Contacts Between the Shang and the

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Celine Y. Y. Lai
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BAR IN TERNATIONAL SE RIE S 2915

Contacts Between the

BAR S2915
‘This is an important contribution, as it throws new light on Bronze
Age China, especially cultural interactions between several major
bronze-using centres during the late Shang period.’
Professor Jianjun Mei, Director of the Needham Research Institute,
Shang and the South
c. 1300–1045 BC

2019
University of Cambridge

‘Both in Chinese and English, work that takes this holistic approach
is very rare, and the author should be commended for her efforts.’
Resemblance and Resistance

LAI
Prof. Dame Jessica Rawson, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology,
University of Oxford

Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

This monograph presents the first thorough study of the bronzes from south-central
China. The finds from the Yangtze areas have conventionally been thought to have been
entirely inspired by Shang traditions and ritual practices in Henan. This monograph
applies the perspective of materiality to argue otherwise. Through investigations of
three main bronze types: ritual vessels, bells and weapons, the author suggests that
the Yangtze societies were far more independent from the Shang traditions than most Celine Y. Y. Lai
archaeologists have understood them to have been.

Celine Lai is Associate Professor in the School of Archaeology and Museology,

Peking University. Her research interests cover Early China, Bronze Age Archaeology B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 2 9 1 5 2019
and museum display and interpretation. Every year since 2014 she has been holding
a conference on Chinese Archaeology, hoping to establish a regular platform for
academics to exchange new finds and research.
Contacts Between the
Shang and the South
c. 1300–1045 BC
Resemblance and Resistance

Celine Y. Y. Lai

B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 2 9 1 5 2019
Published in by
BAR Publishing, Oxford

BAR International Series

Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

© Celine Y. Y. Lai

The double-sided bronze face, Xin’gan, c. 1300 BC.

The Author’s moral rights under the UK Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted.

All rights reser ved. No par t of this work may be copied, reproduced,
stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any for m of digital for mat or
transmitted in any for m digitally, without the written per mission of the
Publisher.

ISBN 9781407316055 paperback

ISBN 9781407345543 e-format
DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407316055
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

BAR titles are available from:

BAR Publishing
Banbury Rd, Oxford, ,
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 Contents

List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................................................... v

List of Tables.................................................................................................................................................................... viii
List of Maps ....................................................................................................................................................................... ix

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 1
‘China’ during the Second Millennium BC .................................................................................................................... 2
Scope and Chronology ............................................................................................................................................... 2
The Yellow River Valleys ........................................................................................................................................... 2
The Shang .............................................................................................................................................................. 3
The upper stream of the Shang territory ................................................................................................................ 9
The Shang’s outlying sites? ................................................................................................................................. 10
The South ................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Hanzhong ............................................................................................................................................................. 14
Anhui ................................................................................................................................................................... 16
The Mid-Yangtze Regions ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Jiangxi and Wucheng culture............................................................................................................................... 18
Hunan .................................................................................................................................................................. 21
The Upper Yangtze Region: Sichuan and Sanxingdui Culture ................................................................................ 23
Web of Connections ...................................................................................................................................................... 26
Arguments from Earlier Scholars.................................................................................................................................. 26
Aims of the Book .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Methodology ................................................................................................................................................................. 31
Work Synopsis............................................................................................................................................................... 32

2. Case Study I: Bronze Ritual Vessels ........................................................................................................................... 33

The Shang Bronze Vessels ............................................................................................................................................ 34
Taotie, Motifs of an Imagined Animal Face ............................................................................................................. 34
Sets ........................................................................................................................................................................... 37
The Ritual Vessels Found in the Tombs in Henan .................................................................................................... 38
Southern China .............................................................................................................................................................. 41
Panlongcheng ........................................................................................................................................................... 41
Anhui ........................................................................................................................................................................ 42
The Large Numbers of Zun, Lei, Pou, and You in Hanzhong, Hunan, and Sanxingdui................................................ 46
Xin’gan Dayangzou ...................................................................................................................................................... 53
Three Levels: Southern Vessels Re-examined .............................................................................................................. 56
Level I: Physical Resemblance................................................................................................................................. 56
Level II: Social Ranks .............................................................................................................................................. 56
Level III: Conceptual Differences ............................................................................................................................ 56
Southern Contributions ................................................................................................................................................. 57

3. Case Study II: Bronze Nao Bells................................................................................................................................. 61

Northern Nao................................................................................................................................................................. 62
The Origins of Bronze Nao ........................................................................................................................................... 65
Hypothetical Forerunners of the Nao: Zhengzhou Prototypes versus Clapper-Bell Ancestors ............................... 66
Transition from Signaling to Musical Bells ............................................................................................................. 67
Southern Nao and Ritual Culture .................................................................................................................................. 67
Type One: Xin’gan Nao ........................................................................................................................................... 69
Type Two: Xiang River Nao..................................................................................................................................... 70
The Musical Tones of Nao and the Notion of a Bell Set............................................................................................... 73
The Musical Set from Ningxiang Laoliangcang Shiguzai ....................................................................................... 73
The Thirty-Six Bosses ................................................................................................................................................... 76
Yongzhong ..................................................................................................................................................................... 77

iii
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Reconsidering Bronze Bells Using Rawson’s Three Level Model ............................................................................... 78

Physical Comparisons and Reversed Contribution from South to North................................................................. 78
The Social and Ritual Significance of Bells in the Southern and Zhou Contexts .................................................... 78

4. Case Study III: Bronze Weapons ................................................................................................................................ 81

The Neolithic Origins of Ceremonial Weapons ............................................................................................................ 82
Liangzhu Societies and Axes.................................................................................................................................... 82
Longshan Culture and the Zhang ............................................................................................................................. 84
The Early Bronze-Casting Societies: The Erlitou and Erligang Periods ...................................................................... 85
The Weapons Found in the Tombs at Anyang ............................................................................................................... 89
Bronzes and Rituals in the Society at Xin’gan.............................................................................................................. 93
The Ceremonial Blades from Sanxingdui ..................................................................................................................... 96
Reconsidering Bronze and Jade Weapons in the Scheme of Three Levels ................................................................... 98
Shared Types, Contrasting Practices ........................................................................................................................ 98
Social Changes at the End of the Anyang Period ..................................................................................................... 99
Ideas about Weaponry in Other Societies ................................................................................................................. 99

5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 101

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................... 105

iv
 List of Figures
Figure 1.1. An inscribed turtle shell found at Anyang Xiaotun. Anyang period. Oracle bone inscriptions. Four sets
of inscriptions were found on this piece of turtle shell in private collection. They should be read in the directions
of the arrows shown. Anyang period ................................................................................................................................... 2
Figure 1.2. Top: the extant hangtu walls found at Zhengzhou Erligang. Bottom: layers of earth were pounded hard
piled up. Erligang period...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 1.3. Top: clay moulds and models used for casting a bronze li. Found at Zhengzhou Erligang, c. 1400–
c. 1300 BC. Bottom: the final step reconstructed, in which the clay was broken to take out the case item ........................ 4
Figure 1.4. Bronzes buried in a cache found at Zhengzhou Nanshunchengjie. The largest ding measures 82 cm in
height.................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 1.5. Comparisons of taotie and southern motifs Drawing of taotie motifs on Shang bronzes. The face of the
imagined animals was always symmetrical and centred around the eyes; it had been growingly more elaborate and
extensive during the Shang period. Drawing of the taotie motifs found on a bronze vessel from Xin’gan. Tiger-
and-man motif found on a bronze zun from Funan, Anhui. Tiger-and-man motif found on a bronze axe from tomb
M5 (Fu Hao) at Anyang, Henan ........................................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 1.6. Royal tomb no. M1001 excavated at Anyang Houjiazhuang. Left: the tomb was built in a rectangular
pit connected by sloping passageways on four sides; right: decapitated human sacrifices found on the southern
passageway .......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 1.7. Some bronze vessels found from the tomb of Fu Hao. Top: photograph taken during the excavation
in 1976. Middle left: a bronze ding (H 80.5 cm) cast in a rectangular shape after its predecessors of the Erligang
period at Zhengzhou; middle right: two sumptuous bronze jia (H 68.8 cm), which were also of a drinking-
cup type popularly used in the Erligang period but became obsolete at Anyang. Here the jia were cast in an
exaggerated form, probably highlighting Fu Hao’s connections with predecessors. Bottom left: a bronze zun
(H 45.9 cm); and bottom right: a bronze gong (H 36 cm). These were cast in what is now conventionally called
the animal shapes – a novel design that began to appear during the time of Fu Hao, i.e. the beginning of the
Anyang period...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 1.8. Drawings of some of the bronze ritual vessels found at tomb M54 at Anyang Huayuanzhuang. The jia
(last row, far left) measures 66.6 cm in height. c. 1150 BC ................................................................................................. 8
Figure 1.9. Drawings of some of the bronze ritual vessels found at tomb M2 at Panlongcheng Lijiazui. The ding
(top, far right) measures 17.6 cm in height ........................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 1.10. Left: bronze jia found at tomb M44 at Laoniupo. H 23 cm. The jia probably dated from c. 1300 BC.
Right: bronze jia found at a tomb at Zhengzhou Baijiazhuang. H 28.5 cm. c. 1300 BC .................................................. 12
Figure 1.11. Chariots buried in pits accompanying burials. Left: a chariot found at M27 at Laoniupo; right: a
chariot found at M7 at Anyang Xiaomintun ...................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 1.12. Bronze faces found at Laoniupo, Chenggu, and Xin’gan. c. 1300 BC. Top left: human-like face found
at Tomb M44 at Laoniupo. H 6.5 cm; Top right: ox face found at tomb M10 at Laoniupo. H 16 cm. Middle left:
human-like face found at Chenggu Sucun. H 16.4 cm; middle right: ox face found at Chenggu Sucun. H 19.1 cm.
Bottom left: human-like face found at Xin’gan in Jiangxi. H 53 cm. Bottom right: Bronze chariot fitting from
Yidu Sufutun, Shandong. Anyang period. H 6.8 cm.......................................................................................................... 13
Figure 1.13. Bronzes found in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province. c. 1300 BC. Top left: jia. H 57.7 cm. Found at
Yangxian Machang. Top centre: zun. H 36.9 cm. Found at Chenggu Baoshan Sucun. Top right: pou. H 31.8 cm.
Found at Yangxian Machang. Below left: crescent-shaped objects. Found at Chenggu Longtouzhen. L 53–56 cm.
Below right: pao with a pointed top. D 10.5; pao with an open top. D 11.7 cm. Both found at Chenggu Baoshan ......... 15
Figure 1.14. Zhang. Left: bronze zhang. Hanzhong Yangxian Fanjiaba, Shaanxi province. H 17.8 cm. Right: jade
zhang. Sanxingdui pit no. 2, Sichuan province. H. 38.2 cm .............................................................................................. 15
Figure 1.15. Bronze vessels found at Funan, Anhui province. There were twenty-one vessels: a pair of jia, a pair
of jue, a pair of gu, two different zun, one fangding (now lost), and possibly twelve li (some were lost). Only a
few of them have been published; only one in each pair of jia, jue, and gu are illustrated. The photographs of these

v
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

vessels are repeated here to suggest what the whole set may have looked like. Top: (left) jue, H 28 cm; (centre)
gu, H 29.5 cm; (right) li, H 23 cm; Below: (left) jia, H 46 cm; (centre) zun, H 47 cm; (right) zun, H 50.5 cm ............... 16
Figure 1.16. Bronze jia found at Feixi, Anhui province. H 55.4 cm. c. 1300 BC ............................................................. 17
Figure 1.17. Bronze nao. Anhui Lujiang. H 49.5 cm......................................................................................................... 17
Figure 1.18. Ceramic guan. Left: Wucheng. Height not given, approx. 20–30 cm; right: Xin’gan. H 18.8 cm ............... 19
Figure 1.19. Kiln site. Panlongcheng Wangjiazui, Hubei. Length 30 m; width 3–5.6 m. Kiln (Y6). Wucheng,
Jiangxi. L 7.5 m; W 1.07 m ................................................................................................................................................ 19
Figure 1.20. Reconstruction of the site found at Xin’gan .................................................................................................. 19
Figure 1.21. Nine flat-legged bronze ding found at Xin’gan, Jiangxi province. c. 1300 BC ............................................ 20
Figure 1.22. Bronze nao found in Hunan province. Left: nao. Ningxiang Yueshanpu. H 103.5 cm; weight: 221 kg.
Top and bottom right: nao. Found at Ningxiang Laoliangcang, buried together with four similar but smaller ones,
as well as with the one shown below. The largest bell measures 53.5 cm in height and 31 kg in weight. Below
right: nao. H 54 cm; weight: 28.5 kg ................................................................................................................................. 21
Figure 1.23. Animal-shaped vessels. A boar-shaped zun excavated from Xiangtan Jiuhua, Hunan province.
H 40 cm; L 70 cm. An elephant-shaped zun excavated from Zhuzhou Liling, Hunan. H 22.8 cm; L26.5 cm.................. 22
Figure 1.24. City walls found at Ningxiang Tanheli, Hunan province .............................................................................. 23
Figure 1.25. Pit no. 2 found at Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC. The pits were neatly filled
with bronzes, jades, elephant tusks, and gold objects ........................................................................................................ 24
Figure 1.26. Bronzes found in the pits at Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC. Left: drawing of a standing
figure found at pit no. 2. H: 262 cm (including the stool). Top right: head. H: approx. 36 cm. Sanxingdui pit no. 2.
Below right: mask. Sanxingdui pit no. 2. H 82.6 cm; W 77 cm ........................................................................................ 24
Figure 1.27. Jades found in the pits. Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC ............................................................. 25
Figure 2.1. Two bronze zun from Funan and comparisons. Bronze zun decorated with the man-and-tiger motif.
Transition period. Funan, Anhui. H 50.5 cm. Bronze zun decorated with motifs in undulating relief. Transition
period. Funan, Anhui. H 45 cm. Bronze zun. Chenggu Baoshan Sucun, Hanzhong. H 36.9 cm. Bronze zun.
Probably Anyang period. Pit no. 1, Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan. H 44.5 cm. Bronze figure with a zun on head.
Pit no. 2, Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan. H 15.6 cm ....................................................................................................... 36
Figure 2.2. Drawings of bronze vessels, and jade and stone objects excavated from tomb M1, Zhengzhou
Bei’erqilu, Henan. Upper Erligang period. Jade and stone halberds found in the same tomb .......................................... 38
Figure 2.3. Copper mine site. Western Zhou to Han period. Daye Tonglushan, Hubei..................................................... 42
Figure 2.4. Lead vessels excavated from a tomb at Yinshang Huanggang, Anhui. Anyang period. The largest
vessel, yan (top right), measures 37 cm tall ....................................................................................................................... 44
Figure 2.5. Drawings of a group of bronze vessels, five pou and one lei, found at Yangxian Machang, Hanzhong.
Anyang period. Heights of the pou: 24–38 cm; and widths 29–38 cm.............................................................................. 48
Figure 2.6. Drawing of a bronze jia. Transition period. Sucun Xiaocong, Hanzhong ...................................................... 49
Figure 2.7. Bronze zun excavated from Huarong, Hunan. H 73.2 cm ............................................................................... 50
Figure 2.8. A group of bronze ding and fragments. Xin’gan Zhongling Reservoir, Jiangxi. Heights: 51–77 cm ............. 55
Figure 2.9. Three sets of bronze ding. Early Western Zhou period. Tomb of Chang Zi Kou, Luyi Taiqinggong,
Henan. Heights approx. 27–35 cm ..................................................................................................................................... 58
Figure 2.10. Ceramics. Early Western Zhou period. Tomb of Chang Zi Kou, Luyi Taiqinggong, Henan ........................ 59
Figure 3.1. Set of 64 chimed yongzhong and one bo excavated from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng. 433 BC.
Hubei. Bronze and wood. Long arm length: 748 cm; short arm length: 273 cm............................................................... 62
Figure 3.2. Musical instruments excavated from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng. 433 BC. Hubei. Chimed
stones. Height 109 cm; Zither. Wood. Length 167.3 cm; width; Pipe-flutes. Lacquered wood. Length 22.8 cm;
width 11.7 cm; Drum on bronze stand. Drum and staff reconstructed. Height 365 cm..................................................... 62
Figure 3.3. Set of three bronze nao. Anyang period. Inscribed. Tomb M160, Anyang Guojiazhuang, Henan ................. 64

vi
 List of Figures

Figure 3.4. Set of three bronze nao. Anyang period. Inscribed. Tomb M699, Anyang Xiqu (Western District), Henan .. 64
Figure 3.5. Set of three bronze nao. Inscribed. Anyang period. Tomb M5 (Fu Hao), Anyang Xiaotun, Henan ............... 65
Figure 3.6. Two sets of bronze nao. Early Western Zhou period. Tomb of Chang Zi Kou, Luyi Taiqinggong, Henan .... 65
Figure 3.7. Clapper bells (ling) found in different regions of China. Bronze clapper bell. Erlitou period. Erlitou,
Henan. Height 8.5 cm; Bronze clapper bells. c. 1200 BC. Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan. Heights 7.35/14 cm;
Bronze clapper bell. Late Neolithic period. Taosi, Shaanxi. Height 2.65 cm; Pottery clapper bell. Late Neolithic
period. Tianmen Shijiahe, Hubei. Height 5.5 cm............................................................................................................... 66
Figure 3.8. Three bronze nao. Transition period, c. 1300–1200 BC. Xin’gan Dayangzhou, Jiangxi................................ 67
Figure 3.9. Bronze bo. Transition period, c. 1300–1200 BC. Xin’gan Dayangzhou, Jiangxi ........................................... 70
Figure 3.10. Two bronze nao. Probably Transition period, c. 1300–1200 BC. Huangshi Yangxin, Hubei. Bronze
nao. Probably Transition period, c. 1300–1200 BC. Yuhang, Zhejiang ............................................................................ 71
Figure 3.11. A group of bronze nao (the fifth is not shown here) found in 1959 at Ningxiang Laoliangcang
Shiguzai, Hunan. Probably Anyang period ........................................................................................................................ 72
Figure 3.12. A group of ten bronze nao. Probably Anyang period. Changsha Ningxiang Laoliangcang Shiguzai,
Hunan ................................................................................................................................................................................. 75
Figure 3.13. Early bronze yongzhong. Late Anyang and early Western Zhou periods. A single yongzhong found at
Liuyang Chengtan, Hunan. A set of yongzhong found at Tomb M1, Baoji Ruijiazhuang, Shaanxi ................................. 75
Figure 3.14. A set of three bronze nao from tomb M51 at Anyang Dasikuncun, Henan. Late Anyang period.
Heights approx. 20–30 cm ................................................................................................................................................. 79
Figure 3.15. Bronze drums. Excavated from Chongyang Wangjiazui, Hubei. H 75.5 cm. Decorated with a figure
motif in relief. Collection of Senoku Museum. H 79.4 cm................................................................................................ 80
Figure 4.1. Jade axe from M12 at Liangzhu Fanshan. Late Neolithic period. Length 17.9 cm. Jades buried in M20,
Liangzhu Fanshan. Late Neolithic period .......................................................................................................................... 82
Figure 4.2. A group of jade zhang from Shenmu Shimou, Shaanxi. Heights approx. 35–45 cm. Jade blades
(including zhang) excavated from Shenmu Xinhua, Shaanxi ............................................................................................ 84
Figure 4.3. Jade zhang excavated from Erlitou, Henan. Erlitou period ............................................................................. 85
Figure 4.4. Jade zhang excavated Guanghan Sanxingdui. Probably Anyang period. Lengths 35–50 cm ......................... 86
Figure 4.5. Jade halberds. Drawing of a stone halberd from tomb M1, Zhengzhou Bei’erqilu, Henan. Upper
Erligang period. Length 37 cm. Drawings of jade halberds from tomb M2, Panlongcheng Lijiazui, Hubei. Upper
Erligang period. Largest blade measures 44 cm long. Jade halberds excavated from Xin’gan Dayangzhou, Jiangxi.
Length approx. 35–44 cm .................................................................................................................................................. 88
Figure 4.6. Comparisons of two types of jade or stone halberds excavated from pit number two, Guanghan
Sanxingdui. Probably Anyang period. Longest blade measures 55 cm ............................................................................. 88
Figure 4.7. Rubbings of some jade halberds excavated from tomb M5 (Fu Hao) at Anyang Xiaotun. Anyang
period. Lengths 30–35 cm.................................................................................................................................................. 89
Figure 4.8. Some bronze weapons excavated from tomb M5 (Fu Hao) at Anyang Xiaotun. Anyang period ................... 90
Figure 4.9. Drawings of some bronze weapons excavated from tomb M54 (Ya Chang) at Anyang Huayuanzhuang.
Anyang period. Lengths of halberds: 25–30 cm ................................................................................................................ 92
Figure 4.10. Drawings of some bronze weapons excavated from Xin’gan Dayangzhou. Transition period .................... 94
Figure 4.11. Drawing of some bronze tools excavated from Xin’gan Dayangzhou. Transition period ............................ 95
Figure 4.12. Drawings of some stone zhang excavated from tomb M1046 at Anyang Liujiazhuang. Inscribed. Late
Anyang period.................................................................................................................................................................... 95
Figure 4.13. Bronze halberds excavated from Guanghan Sanxingdui. Jade halberd from the same site. Possibly an
imitation of the bronze versions ......................................................................................................................................... 98

vii
 List of Tables

Table 2.1. Bronze ritual vessels found in the major tombs at Zhengzhou, Panlongcheng, and Anyang ........................... 39
Table 2.2. Comparisons of the bronze ritual vessels excavated from Xin’gan and from the tomb at Luyi
Tiqinggong; comparisons with table 2.1 ............................................................................................................................ 39
Table 2.3. Bronze ritual vessels (except for those from Yinshang, 1980) excavated from known sites in Anhui,
c. 1300–c. 1100 BC ............................................................................................................................................................ 43
Table 2.4. Bronze ritual vessels found at different sites within the counties of Chenggu and Yangxian in
Hanzhong, southern Shaanxi, probably c. 1300–c. 1000 BC ............................................................................................ 47
Table 2.5. Bronze vessels found at known archaeological sites in Hunan province, probably c. 1200–c. 1000 BC ........ 51
Table 2.6. Bronze vessels excavated from the sacrificial pits at Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan .................................... 53
Table 3.1. Bronze nao excavated from known archaeological sites in northern China, c. 1200–c. 1045 BC ................... 63
Table 3.2. Bronze nao found at known archaeological sites in Hunan Province, probably c. 1300–c. 1000 BC.............. 68
Table 3.3. Bronze nao unearthed from known archaeological sites in southern China (except Hunan province) ............ 69
Table 3.4. A list of bronze nao set, as well as the tunes of each bell, found in the tombs at Anyang ................................ 74
Table 3.5. The pitch taken from each of the ten bells excavated from Ningxiang Laoliangcang Shiguzai ....................... 75
Table 4.1. Comparisons of the numbers of bronze and jade weapons excavated from known archaeological sites in
different regions of China, c. 1700─c. 1000 BC................................................................................................................ 83

viii
 List of Maps

Map A. Major archaeological sites of China, c. 1500–c. 1000 BC...................................................................................... 3

Map B. Distribution of bronze nao and early yonghong bells from known archaeological sites in China,
c. 1500–c. 1045 BC............................................................................................................................................................ 61

ix
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Drawings of some ancient bronze vessels, bells, and weapons of ancient China: (top row) cooking vessels: ding, li, and yan
(second row left) food vessel: gui (second, third, and fifth rows) wine containers: lei, hu, zun, and you (third, fourth, and fifth
rows) wine-drinking vessels: gu, jia, jue, jiao, and zhi (sixth row) water vessels: he and pan (last row) bronze bells: yongzhong
or zhong, bo, and nao (far right) bronze weapons: yue and ji. The rest of the bronzes shown in this table were cast after the
Shang period and are, therefore, not covered in the discussions of the thesis. Allan 2005, p. 309.

x
 1
Introduction
In recent decades, archaeological sites revealed in the
Yangtze River valleys 揚子江流域, among which bronzes
are conspicuous, provide an additional source of data
about the territory, which we today call China, during
the early Bronze Age (c. 1500–c. 1000 BC). The actual
number of Yangtze or southern bronzes that have been
found is relatively limited, compared with those excavated
from the domains of the Shang civilization in the Henan
province, which is located in the mid Yellow River
valley, more than 500km north of the Yangtze regions.1
Nonetheless, the bronzes from the Yangtze themselves are
intriguing in at least three ways. First, the Yangtze bronzes
were cast with using clay moulds, a technique that was
most probably developed in Henan during early second
millennium BC.2 Through what means did this technique
transmit from the north to south is not entirely understood;
but there was no question the bronze-casting workshops of
the Shang society in Henan would have been the original
source. Second, apart from borrowing the bronze-casting
technique, the southern casters also copied some of the
Shang bronze vessels, which were central in the religious
performance of the Shang kings and elite. The southern
bronze casters also designed their own versions of the
taotie 饕餮 motif, the face of an imaginary animal typical
of bronzes produced by the Shang.3 Did the Yangtze
societies copy for the purpose of imitating the Shang
religious activities? Or did they copy the Shang royal
articles simply because the vessels and the motifs visually
appeared prestigious? The widespread knowledge about the
Shang, however indirectly distributed, was astonishingly
broad. Third, perhaps the most remarkable discovery is
that there appear to have been at least five cultural groups
who lived in different parts of the Yangtze River valleys,
an extensive region measuring more than 1000 kilometres
from east to west and 300 kilometres north to south. Unlike
the cosmopolitan Shang civilization, which dominated the
Yellow River valleys in the north, none of the identified
bronze-using societies in the south was found as dominant.
Their territorial extents were relatively limited, so that the
Yangtze landscape was divided among different groups in
cultural terms. Altogether, these features gathered from
the archaeological finds of the Yangtze areas will develop
a new picture about the Early Bronze Age of China. The
present work begins with a fundamental question: to what
extent were these Yangtze groups adapted to the Shang
1
The distance between Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan and
Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei is approximately 518km.
2
For technical aspects of the Shang and southern bronzes, see Bagley
1990b, pp. 7–20.
3
For example, a bronze zun possibly cast in the middle Yangtze regions
and found at Sanxingdui in Sichuan carried a dismembered form of
taotie, which suggests a non-Shang connection (Rawson 1996, pp. 72–
74).
1
political domination, ritual activities, and religious beliefs?
A comprehensive study of the Yangtze finds, as they are
presented below, is necessary to resolve this untouched
aspect of the studies of the Shang.
Ever since the earliest Shang site at Anyang 安陽, in
northern Henan 河南 province was discovered in 1928,
it has been central in Shang studies.4 Between 1928 and
1937, fifteen seasons of excavations were carried out, and
revealed sites on both sides of the Huan River 洹河, a
tributary of the mid-Yellow River valley. 5 A number of
important finds were made: a royal cemetery containing
eleven looted but large tombs; hundreds of elite tombs
which held bronzes, jades, ivories, and other precious
objects; three clusters of architectural structures; and
probably most important of all, several caches of burnt and
cracked scapulas and turtle shells, bearing inscriptions (fig.
1.1). The inscriptions were fortune-telling records. They
are so far the earliest form of writing identified in East
Asia.6 These inscriptions, moreover, loosely resembled the
modern Chinese language in grammatical and ideographic
structure.7 The discovery of writing has, thus, given the
Shang a central role in the beginning of Chinese history
and archaeology. The excavations confirmed the site as the
4
Established in 1921, Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and
Philology was the first official Chinese institute for undertaking
excavations in the country. The work at Anyang was one of the
organisation’s first and most important projects. After the establishment
of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, most of the Academia’s
archaeologists moved to Taiwan, taking with them some of the finds from
Anyang, which they continued to study and analyse in their publications
(Li Ji 1977, pp. 139–157). In Mainland China, the Institute of Archaeology
was established in 1950 and was administered by the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences (CASS) based in Beijing. In each province, an
Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology was also established to take
charge of local archaeological projects and conservation. As we shall
see below, such administration has important bearing on archaeological
interpretations. For a discussion of the administration and terminology
of Chinese archaeology, see Falkenhausen 1995, pp. 200–208 and Thorp
2007, pp.xiv–xxiv.
5
For a summary of the finds during the period from 1928–1937, see Li
Ji 1977, pp. 49–138.
6
Oracle bones were used for the purpose of divination. Diviners
told fortunes by reading the cracks in the burnt bones. Sometimes the
questions, prognostications, and subsequent events were inscribed on
the cracked bones themselves. For a brief introduction to the purposes
and features of oracle bone inscriptions, see Keightley 1978, pp. 3–55.
The form and structure of oracle bone inscriptions was notably well-
developed. Despite a lack of evidence discovered by archaeologists, it
appears highly possible that writing had been in use for some time before
the Anyang period (Bagley 2004, pp.190–249).
7
For the contents of oracle bone inscriptions, see the comprehensive
work by Chen Mengjia 1988; see also Keightley 1978, pp. 63–90
(English). Detailed discussion of the inscriptions on the oracle bones are
not within the scope of this thesis, partly because the inscriptions were
religious records written entirely from the perspective of the Anyang
kings (although from time to time they mentioned some neighbouring
groups involved in affairs concerning the kings), and partly because
such a study would demand a separate mode of analysis and additional
contextual knowledge.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Figure 1.1. An inscribed turtle shell found at Anyang
Xiaotun. Anyang period. After Anyang 1994, pl. 21.1. Oracle
bone inscriptions. Four sets of inscriptions were found on
this piece of turtle shell in private collection. They should be
read in the directions of the arrows shown. Anyang period.
After Shaughnessy (ed.) 1997, p. 27.
latest royal residency of the Shang kings, who occupied
during c. 1200–c. 1045 BC.8
The identification of the last capital of the Shang excited
further search for the pre-Anyang settlements. The
archaeological expeditions of the 1950s managed to identify
two major sites: a walled settlement at Zhengzhou Erligang
鄭州二里崗 (c. 1500–c. 1300 BC); and an extensive site
at Yanshi Erlitou 偃師二里頭 (c. 1900–c. 1500 BC) near
Loyang 洛陽. The last eighty years of work have mainly
been focused on the early phases of the Shang, as well
as the excavations in Henan.9 The archaeological finds
have substantially filled in the gaps related to the lives
of the Shang prior to the Anyang period. In contrast, the
archaeological works in the Yangtze areas began relatively
8
The Shang are also understood through references contained in
a number of traditional texts, such as the Shu jing 書經 (The Book of
Documents) and the Shi jing 詩經 (The Book of Songs), most of which
were written in a much later period and were edited in the third century
BC. Sixteen generations of Shang kings—from Cheng Tang 成湯, the
founder of the line, to Zou 紂, the last king—were said to have ruled
between c. 16th to the 12th century BC. They were conquered by an
inferior group (in terms of the relative size of population and level of
technology) called the Zhou 周, who migrated from the upper tributaries
of the Yellow River in the west. For reasons still unknown to us, the texts
indicate that the Shang probably moved their capital city several times
during their period of dynastic rule. It was probably King Pan Geng 盤
庚 (c. 13th century BC) who settled in a place called Yin 殷, at site from
which the succeeding eleven Shang kings ruled until the conquest of the
Zhou in c. 1045 BC. It has therefore been suggested, and is now widely
accepted, that Anyang was most probably the Yin capital.
9
Falkenhausen 1993, pp. 845–848.
2
late. The amount of archaeological surveys and finds is far
less and complete than that of Henan. This imbalance of
archaeological focus has shaped the understanding that
the developments of the Yangtze societies were relatively
late, and rather heavily dependent on the Shang to acquire
both bronze-casting techniques, political and/or social
organization mechanisms. The present work questions this
interpretation of the Shang-period finds. It aims to offer
a thorough study of the scattered archaeological finds
from the Yangtze areas. In addition, it argues the southern
groups were themselves engaged in a complicated network
of contacts, in which the Shang may have only taken up a
small part, so that the Shang political or religious impacts
in the south were not dominant. Evidence is found in the
forms, types, decorations, and contexts of archaeological
bronzes. Before turning to the discussion of the bronzes, a
review of archaeological finds from the period in question
is necessary.
‘China’ during the Second Millennium BC
Scope and Chronology
The ‘China’ discussed here refers to the valleys of the
Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, as well as to the intermediate
regions of the Han River to the west and the Huai River
淮河 near the coast. The ‘peoples’ concerned included the
Shang of the mid and lower Yellow River valleys; and the
Zhou, who were based on the upper stream of the Shang
in present-day Shaanxi. In c. 1045 BC, the Zhou made an
eastward expedition and defeated the Shang king; their
founders established a new dynastic era, and adopted the
practice of bronze-casting techniques of the Shang, as well
as some of the bronze ritual vessels for religious and burial
purposes. The Zhou founders identified themselves as
legitimate heirs of the Shang. Nonetheless, little is known
about the origins of the Zhou people. While historical
resources suggest that they may have been a subordinate
group of the Shang kings, archaeological evidence indicates
their presence only towards the very end of the Anyang
period. Jessica Rawson argues the Zhou may have been
a formation of semi-nomadic groups who migrated from
further northwest. Except for the site at Xi’an Liaoniupo 西
安老牛坡, major bronze-casting or bronze-using activities
were absent in central Shaanxi. In contrast, the last groups
under concern were far more developed than the Zhou
throughout the Shang period. That how these peoples
addressed themselves is not known. Suggestions have been
made that they were migrants from the Shang territory;
former subordinates of the Shang kings; or defeated elite
in the background of the Shang and Zhou combats. It is
uncertain how much we may relate the finds to historical
information. In the case of the Yangtze finds, historical
accounts may not be applicable at all.
The Yellow River Valleys
The Shang were an extensive group (map A). The
stratigraphy in Henan suggests a chronological sequence
in several successive phases:
 Introduction

1. The Erlitou period (c. 1900–c. 1500 BC)

2. The Erligang period (c. 1500–c. 1300 BC);
3. The Transition period (c. 1300–c. 1200 BC), also
known as Middle Shang; and
4. The Anyang period (c. 1200–c. 1045 BC).10

The sites at Zhengzhou (c. 1500–c. 1300 BC) and Anyang

were very probably two metropolitan centres of Shang
society during the Erligang and Anyang phases. The
stylistic features of the Erligang and Anyang bronzes
indicate that there was possibly an intermediate period
between these settlements of about a century.11 Some small
tombs and sites in Henan may be dated to that period,
but they are relatively less well-understood.12 Therefore,
the intervening century has been tentatively called the
Transition.

Archaeological debates have not resolved whether

the Erlitou period belonged to an early stage of Shang
civilization. The frustration came from historical records,
which suggest the Shang had a predecessor group, who were
called the Xia. To what extent the textual records can be
trusted has been severely challenged. Neither Zhengzhou
Erligang nor Yanshi Erlitou revealed inscriptional or other
supporting evidence to facilitate convincing identification.
Nonetheless, the connection between Zhengzhou and with
Anyang was clear in terms of bronze-casting practices.
It is mostly agreed that the Shang kings had been firmly
established in Henan by 1500 BC. For such, there was
little question that the walled site at Zhengzhou was a
major royal residency of the Shang.13
10
Most archaeologists in Mainland China do not subscribe to the three
phases of the Shang suggested by scholars in the West. They consider
there to be two phases: the Erligang and Anyang periods. Nevertheless,
more and more Chinese scholars are coming to accepting the three phases
theory (see, for example, Shi Jinxiong 2005, pp. 312–313). However no
conventional translation or application of the term ‘Transition period’ has
yet appeared in Chinese writing.
11
Robert Bagley first proposed the ‘Transition’ in the exhibition
catalogue, The Great Bronze Age of China, 1980, pp. 95–117, and
established the three phases of the Shang in 1999, pp. 146–155 (see also
Tang Jigen 唐際根 「中商」, pp. 175–180). He suggests that there is a
stylistic discontinuity between the Erligang and Anyang bronzes, and that
the archaeological finds in Henan reveal very little about the Shang after
the Erligang period. Surprisingly, as Bagley notes, many refined bronzes
from the south seemed to fit well into the stylistic gap between Erligang
and Anyang. Therefore, he argues that there was an intermediate phase
of the Shang yet to be discovered by archaeologists. Research comparing
the bronze vessels from Henan and the south by Robert Thorp has also
reached a similar tentative conclusion, 1985, pp. 5–75. This thesis aligns
with the Western method of dividing up the Shang period.
12
In 2003, through the use of a remote sensing device, the Anyang
archaeologists discovered a walled city within the northern bank of
the Huai River, which istraditionally called Huanbei (the North of the
Huai River). A preliminary analysis suggests that the Huanbei city was
probably dated from the period immediately prior to c. 1200 BC. It seems
likely that this new discovery may shed some light on the Shang during
the Transition. For the brief report on Huanbei, see Tang Jigeng et al
2003, pp. 3–16. Roderick Campbell presents an updated account of the
Huanbei period and its finds, 2014, pp. 107–119.
13
The Shang site at Zhengzhou Erligang was discovered in 1952.
Since then, many excavations have taken place. A thorough report
was published in three volumes (Zhengzhou Shangcheng, 2001). For a
summary of the finds from Zhengzhou, see Bagley 1999, pp. 158–168
and Thorp 2006, pp. 21–116.
Map A. Major archaeological sites of China, c. 1500–c. 1000
BC.
The Shang
The earliest bronze-casting activities have been discovered
in Henan and are dated to the Erlitou 二里頭 period. 14
The range of objects cast was limited. There were small
clapper bells, knives, and small tools. Perhaps the most
remarkable pieces were the bronze jue (a three-legged
drinking cup) in imitation of the pottery versions. Bronze-
casting technique evidently was further developed during
the next two centuries, known as the Erligang period
(c. 1500–c. 1300 BC). The type site, found at modern-day
Zhengzhou, was a large walled settlement, about twenty-
five square kilometres in area. Like many settlements in
northern China, the city plan of Zhengzhou was rectangular
in shape. The city walls were constructed using the hangtu
夯土 method, in which numerous hard, thin, horizontal
layers of earth were pounded vigorously with wooden logs
orsimilar objects, leaving many round impressions of the
tools in the profile of the walls (fig. 1.2).15 Archaeologists
have not been able to excavate most of the site, because
it lies underneath the modern city. The sheer size of
Zhengzhou speaks to its significance. Unlike Anyang,
Zhengzhou has not yet revealed major royal tombs.16
A few finds at Zhengzhou testify to its sophistication.
Outside the walled settlement, archaeologists uncovered
two groups of bronze-casting workshops (fig. 1.3)17 and
14
Some smaller bronze objects were found at earlier Neolithic sites at
Qijia, in Gansu in the northwest; for the links between Qijia and Erlitou,
see Fitzgerald-Huber 1995, pp. 17–67. When bronze-casting began in
Erlitou, the technology was already reasonably advanced—the casters
formulated a rather standardised proportion of the alloys of copper and
tin. For the origins of metallurgy in ancient China and early evidence of
bronze-casting, see Bagley 1987, pp. 15–18.
15
The full report of the excavations at Zhengzhou is published in three
volumes, Zhengzhou Shangcheng 2001.
16
Bagley 2004, pp. 230─237.
17
In the 1980s, bronze-casting workshops were found at Nanguanwai 南
關外 and Zhijingshan bei 紫荊山北 to the south and north, respectively,
of the walled settlement. Among the objects found were large pottery
urns for molten bronze, processed copper ores, broken clay moulds, and

3
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Figure 1.3. Top: clay moulds and models used for casting
a bronze li. Found at Zhengzhou Erligang, c. 1400–c. 1300
BC. After Zhengzhou Shangcheng 2001, pl. 58. Bottom: the
final step reconstructed, in which the clay was broken to
take out the case item.

Figure 1.2. Top: the extant hangtu walls found at Zhengzhou

Erligang. Bottom: layers of earth were pounded hard piled
up. Erligang period. After Zhengzhou Shangchang 2001, pl.
7 and 39.

three caches of bronze vessels (fig. 1.4).18 The finds

demonstrate that the Erligang casters used techniques
developed previously in Erlitou, but surpassed their
predecessors in at least three ways: refinement of casting
techniques and diversity of vessels, production of large
heavy vessels, and development of taotie motifs. First,
the Erligang casters refined and standardised the shapes
of existing vessel categories, mainly the drinking tripods
Figure 1.4. Bronzes buried in a cache found at Zhengzhou
Nanshunchengjie. The largest ding measures 82 cm in
height. After Zhengzhou Jiaocang 1999, colour pl. 2.
numerous other tools in pottery and bronze (Zhengzhou 1989, pp. 100–
122).
18
The three caches were respectively found at Zhangzai nanjie 張寨南 called jue 爵 and jia 斝. They also added more types to
街, Xiangyang Huizu Food Factor y向陽回族食品廠, and Nanshuncheng
jie 南順城街. These were accidental discoveries made over the period of the repertoire developed from these pottery categories.
1974–1996 and have been published in a single monograph, Zhengzhou The new types included a steamer for food, called yan 甗;
Jiaocang 1999. All three caches were located close to the city walls. the round, foot-ringed containers called lei 罍, zun 尊, and
Although the excavators have tentatively called them the ‘hoards’, the
purposes of these caches are not actually known. I shall discuss the you 卣; and the more unusual water basin called pan 盤.
bronzes from these caches in the following chapter on bronze vessels. Robert Bagley estimates that at least twenty-two different

4
 Introduction

Figure 1.5. Comparisons of taotie and southern motifs Drawing of taotie motifs on Shang bronzes. The face of the imagined
animals was always symmetrical and centred around the eyes; it had been growingly more elaborate and extensive during
the Shang period. Rawson 1990, pp. 25–26. Drawing of the taotie motifs (copied from Henan) found on a bronze vessel from
Xin’gan. Xin’gan 1997, p. 40. Tiger-and-man motif found on a bronze zun from Funan, Anhui. Anhui 1987, no.1. Tiger-and-
man motif found on a bronze axe from tomb M5 (Fu Hao) at Anyang, Henan. Fu Hao 1980, p. 106.

vessel types were produced during the Erligang period.19
In addition, the cooking tripod called ding 鼎 was cast in a
square section, suggesting that bronze casters were growing
more independent from pottery traditions. In several
publications, Bagley discusses the difficulties involved in
the use of the section-mould technique. He argues that the
Erligang casters had overcome the technical limitations
and that the results of these endeavours were obvious.20
Second, the Erligang casters succeeded in producing large
and heavy vessels. The two bronze ding from the bronze
cache found at Zhangzai nanjie 張寨南街 in 1974 are both
about 62 cm tall. One weighs 64.3 kilograms and the other
86.4 kilograms.21 Third, the Erligang casters managed to
master the piece-mould technique and render the details
and forms of the animal-mask, or taotie (fig. 1.5). Taotie
were, therefore, growing progressively more and more
complicated, being rendered in fine, curved relief lines that
stood out against the background, which was sometimes
elaborately filled with regular spirals.22
Robert Bagley argues that the Erligang period was
remarkable, and significant in terms of the development
and expansion of Shang culture. He demonstrates that
there was widespread distribution of the Erligang type of
bronzes in the north of the Yellow River as well as in the
southern regions under present discussion. He suggests
that the Erligang culture had expanded outwardly into the
realms outside Shang influence, and tentatively describes
this phenomenon as the ‘Erligang Horizon’, as opposed
to the rather contracted developments of the Anyang
civilisation.23 The significance of the Erligang period in

19
Bagley 1987, p. 25. For further descriptions of the Erligang type of
vessels, see Bagley 1987, p. 22–27 and Zhu Fenghan 2009, pp. 604–22. 22
Rawson 1990, pp. 24–27 and Rawson forthcoming.
20
Bagley 1987, pp. 24–28. 23
Bagley 1992, pp. 226–31 and 1999, pp. 208–212. In his study of
21
Zhengzhou Jiaocang 1999, pp. 75–78. the bronze bells (called nao) from a southern site at Xin’gan in the

5
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Figure 1.6. Royal tomb no. M1001 excavated at Anyang Houjiazhuang. Left: the tomb was built in a rectangular pit
connected by sloping passageways on four sides; right: decapitated human sacrifices found on the southern passageway. After
Anyang 1994, pl. 10.
terms of cultural influence may, therefore, be discerned
from the widespread distribution of the Henan-related
finds in the Yangtze regions.24
Anyang was located about 187 kilometres to the north
of Zhengzhou. Archaeologists have not yet located its
city walls. Sites discovered to date are scattered about
the north and south banks of the Huan River. Before
the Sino-Japanese War, Li Ji 李濟 (1896–1979) and
archaeologists from the former Academia Sinica revealed
a royal cemetery at Xibeigang 西北崗 (fig. 1.6) to the
north of the river; three clusters of large architectural
structures in the south; and thousands of large and small
elite tombs, as well as accompanying graves containing
chariots, horses, dogs, and human sacrifices.25 After the
war, archaeological work at Anyang resumed, revealing
bronze-casting workshops and several large intact elite
tombs (most of those discovered before the war had been
looted in antiquity).26 The richest and most important site
excavated to date is Tomb M5 at Xiaotun 小屯 (fig. 1.7).
It was constructed in a rectangular pit and contained
sixteen human sacrifices, 210 bronze vessels, 130 bronze
weapons and tools, five bronze bells (called the nao), 800
jades and precious stones, 564 ivories and bone objects,
mid-Yangtze valley and those of less assertive forms from Anyang,
Falkenhausen reaches a similar conclusion: that the essential creations
of the Erligang casters are yet to be found. Falkenhausen 1993, p. 25.
24
Bagley 1999, pp. 229–231.
25
Headed by Fu Sinian, the Academia Sinica was established in Beijing
in 1921 to take charge of all archaeological work within the country. Its
members, Li Ji (1896–1979), Liang Siyong (1904–1954), Guo Baojun
(1893–1971), and Dong Zuobin (1895–1963) took turns in leading the
fifteen seasons of excavations which took place from 1928 to 1937.
During and after the war, they published reports in several monographs;
for concise accounts of the first generation of archaeologists working at
Anyang, see Thorp 2007, pp. 118–120.
26
In the 1950s, Guo Baojun and Xia Nai (1910–85) took charge of the
archaeological work at Anyang. For a summary of the finds from Anyang
after 1949, see Anyang 1994, pp. 51–147.
6
as well as 6820 cowries.27 The inscriptions on the bronzes
show that the tomb’s owner was called Fu Hao 婦好 (or
Lady Hao), the wife of the fourth Anyang king, Wu Ding
武丁 (c. 1200 BC).28 Because the tomb was found intact,
it became useful reference for understanding the Shang
rituals during the Anyang period.
Bronze vessels were important in the Shang culture. They
were ritual paraphernalia intended for the offering of food
and drink during religious ceremonies paying tribute to
one’s ancestors. Often found in the space between the
inner and outer coffins in elite tombs, Shang bronze vessels
always comprised several different types. Excavated
in 2000, the forty bronze vessels found at the tomb of a
major elite member, Tomb M54 at Huayuanzhuang 花
園莊, illustrate a typical set of Shang burial vessels
(fig. 1.8): nine pairs of drinking vessels, the jue and gu
觚; one large drinking vessel, the jia (66 centimetres
tall); six cooking tripods, the ding, in two sets—four in
one and two in another; a large steamer, the yan (79.5
centimetres tall); and finally, a large liquid container, the
27
The tomb of Fu Hao 婦好 was uncovered in 1976. The preliminary
report was published in Zheng and Chen 1977, pp. 57–97, and the full
report in Fu Hao 1980. The finds from the tomb represent standard
Anyang productions. Given the elevated and exceptional status of Fu Hao
as both a queen and a military leader, it has been argued that the inventory
of her tomb contained a number of exotic objects which were likely to
have come from or been inspired by societies in the Northern Zone [Is
the Northern Zone a technical term? If so, expand. If not, remove capital
from ‘zone’ to indicate that it’s just a regular noun.] and from the Yangtze
valleys; see Rawson 1992, pp. 1–24, Rawson 1996, cat. entry no. 46–49,
and Bagley 1999, pp. 194–202.
28
For the oracle bone inscriptions that make reference to Fu Hao, see
Wang Yuxin et al. 1977, pp. 1–21. On one occasion, King Wu Ding
divined about her health in delivering a baby; and on another, he divined
about her success in leading a campaign against the Guifang, who were
possibly a group to the northwest of the Shang. It is supposed that Fu
Hao probably died several decades before the king. Hence, her tomb is
dated to c. 1150 BC, which roughly corresponds to the second early strata
(Yinxu II period) of the four tombs found at Anyang, Anyang 1994, pp.
25–39.
 Introduction

Figure 1.7. Some bronze vessels found from the tomb of Fu Hao. Top: photograph taken during the excavation in 1976.
Middle left: a bronze ding (H 80.5 cm) cast in a rectangular shape after its predecessors of the Erligang period at Zhengzhou;
middle right: two sumptuous bronze jia (H 68.8 cm), which were also of a drinking-cup type popularly used in the Erligang
period but became obsolete at Anyang. Here the jia were cast in an exaggerated form, probably highlighting Fu Hao’s
connections with predecessors. Bottom left: a bronze zun (H 45.9 cm); and bottom right: a bronze gong (H 36 cm). These were
cast in what is now conventionally called the animal shapes –a novel design that began to appear during the time of Fu Hao,
i.e. the beginning of the Anyang period. Top rows: after Anyang 1994, p. 3, 25 & 29; bottom row, photo courtesy of Henan
Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage & Archaeology.

zun (52 centimetres tall).29 The excavations of the Anyang
tombs have suggested that the number of the vessels and
the size of the set were commensurate with the political
or social ranking of their owners: Tomb M54 contained
29
Anyang 2004, pp. 7–19.
forty pieces, while Fu Hao’s contained 268.30 We have
not yet, however, ascertained the specific rules governing
30
Jessica Rawson has demonstrated the correlation between the status
of the tomb owners and the features of their vessels during the Anyang
period in 1993, pp. 805–809, which compares the ritual vessels from Fu
Hao’s tomb and those from Tomb no. 18 (that of a lesser noble in the
same geographical area).

7
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Figure 1.8. Drawings of some of the bronze ritual vessels found at tomb M54 at Anyang Huayuanzhuang. The jia (last row, far
left) measures 66.6 cm in height. c. 1150 BC. Xu and He 2004, pp. 10–15.

8

the use of the vessels during ritual ceremonies, such as
how the vessels were arranged and installed on the altar,
what bodily movements were associated with the use of
different types of vessels, and what determined the number
and size of the vessels permitted to be used by a specific
member of the elite class.31 All that could be summed up
is that bronze ritual vessels were key features of the Shang
elite in Henan.
It is clear that the Shang had established the practice of
burying a set of bronze vessels along with at least one,
but often many more wine-drinking cups in their tombs.
As a result of the presence of such a distinctive feature,
archaeologists have been able to map the territorial
extensions of the Shang populations in northern China;
other sites containing this combination of burial goods
have been found in Shandong 山東, western Shanxi 山西,
and southern Hebei 河北 provinces.32
In contrast, many diverse societies existed in the south:
some groups produced more bronze vessels than bells;
one group in Hunan 湖南 produced many extraordinarily
heavy bells; yet another group in Sichuan preferred figures
to vessels or bells.33 Altogether, five different groups are
clearly represented in the archaeological records. One of
them settled in the Han River valley in southern Shaanxi,
in a region called Hanzhong 漢中, an intermediate region
which links the Yellow and Yangtze River regions.34 In
the east, small groups of bronzes have been found near
the Huai River valleys in Anhui 安徽, which is also an
intermediate region.35 Further south, in the mid-Yangtze
regions, a major bell-casting group was found in Hunan,36
and a different neighbouring group of Wucheng culture 吳
城文化 was found in Jiangxi 江西.37 In the southwest, a
31
Ibid.
32
For a concise summary of the Shang sites in northern China, see Xia-
Shang 2003, pp. 535–566 (northwest) and pp. 575–584 (southern Inner
Mongolia).
33
The features of each group of southern bronzes have been widely
discussed. While there are debates over the dates, there is little question
that most of them were produced locally. For brief discussions, see Kane
1974/75, pp. 77–92 and Bagley 1992, 215–226. For a survey of most
of the existing Yangtze bronzes, see Shi Jingxiong 2005, pp. 41–101
(Jiangxi), 102–160 (Hunan), and 161–220 (Sichuan).
34
Zhao Congcang 2006.
35
Kane 1974/75, pp. 78–80. On the other hand, some Chinese
archaeologists believe that the bronzes from Anhui were possibly the
remains of the Shang, Song Xinchao 1991, pp. 176–191.
36
On the other hand, Xiang Taochu argues that a bronze-casting society
did not seem to have been developed in Hunan. He suggests that most
bells and other bronzes were possibly cast by the Shang and carried to the
south after the Zhou conquest, 2006, pp. 75–78. But Xiang’s argument
cannot convincingly explain the remarkable stylistic differences between
the Hunan bronzes and the traditional Shang bronzes. Indeed, the
Hunan bell type has not yet been found at any Shang site in the north
(see Chapter Three), suggesting that the local group was in some way
distinguished from the Shang. It seems, therefore, justified to believe that
there was a local bronze-casting group in Hunan.
37
Two bronze-using cultures were found in northern Jiangxi: the
Wucheng culture in the northwest and Wannian culture 萬年文化 in
the northeast; both were named after their respective type site. The two
cultures are distinguished by a slight difference in their pottery types, and
the Wannian sites often show larger numbers of glazed ceramics than do
most Wucheng sites (Li Jiahe 1989, pp. 26–37 and Liu Shizhong 2000,
pp. 26–27). This thesis is mainly concerned with the Wucheng culture,
because a large group of bronzes were found at Xin’gan, which is located
9
Introduction
remarkable figure-casting group which comprised part of
the Sanxingdui culture 三星堆文化 was found in Sichuan
四川, which lies in the remote upper Yangtze regions.38
The distribution of these southern societies is suggested
primarily by the locations of found bronzes. Most bronzes
were chance finds made by local residents and are of
unknown or questionable provenance.39 In each southern
province, archaeologists have been making efforts to
locate the settlements of the early bronze-casting groups.
They have excavated some sites, have revealed a few
large architectural structures, and have discovered small
numbers of minor tombs. Nevertheless, the amount of
archaeological work carried out in southern China to date
is still limited.40 Among all the finds, no major burials or
other archaeological features have been able to shed light
on the political or social organisation of local societies. All
that is known with certainty is that sophisticated bronze
casters existed who were in contact with the north. The
southern sites described below may suggest the locations
of some major social centres. In the extensive Yangtze
regions, it is highly possible that even more bronze-using
societies were present.
The upper stream of the Shang territory
The Zhou lived to the west of the Shang on the upper
plateaus of Shaanxi 陝西. A permanent archaeological
team is stationed at Zhouyuan 周原 (The Plains of the
Zhou), the acclaimed fabled homeland of the Zhou, to
search for anticipated pre-dynastic Zhou remains. But the
search has not yet revealed much remarkable evidence.41
near the site of Wucheng, whereas only a small number of tiny bronze
objects were found at Wannian.
38
The Sanxingdui culture is one of the most (‘distinguished’ has a sense
of being elegant and refined. Do you mean ‘distinctive’?) among all
cultures discovered in southern China. This group of people cast many
bronze figures, which are unique on the Yellow and Yangtze river regions.
In many ways the remains of the Sanxingdui culture show links with the
Erlitou 二里頭 culture (c. 1900–c. 1500 BC) in Henan. Sun Hua and Su
Rongyu argue that the Sanxingdui people were possibly migrants from the
north, Sun and Su 2003, pp. 129–155. On the other hand, Falkenhausen has
demonstrated that the Sanxingdui culture also displays many connections
to local Neolithic societies. The Sanxingdui people may, therefore, have
emerged from the local population, although it is possible that they had
acquired some material features or technology through their widespread
connections with the outside world, 2006, pp. 191–245.
39
Gao Zhixi 1992, pp. 76–79. Most southern bronzes were discovered
by local residents and sent to the corresponding archaeological institutes.
There were occasions when archaeologists were able to visit the spots
where the bronzes were found. However, they were very rarely able
to make further discoveries. Some other bronzes were simply kept in
storerooms for many years before they were published: see, for example,
the bells described in Gao Zhixi, 1984a, pp. 129–134.
40
Unlike Henan, most archaeological work in the southern provinces
only began in the 1970s, when the provincial archaeological institutes
were given permission to carry out surveys and excavations. For
the restructuring of the administration of archaeological work, see
Falkenhausen 1995, pp. 200–202.
41
Archaeologists expect to discover the Zhou royal tombs, because
Zhouyuan 周原 was most probably the religious centre of the regime
during the Western Zhou period (whereas the Feng 豐 and Hao 鎬
capitals on the east were political centres). The recent discoveries of what
were possibly the large tombs of some high-ranking elite members at
Zhougongmiao have been much referenced in reportage. The excavations
of the tombs are still under preparation. Currently the archaeological
teams at Zhouyuan are from the Peking University (Feng Tao 2004).
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Archaeological finds in Shaanxi 陝西 do not suggest an
organised social group, although evidence has been found
of several scattered societies whose level of sophistication
was less advanced than that of those found in Henan.42
Not until the final decades of the 11th century BC does
there appear evidence of large architectural structures (of
which only the foundations are preserved) constructed
at Zhouyuan. At most, it appears certain that, during the
Shang period, a unified major bronze-casting group did
not exist in Shaanxi. After the Zhou conquest of the Shang,
however, large numbers of bronze vessels and weapons
were produced locally in Zhouyuan, and some southern
connections are suggested by certain stylistic features of
the local bronzes.43 The relationship between the Zhou and
the south is intriguing and important. In the discussion of
the following chapters, we shall look at some southern
features that appeared in the north during the late Anyang
period and the early decades of the Western Zhou 西周
(c. 1045–771 BC).
The Shang’s outlying sites?
Between the Yellow and Yangtze River valleys, two
major sites may illustrate the outward movement of the
Shang population into foreign realms. One of these was
Huangpi 黃坡, located near present-day Wuhan 武漢 in
central Hubei 湖北 province. About 500 km away from
Zhengzhou, this southern settlement was established on
the northern bank of the Yangtze River. The other was
Laoniupo 老牛坡, near Xi’an 西安 in Shaanxi province.
It was located in the Wei River 渭河 valley on the upper
reaches of the metropolitan region.
Huangpi was probably the earlier of the two sites and
was closely related to Zhengzhou. It was an extensive
site, covering an area the size of several modern villages.
Some remains of what appear to be the city walls were
preserved. Panlongcheng 盤龍城, the walled city, was
probably about 260 m from north to south and 290 m east
to west.44 The walls were constructed using the hangtu
method, like those at Zhengzhou. Dozens of tombs were
revealed outside the walled areas. They were constructed
in rectangular pits. Tomb M2at Lijiazui was one of the
largest discovered. It contained twenty-two bronze vessels,
which were dominated by wine-drinking types that were
indistinguishable from those found in many Shang tombs
42
Rawson 1999, pp. 375–382. As the present archaeological finds at the
Shang period sites in Shaanxi indicate that local societies were rather
incoherently organized and simple in metallurgical developments, Jessica
Rawson argues that the Zhou were probably a semi-nomadic group that
migrated from further west. See Rawson 1989, pp. 75–79.
43
Some southern features of the Zhou bronzes are discussed in Rawson
1989, pp. 79–87. One of the most obvious of these is the representation
of sculptural animals and birds on bronze vessels.
44
The site at Huangpi was ravaged by a disastrous flood in 1954, although
archaeologists were commissioned to carry out salvage surveys. On a map
drawn in 1932, they discovered a marked area called Panlongcheng, which
appeared to be an ancient site. When the archaeologists arrived on the spot,
they found that the walls had been taken down for the construction of a
dam against the flood. Only parts of the western walls and a small section
of the northern walls had been preserved. The dimensions of the walls at
Panlongcheng were therefore taken from descriptions contained in the
1932 map (Li Taoyan 2002, pp. 12-13).
10
(fig. 1.9). Bronze-casting remains found near the city
indicate that the bronzes were probably cast locally. The
stylistic features of the vessels demonstrate that the local
casters followed the practices at Zhengzhou. It has been
suggested that Panlongcheng was most probably a Shang
establishment, occupied during the Upper Erligang period,
that is, c. 1400-c. 1300 BC.45
The middle and lower Yangtze valleys are rich in copper
mines. Several early copper mines have been excavated
in Hubei, Anhui, and northern Jiangxi provinces.46 Robert
Bagley suggests, therefore, that the Shang may have
established an outpost at Panlongcheng to secure the supply
of copper to Henan, where the demand for copper must
have been very high.47 The occupation at Panlongcheng,
however, did not seem to have lasted very long, because
the site was abandoned by the end of the Upper Erligang
period, about the same time as Zhengzhou.48 Had the
Shang kings been able to establish an outpost as far south
as Panlongcheng, the extensiveness of the Shang travels
must have been remarkably wide—much wider than what
their Zhou successors were able to achieve.
The site at Laoniupo was discovered in 1978 and was
excavated by archaeologists from the Northwestern
University at Xi’an 西安 during a period from 1986-88.
The number of Shang period finds in Shaanxi has been
rather limited overall, but Laoniupo was an exceptionally
rich site. The excavators revealed an extensive bronze-
casting area which contained clay moulds and slumps of
copper, thirty-eight tombs, two horse pits, one chariot pit,
several kilns, and two large architectural foundations.49
45
The excavations at Panlongcheng were carried out during the period
from 1974 to 2000. The finds have been well reported and discussed. For
the early excavations, see Panlongcheng 1976, pp. 5-15 (in English, see
Bagley 1977, pp. 165-198). In the same volume, Yang Hungxun discusses
the architectural structure at Panlongcheng and his own reconstruction
(Yang Hongxun 1976, pp. 16-25); the excavators also produced a separate
comparative study of the bronzes from Panlongcheng and Zhengzhou
(Panlongcheng 1976b, pp. 26-41). For more recent finds, see the full
report, Panlongcheng 2001.
46
The middle and lower Yangtze valleys are still rich in copper today.
Ruichang in northern Jiangxi was probably mined in as early as the late
Shang (Liu and Lu 1998, pp. 465-496). For descriptions of the ancient
copper mines found in the Yangtze valleys, see Qiu Shijing 2004, pp. 25-
40.
47
Bagley 1977, pp. 198-200. In opposition to Bagley’s suggestions,
Jiang Hong and a number of other Chinese scholars have argued that most
of central Hubei may have been invaded and controlled by the Shang;
and Panlongcheng was possibly one of the many Shang settlements
established in the south (Jiang Hong 1976, pp. 42-46 and Li Taoyuan
2002, pp. 20-24). Although a few other Shang-period sites (containing
minor finds) have been found in Hubei, evidence is far from sufficient to
convincingly suggest that the Shang hadextended their political control
that far south. Moreover, Panlongcheng was apparently occupied for
only a short time. I am, therefore, inclined to support the more cautions
argument by Bagley that the site was an outpost established in the region
outside the main Shang spheres. Zhang Changping is now taking charge
of the excavations at Panlongcheng. On the more updated accounts about
the recent finds, see the first two chapters in 2016, pp. 7-32.
48
Li Taoyuan 2002, pp. 62-68.
49
Earlier reports of Laoniupo were published in 1988 in two journal
articles in the same volume. They cover mainly the discoveries from the
tombs (Liu and Song 1988, pp. 1-22 and Liu Shie 1988, pp. 23-27). In
the full report, Wang Changqi gives a useful list of all the bronzes found
in Laoniupo (apart from those found during the excavations in 1986-88);
most of them were previously unpublished (Wang Changqi 2001, pp.
415-428).

Figure 1.9. Drawings of some of the bronze ritual vessels found at tomb M2 at Panlongcheng Lijiazui. The ding (top, far right)
measures 17.6 cm in height. Zhu Fenghan 1995, fig. 10.21.
Nonetheless, the range of scholarly perspectives on
Laoniupo has been limited, because the full excavation
report was not made available until fairly recently, in
2000.50
The Laoniupo tombs possess many Anyang features.
The tombs were constructed in rectangular pits. Most of
them had been looted, but a few bronze vessels remained.
Jue, jia, and ding were present, which could possibly
50
For the full excavation report on Laoniupo, see Liu Shi’e 2000.
11
Introduction
have formed part of the set of bronze vessels typical of
any Shang tomb. A bronze jia found at Tomb M44 shared
many stylistic features with the tomb found at Zhengzhou
Baijiazhuang in Henan (fig. 1.10).51 In the refuse pits, the
excavators found more than one hundred processed oracle
bones. Most of them were broken, and they were not
51
Five cultural strata (I-V in chronological order) were revealed at
Laoniupo; the Shang remains were found in strata IV and V, and most
bronzes were found in stratum IV, Liu Shie 2000, pp. 283-301.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Figure 1.10. Left: bronze jia found at tomb M44 at Laoniupo. H 23 cm. The jia probably dated from c. 1300 BC. After Liu
Shie 2000, colour pl. 5. Right: bronze jia found at a tomb at Zhengzhou Baijiazhuang. H 28.5 cm. c. 1300 BC. Zhengzhou
Shangcheng 2001, colour pl. 25.

Figure 1.11. Chariots buried in pits accompanying burials. Left: a chariot found at M27 at Laoniupo (after Liu Shie 2000,
colour pl. 3); right: a chariot found at M7 at Anyang Xiaomintun (Anyang 1994, pl. 18.1).

inscribed. But they were burnt and cracked as were those
found in the caches at Anyang.52
Among all the finds at Laoniupo, the chariots (fig. 1.11) are
probably the most remarkable. Horses and chariots were
probably introduced from the northwest to the Yellow
River regions in the last centuries of the second millennium
BC. The earliest chariots were found at Anyang, buried
in separate pits accompanying the large tombs of high-
ranking elites.53 Found within the cemeteries of many large
and small tombs, the chariot and horse pits discovered at
Laoniupo were probably also part of the burials. While
the people at Laoniupo appear to have shared many burial
practices with the Shang, the question remains, however,
as to whether the chariot was introduced from Anyang
or whether it was directly inspired by the peoples of the
Northern Zone in southern Inner Mongolia.54 The site was
located on a major route connecting Henan to the west,
from which the formidable Zhou were to come. Therefore,
the connection between Anyang and Laoniupo must have
been very important. The excavators argue that Laoniupo
was probably a settlement established by the Shang during
the Anyang period. They suggest that the Shang may have

52
Liu Shi’e 2000, p. 161. 54
Liu Shie, the principal excavator at Laoniupo, argues that chariots
53
See Liu Yonghua 2002, pp. 6-18 for drawings and comparison of the were probably introduced from Anyang. See Laoniupo 2000, pp. 344-
Anyang and Laoniupo chariots. 345; however, Liu doe not entertain other possibilities.

12
 Introduction

Figure 1.12. Bronze faces found at Laoniupo, Chenggu, and Xin’gan. c. 1300 BC. Top left: human-like face found at Tomb
M44 at Laoniupo. H: 6.5 cm; Top right: ox face found at tomb M10 at Laoniupo. H 16 cm. Liu Shie 2000, colour pl. 10.
Middle left: human-like face found at Chenggu Sucun. H 16.4 cm; middle right: ox face found at Chenggu Sucun. H 19.1
cm. Zhao Congcang 2006, pl. 98 and 114. Bottom left: human-like face found at Xin’gan in Jiangxi. H 53 cm. Xin’gan 1997,
colour pl. 37. Bottom right: Bronze chariot fitting from Yidu Sufutun, Shandong. Anyang period. H 6.8 cm. Xia and Liu 1996,
pl. 1.

possibly expanded as far west as the Wei River valley,
where they came into contact with the Zhou people.55
But other features at Laoniupo indicate that the site is
possibly more complicated than initially suggested by
55
At the end of the report, Liu Shie lists a number of Shang neighbours
(who probably lived on the west) made reference to in the oracle bone
inscriptions. He argues that a group of Shang may have lived in the
border regions, where they encountered the various fangguo (regional
states) outside the Shang realms (Liu Shie 2000, pp. 328-355).
the excavators. In Tomb M41, one of the largest looted
burials, the excavators found thirty bronze faces of an ox
or human-like creature (fig. 1.12).56 Surprisingly, many
similar faces were found at Chenggu 城固 in Hanzhong
(fig. 1.12), on the other side of the Qinling Mountains in
the south;57 another humanoid bronze face (fig. 1.12), an
56
Liu Shie 2000, pp. 269-270 and 296-299.
57
The bronze masks from Laoniupo are about 10-20cm tall, featuring
two round and hollow eyes, a stout nose, a broad and grinning mouth,
openwork teeth, and two angular ears. Their forms and details are very

13
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
enlarged version, was found at Xin’gan 新干 in the middle
Yangtze.58 In contrast, no similar faces have been found
in Henan.59 Thus, the people at Laoniupo were not only
familiar with the practices at Anyang, but they were also in
contact with other societies not as clearly identified as the
Shang. The cultural network established in Shaanxi was
extensive. This was an area in which settled and nomadic
groups encountered one another, and in which the Shang
interacted with southerners. Whether or not Laoniupo
was a western extension of Shang territory must be
substantiated by further archaeological finds in the region.
Undoubtedly, Shang culture was dominant over other
societies in the Yellow River region. Panlongcheng
and Laoniupo comprise two different types of societies
established in the peripheral regions of the metropolitan
Shang areas: the people at Panlongcheng closely followed
northern burial and bronze-casting practices, while those
at Laoniupo appear to have been more receptive to a
greater variety of cultural influences.
Both sites make clear that Shang culture was known
and identified as Shang in distant lands, or at least that
people who were familiar with the Shang travelled and
established themselves outside Henan. Bronze-casting
technique was possibly introduced more widely to the
south during the 14th to 13th century BC, around the time of
the abandonment of Panlongcheng. Because most Yangtze
finds were dated to the Transition period and after, i.e.
c. 1300 BC, Panlongcheng appeared to have contributed
significantly to the distribution of both the bronze-
casting technique and the practice of casting ritual bronze
vessels. However, the finds were too scattered to draw any
concluding suggestions about the contacts. So far it can
only be certain that the distribution of the technique was
one-way, which was transmitted from north to south.60
The South
The ‘southern China’ defined here refers to Hanzhong,
the Huai River valley, and the Yangtze valley. In the
southernmost Chinese provinces of Fujian 福建,
Guangdong 廣東, and Guangxi 廣西, archaeologists
have also discovered bronze vessels and bells dated to the
sixth to third centuries BC.61 The Dian 滇 bronze-casting
similar to those discovered at Chenggu in Hanzhong in southern Shaanxi;
another parallel example was found in Xin’gan in Jiangxi, in the middle
Yangtze valley (Bagley 1999, p.178-180). See also Zhao Congcang 2006,
pp. 88-99.
58
Xin’gan 1997, pp. 131-132.
59
A few bronze human faces were found in the royal tombs at Anyang.
These faces were cast with far more realistic features. For discussions on
the different bronze faces from the Shang period, see Rawson 1998b, pp.
124-148. The finds from Hanzhong and Xin’gan will be described below.
60
The dates of the southern bronzes are highly controversial.
Nevertheless, Jessica Rawson and Robert Bagley have demonstrated that
the earliest pieces found in most southern regions were invariably related
to Zhengzhou (Rawson 1994, pp. 1-14 and Bagley 1987, pp. 32-34 and
1999, pp. 175-180). See Shi Jingxiong 2005, pp. 312-315 for a list of the
approximate dates of the southern bronzes.
61
For a summary of the finds from southernmost China – that is, the
Lingnan regions – see Xia-Shang 2003, pp. 635-658. Falkenhausen
14
societies (c. 5th-1st century BC) in Yunnan in the southwest
developed much later.62 The bronzes in the far south
possess features that developed earlier in the mid-Yangtze
regions, but they display limited connections to the Shang
or Zhou further north. The finds from the far south will,
therefore, be excluded from the present discussion.
Hanzhong
Hanzhong is a narrow valley of the Han River in southern
Shaanxi. The region is rather isolated. It is flanked in the
north by the extensive Qinling Mountains 秦嶺 (about
300 km long), which essentially blocked most connections
with the eastern Wei River valley where Laoniupo is
located; in the south, the Micang Mountains 米倉 and
Daba Mountains 大巴 separate Hanzhong from Sichuan’s
Chengdu Basin 成都盆地, which is an extensive area of
flat-lying lands on the Upper Yangtze. Hanzhong is an
important intermediate region that connects the north
and south of China. Today, the Hanzhong area is still a
major stop along the railway that links Baoji in Shaanxi
with Chengdu. Moreover, the Han River is another major
transport route that leads to the mid-Yangtze regions in
central Hubei.
Some bronze-using peoples once lived in Hanzhong.
Archaeologists have found more than seven hundred
bronze vessels, weapons, masks, chariot fittings, and
various other objects of unknown purpose (fig. 1.13).
The bronzes were found in about thirty-three groups in
different combinations, buried in pits located within the
confines of two neighbouring counties: Chenggu 城固 and
Yangxian 洋縣, both beside the Han River.63 The purposes
of the bronze pits at Chenggu and Yangxian are unknown.
The dates of the vessels range between the Upper Erligang
and Anyang periods.64
The Hanzhong people cast a few bronze vessels; most of
the fine bronze vessels found there probably came from
suggests that the Lingnan bronze-casting industries were probably
inspired by the societies in the Yangtze regions; see Falkenhausen 2002,
pp. 194-236. In turn, Higham argues that the bronze-casting industries in
continental Southeast Asia can possibly be attributed to inspiration from
the Lingnan regions, Higham 2001, pp. 61-71, 90-103.
62
One distinctive feature of the Dian culture is their having cast many
bronze figures, animals, and a bronze type now called the drum. The
Dian drums were shaped like the zun, a bronze vessel which originated in
Henan and which was frequently found in the mid-Yangtze region. The
Dian culture shared quite a number of features with the culture of the
mid-Yangtze regions (Rawson 1983, pp. 7-9 and Zhang Zengqi 1997, pp.
19-31).
63
The Hanzhong bronzes were discovered between 1950 and 2004.
Most of them have been reported (is there an archaeologically specific
synonym you can use here, to avoid repetition?) in the form of short
published reports, and illustrated in two recent catalogues The three
volumes of Hanzhong Chutu Shang Dai Qingtongqi 漢中出土商代青銅
器 edited by Cao Wei provide useful details about each piece individually
(Cao 2006). On the other hand, the single volume Cheng-Yang Qingtongqi
城洋青銅器, edited by Zhao Congcang, arranges the finds by site. At the
end of the book, Zhao includes several research articles by a range of
authors, who discuss different bronze types. He also includes his research
of many years on the Hanzhong bronzes (Zhao Congcang 2006).
64
Zhao Congcang 1996, table 2. Bagley dates some of the Hanzhong
vessels to the Transition period (1999, pp. 178-180).
 Introduction

Figure 1.13. Bronzes found in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province. c. 1300 BC. Top left: jia. H 57.7 cm. Found at Yangxian Machang.
After Cao Wei 2006, pp. 91; Top centre: zun. H 36.9 cm. Found at Chenggu Baoshan Sucun. After Cao Wei 2006, pp. 102. Top
right: pou. H 31.8 cm. Found at Yangxian Machang. After Zhao Congcang 2006, pl. 38. Below left: crescent-shaped objects.
Found at Chenggu Longtouzhen. L 53–56 cm. After Zhao Congcang 2006, pl. 159–160. Below right: pao with a pointed top. D
10.5; pao with an open top. D 11.7 cm. Both found at Chenggu Baoshan. After Cao Wei 2006, p. 407 and 499.

Henan and from the Yangtze regions.65 The local bronze

casters seemed to have specialised in producing smaller
items. Many different bronze weapons are numbered
among the finds: spears, triangular blades, arrowheads,
knives, and adzes.66 Many small implements and fittings
also appear; a disc-shaped object with a bulging side, which
we now call the pao 泡 (fig. 1.13) is the most frequently
found of these.67 In addition, bronze faces were found,
similar to those in the tombs at Laoniupo, as discussed
above.68 Also discovered were quite a number of bronze
zhang 璋 (fig. 1.14), an elongated and flat piece shaped

65
Rawson, forthcoming.
66
Zhao Congcang, therefore, argues that Hanzhong may have been a
major weapons production centre (1996, pp. 17-25). For a typological
study of the Hanzhong weapons, see Guo Yanli 2006, pp. 260-280.
67
Most pao came from Chenggu Baoshan Sucun. There were two
different forms: one has a hollow centre on the bulging side, and the
other has a pointed centre. Their diameters range between one and
thirty centimetres (Zhao Congcang, 2006, pp. 83-156). The functions
of these pao are unknown. However, similar bronze pao were found in
the Western Zhou tombs, often associated with chariots. Wang Zhiyou
suggests that the pao were decorative fittings on the leatherwork and
shields (2006, pp. 281-209).
68
All the masks were found at two nearby sites at Chenggu Baoshan
Sucun 城固寶山蘇村 (Zhao Congcang 2006, pp. 69-99). Similar masks
were found at Xin’gan in Jiangxi (see below);, and in an early Western Figure 1.14. Zhang. Left: bronze zhang. Hanzhong Yangxian
Zhou tomb, M1193, found at Fangshan Liulihe 房山琉璃河 in Hebei, Fanjiaba, Shaanxi province. H 17.8 cm. After Cao Wei 2006,
where the pieces were likely to have been collected from elsewhere p. 226. Right: jade zhang. Sanxingdui pit no. 2, Sichuan
(Liulihe 1990, pp. 20-31). province. H. 38.2 cm. After Bagley 2001, p. 169.

15
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Figure 1.15. Bronze vessels found at Funan, Anhui province. There were twenty-one vessels: a pair of jia, a pair of jue, a
pair of gu, two different zun, one fangding (now lost), and possibly twelve li (some were lost). Only a few of them have been
published; only one in each pair of jia, jue, and gu are illustrated. The photographs of these vessels are repeated here to
suggest what the whole set may have looked like. Top: (left) jue, H 28 cm; (centre) gu, H 29.5 cm; (right) li, H 23 cm; Below:
(left) jia, H 46 cm; (centre) zun, H 47 cm; (right) zun, H 50.5 cm. After Anhui 1987, catalogue entry no. 1–3, 31–33.

like a tablet. The zhang was possibly a ritual object dating
from the Neolithic period in Henan, and it was usually
made of jade or stone.69 The bronze versions of the zhang
found in Hanzhong are intriguing, because no jade zhang
or other ritual jade has yet been reported as discovered at
that site. It is even more intriguing that a large number of
jade zhang of extraordinarily large size were excavated at
Sanxingdui in Sichuan on the other side of the Micang and
Daba Mountains to the south of Hanzhong.70
In 1998–1999, Zhao Congcang led an archaeological team
from the Northwest University to excavate at Baoshan in
Chenggu city. They revealed sixty one irregularly-shaped
pits that contained signs of fire, as well as various sorts
of pottery shards, animal bones, and pebble stones. The
site contained a large number of pottery shards but only
a few broken bronze pieces.71 The bronzes of Hanzhong
strongly suggest that other, more important settlements
existed. Despite the large number of bronzes found, we
still understand very little about the people who lived in
Hanzhong. Archaeologists have not yet found any major
settlement sites.
Anhui
The Huai River valley in northern Anhui is an intermediate
valley between the Yellow and the Yangtze Rivers in the
east, near the coast. During the 1950s and 1970s, a few
sites with bronzes dated to the Transition period were
found in the Huai valleys and in the regions further south
near the Yangtze.72 Nearly all the discoveries were chance
finds made by local residents. The original provenance
of the bronzes has been lost, but their large size and fine
quality is comparable with those excavated from the
highest-ranking elite tombs at Anyang.
Three groups of Anhui bronzes are notable. The largest
group (fig.1.15) – consisting entirely of pieces of
unmistakably northern type – was found at Funan 阜南 in
1957. The group includes twenty-one ritual vessels: pairs
of jia (46 cm tall), jue (28 cm), and gu (29.5 cm); two
different zun (47 and 50.5 cm); one fangding 方鼎 (this
piece is now lost); and twelve similar li 鬲 tripods (about

72
Virginia Kane and Robert Bagley are credited with establishing the
dates of the Anhui vessels (Kane 1974/5, pp. 79-80). Following the five-
69
The bronze zhang were found at Chenggu Wulangmiao 城固五廊廟 style scale proposed by Max Loehr in 1959 (Loehr 1959, pp. 42-53 ),
and Yangxian Fanba 洋縣范霸 (Zhao Congcang 2006, pp.46-57, 166- Bagley establishes a revised typological sequence of the bronze vessels
176). with reference to the known archaeological sites. The decorative motifs
70
Some large Sanxingdui jade zhang are nearly one metre long, evolved from simplicity to complexity and from Style I to V, with Style
Sanxingdui 1999, pp. 61-80 (pit no. 1) and 354-367 (pit no. 2). For the I roughly corresponding to the Erlitou period and Style V to the Anyang
studies of the distribution and types of zhang, see the essays collected in period. The Anhui vessels represent Style III. Hence, Bagley argues that
Tang Chung 1994. they probably dated to the Transition period (Bagley 1999, pp. 146-155
71
Zhao Congcang 2002, pp. 25-163. and 175-176).

16

Figure 1.16. Bronze jia found at Feixi, Anhui province.
H 55.4 cm. c. 1300 BC.
23 cm).73 A smaller group, including two jia (55.4 cm tall),
two jue (38.7 cm), and one gu (height unknown) was found
at Feixi 肥西, further to the south, in 1965. The Feixi jia
(fig. 1.16) were extraordinarily large, comparable with
the one (66 cm tall) found in Tomb no. 54 at Anyang (fig.
1.8), mentioned above.74 The third group of ritual vessels,
which date slightly later than the previous two groups, was
found at Yinshang 穎上 near Funan in 1980. This group
consists of pairs of jue, gu, and ding, and single pieces
of yan, gui, you, and zun – an extensive set similar to the
typical collection of objects found at any Shang tomb in
Henan. The Yinshang vessels, however, were not cast in
bronze as were the others. They were cast in lead. The
excavation report did not specify whether the lead vessels
showed signs of use. It is curious that they were buried
together with small tools made of bronze.75 Discovered in
the same area in 1972, another group of finds comprised
=only bronze vessels and lead tools.76 The Anhui casters
seem unusual. Ritual vessels were very rarely been cast
in any material other than bronze, and the use of lead was
even rarer. The lead vessels from Yinshang are unique.
The Anhui ritual vessels are remarkable and unusual in
form and design, but they have been discussed relatively
rarely.77 This is partly because the Anhui vessels were
73
The Funan vessels were found in two groups. The first discovery
was made in 1957 by local residents, who found jia, jue, gu, and zun.
According to the residents’ accounts, the archaeologists reported that
during the Sino-Japanese War, another group was discovered close to
this same spot. It was said that there were twelve small bronze li and a
large fangding 方鼎. Later, the archaeologists were able to recover five
bronze li in the original group of twelve. One of them was found at the
antique market at Fengbang, about 180 km to the west of Funan (Ge
Jieping 1959, p. 1 and Anhui 1987, catalogue entry no. 3).
74
The Feixi vessels were not documented in the archaeological reports.
They were illustrated in Bagley 1980, catalogue entry no. 15-16. They
are now included in the collection of the Anhui Provincial Museum.
75
There were five bronze spears (about 23 cm long) and a broken
triangular-shaped weapon, Liu Haichao 1985, pp. 36-38.
76
Liu Haichao 1985, pp. 38-41.
77
In contrast, the early bronzes from Anhui have been discussed in the
West. Virginia Kane is the first scholar who took note of the importance
17
Introduction
Figure 1.17. Bronze nao. Anhui Lujiang. H 49.5 cm. After
Anhui 1987, catalogue entry no. 10.
inadequately documented and illustrated. The twenty-
one vessels from Funan may have been a set, but only
a few of them have been published and illustrated in
the catalogues.78 The lead vessels from Yinshang were
depicted in very poor quality photographs.79 In addition,
the sparse distribution of the Anhui bronzes may have
resulted in further difficulties in establishing any particular
pattern which underlay local bronze-using traditions. The
two nao 鐃 bells found at Lujiang 廬江 (fig. 1.17) and
Qianshan 潛山 near the Yangtze further to the south also
complicate the picture.80 Both bells were similar in form
to those found in the mid-Yangtze regions. The practice
of burying individual bells in pits was almost certainly
a practice developed in the mid-Yangtze. Thus, it would
appear that the bronze-casting and bronze-using groups in
Anhui both possessed a knowledge about the Shang and
had contact with other groups upstream.
The Mid-Yangtze Regions
The middle Yangtze valleys feature two large freshwater
lakes: Poyang 鄱陽 and Dongting 洞庭.81 The mid-Yangtze
of the Anhui vessels and bells in her paper on the southern bronze-casting
industry (Kane 1974/75, pp. 79-80). Elsewhere, a couple of Anhui
bronzes are illustrated in Bagley 1980, cat. No. 15-16; others are briefly
discussed in Bagley 1999, pp. 175-177 as well as in a forthcoming paper
by Jessica Rawson on the bronze-casting industries related to Hanzhong.
78
In the original report, only four of the twenty-one vessels were
illustrated (Ge Jieping 1959, p. 1). Although the Funan vessels are later
illustrated again in colour plates in the bronze catalogue of the Anhui
Provincial Museum, only a few vessels were selected for publication
(Anhui 1987, cat. no. 1-4 and Anhui 2006, cat. no. 1-4).
79
The Yinshang vessels are illustrated only in the excavation report
published in Liu Haichao 1985, pp. 36-38. They were then housed in
the Fuyang Municipal Museum 阜陽市博物館. No further details about
them have been published.
80
The Qianshan nao was discovered in 1955 and the Lujiang nao in
1973. Neither was documented in the form of an archaeological report.
But they are illustrated in the catalogue of the bronze collection in the
Anhui Provincial Museum, Anhui 1987, catalogue entry no. 10-11.
81
There has been a considerable research on the geological transformation
[is this the kind of transformation you mean?] pollen records of the two
lakes. Most of this research is concerned with the features of the lakes
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
valleys are today administered under three provinces:
Hubei (the North of the Lakes) is located on the north bank
of the Yangtze; Jiangxi (the West of the River) is to the
south of Lake Poyang; and finally, Hunan (the South of
the Lakes) is to the south of Lake Dongting. Unlike the
extensive low-lying plains that spread across the lower
Yangtze valleys, the topography of the mid-Yangtze valley
is more diverse. The lake regions of Jiangxi and Hunan
are separated by the zigzagging Jiuling 九嶺, Wugong
武功, and Luoxiao 羅宵 mountains. Lake Poyang links
the major river of the province, the Gan River 贛江, with
the Yangtze, while Lake Dongting receives the Yuan 沅
and Xiang 湘 Rivers of Hunan. The lake regions around
Poyang and Dongting, therefore, constitute two distinctly
separate geographical regions.
Jiangxi and Wucheng culture
Jiangxi lies upstream of Anhui. Unlike Hanzhong and
Anhui, archaeological work in Jiangxi has been more
focused. The resources for excavations are concentrated on
the settlement site at Zhangshu Wucheng 樟樹吳城, where
archaeologists from the Jiangxi Institute of Cultural Relics
and Archaeology carried out ten seasons of excavations
between 1973 and 2002.82 Meanwhile, in 1989, these
archaeologists accidentally discovered and subsequently
excavated a pit at Xin’gan Dayangzhou, about twenty
kilometres to the east of Wucheng. Hundreds of bronzes,
jades, and ceramics were buried inside the pit. Although
the purpose of the site is unknown, its connection with
Wucheng is clearly evinced by the similarity of the two
sites’ ceramics.83 The two sites can therefore be assumed
to have been contemporary. They are the key sites that
represent what is now called the Wucheng bronze-using
culture in Jiangxi.84
Wucheng is one of the few known Early Bronze Age
settlements in southern China. The carbon dates of the site
range between c. 1530 and c. 1050 BC.85 It is located in
the Gan River valley in central Jiangxi. The site measures
during the Neolithic (c. 10000-c. 5000 BP) period (Guo Lixin 2004, pp.
5-6 and Jiang and Piperno 1999, pp. 250-258) and practically nothing
has been accomplished in terms of academic inquiry into the physical
environment of the mid-Yangtze during the Shang. Today, Lake Poyang
measures about 2,900 square meters, and Lake Dongting 2740 square
meters.
82
Between 1973 and 2002, the finds from Wucheng were published in
several short excavation reports: Wucheng 1975, pp. 51-71; Wucheng
1978, pp. 1-13; Wucheng 1987, pp. 20-31; Wucheng 1993, pp. 1-32, 18;
Wucheng 1995, pp. 5-23. The full report was published in Wucheng 2005.
The final report provides a map of Wucheng, lists of objects and features
(including pits, kilns, and bronzes), and photographs of the objects
which may not have previously been published. The report summarises
the finds from different parts of the city but fails to integrate them. For
example, during the first few excavations, archaeologists established
that there were three successive strata at the site, which, as they argued,
corresponded respectively to the Erligang, Anyang, and Western Zhou
periods of the north. The later excavations simply followed these
divisions. No attempt has been made to refine these overly simplistic
correspondences suggested in the site’s first excavation reports.
83
A preliminary report of Xin’gan was published in Xin’gan 1991, pp.
1-24 and a final report in Xin’gan 1997.
84
Peng Minghan 2005, pp. 112-189.
85
Peng Shifen 1997, pp. 145-146.
18
about 613,000 square meters, about one-fourth the size
of Zhengzhou. Although the walls of Wucheng were
constructed somewhat irregularly, they were substantial
constructions: the surviving parts measure 5-8 m tall and
are 15-20 m wide at the base. The archaeologists noted that
the walls were built in horizontal layers, with a technique
quite different from that used in the north.86
In the 1970s, archaeologists estimated that the dates of
occupation for Wucheng spanned from the Upper Erligang
period to early Western Zhou. However, subsequent
excavations have made few attempts to refine the broad
chronology of the site subsequently established.87 We
can be certain only that the city of Wucheng was roughly
contemporary with Zhengzhou and that it was in use for a
fairly lengthy period. Some small bronze tools and stone
moulds for bronze-casting were found. In addition, two
broken bronze vessels similar to those cast in the north
but evidently locally cast were excavated.88 Wucheng is a
large and important site in the mid-Yangtze valley. There
is early evidence of bronze-casting activities. Despite the
relatively small number of bronzes found, the site was
clearly a major settlement of some sophisticated people
that we are yet to understand.
Inside the city, archaeologists revealed roads that connected
to the city gates, a large earthen platform, pits with bronze-
casting remains, and fourteen kilns.89 No major tombs
have yet been found. The site perhaps tells us most about
the highly developed skills of the Wucheng potters. They
were capable of firing at a sufficiently high temperature,
probably around 1200℃, allowing the surfaces of the pots
to vitrify. Some of the Wucheng wares have a thin greenish
glaze (fig. 1.18).90
One of the fourteen kilns (Y6) (fig. 1.19) excavated had
as many as eight firing chambers; it had domed rooftops
and sloping firing tunnels that would have increased and
stabilised the temperatures within the firing chambers.91
Moreover, the potters marked their ceramics. From time
to time in their examination of the ceramic artefacts,
archaeologists found between one and several characters
inscribed on shards. The longest inscription contained
twelve characters.92 Wucheng writing is not decipherable,
86
In a conference held in 2004, the excavators of Wucheng, Huang
Shuigeng, and Li Kun reported some recent finds from 2001. The paper
has not yet been published but is available online: http://www.xianqin.
org/xr_html/articles/yshwhxh/195.html.
87
For the dates of Wucheng and other sites in northern Jiangxi, see the
summary in Peng Minghan 2005, pp. 19-46.
88
Wucheng 2005, pp. 83-86 and 361-374.
89
The excavators found seven refuse pits (called hui keng 灰坑) in
the northern parts of the site which contained various sorts of remains
from bronze-casting activities: copper slag, charcoal, ceramics, stone
axes, stone knives, and a large number of stone moulds for casting small
bronze tools. Stone moulds were a particular feature of the Wucheng
culture. First, the casters cut a slab of local sandstone into halves and
carved out the shape of the desired tool on each half. One stone mould
for casting an adze was also found at Xin’gan, along with many bronzes
(Xin’gan 1997, p. 182).
90
Kerr and Wood 2004, pp. 9-12.
91
Wucheng 2005, pp. 75-84.
92
Wucheng 2005, pp. 375-390.

Figure 1.18. Ceramic guan. Left: Wucheng. Height not given, approx. 20–30 cm. After Wucheng 2005, colour pl. 10; right:
Xin’gan. H 18.8 cm. After Xin’gan 1997, p. 48.2.
Figure 1.19. Kiln site. Panlongcheng Wangjiazui, Hubei. Length 30 m; width 3─5.6 m. Panlongcheng 2001, p. 99. Kiln (Y6).
Wucheng, Jiangxi. L 7.5 m; W 1.07 m. Wucheng 2005, p. 84.
Figure 1.20. Reconstruction of the site found at Xin’gan.
Installed at the National History Museum, 2007. Author’s
photograph.
but it indicates that some of the Wucheng people were
probably semi-literate.93
93
Tang Lan, an eminent scholar of Chinese palaeography, argued that the
Wucheng writing was similar to that of the Shang in form and structure
(Tang Lan 1975, pp. 72-76). The small number of characters found on
the Wucheng shards, however, tells us very little about the linguistics and
structure of the local language.
19
Introduction
A large group of bronzes found at Xin’gan (fig. 1.21) is an
important discovery, indicating that the Wucheng people
were also a major bronze-using group. The pit contained
475 bronzes: forty-eight ritual vessels; three nao bells (fig.
3.8), which stand mouth upward; one bo 鎛 bell (fig. 3.9)
which stands mouth downward; 232 weapons; 143 tools
(mainly agricultural); one double-sided mask of a face
similar to those found at Laoniupo and Hanzhong; and
forty-seven various objects that may have been fittings or
implements (although no pao were found). In addition,
the find also included 754 jade beads, tubes, and other
ornamental pieces as well as 139 intact (or restored) thinly
glazed ceramics.94
The Xin’gan vessels speak to an unusual feature of the
site (fig. 1.20). Of the forty-eight vessels found, thirty--
eight were cooking tripods (ding, li, and yan), two were
basins for serving food (one was a pan and another a
dou), and the remaining eight were various sorts of liquid
containers (hu 壺, you, lei, and pou). This set of vessels is
remarkably different from those found in the north and at
94
The Xin’gan ceramics are similar to those found in the second strata
of Wucheng. This find consisted of mostly guan jars (some were lidded),
zun, and dou (a dish on a pedestal) – all were containers or utensils for
serving food (Xin’gan 1997, pp. 163-180).
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Figure 1.21. Nine flat-legged bronze ding found at Xin’gan, Jiangxi province. c. 1300 BC.
Panlongcheng. Wine-drinking vessels – the jue, gu, and
jia– are not represented. In this group, the most dominant
vessel type is the bronze ding; sixteen ding of various
sizes and shapes were found, with the largest one (now
marked as XDM: 8) measuring 97 cm in height.95 The
following chapter will return to discuss the combination
of the Xin’gan bronze vessels, and its implications. The
combination suggests that it was certainly unlike the
vessels found in the burials in Henan and Panlongcheng.
The purpose of the site at Xin’gan Dayangzhou is
controversial. The excavators argued that the site was
possibly the tomb of a member of the local elite class.96
They found twenty-four poorly-preserved human teeth
from three individuals – possibly one woman and two
children.97 The excavators suggest that the Xin’gan bronze
vessel set, which was evidently different from a standard
set in the north, was possibly a local variant of that of the
Shang. In their opinion, the Xin’gan people borrowed the
bronze-using features from the north and, according to their
95
Xin’gan 1997, pp. 8-48.
96
Peng Shifan, one of the principal excavators, argued that there
may have been a set of outer and inner coffins (Peng Shifan 1997, pp.
137=142). Nevertheless, the notes taken by the excavators have not
been substantiated by the publication of photographs taken during the
excavations: the site had been disturbed and the objects scattered all
over the site. The amount of wood traces found is meagre, and no other
human body parts were found. See the descriptions of the site in Xin’gan
1997, pp. 5-7. An alternative perspective on the pit at Xin’gan is that it
was possibly a hoard of sacrificial objects (Peng Minghan 1994, pp. 16-
19). The evidence is not convincing either way. The finds from Xin’gan
comprise a unique example of the range of bronze types and other objects
produced and used by the Wucheng society. We have not yet found a
parallel case for comparison. Therefore, regarding the purpose of the pit,
I opt to leave the question unanswered for the time being.
97
According to the excavators, the teeth were collected near the centre
of the pit. They were analysed by Han Kangxin from the Institute of
Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science (Han Kangxin 1997,
pp. 234–237).
20
own needs, may have selected certain vessel types to be
used in the performance of religious activities. Clearly, the
Xin’gan vessels are an important example of an alterative
arrangement of Shang ritual objects. In my opinion, the
purpose of the Xin’gan pit remains an open question. I
am inclined not to consider the site to be a burial, because
such an assumption oversimplifies the cultural diversity
that has been found in many southern societies.
Indeed, the remaining bronzes at Xin’gan suggest that the
local society may have had high regard for other bronze
types less commonly found in Henan. A wide variety
of bronze weapons and agricultural tools were found.
The two hundred weapons found comprising eleven
different types, including spears, blades, daggers, knives,
axes, and a helmet.98 Among the agricultural tools were
plough shovels, spades, axes, sickles, drills, and adzes.99
In addition, the four bells at Xin’gan were all of different
shapes and designs. Bronze nao were not uncommon in
southern China, particularly in Hunan (discussed below),
but they have hardly ever been found buried with ritual
vessels.100 The Xin’gan discovery has rendered many
more questions rather than concluding remarks about the
reception of the Shang material culture in the Jiangxi area.
98
The Xin’gan helmet was possibly an import from the north, because
about dozens of similar bronze helmets were discovered at a royal tomb
at Anyang (Xin’gan 1997, pp. 87-115).
99
Xin’gan 1997, pp. 115-129.
100
In a paper delivered in 1989, Gao Zhixi reported a survey of all the
bronzes that had been found in southern China by 1989. Except for the
finds in Sichuan (discussed below) and Xin’gan, the southern bronzes
were usually found individually or in small groups (Gao Zhixi 1992, pp.
76-79).

Figure 1.22. Bronze nao found in Hunan province. Left: nao. Ningxiang Yueshanpu. H 103.5 cm; weight: 221 kg. Top and
bottom right: nao. Found at Ningxiang Laoliangcang, buried together with four similar but smaller ones, as well as with
the one shown below. The largest bell measures 53.5 cm in height and 31 kg in weight. Below right: nao. H 54 cm; weight:
28.5 kg. After Shanghai Museum 2000, p. 16–20.
Hunan
In Hunan, many exquisite bronze vessels and bells have
been found since the 1920s.101 However, our present
understanding of the bronze-using people or peoples in
Hunan is very limited. Archaeologists have not yet found
any remarkable settlement sites, tombs, or bronze-casting
workshops in the province. The bronzes were only chance
finds. They were buried in pits that did not contain any
other objects. Moreover, the pits were usually located near
rivers or on hills. Although in most cases archaeologists
were able to visit the bronze pits and to make notes of
their features and surroundings, nothing much of interest
was identified.102 In fact, for what purposes the bronzes
101
Many bronzes found in Hunan before the Sino-Japanese War were
incorporated into museum collections overseas. For example, the British
Museum has a two-ram zun, the Senoku Museum has a you in the form
of a tiger and a man, and the Musee Guimei has a large elephant-shaped
zun (Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji 1998, no. 131, 133, and 152). The
provenance of these vessels has not been determined, but they were said
to have come from places near Changsha. (Bagley 1987, pp. 32-36).
102
The excavation reports in Hunan published before the 1990s are all
very brief and unclear. Only in the most recent reports do archaeologists
21
Introduction
were buried in the pits is still a major question in Hunan
archaeology.103
On the other hand, the large number of bronzes found
in Hunan shows us that there must have been a major
bronze-casting group there. As of June 2008, about fifty-
two bronze bells (including nao, yongzhong, and bo)
had been found at thirty-five known sites (fig. 1.22),
and about thirty vessels at twenty others. Xiang Taochu,
a Hunan archaeologist, estimates that three hundred
more bells and vessels from unknown sites have been
provide detailed descriptions of the sites and clear rubbings of the
bronzes; see, for example, Huang and Wang 1997, pp. 16-27 and Pan
Maohui et al 2001, pp. 66-70.
103
Gao Zhixi, a Hunan archaeologist, suggests that the burial of the
bronzes in pits may have comprised some part of the rituals performed for
the deities of nature (Gao Zhixi 1984, p. 131). His suggestion is widely
accepted in China. The assortment of objects placed in the bronze pits in
Hunan display some regular patterns (see below). It seems possible that
the bronze pits were intended for ritual purposes, but the evidence is far
from sufficient to suggest what kinds of rituals were performed, or for
whom they were performed.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Figure 1.23. Animal-shaped vessels. A boar-shaped zun excavated from Xiangtan Jiuhua, Hunan province. H 40 cm; L 70 cm.
He Jiejun 1982, p. 20. An elephant-shaped zun excavated from Zhuzhou Liling, Hunan. H 22.8 cm; L26.5 cm. Chen Jianming
2004, p. 15.
collected in local museums.104 Some bronze weapons
and tools have been found, but bronze chariot fittings
and masks that were not uncommon at other southern
sites are either absent or very rare.105 The bronze pits are
distributed throughout the Lake Dongting regions and in
the Xiang River valley; most of them were discovered in
Ningxiang 寧鄉 county near modern-day Changsha 長
沙, the provincial capital.
The Hunan bronzes consistently display several
remarkable features. First, the bronze pits were usually
located near rivers or on low mounds, quite similar to
those found in Hanzhong. However, the contents of the
Hunan bronze pits display regular patterns: they usually
contained at least one, but in a few, more than ten bronzes;
and no bell has reportedly been found with the vessels.
Second, bronze bells must have been important to the
local society. The number of nao bells found in Hunan
exceeds the sum of all those found at the metropolitan
Shang and other southern sites (see Chapter Three). Third,
Hunan casters tended to produce large and heavy objects:
the largest bronze nao, found at Ningxiang Yueshanpu 寧
鄉月山舖, measures 103.5 cm in height and 221 kg in
weight;106 while the zun found at Huarong measures 72
cm tall, nearly double the size of an average Shang zun.107
Moreover, the Hunan bronzes feature representations of
animals. Elephants, tigers, boars (fig. 1.23), rams, and birds
in various combinations were not uncommonly depicted
on both vessels and bells. Hunan casters even produced
vessels in the form of a life-sized animal.108 Some of these
were also very large.
104
Xiang Taochu was one of the curators at the Hunan Provincial
Museum, where most of the bronzes are kept. He does not describe the
figures in detail (2006b, p. 37).
105
About two hundred bronze axes of about 10 cm in height were
found in the bronze pou buried at Ningxiang Huangcai 寧鄉黃材, Chen
Jianming 2004, p. 12. Two tiny bronze chariot fittings (4.5 cm tall) were
found at Gaoshazhi 高沙脊 in 1999 (Xiang Taochu 2001, p. 41).
106
Cheng and Wang 1986, pp. 44-45.
107
Rawson 1996, p. 72.
108
See, for example, a boar-shaped vessel found at Xiangtan Jiuhua 湘潭
九華 in 1981. The vessel measures 40 cm tall and 72 cm long, He Jieju
1982, pp. 19-20.
22
Dating the Hunan bronzes is difficult. The majority lack a
chronological context. Moreover, the seemingly randomly-
located bronze pits do not correspond with stratigraphy.
For these reasons, archaeologists usually estimate the
dates of the Hunan bronzes by comparing their decorative
features with those developed in Henan. Gao Zhixi and
Bagley have reached similar conclusions that most Hunan
bronzes can be dated to the Anyang period, more or less.109
Two recent excavations have revealed other remains of the
bronze-using people in Hunan. In 1999, Xiang Taochu and
other archaeologists from Hunan excavated at Gaoshazhi
高沙脊 near Changsha city. Nineteen pits containing
shattered bronzes and pottery shards were revealed. The
bronzes and pottery were likely to have been smashed
before burial. The charcoal, burnt clay lumps, and warped
objects suggest that fires were set in the pits. Although the
excavators proposed that the pits were possibly tombs,
they noted that no human remains or traces of coffins
were found in any of them.110 In 2001-2005, Xiang Taochu
led excavations at Ningxiang Tanheli 寧鄉炭河里, a site
discovered in 1963. Two large architectural foundations
and several pits with small numbers of bronzes and jades
were revealed.111 It is important to note that the excavators
also found remains of a moat and a wall, which appear
to be parts of a walled settlement.112 The walls were
109
Gao Zhixi 1993, pp. 49–52 and Bagley 1992, pp. 221-222.
110
It must be noted that the tops of pits were destroyed by construction
work near the site. Therefore, the original depths of the pits is unknown
(Xiang Taochu 2001, pp. 29-32). The assertion that the pits were tombs
seems rather questionable.
111
In the reports, the excavators describe the pits as tombs of local
elites. As in the case of Xin’gan, the observations of the excavators are
questionable. [This repeats fina sentence of previous paragraph.] The
pits at Tanheli 炭河里 contained no human remains. The bronzes were
likely to have been shattered before burial, similar to those found at the
Gaoshazhi pits. The Shang elites in Henan took bronzes and jades as their
grave goods. It is not known whether the elite of the Hunan societies
shared any northern practices. Indeed, the fact that the objects were
broken intentionally demands an explanation. Therefore, regarding the
purposes of the pits at Tanheli and Gaoshazhi, I suggest that we must
leave the question open for the time being.
112
In several journal papers, Xiang Taochu published the finds from
Ningxiang Tanheli. The information given is more or less repeated
from one paper to another. The reports can be found in Xiang Taochu

constructed with clay and pebble stones. The extant section
is arc-shaped; it measures 300 m long, is 12-15 m wide
at the base, and is 1-2 m tall. The walls were constructed
parallel to a six-metre wide moat. The site was severely
damaged by the Huangcai 黃材 River, which changed its
course in 1969. In the reconstruction plan, the excavators
suggest that the settlement had probably been surrounded
by a circular wall (fig. 1.24).113 If this is true, the city at
Ningxiang Tanheli would have looked very different from
the rectangular settlements at Zhengzhou, Panlongcheng,
and Wucheng.
The Upper Yangtze Region: Sichuan and Sanxingdui
Culture
In contrast to the flat, low-lying plains in the middle reaches
of the Yangtze, the upper reaches have a diverse and rugged
landscape. Archaeologists found some remains of the
Sanxingdui culture, which was named after a type site on
the Chengdu Plains in eastern Sichuan.114 The Sanxingdui
people lived at the edges of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateaus,
surrounded by high mountains of between 2000 and 3500
m in altitude. Geographically, the sites are quite isolated.
The Yangtze must have been a primary route connecting
them with the peoples downstream in Chongqing 重慶,
Hubei, and Hunan, while the Jiangling River 嘉陵江 in
the north of the Plains enabled them to reach Hanzhong,
on the other side of the Daba Mountains.
Two settlements were excavated in Sichuan. The earlier
one, probably dating from the Anyang period, was found
at Guanghan Sanxingdui 廣漢三星堆, about 40 km to the
north of the Chengdu city. Jade and stone objects were
reportedly discovered at Guanghan in the 1930s.115 In 1980-
86, archaeologists from the Sichuan Institute of Cultural
Relics and Archaeology excavated at Sanxingdui. They
confirmed that the walls found on the east, south, and west
of Nanxiangzhen 南鄉鎮 (where Sanxingdui is located)
were built using the hangtu method, similar to that used
at Zhengzhou. The surviving parts measure approximately
6 m high and 40 m wide at the base, enclosing an area
of 2.65 square metres. The city was abandoned probably
around 1000 BC.116
In 2001, archaeologists discovered the Jinsha 金沙 site in
the northwest of Chengdu city itself. In 2001-2005, nearly
20,000 square metres were excavated. The find included
eighteen kilns, several hundred small graves, and nearly
one thousand refuse pits.117 The site was most remarkable
2005 (report on the excavations at of city walls); Xiang Taochu 2006b
(description of the stratigraphy of the site); and Xiang Taochu 2006a
(descriptions of pottery). The bronzes and jades found in the pits at
Tanheli were mentioned, but most of them have not yet been documented
in detail.
113
Xiang Taochu 2005, p. 77-82.
114
Sanxingdui 1987, pp. 249-250.
115
Chen Dean 1998, p. 5-6.
116
Sanxingdui 1987, pp. 227-254.
117
The full excavation report of Jinsha is yet to be published. Zhu
Zhangyi, Zhang Qing, and Wang Fang (the excavators) briefly reported
their finds in Zhu Zhangyi et al 2006.
23
Introduction
Figure 1.24. City walls found at Ningxiang Tanheli, Hunan
province. After Xiang Taochu 2005, p. 81.
for the presence of several pits completely filled with
elephant tusks, jades, and half-processed jade and stone
objects – items that were also found at Sanxingdui. A
small quantity of gold foil was also found.118 Jinsha is
a site that belongs to the Sanxingdui culture. As pottery
typology suggests, the settlement at Jinsha was probably
established to have been occupied at about the same time
as the city at Sanxingdui was abandoned.119
The bronzes at Sanxingdui were excavated from two
rectangular pits (fig. 1.25) that probably served sacrificial
purposes.120 They were discovered in 1986 at Sanxingdui
and are located about twenty metres apart. The smaller of
the two, now called pit no. 1, measures approximately 4.5
m long, 3.4 m wide and 1.6m deep. This pit contained 178
bronzes, two hundred jade and stone objects, thirty-nine
pieces of pottery, thirteen elephant tusks, 124 cowries, and
four thin gold foils of about 650 g in weight altogether. In
addition, the pit contained three cubic metres of ash and
burnt bones. The pit shows signs of fires having been set
there, and some of the jades may have been broken before
burial.121 The pit, however, is different from an ordinary
refuse pit, because the pit walls were carefully flattened
and the filling earth pounded hard. Moreover, the objects
were stacked in layers in some sort of order: the large
118
Some of the finds from Jinsha are illustrated in Jinsha 2002. The
excavation report has not yet been published.
119
Zhu Zhangyi 2006, pp. 267-271.
120
The full excavation reports for the two pits are published in Sanxingdui
1999. The excavators note that another two pits were excavated in April
1989. The find included sundry bronzes, jades, and burnt bones. The
features of these two minor pits and their finds were not documented in
detail, but they seem to be quite similar to what was found in the major
pits discovered in July 1989 (Sanxingdui 1999, p. 12).
121
Sanxingdui 1999, pp. 19-157. Both pits also contained many broken
objects, fixings, and appendages, which are impossible restore to their
original forms. Falkenhausen 2002a, pp. 1-33 discusses the similarities
and differences of the two pits.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC

Figure 1.25. Pit no. 2 found at Guanghan Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC. The pits were neatly filled with bronzes,
jades, elephant tusks, and gold objects. After Bagley 2001, p. 30.

Figure 1.26. Bronzes found in the pits at Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC. Left: drawing of a standing figure found
at pit no. 2. H: 262 cm (including the stool). Top right: head. H: approx. 36 cm. Sanxingdui pit no. 2. Author’s photograph.
Below right: mask. Sanxingdui pit no. 2. H 82.6 cm; W 77 cm. After Rawson 1996, p. 62, 67.

pieces were buried at the bottom, while the smaller ones
were on the top. Pit no. 2 contained very similar objects,
but it was much richer. It measures about 5 m long, 2 m
wide, and 1.6 m deep. It contained 735 bronzes (fig. 1.26),
five hundred jade and stone objects (fig. 1.27), sixty-seven
elephant tusks, three perforated tiger teeth, 120 ivory
beads, and 4600 cowries. Pottery and ashes are absent in
this pit.122 The excavators note that pit no. 1 could possibly
be dated slightly earlier. Both were dated to c. 1200 BC.123
122
Sanxingdui 1999, pp. 157-423.
123
Sanxingdui 1999, pp. 432-437. For the stratigraphical sequence of
Sanxingdui, see Xu 2006, pp. 149-190.
The Sanxingdui bronzes can be divided into many
categories. The bronze heads, masks, and figures are the
most unusual. Their faces are human-like, but their features
are imaginary. They have thick, relief eyebrows; the eyes
are widely-spaced (sometimes protruding) and upturned at
the ends at an angle; the noses are broad and stout; the
cheek bones are accentuated and ridge-like; the thin lips
stretch from ear to ear; the ears are long and angular, with
circular perforations on the earlobes; and the jaws are
always square. Different and exaggerated headdresses can
also be observed.124 These visual attributes must have been
124
Sanxingdui 1999, pp. 23-29 and 162-195.

24

Figure 1.27. Jades found in the pits. Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. c. 1200 BC. Author’s photographs.
essential, because they were cast in extraordinarily large
numbers and sizes. About seventy such heads were found
in the Sanxingdui pits.125 One standing figure, from pit no.
2, measures 262 cm tall and is 180 kg in weight (inclusive
of the base); the largest mask, also from pit no. 2, measures
82 cm tall, 77 cm wide, and is 17 kg in weight.126 Apart
from the human-like figures, a large number of smaller
objects were also found in imitation of the forms that were
more commonly made in jade (fig. 1.27): zhang (tablets),
bi (discs), huan (rings), and hun (flat, square jades with
round perforations in the centres). The pit also included
blades (with saw-tooth sides), axes, adzes, drills, and
knives.127 In addition, some vessels were found: zun, lei,
and pou – types that were usually found in Hanzhong and
Hunan. Indeed, these vessels were likely to have come
from the middle Yangtze regions.128
Sanxingdui was a remarkable civilization. While
archaeological discoveries tell us little about the social
125
Falkenhausen 2002, table 1, pp. 74-76.
126
Rawson 1996, pp. 60-63 and 67-69.
127
Falkenhausen 2002, table 1, pp. 74-76.
128
The find consisted of fifteen zun, one pou, six lei, one pan, and two
vessel lids altogether. The vessel forms had originated in Henan, but their
decorative features were closer to those of the Hunan and Anhui bronze-
casting workshops. Jessica Rawson, therefore, suggests that these vessels
had come from downstream (Rawson 1996, pp. 70-74).
25
Introduction
hierarchy of Sanxingdui, there is no question that the
society was a conglomeration of people who possessed
different specialities: bronze casters, potters, jade and
stone workers, bone carvers, and ritual performers.
Copper, tin, nephrite, and possibly also the elephant tusks
came from afar.129 The accumulation of these resources at
Sanxingdui and Jinsha would have demanded a high level
of organisational skill. No writing from these people has
yet been found. The archaeological finds suggests that
Sanxingdui culture can perhaps be characterised by both
three-dimensional and two-dimensional representations of
figures and ritual scenes, which were found in both bronze
and jade. Their form of religious expression emphasised
visual presentation. This is important, because this form
of expression is quite different from the Shang in Henan
– who instead made offerings of food and drink presented
in bronze vessels – and from the people in Hunan, who
focused rather on acoustic presentations with the use of
bronze bells.130
During the last thirty years, archaeological work has
gradually established the differences between the Shang and
their southern neighbours. The Shang were so dominant in
129
Falkenhausen 2006, pp. 191-245 discusses some external connections
of the Sanxingdui society.
130
Rawson 1990, pp. 17-32.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
the Yellow River valleys that some aspects of their culture
may have been understood in the areas outside their actual
territory. In contrast, archaeologists have not found a
single similarly established and extensive cultural power
in the southern regions. But remarkable groups of people
did exist in the south, people who also cast bronze and
did so according to their respective designs and needs. As
far as sporadic finds suggest, local bronze-casting centres
probably developed at different times. Panlongcheng was
one of the earliest bronze-casting centres that developed
in the south. The others were gradually established in
Hanzhong, Anhui, and Jiangxi at approximately the time
of the Transition period. Those in Hunan and Sanxingdui
came slightly later, contemporary with the settlement
at Anyang. Laoniupo does not belong to the southern
regions, but it shows notable connections with the south.
Moreover, it was an early bronze-casting centre in the Wei
River valley – a region which did not feature significant
development during most of the Shang period, but which
would become important during the Western Zhou.
Web of Connections
Like the assemblage of a jigsaw puzzle, archaeological
finds are adding, little by little, to our knowledge about
the world of the Shang. In the north, the Shang culture
was solidly established in the middle and lower reaches of
the Yellow River. The kings in Henan maintained dynastic
rule over the territory, developed a writing system, and
cast bronze vessels for ritual performances. The groups
that settled to the west of the Shang in Shaanxi were
less culturally coherent and sophisticated. Laoniupo was
an exceptional site with many bronzes and large tomb
features, similar to those found in Henan. Among the
various groups of peoples in Shaanxi, those in Laoniupo
must have been quite familiar with the Shang traditions.
There is no evidence to suggest that Henan traditions
were popularly followed in Shaanxi, but it appears that
the Shang culture was dominant over most of the northern
plains and diffused into the Wei valley.
In c. 1045 BC, a small group from the west called the
Zhou overpowered the Shang. The origins of the Zhou are
unknown, but it seems probable that they came from the
steppe regions further to the west, in present-day Gansu 甘
肅. In historical terms, the Zhou conquest put an end to the
Shang dynasty and marked the beginning of the Western
Zhou period. In cultural terms, however, the Western Zhou
were in many ways connected to the Shang. Coming from a
cultural background with little bronze-casting experience,
the Zhou borrowed Shang techniques and produced very
similar types of bronzes. They also built cities as did the
Shang, used writing, buried the deceased with bronze
vessels, and practiced ancestor worship. To the Zhou, the
Shang were an important source of cultural traditions.
In contrast, the southern societies were far more diverse
and complicated. None of them was as dominant as the
Shang, but the far-flung communities were linked by
discernible connections among themselves. In Hanzhong,
26
a bronze zun was found, which resembled the one found
at Funan in Anhui as well as to one found at Yueyang in
Hunan. Like the Sanxingdui, bronze casters in Hanzhong
also produced some ritual types in imitation of objects that
were usually made with jades. Yet the form and features
of the Hanzhong bronze faces were very different from
those produced by the Sanxingdui society. While the
bronze zun typical in Hunan have been found in Hanzhong
and Sanxingdui, the bronze bells that were cast on a
large scale in Hunan did not seem to have gained much
favour elsewhere. The southern societies exchanged some
material forms, but it seems that they simultaneously
rejected others.
Panlongcheng is an important site that demonstrates the
intimate connections between the north and south. The
establishment at Panlongcheng must have been costly and
difficult to sustain. The site was located about 200 km away
from the metropolitan region. It seems that Panlongcheng
maintained well-established communication links with
Zhengzhou, and that the city was inhabited for almost
a century. Panlongcheng hints at a possible southward
expansion of the Shang. Was the city constructed as part of
a grander empire-building process? Or, was it a southern
outpost intended to maintain the supply of copper to the
north, as has been suggested by a number of scholars?
Exactly how extensive was the power of the Shang?
On the part of the southerners, how did they respond to the
Shang intrusion? It is highly possible that they borrowed
bronze-casting techniques from the Shang. In what ways
did this new technology change the local societies? Did
they accept other aspects of the Shang traditions, as did
the Zhou?
Arguments from Earlier Scholars
Previous studies of Yangtze bronzes were focused on
dating and material features in relation to the Shang
developments. Ma Chengyuan is a recognized expert on
the topic of ancient Chinese bronzes. He was Curator of
the Shanghai Museum, which houses more than 6000
ancient bronzes from Erlitou to the Han (206 BC-231
AD) – one of the biggest bronze collections in China.
Based on his experience in working with bronzes, Ma
Chengyuan argued that the large bronze bells in Hunan
and the bronzes at Xin’gan could not possibly be dated
as early as the Shang. He went on to consider the bronzes
found at Xin’an. There the casters removed the foot-ring
of a bronze you, which possibly had come from the north,
cast three legs in order to support the vessel like a tripod.
A bronze pou, which may also have come from the north,
was similarly cast with three supporting legs. Both vessels
suggest that the casters were very unfamiliar with Shang
vessel shapes.131 In Eastern Zhou tudun 土墩 (mound)
tombs in the lower Yangtze region, it is not uncommon to
find that bronzes from earlier periods had been collected
131
Ma Chengyuan 1997b, pp. 19-24.

and buried.132 Therefore, it seemed to Ma Chengyuan
that the stores of Xin’gan vessels were probably antique
collections made during the Western Zhou period.
According to this theory, the Xin’gan and Hunan bronzes
could probably be attributed to the workshops of the Wu
吳 and Yue 越 kingdoms in the southeast during the Spring
and Autumn period (771-481 BC).133 In other words, he
argued that the Shang in Henan were probably the only
bronze-using society before the Zhou period throughout
the territory of present-day China proper, and that the
southward distribution of bronze-casting technology was
only realized during the Western Zhou era.134
Ma Chengyuan’s argument has not been widely accepted.
Important bronze vessels from Anhui indicate that there
was already a local bronze-casting centre in the south
during the Shang.135 The unusual Xin’gan vessels could
have been modified by the southern casters, who had little
knowledge of or concerns with conventional practices in
the north.136 Moreover, Gao Zhixi has extensively discussed
the bronze bells from Hunan and has demonstrated that
the southern bronze nao were probably early versions of
the yongzhong 甬鐘 (fig. 30) found in early Western Zhou
tombs (see below).137 Thus, it is highly unlikely that the
Hunan and Jiangxi bronzes were later imitations of Shang
bronzes. Perhaps out of respect for the eminent scholar, no
one has ever argued against Ma Chengyuan. Chen Peifen,
who was Curator of the Shanghai Museum and one of
the editors of the Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji 中國青
銅器全集 (A Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), follows
Ma’s argument and proposes that the Hunan and Xin’gan
bronzes be dated to the Western Zhou period.138
Song Xinchao has completed what is probably the most
comprehensive survey of the Shang period finds excavated
from the Central Plains (mid-Yellow River regions), the
northern zone (which includes northern Shanxi, Shaanxi,
and Inner Mongolia), as well as the Yangtze regions.139
Song cites many accounts of warfare between the Shang
and their neighbours drawn from oracle bone inscriptions,
historical texts, and a few short inscriptions found on the
late Anyang bronzes.140 He argues that the Shang may have
expanded the size of their empire by force, thus stationing
troops at Panlongcheng and Laoniupo, called nan-tu 南
132
For example, the Eastern Zhou tombs at Dantu Yandunshan in Jiangsu
contained some mid-Western Zhou vessels; see Ma Chengyuan 1997b,
pp. 3-19 and Rawson 1999, p. 425-6.
133
The Wu were located in present-day Anhui, Jiangxi, and northern
Jiangsu, while the Yue were further south in Zhejiang. Flourishing
bronze-casting industries existed in the southeast during the Eastern
Zhou period; see the essays collected in Ma Chengyuan 1997a and Shao
and Liu 2004.
134
Ma Chengyuan 1997, pp. 22-24.
135
Kane 1974/75, pp. 78-80.
136
For a comparison of the Xin’gan and Shang bronzes, see Bagley 1993,
pp. 20-36; for the Xin’gan you in question, see particularly pp. 27-29.
137
Gao Zhixi 1993, pp. 45-53.
138
Hence, in the Compendium, the bronzes from Xin’gan and Hunan
were included in the volume on Western Zhou; see Chen Peifen, 1988,
pp. 14-22.
139
The book by Song Xinchao was published in 1991.
140
Song Xinchao 1991, pp. 200-254.
27
Introduction
土 (the southern lands) and xi-tu 西土 (the western lands)
in the oracle bone inscriptions. In contrast, Song does not
pay as much attention to the southern regions (nor to the
northern zones), although he realises that Shang power
in the south may have subsided after the abandonment of
Panlongcheng. The southern societies in Hunan, Jiangxi,
and perhaps also Sichuan were probably non-Shang and
were known as various fang (meaning regional) groups,
who lived on the Shang periphery. Song argues that the
members of these fang 方 societies were receptive to
Shang culture, in that they imitated Shang pottery types,
bronzes, writing, and possibly religious beliefs.141 At
the end of the book, he concludes that the Shang were a
central power in the territory (i.e., present-day China) and
that they were also a source of cultural influence upon
neighbouring societies outside Henan.142
Many of Song’s assumptions about the Shang are deeply
rooted in the military image created by ancient historians,
probably in the period between the Eastern Zhou and the
Han. A poem called “Yin Wu” 殷武 and included in Shi
jing (The Book of Songs) illustrates the conflict between
the Shang and the south:
“Swiftly those warriors of Yin
Rushed to the onslaught upon the Jing and Chu,
Entered deep into their fastnesses,
Captured the hosts of Jing,
Divided and ruled their places;
Such was the work of Tang descendants.
O you people of Jing and Chu,
You must have your home in the southern parts.
Long ago there was Tang the Victorious;
Of those Di and Jiang
None dared not to make offerings to him,
None dared not to acknowledge him their king,
Saying, ‘Shang forever!’”
(The Book of Songs, Yin Wu; translated by Arthur
Waley)143
To Song Xinchao and other Chinese scholars, the finds
at Panlongcheng and Laoniupo appear to be obvious
evidence of Shang colonial enterprises. In my opinion, it is
risky to correlate these textural records with the southern
archaeological find, partly because the texts were not
originally intended to locate the exact expeditions, even
if they truly took place; and partly because the historical
texts were written centuries after the fall of the Shang.144
141
Song Xinchao 1991, pp. 149-199. For detailed descriptions of the tu
and fang in the Shang writing, see Keightley 2001, pp.
142
Song Xinchao 1991, pp. 255-264. Song is aware that many exotic
finds were made at the Shang sites, but he only describes these finds in a
very short section (pp. 264-279).
143
The names, which are in Wade-Giles transliteration in the original
translation, have neem are romanized in Pinyin (Waley, 1954, p. 279).
144
Presumably the title, “Yin Wu,” refers to King Wu Ding of Anyang
(Yin), who, according to the oracle bone inscriptions, had many physical
confrontations with neighbouring groups. Tang was the Shang dynastic
founder. The Jing 荊 and Chu 楚 were kingdoms developed in the Han
River valleys during late Western Zhou, while the Di 氐 and Jiang 羌
were probably less politically coherent groups living in the northwest.
According to Waley, the poem was most probably written for the Duke
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
Lothar von Falkenhausen calls the tendency to compare
archaeological discoveries with texts the “historiographical
orientation.” He notes that the trend probably grew out
of modern political trends. Archaeological literature
published in Mainland China suggests that the standard
Chinese history should begin with a single line of
governance, from the Xia 夏 dynasty (for which no
archaeological evidence has been found), to the Shang, to
the Zhou – now referred to as the three earliest dynasties
in Chinese history. This preference is intended to promote
a uniformity representing one ‘China’.145 Subsequently,
in most standard texts on Chinese archaeology, the
Shang have always been the focus, while any ‘unusual
features’ of southern sites have been casually explained
away as deviations from the Shang.146 As Falkenhausen
quotes Bagley, ‘written history holds a double danger for
archaeology. Not only does it steer the archaeological
sample toward conformity with tradition by telling
archaeologists where to look; it also tells us what to
see.147 With regard to adherence to historical texts, the
significance of the southern finds and their implications
relating to our understanding of the world of the Shang
has, in recent years, been substantially reduced.
In the early 1980s, regionalism became an important
theoretical framework in Chinese archaeology. Su Bingqi,
the late Director of the Institute of Archaeology, is credited
with establishing the quyu xitong 區域系統 (the regional
system) model for interpreting the various cultural centres
that developed in different parts of China. He argues that
mutual interaction between regional centres resulted in
the sharing of certain material features found in pottery,
jades, and other objects.148 Su does not discuss in detail
what kinds of interactions may have existed between
these centres. Quyu xitong has earned high regard in
Chinese archaeology, because this new framework better
explains the formation of what we now call the ‘Chinese’
civilisation, as opposed to the traditional historiographical
of Xiang (or Xiang Gong 襄公, r. 650-637 BC) from the State of Song in
present-day Henan. The Song rulers were said to be descendants of the
Shang royal family. During his reign, Xiang Gong fought with the Chu
in the south, with the aim of curbing the Chu’s northward expansion; see
Waley 1954, p. 279 and Hsu Cho-yun 1999, pp. 558-562. Regardless
of the background of the poem, many Chinese scholars have cited the
above poem as evidence of the Shang’s sovereignty over the south; see,
for example, Song Xinchao 1991, pp. 248-251 and Wan Quanwen 1996,
pp. 88-92.
145
Falkenhausen has discussed the interchangeable [I’m not sure what
you mean by this – are they really interchangeable? If so, that’s a big deal
and it’s necessary to say a little more about it. Do you mean, dynamically
interacting?] role of archaeology and history in China and how these
roles have been subtly shaped and modified since the establishment of
the People’s Republic of China in 1949; see Falkenhausen 1993, pp. 839-
849.
146
See, for example, Chen Xu’s book Xia-Shang Kaogu (The Archaeology
of the Xia and Shang) 2001, which includes only a short section on the
south, pp. 231-240. Chen has been a prominent member of the Anyang
archaeological team.
147
Bagley 1992, p. 229, quoted in Falkenhausen 1993, p. 845.
148
Su Bingqi worked out his interpretation model on the basis of his
decades-long fieldwork experience at Neolithic sites in various part of
China; see 1989. On the contributions of Su Bingqi to contemporary
Chinese archaeology, see Wang 1997, pp. 31-39.
28
view that the Chinese civilisation grew out of a single
culture developed on the Central Plains (Zhongyuan).149
Provincial archaeologists in particular follow the regionalist
view. At Xin’gan, Peng Shifan made a considerable effort
to distinguish the tu zu 土著 (indigenous) bronzes from
those inspired by the Shang or pre-dynastic Zhou.150 In
Hanzhong, Zhao Congcang similarly concentrates on
contrasting the Henan bronzes with the bei di 本地 (local)
productions.151 In excavation reports from the southern
sites, di fang xing 地方性 (regional) is presently used as
a conventional term to describe archaeological features
which are different from those found in the Central Plains.
Tu zu, bei di, di fang xing are alternative terms taken to
suggest that the ‘local’ finds diverged quite obviously from
those in Henan. But the terms are applied only to make the
suggestions less prominent.
The regionalist approach is rife with practical concerns.
In China, archaeological work is administered
through a provincially-based institute, which means
that archaeologists are responsible for excavating,
managing, and publishing finds from sites discovered
in their corresponding provinces.152 Establishing the
archaeological sequence and features of a province is,
therefore, a most pressing task. Thus, it is not uncommon
to find that leading provincial archaeologists are perfectly
familiar with local finds but less concerned with those in
neighbouring provinces. Falkenhausen calls this approach
the ‘regionalist paradigm’, because current archaeological
work in China has been very much conditioned by this
administrative framework.153 In practice, Su Bingqi’s
quyu xitong is reduced to a much more simplified form:
scholarly analysis of ‘interactions’ address only those
between the societies found in a particular province and
those of the Central Plains. The major contributions of
archaeological cultures to ‘Chinese’ cultural identity were,
and still are, considered to be derived primarily from the
Shang and Zhou in the north.
149
Su Bingqi’s quyu xitong inspired K.C. Chang, the author of The
Archaeology of Ancient China. In the fourth edition of the book, Chang
modifies his previous views about the formation of Chinese civilisation
and follows Su to argue that extensive ‘regional interactions’ took place
between various archaeological cultures (Chang 1999, pp. 54-65). The
regionalist view is still followed in more recent publications; see, for
example, Allan 2005, Liu and Chan 2012, pp. 360-389; and Shelach-
Lavi 2015, pp. 227-263. Shelach-Lavi presents the most agreed way of
treating the finds from the Yangtze areas, as well as those to the north of
the Shang territory as evidence of peripheral states, as opposed to the
Shang, which was located in the ‘centre’.
150
Xin’gan 1997, pp. 192-203.
151
Zhao Congcang 2006, pp. 244-247.
152
On the archaeological organisation in China, see Falkenhausen 1995,
p. 198-217 and Thorp 2007, pp. xix-xxvii and 1-20.
153
‘The regionalist paradigm in Chinese archaeology’ by Falkenhausen
is another important paper discussing the current trends in the scholarly
field. Contextualised within China’s political background, he explains
how the theoretical framework changed from an historiographical
orientation to quyu xitong. The author makes insightful observations
on the intense competition for fame and funding between Chinese
archaeologists at a provincial level (Falkenhausen 1995, pp. 202-215).

In the West, a separate lineage of scholarship on southern
bronzes has developed. Virginia Kane was the first scholar
to publish articles on the southern bronzes. In her extensive
paper ‘The independent bronze industries in the south of
China contemporary with the Shang and Western Chou
[Zhou] dynasties’, she notes that other bronze-casting
traditions developed in parallel with those of the Shang
and Zhou.154 Given the limited number of archaeological
finds available in the early 1970s, she could investigate
only the few bronzes that had already been found in Anhui
and Hunan.155 Kane argues that the southern bronze-
casting industries probably operated independently from
Shang control.
On the other hand, Kane suggests that the southerners
were heavily dependent on the Shang for technological
inspiration. They borrowed northern bronze-casting
techniques and imitated certain vessel types. Even today,
archaeological records show that the southern industries
gradually collapsed during the early Western Zhou period.
Kane suggests that the collapse was possibly related to
the Zhou’s conquest of the Shang, which may have cut off
regular contact with the south, presumably including any
technological exchange.156 In spite of this later collapse,
regional contact during the Shang period must have been
relatively complex. The remarkable success of Hunan
bell-casting suggests that southerners were fully capable
of developing techniques to cater to their own needs. In
Kane’s paper, the southern contributions are recognised,
but they are underestimated.
Robert Bagley has written extensively on the bronzes
found in the Yangtze regions and developed a new angle
in Shang archaeology. He established what he calls the
‘Erligang Horizon’ in Shang archaeology.157 Important
evidence from Panlongcheng suggests a southward
expansion of the Shang culture during the Erligang period.
The archaeological record evinces a wide geographic
distribution of the Erligang vessels. They were found
in Hanzhong, Anhui, Jiangxi in the south, as well as at
Pinggu and Gaocheng in Hebei in the north. In contrast
to this widespread distribution, the Anyang bronzes were
narrowly distributed, having been found mainly in the
Shang metropolitan areas.158 Thus, Bagley argues that
the Erligang civilisation based in Zhengzhou had by that
period formed extensive external contacts, possibly far
more so than those established during the Anyang period.
154
Kane 1974/75, pp. 77-107.
155
In addition, she points out that another independent bronze-casting
industry probably existed in Sichuan (Kane 1975/75, p. 78). As described
earlier, the discovery of the pits at Sanxingdui in 1986 confirmed that a
flourishing bronze culture had existed in the southwest.
156
Kane 1974/75, pp. 78-86.
157
For the ‘Erligang Horizon’, see Bagley 1999, pp. 165-219; for the
southern bronze features, see Bagley 1977; 1980, cat. No. 20-22 (Anhui);
1988, pp. 78-86 (Sanxingdui); 1992, pp. 215-255 (Panlongcheng,
Xin’gan, Hunan, and Sichuan); and 1993, pp.20-36 (Xin’gan); 2004
(Hunan). Bagley has written less often on the finds from Hanzhong
(1999, pp. 178-180).
158
For the contrast between the geographical distribution of the Erligang
and Anyang bronzes, see Bagley 1992, pp. 226-231 and 1999, pp. 175-
208; and Thorp 1985, pp. 6-75 and 2007, pp. 99-116.
29
Introduction
But Bagley is not as ambitious as are many Chinese
scholars, in their suggestion that the Shang may have
expanded entirely by means of force. He suggests that the
Shang horizon was realised in cultural terms.159
Bagley and his work address an important issue in Shang
archaeology: the cultural extension of the Erligang society.
During the Transition period, the southern bronze-casting
workshops appear to grow more and more independent
from the Shang. Bronze bells and figures found in Hunan
and Sichuan suggest that these local communities were
even further removed from northern cultural traditions.
During the Erligang period, the Shang may have been
more privileged than their neighbours as a result of their
having mastered bronze-casting techniques. However, the
later Anyang people likely faced great difficulties, because
neighbouring groups were certainly equally sophisticated.
What were the connections between Anyang and the south?
How did the Anyang kings manage these connections?
And what were the implications of these connections for
the rise of the obscure Zhou in the west?160 These questions
cannot be easily answered without a thorough review of
the Yangtze finds.
On the topic of connections between Anyang and the south,
a paper published by Jessica Rawson in 1994 is notable.
She provides some examples of the Anyang culture’s
borrowing of southern material features and suggests that
there were probably different patterns of borrowing which
took place during the Anyang period. In the times of Fu
Hao, southern inspiration could be found in the casting of
bird-shaped zun and an unusual vessel type called guang.
Both types, however, became very rare towards the end of
the Anyang period. 161 ‘Reverse borrowing’, the borrowing
of external southern material features by the craftspeople
of Anyang is a topic rarely discussed. It is even more
important to note that the Shang may have subtly changed
their attitudes towards the south. In another publication,
Rawson notes that the Zhou may have had a different
attitude towards the south. Unquestionably, southern
bronze bells and animal-shaped vessels, which were
absent at the Shang sites in Henan, were actually found in
the early Western tombs at Baoji in Shaanxi.162
Aims of the Book
In this book, I intend to examine two sets of questions.
First, what do the southern finds reveal to us about the
Shang, and to what extent could they modify existing
views? Historiography leads us to frames the Shang as a
dominant power; archaeological evidence suggests that
the southern groups were dependent upon the Shang for
bronze-casting technology. Could the southern bronzes
illustrate the relationships between local social groups and
159
Bagley 1992, pp. 216-217 and 1999, pp. 208-212.
160
Bagley 1999, p. 211-212.
161
Rawson 1994, pp. 1=24.
162
Rawson 1999, pp. 427–430
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
the Shang? And if so, does the material evidence conform
to historiographical views?
A second set of questions are built upon the first ones:
during the Shang period, what societies existed within the
territory that we today call China? The Shang and Zhou
have been traditionally regarded as the early ‘Chinese’
civilisations, because their written and possibly spoken
languages have been linked with modern Chinese. But
China cannot be understood in such a simplified way.
Archaeological finds suggest that the Yangtze peoples had
close interactions with the north. For reasons still unknown
to us, they gradually disappeared from the material record
around the tenth century BC—that is, soon after the fall of
the Shang.163 What were the contributions of the southern
peoples to the cultural complex, derived from Shang and
Zhou civilisation, that we now understand as ‘Chinese’?
Some of the most debated and heavily discussed topics
in the study of the Shang have been the relationships
between the Shang and neighbouring societies. Both
historical texts and archaeological finds in Henan suggest
that the Shang were a great civilisation who pioneered
developments in writing, bronze-casting, chariot-making,
and social organisation. The Zhou appear to have emerged
out of obscurity – but ultimately, this semi-nomadic group
swiftly brought down a once-great civilisation. Contact and
conflict with the Zhou may have taken place only during
the last decades of the Shang. But in earlier centuries,
how had the Shang kings managed connections with
their neighbours? What distinguished the Shang among
societies in existence at that time? And finally, what might
have brought about their demise at the hands of the Zhou?
The finds from the Yangtze regions have further
complicated our understanding of the world of the Shang.
The southern societies were short-lived, but their periods
of development invariably overlapped with those of the
Shang. While their material remains contain features
that were noticeably inspired by the Shang, they were
evidently distinguishable from the Shang. The southern
societies produced large bronze bells that were preludes to
the northern practices of bell-casting during the Western
Zhou period. They also produced animal-shaped vessels
– in contrast with Shang vessels, which were nearly
always decorated with an imagined taotie. Nevertheless,
it is striking that, despite their relative independence from
the Shang bronze-casting industry, most southern bronze-
casting workshops seem to have gradually disappeared
after the fall of the Shang. Was their collapse somehow
linked with the shift of political power in the north? What
roles did these societies play in the overall transition from
Shang to Zhou?
In most excavation reports, the term ‘Shang’ has often been
used indiscriminately to describe southern sites: the site at
163
A note on the abrupt disappearance of the southern bronze-casting
groups can be found in Kane 1974/75, pp. 93–98. Otherwise the topic has
rarely been discussed.
30
Xin’gan is reported to have been a Shang dai damu 商代
大墓, or large tomb from the Shang Dynasty; the nao bells
from Hunan are described as the remains of the Shang; and
the bronze vessels from Hanzhong and Anhui are said to
be remains of the fangguo 方國, or regional states, of the
Shang.164 The southern finds seem to have been perceived
as having had little significance unless they were linked
with the north. Consequently, this lack of discrimination
has resulted in some rather confusing connotations: does
‘Shang’ provide only a chronological reference for the
southern sites? Or does the term indicate that the southern
remains were parts of the Shang culture? Without much
hesitation, however, the authors of the excavation reports
did in fact use the northern terms “Shang” and “Zhou,”
without having provided clear definitions of what these
meant beforehand. This is because both the Shang and the
southern sites are presently located within the territory of
the same country: China.
Chinese archaeologists have a strong tendency to adhere
to and maintain regularity; they usually work in the
general direction of some existing body of knowledge or
arguments. In the first decades of the twentieth century,
they followed historical texts in their search for the Shang.
In the 1970s, when diverse Neolithic finds were revealed
in different parts of the country and Su Bingqi published
and made a case for the concept of regional cultures,
provincial archaeologists modified their arguments and
worked to establish evidence of local cultures.165 Shang
archaeologists have acknowledged the differences
between the southern bronzes and those of the Shang, but
most of the time they have dismissed these differences
as difang teshe 地方特色, or regional/local features, and
have emphatically pointed out the features these pieces in
fact share with the Shang. On the other hand, the Shang in
Henan have rarely been described as a regional culture. To
most Chinese archaeologists, the Shang are still unique.166
All surrounding societies are perceived to have been
variants of the Shang.
The idea that there has ever been a unitary cultural
tradition within the territory of modern China is highly
questionable. In contrast, I argue that a remarkable degree
of cultural diversity was in fact present. In the case of the
Shang, the contributions of the early bronze-using cultures
in the Yangtze regions have not yet been adequately
acknowledged. This work is entitled Resemblance and
Resistance because its intent is to study the ways the
southerners understood the Shang and vice versa: what did
the southerners borrow from their Shang neighbours, and
more important, what did they decline to borrow?
164
For example, Xin’gan 1997, pp. 192-203 and Sanxingdui 1999, pp.
438-442.
165
Falkenhausen 1995, pp. 202-208.
166
For example, in a volume of finds dated from the Shang period
published by the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, the finds in Henan
have been the most emphasized, whereas the finds from the southern
provinces as well as those from the northern regions (Liaoning 遼寧 and
Inner Mongolia) are briefly mentioned in several short chapters arranged
at the end of the book.

Methodology
The recent literature on materiality provides a major source
of inspirations for the discussions in the present work. First
adopted by anthropologists and sociologists, materiality is
an approach which studies a society by focusing on the
interactions between people and material objects. The
work of Christopher Tilley,167 Daniel Miller,168 and Tim
Dant169 have established a widely shared understanding
that material objects are integral to the formation of social
structure, and that objects contribute significantly to
directing the actions and thinking of individual members
of a society.
One of the most important conceptual contributions to the
theory of materiality, as made by Tim Dant, is the idea that
shared actions and concepts form basic components in the
construction of a society. Dant studied the routine work
of two groups of automobile technicians. He observed
that the technician who worked in a small private garage,
handled a set of basic and old-fashioned tools to carry
out his repair duties. On the other hand, the technicians
who worked in a well-established garage equipped with
up-to-date electronic devices, provided repair services
with a different set of actions and knowledge. Dant argues
that there exist the two groups of technicians working
in very different working environments, which he calls
the ‘field’.170 Equipped with different tools available,
the technicians appear to have set out with different
intentionality to perform their respective job duties.171
Although the two garages are similar workplaces, they
epitomize two connected but distinctly different societies.
Materiality as a methodological approach is useful to the
study of Shang archaeology. As discussed in the literature
review, one of the key questions which arise as a result
of the discoveries of bronzes in the Yangtze regions is
in what way were the southern peoples, who cast some
similar bronzes, connected to the Shang society based in
the Yellow River basins?
Once bronze-casting technique was introduced during
the second millennium BC, many peoples living in the
Yellow and Yangtze River basins seemed to have quickly
established highly organized and hierarchical societies.
There appeared a distinguished group of people who
comprised the dominant class in each of those societies.
Those peoples, or simply the elite, in turn used bronzes
to express and reinforce power and status. As Bagley
indicates in his early paper on the subject of southern
bronzes, the ‘main types’ of bronzes produced in the Shang
and Yangtze societies appear to have been very different.172
167
See the concise summary of writings about materiality in Buchli 2002,
pp. 9-19.
168
Miller 2005b, pp. 15-29.
169
Dant 2005, pp. 1-10.
170
Dant 2005, pp. 108-135.
171
Dant 2005, pp. 93-102.
172
Bagley 1992, pp. 215-231.
31
Introduction
The Shang casters in Henan were commissioned to produce
ritual vessels that the elite made use of to emphasize the
significance of making offering to the deceased ancestors.
These practices were borrowed by the people who moved
to and lived temporarily at Panlongcheng in the mid-
Yangtze basins. Conversely, the Wucheng people, who
were established a little south of Panlongcheng, appear to
have cast similar ritual vessels in what Bagley describes as
idiosyncratic ways, contrary to the standards established in
Henan. The people in Hunan and those living downstream
of the Yangtze cast large bronze bells to display wealth
and technological mastery. Furthermore, the people at
Sanxingdui cast extraordinarily large figures and masks
to conjure an entirely different ritual world, populated by
creatures and fantastic figures. These are several of the
physical differences which distinguish the material culture
of the Shang and the southern societies.
Despite these differences, many similarities connected the
material culture of those societies. First, the southerners
imitated the Shang casters and produced their own versions
of ritual vessels. Second, there were similar bronze bells,
which were cast in distinctively elliptical shape that was
later developed into important ritual objects used in the
Zhou courts. Finally, there were very similar bronze
halberds, spearheads, axes, and other weapon types.
The transferral of objects from one society to another has
been widely discussed in literature on colonialism, which
has recently assumed a central role in archaeological
research. Chris Gosden argues that the exchange of
material culture involves the establishment of a new set
of social relations. It is this re-contextualization of objects
that provides for new social interactions and meanings to
the people of a society.173 Rawson argues that there is an
additional ideological level to the study of objects;174 and
Tim Dant coins a similar term, intentionality, to emphasize
the significance of the human thinking behind material
interactions.
My discussions are shaped by the three levels scheme
suggested by Jessica Rawson in an article published in
2008.175 Drawing on examples drawn from the elite tombs
of the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-15AD), Rawson
suggests three possibly successive stages in interpreting
material culture: physical features, social institutions, and
concepts. Using this scheme, Rawson suggests that the
physical setting of the Shang tombs probably defined a
ritual space for the deceased elite to live out and existence
in the afterworld similar to that of the living. Seals in the
tombs and the genealogical arrangement of cemeteries
constructed the hierarchy of political power and social
status. Finally, jade suits and the solid mountainous
173
Gosden 2004, pp. 24-40.
174
Rawson 2008, pp. 110-112. Similarly, Wu Hung applied the concept
of materiality to analyse tomb objects of medieval China, which included
mainly miniature figurines and painted images, 2010: 85-148. So far
these are the only works that incorporate Chinese archaeological objects
into the discussions
175
Rawson 2008, pp. 106-112.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
backgrounds of the tombs possibly suggest the quest for
immortality and eternality. Rawson argues that different
levels of material interactions are simultaneously at work
in a given society, which seems to have been constructed
with dynamic connections. Together the three levels of
interactions form what she calls ‘the diverse strands that
make up complex phenomena.’176
This research aims to examine similar bronzes produced by
different societies within their respective contexts, and to
suggest that their applications within these local societies
appears surprisingly diverse. The recent literature on
materiality and the agency of material objects contributes
significantly to the central approach of this research, the
understanding that objects are produced with an intention
to create a set of social relationships, and also that objects
can, in turn, reinforce the ideas that the makers of the
object – in this case, the casters and their elite patrons –
intended to materialize.
The Shang people used a set of ritual vessels to create a
ritual arena for the living elite and their deceased ancestors
to communicate. It was probably through this kind of
performed offering that they disseminated concepts of ritual
offerings and ancestral worship, and therefore, reinforced
their power in relation to the genealogy. In contrast, we
know very little about the social and ideological aspects
of any southern societies. The discussions of the next
three chapters set out to explore the interactions between
the southern elite and their bronzes, and to attempt to
understand their ideas about rituals. As for physical
features, I shall focus on the archaeological contexts, and
on the form and decorations of the bronzes. On the social
level, I will investigate evidence for bodily actions within
ritual contexts. Finally, in terms of the conceptual level, I
will examine what these indicate that the elite of the Shang
and the southern societies intended to express through
ritual performance.
Work Synopsis
This work comprises three case studies. Each is focused
on one of the three categories of bronze-work produced
by the workshops of the most relevant societies: namely,
ritual vessels, nao bells, and weapons. In the first chapter
on ritual vessels, which have been found at almost all
southern sites, I propose that the casting of food and drink
vessels in bronze was a practice that probably originated in
Henan. The bronze vessels were ritual paraphernalia used
by the elite in Shang period religious ceremonies for the
offering of sacrifices. Of the bronze vessels which have
been discovered at the southern sites, some probably came
from Henan, but many others were produced by local
workshops. The southern vessels are evidence of southern
contact with northern groups. Their appearance requires
explanation.
176
Rawson 2009a, p. 106.
32
Some patterns within these finds have been observed:
that the bronze vessels in Anhui were of unusually large
size; that certain northern vessels types have repeatedly
been found in Hanzhong, Sichuan, and Hunan; and that
the finds in Xin’gan are notable for comprising numerous
food and ding vessels of graduated sizes. I argue that
the many southern societies each responded differently
to the borrowed forms from the north. The select nature
of the borrowings that took place also suggests that the
southerners did not follow northern religious practices.
The functions of the southern vessels remain unclear.
Furthermore, I shall argue that some southern features
were in turn borrowed reciprocally by the north in the late
Shang and early Western Zhou periods. Evidence for this
hypothesis is found in elite tombs in Baoji in Shaanxi, and
also in the large tomb excavated at Luyi Taiqinggong 鹿
邑太清宮 in southern Henan in 1997.177 The latter tomb
probably belonged to a member of the Shang royalty who
had survived the Zhou conquest.
The subjects of the second chapter are the nao bells, a
hollow, elliptical-sectioned bell that stands mouth upwards
on a cylindrical and hollow cast shaft. Nao were sounded
by striking the bell with a mallet near the mouth. The nao
bells from Anyang were found in the tombs of the elite.
They usually appear in a set of three bells of graduated size
and were most likely used for musical purposes. However,
their musical qualities are limited. On the other hand, the
musical functions of the southern nao are quite evident.
The aim of this chapter is to establish in what ways the
southerners were superior to the Shang in terms of bell-
casting.
The third chapter is about bronze weapons. This category is
an important one in societal terms, as weapons are essential
to maintaining a society’s military power. In addition,
neither Shang nor southern weapons are discussed in the
existing literature. Although the total number of weapons
found to date is relatively small, some weapons have been
discovered in the Anyang tombs. In the south, several
groups of weapons were found in Hanzhong and a large
group came from Xin’gan. Can any patterns be established
among these finds? Do any links exist between southern
and early Western Zhou weapons? Could the south have
been in contact with the Northern Zone, an important
source of new weapon types during the early Bronze Age?
The discussion of these weapons is intended to address
these questions.
177
Changzikou 2000.
 2
Case Study I: Bronze Ritual Vessels
Making offerings of food and drink was a long-established
religious practice in ancient China. Thousands of ancient
Chinese bronze vessels survive today. Most of them have
been found in tombs excavated in Henan province. They
were employed in ceremonies offering food and wine to
nourish the dead.1 During the Erlitou period (c. 1900-
c. 1500 BC), when bronze metallurgy was introduced
in Henan, the elite commissioned the casting of ritual
vessels in bronze. These were buried in tombs and were
probably intended for use by the dead.2 The vessels, which
are decayed and tarnished today, glitter a pale golden
colour when they were freshly cast. Thereafter, bronze
vessels were employed for nearly a millennium in ancient
Chinese societies.3 Bronze vessels remained the precious
possessions of the ruling elite, in much the same way as
did gold and silver ware in the West.
During the Shang period, Zhengzhou (c. 1500-c. 1300
BC) and Anyang (c. 1200-c. 1045 BC) were major bronze-
casting centres for ritual vessels. Studies by Virginia Kane,
Robert Bagley, Jessica Rawson, and Shi Jinxiong have
respectively established that other vessel-casting centres
existed in the Yangtze River basins.4 Those southern
1
The Shang elite believed that the ancestors of the royal lineage and
the spirits could intervene in the worldly affairs by means of showering
blessings or inflicting disasters. The Shang kings, therefore, constantly
performed appropriate rituals, with food and drink, to satisfy their
ancestors and spirits. For further discussions on Shang religious ideas
and on various kinds of rituals known from the oracle bone inscriptions,
see Chen Mengjia 1988, pp. 523-531 (on rituals and agriculture) and 561-
603 (on rituals made to ancestors and spirits); Keightley 2000, pp. 1-16
(on climate and agriculture) and 97-129 (on spirits and powers).
2
In northern China, the elite buried bronze vessels in the space between
the double coffins. The vessels were arranged in an orderly fashion, and
some were inscribed with the name of the owner. These features suggest
that the vessels buried were probably intended to serve their owners in
the afterlife.
3
Bronze vessels were cast between the Erlitou period and the Western
Han Dynasty (206 -15 BC). For a brief history of ancient Chinese
bronzes and the changes in their decorations and social significance, see
Zhu Fenghan 1995, pp. 595-1150 and Rawson 1992, pp. 54-80.
4
In her article, Kane discusses the decorations on the bronze vessels
excavated from Anhui and those on the bronze bells from Hunan,
suggesting that the southern casters worked independently from the
Shang workshops in Henan. I shall cover the bells in the next chapter;
in the section follows I shall further elaborate the significance of the
finds from Anhui, which have not yet been sufficiently discussed. Bagley
argues that Panlongcheng, Xin’gan, Ningxiang, and Sanxingdui were
major bronze-casting centres in southern China (1992, pp. 215-226).
He establishes a useful chronological order for those southern sites in
the chapter on Shang archaeology published in the Cambridge History
of Ancient China, in which he also includes the finds from Anhui and
Hanzhong (1999, pp. 165-180 and 208-219). His suggestions about the
dates of the southern vessels inspire the present thesis to investigate the
early bronzes from Panlongcheng, Anhui, and Hanzhong. As noted in
the introduction, Rawson argues that the Yangtze societies may have
employed bronze vessels and other bronzes in social practices different
from those of the Shang people (1992, pp. 1-24). I develop the present
thesis from her argument, and aim to contribute by showing the ways
that bronzes were employed and understood in the southern societies.
33
groups were most likely to have borrowed northern vessel
shapes and decorations.
The group at Panlongcheng in the mid-Yangtze basins in
Hubei province was probably the earliest of the southern
vessel-casters.5 Another group was probably active in
Anhui province in the low-lying areas between the Huai
and the Yangtze Rivers.6 Perhaps slightly after that, there
appeared a major vessel-casting group in northern Jiangxi.7
Further west, we have found a major collection of bronze
vessels in area of Hanzhong on the upper stream of the
Han River.8 The peoples that settled in northern Hunan and
those in Sichuan to the south of Hanzhong also produced
and used some bronze vessels. 9 In spite of their varying
dates, the southern vessels are consistent in displaying
features that refer to the Shang bronze-casting workshops
in Henan. A far-reaching network of contacts must have
existed. A considerably large number of scholars, including
Song Xinchao, Liu Li and Chen Xingcen, and Sarah Allan,
have argued the Shang people appear to be a central source
of cultural and ritual practices for this network.10
The aim of this chapter is to question the extent of Shang
power and to assess the stimulus the Shang provided
to the southern regions. Given that the subjects of this
present discussion are ritual vessels, namely, religious
Shi Jinxiong has completed a thorough survey on the bronze vessels
excavated from Jiangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan provinces (2003, pp.
41-220). His study includes some later bronzes from Tunxi in Anhui
province (2003, pp. 221-275). Those were certainly cast after the Zhou
founders took over the Shang territory. For this reason, they will not be
discussed in the thesis.
5
Most bronze vessels from Panlongcheng came from tombs excavated
between 1963 and1994. They were published and illustrated in the
full excavation report, 2001, pp. 450-468. Of all southern sites, the
provenience of Panlongcheng is probably the best understood.
6
Not all of the bronze vessels from Anhui have been documented in
publications. Some of them are illustrated in Li Guoliang 1994, pp. 153-
155, Anhui 1987, nos. 1-11, and in Gong and Zhang 2006, pp. 1-13. In
the section that follows I shall mainly discuss the vessels from Yingshang
Wanggang, where a useful report was made available (Liu Haichao 1985,
pp. 36-38).
7
In Jiangxi, most bronze vessels came from the site at Xin’gan (Pang
Shifen ed. 1997, pp. 8-73); a few were found from the settlement site at
Wucheng 20 km to the east (Wucheng 2005, pp. 361-366.)
8
The bronze vessels from Hanzhong were scattered over more than a
dozen sites in the counties of Chenggu and Yangxian. Most of them are
illustrated in Cao Wei 2006, volume 1.
9
The bronze vessels from Hunan were usually buried individually
and the sites were scattered in the area of Lake Dongting and the Xiang
River basin. The reports were, therefore, scattered over a number of
different journals published between 1960 and 2000. The staff of the
Hunan Provincial Museum gathered these reports and reprinted them in
2007, pp.1-192. Wherever possible, I shall refer to the original reports.
All bronze vessels in Sichuan came from the sacrificial pits excavated at
Sanxingdui, Li and Huang 1999, pp. 33-43 (pit no. 1) and pp. 238-283
(pit no. 2).
10
Liu and Chen 2003, pp. 85-148.; Song Xinchao 1991.; Allan 2007, pp.
466-472 and 485-488.
Contacts Between the Shang and the South c. 1300–1045 BC
paraphernalia, I shall define power very broadly and refer
mainly to the religious and cultural stimulus that derived
from the Shang and which, through inter-societal contact,
entered the south. I will analyse both the appearance of
ritual vessels in the south and social habits related to the
usage of vessels within the southern contexts in order to
determine the extent to which southern peoples adopted
not only Shang technology, but also Shang ritual practices
and corresponding religious and social beliefs. I argue that
Shang religious practices were probably absent in most
southern societies, and that therefore the extent of Shang
power appears to have been limited. In the following
discussion I will first firmly establish in what ways the Shang
used bronze vessels to communicate a specific complex
of social and religious values. Then, I will compare these
usage patterns to that of southern finds. Beginning with
the finds at Panlongcheng, I will contrast what appears to
be a Shang settlement demonstrating evidence of Shang
culture with two societies based in Funan and Yinshang,
whose adaptations of the material forms of Shang vessels
evince close contact, but also fundamental indifference to
the purpose of those vessels within Shang rituals. I will
then examine three southern peoples, based in Hanzhong,
Hunan and Sanxingdui, whose use of bronze vessels speaks
to a more profound misunderstanding or rejection of Shang
culture: all three decontextualize individual vessels, and
in the cases of Hunan and Sanxingdui incorporate them
as ordinary containers in what appear to be strikingly
different religious rituals and will finally discuss the large
number of bronze vessels discovered at Xin’gan, arguing
that despite evidence that these possibly indicate the use
of vessels to signal social status in a similar fashion to the
Shang, the exclusion of certain vessels types and the use
of ceramic materials nevertheless indicate key differences
in conceptions of ritual meaning. I will also argue that the
Xin’gan bronzes can be used to make a case for borrowing
by the Shang from the south, further evidence that the
southern peoples were flourishing, autonomous cultures
distinct from the Shang. Ultimately, my intention is to set
this up as the new ground to reconsider the finds of bells
and weapons in the following chapters.
The Shang Bronze Vessels
Taotie, Motifs of an Imagined Animal Face
The taotie was an important feature of Shang artifacts,
especially bronzes. As the motif can be widely observed
on Shang ritual vessels, a description of it is necessary.
The term ‘taotie’ is borrowed from Kaogu tu 考古圖, a
text on antiquities and connoisseurship published in AD
1092.11 The name as known today refers to a recurring
motif found on the Shang ritual vessels, representing the
face of an imaginary animal (fig. 1.5). The taotie has a
11
Lu Dalin 呂大臨 (1044-1091) is the author of Kaogu tu, which was
published in 1092 AD. He was charged to compile a descriptive catalogue
of the antique bronzes and jades in the Imperial Collection. Lu’s term for
these animalian motifs, taotie has thereupon been used to describe the
animal faces seen on ancient bronzes, see Lu Dalin 1987, pp.6-16.
34
wide variety of forms, but is made recognizable by some
standard facial features: eyes, eyebrows, nose, nostrils,
and ears. The more developed forms include also claws,
legs, and, sometimes, a body. Found on ritual vessels of
different shapes, the taotie was stretched or compressed
to cover different horizontal sections of the vessel surface.
During the five centuries that the Shang were in power,
taotie motifs underwent remarkable variations in the
hands of Henan craftsmen.12 One feature that remained
unchanged was the constant use of a symmetrical form –
that is, facial features arranged around a central axis, with
the nose dividing the motif into two halves. The image,
therefore, can sometimes be seen as either a frontal view
of a full animal face, or as two halves each depicting an
animal in profile.13
A wide variety of speculative theories have attempted
to elucidate the meaning of the taotie. The discussion,
however, has not reached an agreed understanding.14 Since
the creature was an essential decoration on ritual vessels,
its connections with the Shang religious beliefs seem self-
evident. Did it represent a higher spiritual being that the
Shang elite attempted to appease and worship? Or, was
it considered a guardian creature that was for practical
purposes under the command of the Shang elite? Taotie
were also cast on bronze weapons, and were painted in
black and red pigments on wooden coffins.15 While there
has been no scholarly progress at all in understanding of
the meaning of the taotie, it has been possible to plot the
12
On the Shang ritual vessels, the designs of the taotie became
progressively complex and ornamental over time, Rawson 1990, pp.
24-30 and 1993, pp. 67-80. Nonetheless, the fully developed form of
the taotie seemed to have existed on other media before the time of
the Shang. It was produced in mosaic versions on the bronze plaques
inlaid with turquoise at Erlitou (c. 1900-c. 1500 BC) (Zhang and Lei
2008, pp. 139-141). Moreover, some painted versions were found on the
Late Neolithic pottery at Xijiadian (c. 2500-c. 2000) in southern Inner
Mongolia. The Shang, therefore, probably adopted a long-established
motif already in use in northern China. However, the Shang casters
appear to have taken some time to overcome the technological limit of
modifying the clay and mould for the purpose of rendering curvy, taotie
motifs into their casting. Bagley has contributed extensive literature on
bronze-casting craftsmanship and artistic inventions (1987, pp. 19-21).
13
Chang 1983, pp. 56-61.
14
K.C. Chang puts forward a theory, initially widely endorsed, that the
taotie represented an animal was central in the Shang religious beliefs.
Chang argues that the Shang kings probably ruled in a fashion similar
to that of the priests, and exercised their power by granting themselves
the privilege to make contact with ancestors and the spirits. The role of
the Shang king, according to Chang, was probably similar to that of a
shaman. Quoting a number of received texts, Chang argues that the taotie
creatures appearing on ritual vessels were probably the assistant animals
of shamans (Chang 1983, pp. 61-72). However, the received texts that
have been widely quoted by K.C. Chang and other scholars in support
of the shamanistic view of the Shang kings are problematic sources of
evidence. The texts were written between the fifth and third century BC,
who may not have had at their disposal as much information about the
Shang as we do today. Moreover, some of the textual accounts, which
included a widely quoted story about shamans in the Zuo zhuan, were
actually legendary stories collected from the state of Chu in southern
China. Max Loehr and Robert Bagley have argued strongly against the
attempt to attribute any specific religious ideas to the taotie on the Shang
ritual vessels (Bagley 1987, pp. 19-21).
15
For example, see the five bronze axes excavated from Tomb M54
at Anyang Huayuanzhuang. The taotie were rendered in mosaic of
turquoise, Huayuanzhuang 2007, pp. 137-138. See also the remains of
coffins found in Tomb M54 at Anyang Huayuanzhuang, Huayuanzhuang
2007, pp. 71-73.
Another random document with
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 Vickers let her read in silence—he had enough to occupy his
thoughts; but when he had finished, and Plimpton had disappeared
for good, he rose and, standing against the mantelpiece, looked
down at her and said:
“Could you give me a few minutes of your time and attention, Miss
Lee? At least I suppose your name is Lee. Plimpton says so.”
His address succeeded in making her look up. “Plimpton says my
name is Lee? Do you need to be told? Are we crazy?”
“We are not crazy, though one of us is rather sadly mistaken,” he
answered. “You did not talk last night in a way to invite confidence,
Miss Lee. Far be it from me to criticise your social manner, but I can
not help thinking that you were not at your best. You were annoyed,
and you had the misfortune to make me angry, too. Angry as I was,
however, I can see on thinking it over that you must have had a hard
time,—so hard that any man would be glad to give you a helping
hand, and that, within limits, I am prepared to do.”
Nellie had stopped eating, and was now leaning back in her chair
with something of the manner of the first row at a new drama.
“You will, will you, Bob? You are extremely kind,” she answered,
with twinkling eyes.
“I am,” said Vickers. “I am most extraordinarily and unnecessarily
magnanimous: for, as I suppose you knew from the moment you set
eyes on me, I am not your cousin.”
There was an instant in which he made ready for consequences,
and then, to his surprise, she began to smile, and then to chuckle,
and then to laugh in the most disconcerting way imaginable.
Vickers would not interrupt her merriment, but continued to stare
at her with what dignity he could command.
“You are so delightful, Bob. You always live up to your character. I
have been wondering all night how you would get out of this, and I
decided on ill-health. Heart-disease, I rather thought. It seemed an
excellent opportunity for heart-disease. You could easily arrange
doctor’s bills that would run far beyond anything you could make. But
I did you injustice, grave injustice; this is infinitely better. You are not
you, but some one else. And were you changed at birth? or in South
America?”
Disregarding her merriment, he went on:
“Nevertheless I am willing to stay here, and give my time and
attention to your uncle’s affairs if they need it, and to contribute my
share to the household expenses. There is no reason in the world
why I should do this, except for the fact that I rather like you. I’m sure
I don’t know why: for a more disagreeable, sharp-tongued young
woman I never met. Still, the fact remains: I do like you. But I make
one condition—not a very hard one—namely that you shall be
decently civil to me. Do you understand?”
“I understand perfectly,” she answered. “We are to accept your
doing your duty as the most extraordinary personal favor. Is that it,
Bob?”
“An unkind critic might say you were willing to shift your burdens to
the shoulders of the first stranger that came along, whether he were
your cousin or not.”
“The critic would to a certain extent be right. I do not particularly
care who looks out for my uncle, provided it is well done. But you
must not be too hard on me, Bob,” she smiled. “You will not have the
burden of my support: for I expect to be married in August.”
“Well, may I be damned!” cried Vickers, striking the mantelpiece
with his hand. “This is too much. It was just conceivable that I might
be such an idiot as to stay here and help you out, even on your own
absurd terms; but to stay on while you go off and marry another
fellow——”
“It is your staying that makes it possible for me to be married,” put
in Nellie gently.
“Then regard it as impossible: for I won’t stay.”
“If you attempt to go, Bob, I shall have you arrested.” Her tone
might have made him pause, if he had not been so full of his own
wrongs.
 “What folly this all is!” he cried angrily. “I make you a most
magnificently generous offer, and you have not even the sense to
accept it. I, a total stranger, offer to take up—but it serves me right
for trying to talk business to a woman. Who is this friend whose clerk
I am to be? Who’s your lawyer? Is there a man anywhere in this
situation to whom I can talk a little common-sense?”
“Mr. Overton is my uncle’s lawyer, but I should not advise you to
see him, Bob. I have heard him express his opinion. He has always
thought it would have been wiser to send you to the penitentiary at
once. It is Mr. Emmons who is willing to give you a position. You had
better see him.”
“All right, I’ll go to see him, and if I don’t like the way he talks, I
shan’t come back. In that case, good-by. I have to thank you for a
very pleasant evening. Remember me to Plimpton.”
Nellie had again bent her head over the paper, and did not
concern herself greatly over these adieux.
“We dine at eight, Bob,” she said.
“Oh, deuce take you!” answered Vickers, and almost shook his fist
at her as he left the room.
He had as yet no fear that the situation had passed beyond his
control, but she had succeeded in rousing an unusual degree of
irritation in him. He thought he would experience relief in talking to a
man to whom he could say what he liked.
Emmons had rooms in one of the upper stories of an uptown club.
It was a short walk from the Lees’, and Vickers arrived at the
entrance in a couple of minutes, but there was a long delay before
he was shown to Emmons’s apartment.
He found Emmons seated at his writing table.
“Good-morning, Lee,” he said rather magnificently, and Vickers
recognized him as the man who had been at Nellie’s side the
evening before.
“Mr. Emmons,” said Lee, sitting down without being asked, “I think
you witnessed my triumphant return to the bosom of my family last
evening. I find myself in something of a hole on account of a foolish
trick. For reasons which we need not go into, I passed myself off as
Mr. Lee’s son, on the strength of a likeness. Unhappily I had no idea
of just what sort of a rascal he appears to have been.”
Nature or art had made it easy for Emmons’s face to express
nothing.
“And you are not Bob Lee?” he said.
“Lee died the day before I left South America.”
“Why have you come to tell me this?”
“I found myself rather in need of a dispassionate outsider, and
Miss Lee mentioned your name.”
“Well,” said Emmons, “you’ve come to the wrong person. I am not
a dispassionate outsider. I have known the Lees for some time, and
have watched Miss Lee, and I know some of the difficulties she has
had. There have been times, sir, when your father would not give her
a penny for months together—and why? Because all spare cash
went down to you. It was a dog’s life for any woman, but she would
not give it up, until there was some one to take her place. She and I
have waited one whole year, hoping we could lay our hands on you,
and now that you have at last walked into the trap of your own
accord we are not going to let you go.”
“I see,” said Vickers, “that like her all you want is some one to take
the job of looking after the old man. I had no idea it would be to your
interest, too, to disbelieve me.”
“To disbelieve you!” cried Emmons. “Do you expect any one in
their senses to believe you? Does a man not know his own son, or a
girl not recognize the cousin she was brought up with? You
acknowledge that you come from the same place, you are the same
age, the same height, you walk straight to his house, and it is not
until you find that your being Lee means that you have got to work
for your living that you begin to run in this story about your being
some one else. No, sir. You will do as I tell you, or you will be
arrested as you go out of here. Miss Lee telephoned me what your
last game was, and I sent round to police headquarters for a
detective. You can take your choice.”
Vickers was silent. He walked to the window and looked out at the
city which lay like a spider’s web, far below him. He was a quick-
tempered man, and had had his moment of feeling that personal
violence was the only possible answer to Emmons, but the
seriousness of the decision served to calm him. If he had had only
the personal risk to consider, he would probably have gone. Twice in
his life he had escaped the arm of the law. He did not doubt he could
do it again. Indeed, there was something tempting in the mere idea.
But his soul rebelled at running away from the whole situation—from
the whole situation, and Nellie. He gave no name to the strange
mixture of admiration and antagonism which she aroused in him, but
he found no difficulty in giving a name to his feeling for Emmons. He
would have wished to stay merely to put a spoke in his wheel. And
what did it commit him to—to stay a day, or a week? He could
always disappear the moment the situation became irksome. There
was no obligation involved to Emmons certainly. If he chose to leave
him day after day in the same house with his fiancée——
Ever afterward the sight of a city spread out below him brought the
decision of that morning back to him.
“Well,” he said finally, “I’ll stay for the present.”
“I thought you would. We’ll go downtown now. And by the way,
while we are on the subject, I wish to say that we can not have you
running up bills in your father’s name. In old times there was money
to pay them. Now there does not seem to be. I’ll get my hat.”
Left alone, Vickers turned from the window.
“It serves me right,” he thought; “I ought to have stayed and had it
out with Cortez. Ah, Rosita, Rosita, your face was round and empty
like the moon, but you would not have got a fellow in a fix like this.”
 Chapter V
It had always been Vickers’s boast that he had never worked for
any one but his own father, and, as he usually added, not very long
for him. To find himself sitting on a high stool in a dark office, copying
Emmons’s letters for him, struck him as supremely ridiculous. In
South America he had been a person of some importance, and the
contrast amused, even while it annoyed him.
The work was not hard, but the hours, he noticed, were long. It
was after six, on this first day, before he reached home. The sound
of voices in the drawing-room warned him of visitors, and, like the
true home-coming American, he stole quietly upstairs to his own
room.
About seven, Plimpton knocked on his door, to say that Miss Lee
would be glad to speak to him for a few minutes in the drawing-room,
before dinner.
Vickers was an optimist. A thousand agreeable possibilities
occurred to him. He dressed quickly—he had had time for a little
shopping on his way uptown, and was able to appear in the
conventional evening dress of the Anglo-Saxon.
He found Nellie occupied with some flowers which had just come
for her in the long pink pasteboard box of a New York florist. She
was clipping the stems and arranging them in a tall vase.
“Oh, Bob,” she said, without turning from her occupation, and the
charm of her pose contrasted oddly with her tone, “I wanted to warn
you not to trouble your father with this idea of your being some one
else. It would probably destroy his returning faith in you, and I don’t
think he would even get the amusement from it that I did.”
“Ah, he has not such a sense of humor as that merry fellow
Emmons. You did not tell me it was he whom my absence has kept
you from for a year. No wonder you resented it!”
 “I always think,” Nellie observed with the utmost detachment, “that
a person who is not very strong in morals ought to have particularly
good taste to make up. I don’t think your last remark was
conspicuous for either.”
“My dear Nellie,” said Vickers, “if I had promised to marry
Emmons, I should never hear the word taste again without a blush.”
“We won’t discuss Mr. Emmons.”
“Discuss my revered employer with an outsider? I should think
not,” returned Vickers.
“At least he is your employer, which not many men who knew your
record would care to be.”
“Ah, but Emmons doesn’t know my record.”
“Really, Bob, you are tiresome,” said Nellie. “Do I show so much
evidence of believing you that you are encouraged to persist in your
absurd story? There is a proverb about sticking to a good lie, but no
one could advise you to stick to such a particularly stupid one as
this.”
“Facts are stubborn things, however,” said Vickers. “Lee, if you
care to know, died just ten days ago. I saw him dead. He died of
drink. Doesn’t that sound likely?”
“Very likely, if I did not see you before me at the moment.”
“Don’t be absurd,” he answered, coming nearer to her. “I knew
Lee. We were not even so very much alike. He was not as tall as I
am, for one thing. Look at me.”
“I can’t. I’m busy.”
“By George, you will, too,” he cried, taking her by the shoulders.
“You did not have to look up as much as that to Lee. He was not built
like me—not so well. He was older, too, and had led the devil of a
life, and showed it. Can’t you see, you stupid girl? Look at me;” and
he gave her a faint shake.
She was not in the least flustered, angered, or in any way upset by
his violence, apparently. She simply would not look at him. Her eyes
roved up and down and sideways, but would not meet his, and in the
course of their wanderings they encountered the figure of Mr. Lee,
just entering.
“Isn’t dinner ready yet, Nellie?” he asked peevishly.
“Not yet, Uncle,” said Nellie, coolly escaping from Vickers’s grasp.
“Sit down here. Bob was just asking me if I did not think him very
much altered in twelve years.”
The old man looked at Vickers affectionately. “Why, no,” he said, “I
don’t think he has changed as much as I should expect.”
“Why, sir, you did not know me at first last night.”
“No, not just at first, though I suspected, I suspected. But your
manner of speaking is different. But as I look at you now I find you
wonderfully little changed. Just bring me that picture of him when he
was a boy, Nellie.”
Nellie obeyed with alacrity, and returned with a faded photograph
in a magnificent silver and enamel frame. It represented a stout little
boy in Highland costume, in which Vickers could not see the smallest
resemblance to himself. The old man, however, regarded it with
tender, almost tearful eyes. “Truly the boy is father to the man,” he
said. “Just the same expression, isn’t it?”
Vickers turned away with an exclamation of irritation which he
could not repress, and Nellie asked maliciously,
“You do not find Bob any taller than he was when he went away,
do you, Uncle?”
“Taller, Nellie? Why, of course not. Men don’t grow after they are
twenty-three or four. What are you thinking of? He has filled out a
good deal. That gives him an appearance of greater size. Sit down
here, my boy. Nellie tells me you insisted on going to work at once. I
suppose that is right, but I must admit I was a little disappointed. I
had hoped for one day of your society.”
During dinner the conversation was carried on chiefly between the
two men.
 Before they rose from the table, Plimpton approached Vickers to
say that Mrs. Raikes had telephoned to ask if Mr. Robert Lee would
dine with her the next evening at eight. Vickers replied that Mr.
Robert Lee would be graciously minded to do so, and was delighted
to see a shade of some sort settle on Nellie’s brow.
The dinner was the first of many—not only with Mrs. Raikes, but
with other people. Indeed Vickers had—what is so rare in a large city
like New York—a sudden and conspicuous social success. He was
good-looking, he was amusing, he did not care very much what he
said, or whether he were liked or not, and the result was that he had
more invitations than he could accept. It was the first of April, and
that short, pleasant spring season that New York social life has lately
known, had set in. The winter was over, many people had gone
away, but a small group of those left behind drew closer together and
felt a rare impulse to be intimate. The Park was turning green, the
country clubs were pleasant objects for motor trips,—altogether
there was a good deal of an agreeable and informal nature to be
done, and all of it Lee was asked to share.
The strange feature of it all was that there was a general
understanding that Nellie and her cousin were not upon cordial
terms, and that they could not both be asked on the same party. The
result was that Nellie spent more time at home alone than she was
accustomed to.
Mr. Lee, who had always been absolutely unconscious where or
how much Nellie went out, took the keenest interest in his son’s
comings and goings, and would often express to Nellie a pride in his
popularity which she found rather hard to bear.
Emmons disapproved intensely.
“We have no right to foist a fellow like that on our friends, unless
we are sure they know about his past.”
“Every one does know, I think.”
“They can’t, or they would not ask him. Though I must say the sort
of irresponsible man he is seems to me to stick out plainly enough.”
 “Does it?” said Nellie. “I don’t think so. If I met Bob now for the first
time, I think I might be inclined to like him.”
The reply for some reason seemed to irritate Emmons. “Oh, then
you approve of letting him loose on society,” he said somewhat
illogically.
“I don’t know what I can do about it, James. I can not forbid him to
accept invitations.”
“I am not so sure,” returned Emmons; “but one thing you certainly
can do. You can move out of town. He will find it hard work to accept
invitations in Hilltop, and we are justified, I think, in insisting that he
shall come out there every night.”
Nellie hesitated. “I could do that,” she said, “and yet I hate to go so
early to the country. I shall be very lonely at Hilltop, James.”
“No,” said Emmons, “for I have decided to take a house there
myself—the red one, I think, across the ravine from you.”
“Oh, that will be delightful,” said Nellie.
“Besides, you will need my help in keeping an eye on Bob. This
way, he and I can go up and down to town together every day.”
“You are very good, James. You think of everything to save me
trouble.”
Mr. Lee was delighted at the prospect of an early move to Hilltop.
He and his forefathers had been born and bred there. He loved the
place; he loved the ugly red brick and stone house which his father
had built on high ground to replace the old farmhouse in the valley
below. He loved the farm itself—the acres of rolling country spread
out on the slopes.
And Vickers, too, was glad to go. A quiet countryside in spring
promised happier opportunities for tête-à-têtes with Nellie than New
York had afforded him. Every day in the course of the past two
weeks he had felt irked and humiliated by his position, and had been
strongly tempted to slip away. Perhaps if escape had looked more
difficult he would have been more likely to try it, but it was too easy
to excite his interest. And, though it seemed always possible to him
that the next day would be the last, his reasons for staying grew,
without his realizing it, more and more powerful. Not only his feeling
for Nellie held him—for indeed there were times when the prospect
of putting her once and for all out of his life seemed very desirable to
him,—but also old Mr. Lee’s feeling for him. The old man had not
commanded Vickers’s attachment, hardly his respect. He was small-
minded, irritable, petty, at times beyond endurance. He was
ungrateful, almost unkind to Nellie, but there could be no doubt of his
passionate, unqualified devotion to his only son. The one and only
thing he cared for was the well-being and companionship of the man
he supposed to be his boy. The idea of the pain his going would
inflict held Vickers more perhaps than anything else. The patience
with which the old man hid his eagerness for the younger one’s
society, lest he should be a drag upon him, the amount of thought he
devoted to Vickers’s plans, the pride he took in Vickers’s popularity
were all inexpressibly touching to a man who had never been the
object of parental tenderness.
When Nellie and Emmons and his clerkship were more than
usually trying, Vickers would tell himself that the whole thing was
absurd. Why should he stay for the sake of an old man who had no
claim upon him whatsoever? And yet he stayed.
If he had felt the bond in New York he felt it twenty times more
when they had moved to Hilltop.
They arrived at Hilltop about five in the afternoon, and tired as he
was, Mr. Lee insisted on walking out a little way over the farm to
show it to his son. “It will all be yours, Bob, before long. To be sure, it
does not pay as it used to, but it’s a fine property.”
Vickers cordially agreed; and even after Mr. Lee had gone back he
continued his inspection. Vickers had been trained to farming. He
had not been half an hour on the place before he realized that there
was there a magnificent property badly if not actually dishonestly
mismanaged. Mr. Lee was not a farmer, and had left his land entirely
in the hands of his head-man. Vickers saw an opportunity for
efficient work before him. This prospect held him, too. He came in
very late for dinner, silent as a dog following a scent, quiet as a cat
about to spring; abstracted, in short, as a practical man just before
action.
It was with just this dogged energy that he had made, as it were
actually with his two hands, his cavalry squad in South America.
There the problem had been only a practical one. Here a certain
amount of information had first to be acquired. He wanted the farm
accounts, and he got them, that first evening soon after dinner. He
forgot everything else—forgot even that Nellie was sitting outside all
by herself in a walled garden, lit by an April moon.
For two nights he sat up until sunrise, poring over the books. He
had no other time to give to them, for his hours at the office were
long. The second evening, hearing footsteps under the window, he
looked out and saw Nellie pacing up and down, closely wrapped
about in a thin light shawl, for the night was chilly. He wavered for a
moment, and then went back to work. After all, this was something
definite that could be done for her. The next evening he would take a
holiday.
It was particularly annoying, therefore, when the next evening
came, to find that it brought Emmons with it—and Emmons not a
merely transient visitor, but a near neighbor very comfortably
established not a mile away.
The three sat a little while together in the moonlight while Vickers
wondered whether, if he showed no intention of leaving them alone,
Emmons would grow discouraged and go home. The answer to his
question came at once, for Emmons rose and said firmly that he had
one or two things he would like to discuss with Nellie: would she
come into the house? Nellie acceded without the least reluctance,
and Vickers was left alone.
He took one or two impatient turns up and down the path. This, he
said to himself, was just a little more than he proposed to stand. If he
were willing, for Nellie’s sake, to clerk in the daytime, and farm at
twilight, and figure at night, he would not in between times play third
to her and her fiancé.
 Then suddenly the recollection came to him of a girl he had met at
Mrs. Raikes’s—a young and pretty creature, with the soft yet
assured manner of the American girl who has been educated in a
French convent. Surely that girl had told him she spent her summers
at Hilltop. There had been some talk of his coming to see her. If only
he could remember her name.
A supreme effort of memory brought it to him—Overton. That was
it. She had seemed a nice little thing. He would go and see Miss
Overton.
As he went through the hall, Nellie’s voice called to him from a
neighboring room—“Bob.”
He came and stood in the doorway. The lovers were seated at a
discreet distance. Emmons had paused like a man interrupted in the
midst of a sentence. Vickers felt convinced that he had been “laying
down the law.”
“If you are going out, Bob, please be sure to come home before
half-past ten. My uncle is so easily disturbed.”
Vickers looked at her reflectively, debating whether if he were late
she would wait up, for the pleasure of scolding him. But there was
nothing encouraging in her manner, and to be let in by Plimpton
would hardly be rewarding.
 Chapter VI
He was unprepared for the size and magnificence of the Overton
house. If he had been an older resident of Hilltop, he would have
known that to visit the daughter of Balby Overton was a thing not to
be done unadvisedly or lightly. It was an occasion to be dressed for,
and mentioned afterward, with a casualness only apparent.
But Vickers knew nothing of this,—only knew that a pretty girl had
asked him to visit her, and that an evening had soon presented itself
when he found it convenient to go. Nor would he, for his nature
lacked reverence, have been very much impressed at knowing that
Overton was thought a great man in the neighborhood. He had
begun life like all the other men in Hilltop, had skated and swum in
the river with the rest, had gone to school with the other boys, and
had not, as they delighted to remember, been very wise or very
industrious. Afterward he had studied law and then gone into a law-
office in the nearest large town. From that moment he had begun to
rise; so that the old conservative firm which had consented to
receive him as a clerk was now generally spoken of as “Overton’s
partners.” He was considered the first lawyer in the state, and
spoken of as the next senator. He was known, too, to have made
money.
And yet he had never moved away from Hilltop. Hilltop itself
expected it, and waited anxiously for the first symptom; waited to
hear him complain of the heat of summer, or the exigencies of his
daughter’s education. He never spoke of either. Perhaps political
reasons chained him, or perhaps he was not above enjoying the
position of a big man in a small place, or possibly he was bound by
an affection for the neighborhood where he was born and bred. In
any case, he built himself a new house, and an anomalous being,
whose position Hilltop never clearly understood, came and laid out
the grounds—a “landscape gardener” was understood to be his
official title. Hilltop on the whole disapproved of him. He planted
strange trees, and they asked each other why it was, “if Balby
wanted trees so bad, he didn’t build his house down in the woods.”
But Overton himself remained unchanged—unchanged at least as
far as any one could judge. He still came to town meetings and
quarreled with Dr. Briggs just as he had always done. It is true that
certain people who had always called him “Balby,” or even “Scrawny”
(for he was thin), began now to let slip an occasional “Mr. Overton,”
but he still took the 8.12 train in the morning, and the 5.37 in the
afternoon; his daughter still went among them like all the other
daughters of Hilltop; and if he had not had a big house, and strange,
obscure, but very expensive objects understood to be “first editions,”
no one could have laid a finger on any alteration in him.
Vickers did not, of course, know anything of all this, did not notice
the impressive gate, or the iron palings, or anything until a large
stone house loomed up before him in the moonlight. Then, after he
had rung the bell, he turned to look at the view, and as he withdrew
his eyes from the soft shadowy rolling country, he saw that in the
foreground was a long marble balustrade, and beyond this, marble
seats and fountains that stood out sharply against a background of
cedars.
The servant who answered the door said that Miss Overton was
on the piazza, and led the way to the back of the house, where
Vickers found that he had been anticipated by two young men, who
were sitting on the steps of the piazza, looking up at the girl in her
low wicker chair. It struck Vickers that the conversation had
languished, for there was a decided pause as he approached. But
this illusion was dispelled by Miss Overton’s greeting, which was so
markedly constrained, so totally different from the manner in which
she had invited him to come, that Vickers did not need much
perception to guess that she had been warned he was not a
desirable acquaintance.
He did not allow that knowledge, however, to chill his pleasant
manner. He took his place on the steps, although there were a
number of luxurious looking chairs standing about. He was
punctiliously introduced to both of the young men, and he remarked
at once that it was very kind in Miss Overton to let him come, as he
seemed to be in the way at home.
“Oh, I suppose Mr. Emmons was there,” said Miss Overton; and it
presently appeared that Miss Overton did not think Mr. Emmons half
good enough for Nellie. One of the young men said rather gruffly that
he did not think so either, and was greeted by so many sly giggles
and innuendoes that Vickers gathered that he too had had
pretensions in this direction.
Vickers contented himself by remarking that Emmons did not
seem to him a romantic figure, and Miss Overton burst out:
“And Nellie of all people, who might have married so many nice
men.”
“The deuce you say,” cried Vickers, and was rewarded for his
interest by hearing all the gossip of Nellie’s love-affairs for the last six
years.
He turned to Miss Overton. “And why did not Nellie accept any of
these eligible proposals?” he asked.
There was a short but awkward pause, and then Miss Overton
replied in a low voice that she understood Nellie did not feel she
could leave her uncle.
The answer, though not painful for the reason they thought, was
nevertheless painful to Vickers. It seemed to set a new obstacle
between him and Nellie. A woman might forgive you for overworking
her, even for robbing her, but for coming between her and a man she
fancied—never. No wonder he had not found it easy to establish
pleasant relations with her. The task looked harder than ever.
He had no difficulty in thawing little Miss Overton’s manner. She
was a type he understood better. She giggled so delightedly every
time he opened his mouth, that he felt emboldened to stay even after
the two young men had risen together. As soon as they had gone the
former constraint returned to the girl’s manner. She asked stiffly:
“Do you find Hilltop much changed, Mr. Lee?”
 “I find myself changed,” answered Vickers. He had no intention of
losing any of the advantages of his position, nor was he going until
he had drawn her back to a more friendly tone. “You see I have been
living among another people. Did it ever strike you, Miss Overton,
what is the distinguishing trait of the Anglo-Saxon race?”
Miss Overton, who was not quite sure what the Anglo-Saxon race
was, answered that it had not.
“Why, their ability to pick out another person’s duty. Ever since I’ve
been here every one has been telling me what my duty is—except
you.”
“But isn’t that a help, sometimes, Mr. Lee?” the girl asked shyly.
She had heard that her visitor was sometimes in need of a little
advice in this matter.
“Ah, but how do they know my duty, Miss Overton? They all think
they do; but do they? There are so many different kinds of duty, just
as there are so many different kinds of virtue.”
“But are there many?” asked Miss Overton, trying to think how
many she had learned there were at school. Was it nine virtues, or
nine Muses? She was sure about the seven deadly sins.
“Oh, all sorts and kinds. I had a servant once in Central America,
who was the kindest little chap to animals. When my macaw was ill,
he insisted on sitting up all night with it, and yet I found out afterward
that just before he came to me he had murdered his mother and
grandmother, because he said they nagged him.”
“What an interesting life you must have had, Mr. Lee,” said the girl,
for this casual mention of crimes was startling to Hilltop notions.
“And courage is a queer thing,” Vickers went on; “I knew a native
down there who cried when an American knocked him down, and yet
when it came to sheer crazy courage——”
Just at this moment a tall figure came through the window.
“What a beautiful night,” said a quiet voice.
 “Father, this is Mr. Lee,” said the girl, and there was a something
anxious, almost appealing, in her tone.
The anxiety seemed unnecessary, for Overton answered
pleasantly: “What, Bob Lee? glad to see you here!” As he spoke he
stepped out into the moonlight, and Vickers saw his long, thin, clever
Yankee face. “Just going?” he went on, glancing at his guest, who as
a matter of fact had no such intention. “I’ll walk a little way with you.”
Vickers was surprised at the Great Man’s cordiality, but his
surprise was short-lived. Indeed it lasted no further than the corner of
the piazza.
“I always think, Mr. Lee,” Overton began at once, “that if a
disagreeable thing has to be said, the sooner the better. Now I hope
you will come and see me again, come and see me as often as you
feel like it; but I do not desire your friendship for my daughter.”
In his day Vickers had knocked men down for less, but there was
something so calm and friendly and reasonable in Overton’s manner
that it never occurred to him to do more than ask quite mildly:
“And why this difference, sir?”
“Oh,” said Overton, “I allow myself a great many things I don’t
permit Louisa—whiskey and cigars, and acquaintances with
reformed characters. I assume that you have reformed, Mr. Lee, or
else you would not have come to see us at all.”
“There is something very frank about the way you assume that I
needed to,” retorted Vickers.
“I make it a point even in court,” said Overton, “not to dispute the
obvious.”
It struck Vickers that there was no use in resenting insults to a
past with which he was so little connected that he was in complete
ignorance of its dark places. Hoping to throw a little light upon the
subject he began:
“Perhaps you will tell which incident or incidents of my past you
——”
 Overton cut him short with a smile. “No,” he said, “I won’t. In the
first place I don’t mean to walk so far, and in the second it wouldn’t
be pertinent. The point is that you are a reformed character. In my
experience there is nothing so dangerous to the young. Their
admiration for the superb spectacle of Satan trodden underfoot is too
apt to include an admiration of Satan himself. In short, my dear sir, I
don’t think you have any ground for quarreling with me because I
think you a dangerous fellow for young girls.”
“It is not exactly a compliment,” said Vickers.
“Either of those young sparks who have just gone would have
given ten years of his life for such an accusation.” Both men laughed
at the incontestable truth of this assertion, but Vickers felt it
necessary to say:
“But I am a good deal older than they are.”
“And a good many other things as well.” They had reached the
impressive gate-post, and Overton stopped. “Suppose you come and
dine with me to-morrow night,” and he added, in exactly the same
tone, “Louisa is dining with a friend.”
Vickers looked at him a moment and then exclaimed candidly:
“Now I wonder why in thunder you asked me to dinner.”
Overton smiled. “Let me tell you,” he answered. “I must confess I
was an eavesdropper this evening. Sitting in the house I could hear
your voice, and I amused myself trying to guess who you could be
that I could not place in Hilltop. I could not even guess your family. It
was principally to satisfy my curiosity that I came out.”
“Do you remember me, Mr. Overton, before I went away?” asked
Vickers eagerly.
“I have an excellent memory,” answered the lawyer briefly.
“Do I seem to you to have changed?”
“Physically changed, you mean?”
“Yes.”
Overton looked at him reflectively in the moonlight.
 “More than physically,” he returned at length.
“Mentally?”
“Mentally, if you like. It seems to me, Lee, that you have changed
your soul, and you will forgive my saying that it seems to me a
damned good thing. Good-night.”
Vickers went on his way whistling. The interview had raised his
spirits with its suggestion that his own personality might yet triumph
over Lee’s. It seemed a very fitting climax to the evening, when he
saw Nellie standing at the door, most evidently looking for him.
“Ah, Nellie,” he said, “you were afraid I had bolted.”
“I was not,” she answered firmly; “only I did not want to lock up the
house, until you were in.”
“Nellie,” he said again, “you were most mortally afraid in the
depths of that hard little heart of yours that I had run away.”
“I don’t know whether I am most afraid you will run away, or
disgrace us by staying. Where have you been, Bob?”
Vickers looked down at her and felt inclined to refuse her the
information, but seeing possibilities in telling her, he almost instantly
answered:
“I have been most safely engaged in a visit to Miss Overton.”
“Louisa Overton? Oh, Bob, how could you?”
“But why not? I had supposed it one of the very most respectable
——”
“You know that is not what I meant.”
“Perhaps you will tell me what you do mean.”
“You must not go and see little Louisa. She is a perfect child. She
has seen nothing, and knows no one. I do not think she would even
amuse you very much, Bob. She is too simple and innocent. I can
not think what put it into your head to go.”
“Well, one thing was that she asked me.”