The ancestral landscape: time, space, and community in late Shang China, ca. 1200-1045 B.C.

222 Pages·2016·5.33 MB·English

by  David N Keightley

ToHuHammaniiJ:l~'§'
1911-1995
Teacher andmend
墨子制作
CHINARESEARCHMONOGRAPH 53
The Ancestral Landscape
Time, Space, and Community
in Late Shang China
(ca. 1200-1045 B.C.)
David N. Keightley
FIt_
INSTITUTEOFEASTASIANSTUDms
a~sU UNIVERSITYOFCALIFORNIA. BERKELEY
CENTER FORCHINESESTUDIES
墨子制作
Apublication01the Institute of East AsianStudies, Universityof California,Berkeley.
Althoughthelnstitu~ofEastAsianStudiesisresponsiblefortheselectionandacceptance
ofmanuscriptsinthisseries,responsibilityfortheopinionsexpressedandlortheaccuracy
ofstatementsrestswiththeir authors.
Correspondencemay besentto:
Ms.JoanneSandstrom,ManagingEditor
InstituteofEastASianStudies
UniversityofCalifornia
Berkeley,California94720-2318
g-mad. [email protected]
TheChinaResearch Monographseriesisoneofseveral publicationsseriessponsoredby
the InstituteofEastAsian Studiesin conjunctionwithitsconstituentunits. The others
include theJapan ResearchMonographseries, the Korea Research Monograph series,
and theResearchPapersandPolicyStudiesseries,Allstofrecentpublicationsappearsat
thebackofthe book.
Libraryof CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Keightley,David N.
The ancestrallandscape:time, space, and communityinlateShangChina,ca.
1200-1045B.C.!David N.Keightley
p.em.- (China researchmonograph)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN 1-55729-071J.-9(pbk.)
1.China-c-History-c-Shangdynasty,1766-1122B.C. 2,China-Civilization-To221
B.C. 3.Oraclebones--China. l.Title. Il.ChinaresearchmonographS
05744+
931'.01-dc21
00·029598
Copyright©2000byThe Regents ofthe UniversityofCalifornia
Library ofCongressCatalogCardNumber 00-029598
Printed inthe UnitedStatesofAmerica.
Allrightsres,erved.
墨子制作
Contents
Preface vii
CitationandTranscriptionConventions xiii
1.Climate 1
2.Agriculture 9
AgriculturalSchedule 10
PestsandDiseases 13
3.Time:Days,Nights,andSuns 17
DayandNight 19
Sun Cult 25
TheShangDay 29
4.TIme:CalendricalStructures 37
TheSixtyNDayCycle 37
TheXun 1UWeek 39
TheLunatic» 43
TheFive·RitualCycle 47
TheNumbered SimERitualCycle 50
5.Space: CenterandPeriphery 55
TheCapitalorCultCenter 56
±:
Th TheFourLands 61 r
Fang15AreasandPowers 66
WuIf1Powers 72
GoingsOutandComings In 74
墨子制作
6.Space:Cosmosand Orientation 81
Orientation 82
Cardinal Directions:The Land 86
Cardinal Directions:TheWeather 91
DivinationBonesasWorldMaps 93
7.Community:TheLandandItsInhabitants 97
TheRoyalCommunity 98
OtherCommunities 103
Men,Animals.andLandscape 107
Powerson theLand 113
8.Cosmologiesand Legacies: The"Winds" ofShang 121
Figures 131
Tables 143
KeytotheInscriptionsTranslated, byReferenceNumber 147
IndextotheInscriptionsTranslated 153
BibliographyA:AbbreviationsfortheOracle-Bone
CollectionsandReferenceWorksCited 159
BibliographyB:OtherWorksCited 163
Index 201
墨子制作
Preface
The Shang dynasty isimportantbecause it was the first Chinese dy
nastytohave leftwrittenrecordsandbecause,asthoserecordsreveal,
itsculturalchoicesweretoprovideasignificantlegacyforthe Zhouand
Handynastiesthatfollowed.' The symbolic orderthattheLate Shang
elitescreatedfor themselvesandfor theirworldis,accordingly,ofcon
siderable historicalinterest. "Late Shang;" the span oftime covered in
thisbook,referstotheperiodfor whichwehaveInscriptions(ca.1200
1045B.C.),from thereignofWuDing:LEtT(thetwenty-firstShangking;
see figure 1)tothereignofDiXin:m*(the twenty-ninth].
Thefirsttwochaptersare introductory;theyaddresstheclimateand
agriculture of the Anyang :>Z~ region, in the northern Henan pan
handle,inthelast fewcenturiesof the secondmillenniumB.C. Idonot
claimthat the environmentalbase determined the Late Shang super
structure,that"geographyisdestiny,"butIdo urgethatanyattemptto
understandthegenesisoftheShangworldorderneedstoconsiderthe
influenceofthebiologicalandclimatologicalbuildingblockswithwhich
theShangelites,andpeasantrytoo,workedastheyconstructedanIndp
ientChinesecosmologyon theNorthChinaplain.'
1.Forthe natureofthe Shanglegacy,whichcanbediscernedinmanyarea,ofthe
laterpoliticalculture,see,e.g.,Creel 1937:254;TangYlngya1975;Keightley1978a,1984,
1988.1999b:289-91;Allan 1979;Schwartz1985:16-39;Pankenier1995;see 100chapter8.
z.By"cosmology"Imeanatheoryormodelofthephysicaluniverseconsideredas
atotalityofphenomenaintimeandspace.ForrecentaccountsofearlyChinesecosmology,
seeAllan1991:74-111;Pankenier1995;HwangMing-chorng1996;Wang Ailre,inpress.
tlii 墨子制作
viii Preface
The next five chapters address Shang notions of time, space, and
community.Withregardtotime, muchofmyconcerniswith the ways
inwhichtheShangunderstoodand gavestructuretothe passage ofthe
hours, days, andmonths. Withregard tospace,Ifollowotherscholars
in treatinglandscapesas"constructsoftheimaginationprojectedonto
woodand waterand rock"(Schama1995:61).Landscape,inotherwords,
asopposedtoterrainortopography,is"aculturalandsocialconstruction,
representinganartificialworld asifitweresimplygivenandinevitable"
(Mitchell1994:2).Myinterestisin howthe LateShangconstrued and
mediatedtheirexternalworld,intheculturetheybuiltuponthatexternal
world,andin how that externalworld shapedthatculture. Iam inter
ested,moreover,inwhatYi-fuTuan(1'174:4,113)hastermed"tcpophllla,"
"theaffectivebondbetweenpeopleandplaceor setting" that"couples
sentimentwithplace."And Irefer tothe Shanglandscapeasancestral,
notonly becauseitwas inhabitedby ancestral(and other)Powers,but
alsobecause thelandscape,bothrealandsymbolic,playedagenerative
and religiousroleintheculturethattileShangcreatedand transmitted.
Asto communities,theyare,asBenedictAnderson (1991:6)has noted,
alwaysimagined,and theyare"tobedistinguished,notbytheirfalsity/
genuineness,butby the style in which they are imagined." Iam inter
estedinthestyle,asweseeitprimarilyin theirdivinationinscriptions,
with which theShangimagined and createdtheir world,bothhuman
and natural.Thebookisthusprimarilyastudyinretrospectivecultural
anthropologyratherthan,say,astudyofShangpoliticsor economics.'
And given the theoretical difficultiesinvolvedinisolating andranking
thefactorsthatplayedaroleinthegenesisofasenseoforderandidentity
somethree thousandyearsago,mytreatmentfavorsa"thickdescription"
thatothers,perhaps,may usetoquestionsomeofmyconclusions.
That description, as Ihave indicated, isbased primarily upon the
oracle-boneinscriptionsoftheLate Shangdynasty, divinationrecords
thatprovideuswith numerousinsightsintotheexperiencesandpriorities
oftheShangkings.'Theserecords,theearliestbodyofwritingyetfound
in East Asia,wereproducedin the following way.The diviner, some
times the king,butoftenanofficerattheShangcourt,presidedover the
divinatoryritual.The divinerannouncedthe subject ofthe divination,
termed a "charge" (mingci ff(J~) by modern scholars, and applied an
3.Foran introduction tothose aspectsofShang experience,see,e.g.,K. C.Chang
1980:210-59;Keightley1983,1999b:269--a9.
4.The rubbingsofmore than46,000inscribed oracle bones have nowbeenpub
lished (for these figures, see Keightley 1990b:40,53).Foran introductionto the Shang
oracle-boneinscriptionsandtheir useassources,seeKeightley1978,199tlb,1997,1997b,
1999c.
墨子制作
Preface
intenseheatsourceto thehollow thathadbeenpreviouslycarvedinto
theback ofa cattle scapula or turtleplastron; having been thinned in
thisway,theboneorshellcrackedasaresultoftheheatstress, producing
abu- l- shapedcrack(visibleinfigures7and8)onthefrontsurface.The
kingtheninterpreted thecrackasaresponse,"lucky" or "unlucky" in
varyingdegrees,to thechargethathadbeenproposed.Hepronounced
hisforecast. Someor all ofthisinformation, which had probablybeen
writtendowninsomeformof"diviner'snotebook"atthetimetheritual
was performed,was eventuallycarvedasarecordinto the surfaceofthe
boneor shell, togetherwith,onoccasion,a"verification" thatrecorded
whathad actually happened.' Most divinationswerenotrecorded so
completely,butafulldivinatoryrecordwouldhaveconsistedofapreface
(thedate of the divination and the name of the diviner, which I have
generallyomittedintheinscriptionsbelow;seep.xiv),acharge(thesub
jectmatter,which,inmytranslations,Iplaceindoublequotationmarks),
a prognostication (the Icing'sforecast, asin inscriptions (23),[54AB],[58J
below),andaverification(theresults,asin [3AJ,[18J,[19]).Anoccasional
postjaceprovidedmoreinformationaboutthedateandplaceofdivination
andthecircumstancesunderwhichithadbeenperformed(asin[54ABJ,
[58],[108]).6Theinscribedboneswereprobablykeptabovegroundfora
period of time and were then placed in storage pits in the area of the
temple-palacecomplexat XiaotunIJ\Jij" threekilometers northwestof
modernAnyang.Theylayintheground,unknowntoscholarsuntilthe
startof thetwentiethcentury?
Bypresentinga relatively large number of inscriptions, I hope, in
some smallway,togivereadersanalmosttactile sense,notonlyofwhat
itwastobeaLateShangkingandaLateShangdiviner,butalsoofwhat
it is to be a scholar who works with these materials. My reaction to
iioguuenhejiEfl~X'El~, therecentlypublishedcompendiumofalmost
42,000oraclebones,isworthquotinghere:
Iwould..,stressthesenseofimmediatecontactwiththeinscriptions
thatHeji provides.Itisinstructive,evenmoving,forexample,toread
through some1,300rubbings fromthe reign ofWuDing(Heji 11750
13048),allconcernedwithrainfall;thecrackingand engravingofthis
vastquantityofevent-specificbonesand shellsremindsoneafreshof
the effortinvolvedin performingand recording these divinationsso
5,ForafullerintroductiontoShangdivination,seeKeightley1978:6--56.Ontheex
Istenceoftheputative"diviners'notebooks,"see Keightley1999c:218-19.
6.Forafurtheraccountofthesedivisionsandterms,see Keightley1978:Z8-30,33
35.40--45.Foran inscriptionwithfour oftheseparismarked,see[51].
7.Forthediscoveryandearlyscholarlyinvestigationoftheoracle-boneinscriptions,
see Lefeuvre1975;WangYuxin1981:3-25;WuHaokunandPanY墨ou子19制85:作1-18.
Preface
vitaltothewell-beingofthedynasty....Indeed,theexperienceofleaf
ingthroughpageafterpageofrubbingsdevoted...toaparticulartopic
isquite unlike thatinvolvedinconsultingthestandardized,"sanitized,"
transcriptions....Heji,ifItdoesnothingelse,encouragesonetorespond
tothehistoricalcontextofthebonesinalltheirprofusionand variety....
No oracle-bonescholarcan failtobestimulated tonewthoughtsand
reflectionsashe orshe leafsthrough this repositoryofShangwriting,
almost overwhelminginitssize.'
And by translating, in context, more than a hundred and fiftyof the
inscriptionsthat the Shanginscribed on theiroracle-bonesIalso hope
tointroducereaderstothewaysinwhichthe earliestwrittendocuments
yet foundin Chinamaybestudied.
It has been proposed that the oracle-bone inscriptions permit the
LateShangtobe characterizedonlyas"protohtstortc,"on thegrounds
thatwritingwasnotyet"fullydevelopedandincommonuseforrecord
inghistory"(Barnes1993:19;seetooBagley1999:130).TheShangwriting
systemwas,infact,welldeveloped,anditisentirelylikelythat theShang
keptotherkindsofrecordsthathavenotbeenpreserved.tltis,indeed,
the presenceoftheirwritingsystemthatdistinguishestheShangfrom
the contemporaryBronzeAgeculturesthatflourishedin China(Bagley
1999:181).Nevertheless,therecordsthatwe haveare certainlylimited
innature,andtheinscriptionsthemselvespermitthe reconstructiononly
of certain aspects of Late Shang history. Divination was an important
Shanginstitution,butthereisnoreasontoassumethatitexpressesthe
fullrangeandvariabilityofthe culture(seetoop. 112below).AsIhave
earliernoted (Keightley1978:212), the oracle-bone inscriptions tell us
"more of the notes of Shang cult than of the music of Shangbelief":
thosenotes,however,placed in context, canat least give us asenseof
whatthe music wouldhavesoundedlikeandwhatitsstructurewas.
With these considerationsin mind,itismy hope thatthe bookwill
serveasanintroduction,asaninformedstrollthroughthelandscapeof
theboneinscriptions,suggestingsomeoftheconnectionsthatmaybe
discernedbeneaththeirsurfacecontentandencouragingfurtherexplo
ration. It.offers at least a partial account of the Late Shang elites and
theirdailylives,baseduponcontemporarysources. Giventhe challeng
ingnatureoftheinscriptions,however,andthe technicaldisagreements
that challenge some modern interpretations, a simple "introduction"
would,on occasion, proveinadequate andeven misleading. Forsome
8.Keightley1990bA9,withromanization,asinallpassagesquotedbelow,translated
into pinyin.Ferliaguwenheji,seebibliographyA,underHeji.
9.Creel1937:171-73;Keightley1969:349-50,1999b:285,287;Bagley1999:182;Boltz
1999:107-8.
墨子制作
Preface
issues, indeed, there are no simpleintroductions, and in those cases I
havedonemybesttoindicatewherefurtherresearchisneededandthe
interpretiveproblemsinvolved. OurunderstandingoftheLate Shang
inscriptionsandofthe culturethatproducedthemisstillevolving.
Anearlier version of this studywas presented to the Annual Sym
posiumin ChineseStudies,"Empire,Nation,andRegion:The Chinese
WorldOrderReconsidered;'attheCenterforChineseStudies,Univer
sity ofCalifornia at Berkeley,on 3-4 March 1995.Iam grateful for the
comments of Judith Boltz, Bruce Brooks, Magnus Plskesjc, Donald
Harper, Liu Xueshun, David Pankenier, Michael Puett, Jeffrey Riegel,
Edward Shaughnessy, Ken-ichi Takashima, Lotharvon Falkenhausen,
and RobinYates,whichhave donemuch to improve itsaccuracy and
delineateitsscope withmore precision;andIam particularlygratefulto
the faculty and studentmembersofatwo-weekoracle-boneseminarI
attendedatthe UniversityofWashingtoninspring1999thatusedafinal
versionofthisstudyasitstext:WilliamG.Boltz,MattCarter,ZevHandel,
GongHang,StevenHarrell,RobinMcNeal,NewellAnnVanAuken,Suh
[enYang,Anne O.Yue,andXiaorongZheng.Ishouldalsoliketothank
ImreGalambos forcheckingmyinscriptionreferencesandSeung-joon
Leeforhisresearchassistance. Anymistakes,ofcourse,remainmyown.
I am grateful, finally,to Joanne Sandstrom for copy-editing the final
manuscriptwithclarityandefficiency.
墨子制作