade network.

DEITIES

In the royal capital, much energy was expended in the worship of a range of deities. Temples formed a major portion of the central precinct of Anyang. The gods fall into a number of categories beginning with DI, the high god, and those associated with natural forces, such as the sun, rain, thunder, and wind. Oracle-bone texts confirm di’s control over nature. Thus, in one example, it was divined “di, in the fourth Moon, will order rain.” He might also influence military matters by ordering war on an enemy state. Ultimately, the Zhou described how it was the di who enjoined them to attack and destroy the Shang themselves.

However, at Anyang after the reign of Wu Ding, di was less frequently cited as responsible for controlling the elements, while the ancestors increasingly assumed this role. The ancestors were a major group of divinities. Preference was given to the principal former kings in direct line of descent and their consorts who were mothers of a king. Their individual spirit tablets were located in temples where the ritual obligations were fulfilled. Wine was consumed, meat cooked, and humans and animals sacrificed. These were undertaken to seek the ancestors’ benign influence in the provision of, for example, rain, success in war, safe deliverance of sons, and good harvests. These rituals were attended by senior members of the royal clan and were accompanied by feasting. A graph describes a ritual shows two men facing a large vessel. Again, the casting of huge wine and food containers of bronze was a key element in the Shang bronze repertoire.

The Shiji contains a graphic account of the end of the Shang dynasty. The last king was dissolute and licentious. He tortured his enemies, and leading ministers defected. King Wu of Zhou marshaled his forces to attack Shang and defeated them at the battle of muye in about 1045 C. E. The defeated king “put on his jade suit and jumped into a fire.” A thousand years later, we learn that jade suits were worn by dead members of the royal family to ensure immortality. However, the last Shang ruler was decapitated by the Zhou king, who was then accorded the MANDATE OF HEAVEN.

Further reading: Chang, K.-C. The Shang Civilization. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980; Keightley, D. N. Sources of Shang History: The Oracle Bones of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978; Loewe, M., and E. L. Shaugnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Shang Yang (fourth century b. c.e.) Shang Yang was one of the foremost statesmen of the warring states Period (475-221 B. C.E.) in China.

SIMA QIAN in his great history of China, the SHIJI, devoted a biographical chapter to him but clearly had no sympathy for his policies and reviled his achievements. Shang Yang adopted a ruthless and totalitarian approach both to local administration and to war, when he took the field. Shang Yang was born in the small state of WEI and rose to prominence in the royal household. When the leading minister fell ill, this minister advised the king to appoint Shang Yang his successor. The minister had recognized the qualities of Shang Yang, because he warned the king that if he did not appoint Shang Yang, he should have him killed to prevent him from crossing the border and serving another state. The advice went unheeded on both counts, and soon thereafter Shang Yang heard that the duke Xiao of qin (r. 361-338 b. c.e.) was actively seeking men of talent to join his administration. He was presented to the duke on three occasions, but without being offered an appointment. On the fourth interview, the duke was taken by Shang Yang’s advice on strengthening his administration and securing fame in his own lifetime. Shang Yang was appointed and set in train a series of reforms that were to change the very nature of the state and equip Qin with the social and physical means of dominating its rivals.

LEGAL REFORMS

The Shiji describes how Shang Yang first turned his attention to the legal system. To control the rural population, he created laws providing for the division of the population into groups of five to 10 households. Every member was required to watch and report on others. Punishment for those who failed to report a criminal was draconian: to be cut in half at the waist. But there were rewards for those who reported criminal activity. This marshaling of the populace was a prelude to a system of taxation that fostered production: if two adult men lived in the same household, their military tax would be doubled. This measure was designed to ensure that all men were encouraged to undertake agricultural production. Likewise, the families who worked hard to grow large quantities of grain or produce silk and cloth were exempt from the need to work for the state. The indolent would be conscripted as slaves and forced to work. At first, the laws were highly criticized, but in due course the absence of banditry and the clear path to rewards and honor for those who worked or achieved in battle led to widespread approval. Such rewards were carefully graded for those who fought in the Qin army. Promotion turned on battlefield success, measured in the number of enemy heads severed. The higher the rank, the greater the rewards, including land grants and property

ADMINISTRATION

Shang Yang had the land of Qin divided by pathways into uniform blocks that could be cultivated by a single household and then imposed an extra poll tax on the families with more than one adult man living together. This encouraged the splitting of households and the departing male’s to move to a new block of land to farm. Detailed population registers were maintained, and the establishment of a territorial subdivision known as a xian was instituted. It was the duty of the xian administrator to maintain the register and collect the poll or head tax. There were 41 such xian in the state of Qin, and each formed the basis for recruiting men for the army, all being registered from the age of 15. At the same time, Shang Yang discouraged merchants by sending them on extended garrison duties, forbidding them to wear silk clothes, and saddling them with higher taxes. A system of graded titles, which had benefits for those who showed valor and success in battle, was instituted. They were given land and the use of slave labor, often involving prisoners of war. The height of a person’s burial mound and the number of trees planted on it were determined by rank.

MILITARY ACTION

Shang Yang was not only a political but also a military leader. He led victorious Qin forces against Wei at the Battle of Maling in 341 b. c.e. The following year, he showed a distinct Machiavellian touch when he persuaded the duke Xiao that the state of Wei should be the prime target for a military campaign because of its proximity and potential danger. The duke agreed and sent Shang Yang with an army to attack Wei. Shang Yang persuaded Ang, the Wei commander, to parley a truce. Having agreed to a covenant of peace, he then had his guards capture Ang and launched a successful onslaught against the Wei army. This led to their retreat, the abandonment of Anyi, and the ceding of land.

CAPITAL CITY

The establishment of a totalitarian state under the guiding hand of Shang Yang is also seen in the move to a new capital at Xianyang. This strategic location along the bank of the Wei River provided an opportunity for an entirely new approach to the tradition of first building an ancestral temple. He set in train the construction instead of the Jique Palace. This building program began with two ceremonial halls that were described by Sima Qian as Jique, or the gate towers on which official notices were posted. The palace itself was raised on three levels supported by an earth core, its size and height clearly projecting the power of the ruler. Its halls were decorated with painted scenes including four-horse chariots and elegant women.

SHANG YANG’S END

In 338 B. C.E., Duke Xiao died, to be succeeded by King Hui Wen. Shang Yang’s fall from grace and death were graphically described by Sima Qian. First, he was accused of fomenting a rebellion, and hearing that troops had been dispatched to arrest him, he fled and sought shelter in an inn. There the inn owner reminded him that it was necessary for him to register his name under the laws of Shang Yang himself. He then went to the state of Wei, where the local administration, recalling his treachery, returned him to Qin. He then made his way to his own manor and there met his end when Qin troops arrived. King Hui ordered that he be torn to pieces by chariots and his entire household exterminated. His influence, memory, and writings, however, lived on. He was often quoted by Han historians, and his legal reforms laid the foundations for the rise to power of Qin and the establishment of a single Chinese state under the first emperor.

Shan-shan Shan-shan is the name of a state that was founded in the first century b. c.e. in the southern and eastern margins of the tarim basin in western China. At its greatest extent, it encompassed the city of NIYA far to the west and progressing eastward the areas and cities of ENDERE, QIEMO (Cherchen), charklik, miran, and lou-LAN. The last site lies at the junction of the Kuruk Dar’ya and Lop-nor Lake, a highly strategic location on the silk ROAD where the traveler could take either the northern or the southern route around the Taklamakan Desert. The latter would in theory involve the transit of the state of shan-shan. This region was unsettled and continuously subject to warlike incursions of the xiongnu.

The history of the shan-shan kingdom was closely tied with that of China. During periods of central power in China, Shan-shan remained a client state, but when China was weak, as it was during the late second and early third centuries C. E., Shan-shan would have been virtually free of foreign domination. The documents recovered from Shan-shan sites, particularly those from Niya, provide much information on this state between about 230 and 335 C. E. The wealth of Shan-shan and its political vicissitudes were intimately related to the traffic of goods along the Silk Road. in Shan-shan the establishment of buddhism can be appreciated through the many religious foundations that have been identified and investigated. The site of Miran is best known for the wall paintings collected and recorded by sir aurel stein. These include scenes of the Buddha and JAKATA tales, sometimes with Western-looking figures. There can be no doubt that the third century was a period of strong Western influence in the kingdom of shan-shan.

ORIGIN OF NAME

The name Shan-shan originated in 77 b. c.e. after conflict between the Han Chinese, who kept a close watch on this area, and the Xiongnu. Both the SHIJI (Records of the Grand Historian) and the Han Shu (History of the Former Han) describe how the Han official Zhang Qian visited this area and took home accounts of the walled cities there. He described the state of Lou-lan as having 1,570 households with 14,100 people, located 1,600 li from the Jade Gate, the official western border of the Han empire at that juncture. it was a region, he said, of sandy and salty soil and few agricultural fields but lay on the Han communication route westward along the vital Silk Road. In 77 B. C.E. a Han envoy visited the court of the king, who had been installed as a puppet ruler by the Xiongnu. The Hanshu describes how everyone enjoyed a drunken dinner party and then the Chinese cut off the king’s head and mounted it on the northern gate of the city

The rebels replaced him with a nominee of their own, one Weitu Qi. This member of the local princely line had been living as a hostage in China, and he was given an official seal of office. However, the sons of his murdered predecessor were still at large, and the new king felt decidedly vulnerable to assassination. He therefore asked for and secured the establishment of a Han military garrison to protect him—thus developed a close paternal relationship between the Han and their client ruler, whose kingdom was now renamed Shan-shan. The location of the capital of Lou-lan before the name was changed is controversial. if the documentary records are accurate in detail, however, the site known as Lou-lan E is the most likely candidate, for it is the only one known with a northern gate. Air photographs reveal to this day the rectangular outline of a walled city in the sandy wastes, a city with no evidence for buddhism and therefore of the appropriate time span. Nor is the capital of Shan-shan known; some think that it was Miran, but Stein preferred Charklik.

WRITTEN EVIDENCE

It is recorded that in 222 the ruler of Shan-shan sent tribute to the Chinese court, and during the reign of the Western jin emperor WUDI (265-289 C. E.), a period of relative stability in China, the western routes were cleared. A remarkable collection of surviving documents on wooden slips, cloth, and paper provides insight into the state of the kingdom during the later third century. Most come from Lou-lan, others from niya. The vast majority date to the Western Jin dynasty, with a concentration in the years 266-270 c. E. The documents were issued by local officials. We learn of the presence of Chinese military commanders and those who supervised agriculture. The son of the king was sent as a hostage to the Western Jin court in 283 C. E. While most of the Lou-lan documents were written in Chinese, most of those from farther west at Niya and Endere appear in the KHAROSHTHI script. Kharoshthi documents on silk have also been found at Miran.

The documents were written in Niya or Kroran PRAKRIT, using the Kharoshthi script. It is possible that this resulted from influence by the kushans, a notion supported by the long and elaborate titles used by the kings of Shan-shan in their documents. These include royal orders, messages, and issues of Buddhist administration. Since they include place names, it is possible to trace references to specific locations and learn the original names of certain centers: Kroran refers to Lou-lan, and Calmadana is now called Qiemo (Cherchen). Endere was then known as Saca, and Niya was Cadota. hotan’s former name, Khotamna, is little changed. Some of the wooden documents have survived complete with their original sealings, and the corpus as a whole has made it possible to reconstruct with some degree of accuracy the names of the kings of Shan-shan and their approximate reign dates.

The sequence began with Tomgraka, followed by Tajaka, Pepiya, Amgvaka, Mahiri, Vasmana, and finally Sulica. The last name was recovered only in 1981, when a document for divorce bearing his name was found at Niya. Amgvaka probably reigned between 255/8 and 293/6 C. E., Mahiri from 292/5 to 320/3 c. e., and Vasmana from 321/324, but the duration of the latter’s rule is not known. Their royal titles began as maharaja (great king), but this was to change to maharaya. During the reign of Amgvaka, his documents were also sealed with the title “The Chinese high commissioner for Shan-shan,” which might well indicate a degree of Chinese influence in administration. The kingdom was a major center for Buddhism, and during his journey west in 399 c. E. the Chinese monk FAXIAN noted that the then ruler was a Buddhist, and the state included several thousand monks. In 442-445, Shan-shan was attacked by Chinese armies, and it succumbed to the northern Wei in 445. This was not the final foreign domination of Shan-shan. In due course, the hephthalite huns and in the sixth century the Turks controlled this region. Then the Chinese under the Tang returned in the mid-seventh century and permitted the local rulers a considerable degree of autonomy until 751 C. E., when the Tang were defeated by the Arabs.