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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Review Article
THE CHINESE BRONZE AGE FROM A
MARXIST PERSPECTIVE
Robert Thorp
Department of Art and Archaeology
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544
Shang Zhou kaogu 商周考古 (Shang and Zhou
Archaeology) exemplifies one aspect of the maturity
of Chinese archaeology today. The important salvage work of the last thirty years and the steady
flow of reports is now being matched by planned
excavations, the use of sophisticated technology,
critical reviews of earlier finds, and the publication of major corpora of artifacts and documents. Shang Zhou kaogu serves as a textbook for
the Archaeological Specialization (Kaogu zhuanye
changed to the current "Shang Zhou" rubric, and
following Guo Moruo, the scope of the volume was
reduced by excluding the Warring States period.
Neither Guo's text nor Zou's revision was com­
mitted to print. Instead, each was used in the
Bei Da program in mimeographed editions. Liu
Shiyi 劉士莪 reviewed the text in 1959 to
strengthen its "theoretical analysis," probably
a necessary response to the Hundred Flowers campaign and its aftermath. In the following year,
another revision was attempted, written in large
part by Zou Heng but including also contributions
考古專業 )
within the History Department of
Beijing University. It summarizes the fund of new
knowledge that has accumulated since 1949, and
organizes that data by an interpretative framework
based on Marxism-Leninism as espoused in the PRC.
As such, it is one of the few scholarly syntheses of archaeological knowledge yet published in
China. Unlike several earlier treatments of the
Bronze Age or "slave society," this volume adduces quantities of data derived from recent excavations for many major topics and supplies the
references that allow the reader to work back to
primary sources. While this data sometimes makes
for tedious reading, it is frequently enlivened by
previously unpublished findings and ideas awaiting
appearance in print.
from Zhang Zhongpei
張忠培
and Zhu Guangqi
祝廣
祺 . The text was improved at this time by soliciting critical suggestions from "brother organizations" such as the Institute of Archaeology
and the Historical Museum. That edition devoted
special attention to the archae­
ology of China's
border regions (a reaction to the Sino-Soviet
split?). Although the 1960 version was set in
type, it was never properly published for reasons that are ­
unspecified; one suspects that the
Cultural Revolution made such an enterprise illadvised. By 1972, yet another revised ­
version was
responsible for
­nderway with Li Boqian 李伯謙 ­
u
the sections on Shang and Zou Heng once again
writing those on Zhou. This text was circulated
­
within archaeological circles but never published. Shang Zhou kaogu, in turn, is based on
the 1960 and 1972 editions, and is the first
text to be published for a national and international ­
audience. Written entirely by Zou Heng
from March, 1976 to May, 1977, this text incorporates data published in the various archaeological
The history of this volume (pp. i-ii) ­
mirrors
the development of archaeological studies in China
since 1949. The text derives ultimately from lec­
tures given by Guo Baojun 郭寶鈞 for training
classes held in 1952 to prepare archaeological
took
field workers. In 1956, Zou Heng 鄒衡 under­
a major revision of Guo's work; the title was
* Beijing Daxue Lishixi Kaogu Jiaoyanshi Shang Zhou zu. Shang Zhou kaogu. Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1979.
Pp. xx + 278 + 63 plates.
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journals by the latter date as well as some other
unpublished findings supplied by local museums. Unlike most recent publications from China, footnotes
cite references by specific page numbers and sometimes summarize changing views of the evidence. The
volume is well illustrated with 226 text figures
and 63 plates, several in color. Shang Zhou kaogu
may serve as a standard introduction to the field
written from the perspective of the practitioners
of archaeology in China today.
thought and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese "revolution." Nonetheless, any critical reading of this volume must
address this topic and weigh the archaeological
evidence.
The existence of slaves and slave masters is
first asserted from evidence at the Erlitou
里頭
二
sites (pp. 21-24). Burials characterized
by a proper trench and grave goods are assigned
to slave masters, either elite or freemen depending on the quantity and quality of their grave
goods. Those burials without regular trenches
and lacking grave goods are assigned to slaves;
this absence of grave goods is a key diagnostic feature in the author's view. This category
includes skeletal remains that suggest unnatural
death, perhaps human sacrifice. The raw data for
this dichotomy are few, less than sixty burials altogether. Only three graves with relatively
rich furnishings have been reported (the text's
elite graves), while another twenty graves with
modest furnishings are known (the text's freemen). A mere thirty skeletons comprise the slave
category. The author notes that burials lacking
evidence of funeral rites and grave goods are
also known from late Neolithic sites and that
a variety of explanations may lie behind such
finds. Yet Lenin's definition of a slave as "one
who labors but gives his product to another" is
cited to conclude that the Erlitou society was
already polarized as a slave system (p. 23). This
conclusion is crucial to Marxist historiography, but not a necessary or unambiguous deduction
from the archaeological data. Such burials with
irregular trenches and lacking furnishings might
­
be evidence of extreme poverty, warfare, plague,
or social outcasts.
I
The "General Remarks" (pp. 1-13) that preface
the body of the text establish a doctrinal basis by
enunciating: (1) the "basic mission" (jiben renwu
基本任務 )
of Shang-Zhou archaeology, and (2) an
interpretative framework for slave society. The
basic mission is framed as follows (p. 3):
Under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao
Zedong thought and through research on sites
and artifacts made known through archaeological excavations and explorations, to ­
recreate
the history of Chinese slave society, and to
make clear in concrete terms the laws of history that changed ancient China first from
a primitive society to a slave society and
then again from a slave society to a feudal
society.
­
This fundamental commitment to history written
from a Marxist perspective permeates every aspect
of Shang Zhou kaogu. The Marxist-Leninist classics
are given pride of place in the bibliography and
cited prominently throughout. Unlike publications
of a few years ago, quotations from those classics
are not identified by bold type or otherwise segregated from other portions of text. Instead, topics
are consistently organized so that they proceed
from Marxist assumptions and lead to orthodox Marxist conclusions. Important presentations of data,
often useful and stimulating in themselves, are
used again and again to support a general statement
on the significance of the data from a Marxist orientation. The reader must therefore be alert to the
theoretical purposes of each section of Shang Zhou
kaogu. How such purposes affect the data itself
will be a continuing theme of this review.
The author has developed an elaborate typology for Shang graves (discussed further ­
below),
but asserts that no Shang graves can be identiauthor's
fied as those of slaves (p. 92). In the ­
view, all "graves" (muzang 墓葬 ) include furnishings, and slaves, utterly lacking property,
could not be buried with grave goods. Regarded,
in the words of the text, as "tools that could
talk," slaves were killed at any time by their
masters and then buried without rites. We are
thus given a portrait of a society whose most
numerous social class leaves traces in the
­
archaeo­
logical record only as human victims at
The fundamental assumption of this "basic
mission" is the view that the Xia, Shang and Zhou
were slave societies (pp. 2, 6). This era of slave
society is posited as a "necessary stage of development" between primitive and feudal systems of
social organization. The putative demise of slave
society by about the late Spring and Autumn period
serves as the terminal date for the text. In spite
of the pivotal role of these concepts, nowhere does
the text provide a rigorous definition of slave
society based on archaeological evidence. Rather,
early on the author inserts these proleptical remarks (p. 8):
graves (renxun
One must point out that those who do not
recognize that a slave society existed in
ancient China and also do not recognize the
ironclad historical fact that the development
of Chinese history accords with the universal
historical laws of Marxism-Leninism concerning
the development of human society are brazenly
opposing the universal truth of Marxism.
To deny such tenets is also to oppose Mao Zedong
98
人殉 )
and as human sacrifices
(renji 人祭 ) for the Shang cult (pp. 106-19).
Yet the text notes that the nature of human
victims and sacrifices varied. For example, the
category of human victims included persons who
themselves had accompanying victims (p. 109),
presumably slaves of slaves, in addition to warriors and servitors identified as such by the
presence of grave goods, weapons, chariots, or
the like. The marginal differences between the
smallest Shang graves of "freemen," often called
warriors due to the weapons interred with the
deceased, and the remarkably similar remains of
"slave warriors" near large tombs occasion no
doubts in the mind of the author about the status of either category. By the simple definitions
of the text, anyone buried with grave goods was
a freeman, but in certain circumstances, slaves
were buried as victims and then accompanied by
grave goods.
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The pervasive evidence of human victims and
sacrifices suffices to make the Late Shang period
the height of slave society for the author. The
same system is assumed in the Western Zhou ­
period
(p. 217), in spite of the conspicuous lack of archaeological evidence for extensive human sacrifice or victims on the Shang scale during that time
(obliquely noted p. 197). The supposed gradual disappearance of human victims in tombs in the middle
and late Spring and Autumn period is taken as prime
evidence for the demise of the slave system (p.
269). Nowhere does the text note the data for the
continuing use of human victims through the Warring States period, Qin and Han. Thus, the central
assumption of the text is plagued by inconsistent
evidence and logic.
framework embodies are characterized by a handy
symmetry and simple solutions to thorny questions.
The scheme ignores the tricky problems of "feudal" relationships among states and within society
throughout the Shang and Zhou periods. Likewise,
the terminal date posited for "slave society" poses
its own problems. The archaeological data in toto
shows few dramatic breaks or rapid transitions
that reached a climax by the mid-5th century. On
the contrary, the major features of the society
described in this volume exhibited, if anything,
a profound continuity into the following Warring
States period. Even the key criterion of human victims and sacrifice does not show a clear-cut break
in the fifth century in spite of vague statements
to the contrary in the text. The periods and stages
of this framework will only satisfy those who share
the author's assumptions and goals.
The author's interpretative framework for the
slave society era consists of a progression of three
periods and five developmental stages (pp. 6-8).
"Early Slave Society" (the 21st through 16th centuries B.C.) already showed the use of bronze for
tools, weapons, and ritual vessels, the appearance of the state, human sacrifice, divination,
and probably the early stages of a writing system.
II
The four chapters of the text treat the Erlitou
Culture (pp. 14-28), the Shang (pp. 29-143), the
Western Zhou (pp. 144-233), and the Spring and Autumn period (pp. 234-74). While the organization of
each chapter varies to reflect differing levels of
knowledge and ranges of data, several themes unify
the volume and the best evidence and strongest theoretical argumentation center on these themes. The
major
economic base of Shang-Zhou society is one ­
focus of attention and is studied through discusother
sions of agriculture, bronze casting and ­
industries, the evidence for commerce, and the
like. A second major theme of the text is the class
structure of slave society as reflected by graves,
city sites, architectural remains, and evidence for
punishments. The third major theme of the work is
the relation of regional and frontier cultures to
the Shang and Zhou civilizations of North China.
The Erlitou Culture 二里頭文化 of central North
China supplies the archaeological evidence for this
period. (The text adopts a neutral stand vis a vis
the current, energetic debate on the historicity and
identity of the Xia, but the separation of the Erlitou Culture from the Shang and the frequent association of that culture with the Xia testify to Zou's
own views.)
"Middle Slave Society" is divided into two
stages: an early stage coeval with the author's
Early Shang (the 16th through 13th centuries B.C.)
­
and a late stage identical with the text's Late
Shang and early Western Zhou (the 13th through mid10th centuries). The early stage is ­
represented
Economy. The economic foundations of the Erlitou, Shang, and Zhou cultures are given priority
in each chapter, even when the information for such
topics is meager. The bronze industry in particular is a major concern; the initial discussion of
bronze founding incorporates a lengthy fulmination
denying Soviet claims of decisive foreign influence in the development of bronze casting (p. 17).
Zou Heng's argument here is only partially successful. While the author cites strong· evidence
local manufacture of the earliest Chinese
for the ­
bronze objects, he fails to include a detailed
comparison of Chinese casting with techniques used
elsewhere. At the Erlitou Culture stage, no bronze
tools used for agriculture are identified in the
text, but this is explained as the result of the
incapacity of the nascent industry to meet such a
large demand (p. 20). By the Early Shang period,
however, bronze axes and choppers, although not yet
the dominant type of agriculture tool, are said to
have contributed to major increases in production
(p. 38), a view not widely held outside China. The
primary archaeological evidence cited for this conclusion is the considerable number of molds used to
二里岡 , Zhengzhou 鄭
盤龍城 Hubei, while the
by sites such as Erligang
州
and Panlongcheng
late stage of Middle Shang Society, typified by
the ­
remains at Anyang/Yinxu, stands as the peak of
slave society.
"Late Slave Society" is also divided into early
and late stages. The former covers the period from
middle Western Zhou through the early Spring and
Autumn period (mid-10th through mid-7th centuries).
Evidence from Zhou graves along the Feng
near Xi'an and from the Guo
虢
灃
River
state cemetery at
Shangcunling 上村嶺 , Henan, is interpreted to
suggest the beginnings of the decline of the slave
system. The terminal, late stage of Late Slave
Society in turn witnessed the rapid decline of the
slave system. This stage, the middle and late Spring
and Autumn period (mid-7th through mid-5th centuries), saw the emergence of feudal society with the
appearance of a new landowning class and the first
widespread use of iron tools. The early graves at
Zhongzhou
中州
侯馬 ,
at Houma
last stage.
cast bronze qiang
Road, Luoyang, and the early strata
斨
axe-heads found at the Nan­
guan­
wai 南關外 casting site near Zhengzhou (p. 39).
Such molds, it is argued, would not have been so
numerous if this type of tool was used only to work
wood. On the other hand, bronze tools in general
are poorly represented in sites and graves, the text
Shanxi, are representative of this
The periodization and interpretations this
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says, because the slave masters did not give tools
to their laborers but instead distributed them
only when needed (p. 39). Bronze thus is seen as
integral to the economic life of the Shang, not,
as most non-Marxist scholars would maintain, as a
precious metal used primarily for the ritual and
ceremonial needs of the elite.
is offered anywhere in the text. Rather, the
varieties of evidence available from archaeology are used for whatever incidental light they
shed on key Marxist tenets. Many topics could be
explored further using traditional texts, but in
general Shang Zhou kaogu uses such sources only
to confirm its interpretations of the archaeological evidence. In the sections dealing with
aspects of economic life, only the discussions
of bronze casting maintain a relatively uniform
degree of detail, and, even so, much ground is
passed over in considerable haste. The treatments
of other topics, when considered individually,
are too brief to inform the reader looking for a
general introduction to agriculture, ceramics or
the like.
Throughout the discussion of the bronze and
other industries, the elite is regarded as the
controlling and consuming class with slaves providing labor. The pounded earth floor of the Henan
Hotel foundry site near Zhengzhou is not cited as
evidence for some status on the part of the bronze
casters themselves (p. 43) as some western ­
writers
have suggested. Zou Heng sees virtually all workshops as engaged in specialized production with
considerable internal division of labor deduced
from unfinished products found at several stages of
production. A feat such as casting the great Simu
Class Structure. The greatest part of Shang
Zhou kaogu is devoted to evidence that sheds
light on the class structure of Bronze Age ­
society.
Discussions of city sites and archi­
tectural remains are used for this purpose, but the author's
forte here is several lengthy treatments of burials. Zou subjects Shang graves to an elaborate
(and overly complex) classification (pp. 86-106).
He first groups graves as large, medium and small
by their surface area, an arbitrary but conve-
司母戊 fangding 方鼎 found near Wuguancun
武官村 , Anyang, symbolizes for the author Marx's
Wu
statement that simple cooperation by laborers can
achieve great results, and Mao's dictum that the
people, and only the people, are the creative force
in history (p. 47). Steady increases in production
and more sophisticated division of labor led the
Shang founders, potters and carvers to make their
products more "artistic" (p. 119). The "art" of
casting bronzes and of other crafts is otherwise
barely alluded to by the text, a sharp contrast to
the recent western approach that regards bronze
ritual vessels as above all else works of high
art. All artistic production is treated by this
volume as symbolic of the power and status of the
elite while derived from the talent of the laboring
people (p. 123). A few well-worn, formulaic phrases
suffice to praise this talent.
nient rule of thumb. Seven types (jia
through
(guo 槨 ), human victims, and bronze ritual vessels. The latter criteria seem far more important
to this reviewer than surface area.
The presence of a ramp or burial chamber
reflects a conscious and meaningful choice on
the part of those responsible for the burial,
and such distinguishing features are found with
great consistency throughout the area of Shang
civilization. These attributes were manifestations of Shang ritual norms that in turn reflect
the character of Shang society. A distinction
between tombs with surface areas of more and less
than 100 square meters, on the other hand, has no
rational basis in any known aspect of the Shang
cult or society.
The Zhou period is viewed as a time of the
slow economic progress typical of slave societies
(p. 167), although slight advances in agriculture,
bronze and ceramic production are discussed. Collective agriculture under close royal supervision
is argued based on texts from Shijing. Only with
the development of iron working, the text says,
were the strictures placed on production by slave
society broken. The earliest extant iron objects,
a few tools found in or near graves, are dated to
the sixth-fifth centuries, and seen as the natural
result of the collective knowledge and practical
experience of the workers. As iron tools replaced
their bronze prototypes and as a new class of landowner appeared, the inevitable changes in social
relations and economic production led to the major
historical shift from slave to feudal society (pp.
237-39). The development of iron must in this view
both attest to the genius of the Chinese working people and serve as a key element explaining
historical change. The extensive development of
the Houma, Shanxi workshops and the wide distribution of ceramics and bronzes from the state of Wu
Rather than the text's seven-part scheme, a
smaller number of categories might be employed.
For example, large tombs with ramps (Zou's jia-
bing 甲丙 ) might be distinguished from tombs of
medium scale lacking ramps but characterized by
burial chambers and ritual vessels (Zou's ding-wu
丁戊 ). Both types, in turn, should be contrasted
to small graves lacking both chambers and ritual
vessels made from bronze (Zou's ji-geng 己庚 ).
On the other hand, the author advisedly ties the
differing numbers of ritual vessels to differing statuses within the elite, using paired gu
吳 are cited as evidence for the rise of "commercial" production (pp. 250-54). This new phase in
economic development also included the appearance
of a true merchant class and a metallic currency,
phenomena considered consonant with Engel's writings (p. 255).
甲
geng 庚 ) are then distinguished by combining the
factor of area with attributes such as the presence or absence of ramps, wooden burial chambers
觚 and jue 爵 ritual vessels as a basic analytical unit. Thus, as the author states, tombs with
two or three such pairs (and an assortment of
other types as well) should be distinguished from
graves with only one set and from graves lacking bronze ritual vessels (pp. 88, 89, 91). From
the growing size and richness of tombs in the
Late Shang period, an impression enhanced by the
overly complex categories
No detailed analysis of economic organization
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summarized above, Zou deduces a marked increase in
the wealth of the elite and a consequent impoverishment of the lower, free classes (p. 106). The
wide range of tomb types and the extremes of wealth
and poverty exhibited by those at each end of the
spectrum testify, in his opinion, to the peak stage
of slave society.
five-grade ranking system for burials, each rank
distinguished by differing numbers of ritual ves-
sels, notably ding 鼎 and gui 簋 (p. 204). Zou
Heng proposes a similar classification with the
number of ding vessels found in excavated tombs
serving as his diagnostic feature (pp. 204-15 and
262-67). Examples of nine, seven, five, three, and
one ding vessel respectively are adduced and related
Some of the chapter on the Western Zhou period
is disappointing due to gaps in our present knowledge, but the discussion of tombs merits careful
consideration. The author examines the nature of
Zhou cemetery sites in an analysis based in equal
measure on archaeological data and traditional
to social rank (tianzi
墓,
公
planned tracts centered on large, elite burials such as the Guo state tombs at Shangcunling,
衛 state tombs at Xincun 辛
浚縣 , also in Henan; and bang mu 邦
Henan, and the Wei
村,
墓,
Xun Xian
tracts used by a wide portion of the "free"
population but without large-scale tombs, such as
tun 小屯 published after this volume went to press
(see Kaogu Xuebao 1979.1). Inscribed ritual vessels
found in those graves suggest that the cemetery was
laid out in distinct groupings by clans or other
lineage groups. Without embracing the theoretical
impedimenta of the text, one can nonetheless agree
with the author that such data have much to tell
about Shang and Zhou society, and perhaps the function of ritual vessels and even the meaning of some
of the bronze decor.
dafu
大
tion is offered for the Liuchengqiao 瀏城橋 tomb
near Changsha. It ignores one of the major trends
of the Eastern Zhou period, namely complementary
sets of surrogate vessels made for burial alongside
their bronze counterparts. Ritual requirements, the
focus of so much of Zou's analysis up to this point,
are ignored in favor of a narrow economic rationale (in this instance the economic circumstances
of one indi­
vidual). Similarly, the widespread use
of ceramic ding vessels in small graves is evidence,
to Zou, of a social revolution in the making as
commoners, not entitled to use ding at all according to the ritual texts, usurped that privilege (p.
268). Again, this explanation removes the data from
its logical context, the evolution of ceramic grave
goods, apparently because of the larger purposes to
which the author is applying the data.
The author's classification of Zhou tombs into
four types (large, medium, small-medium, and small)
suggests that the Zhou people practiced less elaborate rites than the Shang (pp. 196-203). In fact,
if Zou's scheme for Shang burials were simplified
as suggested above, the contrast between Shang and
Zhou burial customs would appear far less dramatic.
As the text notes, we lack evidence of high quality
for the early Western Zhou, most notably any putative "royal Zhou" tombs that could be compared to
the Xibeigang 西北岡 cemetery at Anyang. Nonetheless, one of the major developments of early Western
Zhou was the virtual disappearance, given present
data, of large scale tombs replete with many human
victims and vast ritual precincts with evidence of
extensive human sacrifice. This observation, however, tends to contradict the view of the text (p.
217) that slave society continued unreformed during
Western Zhou.
Regional Cultures. The third theme of Shang
Zhou kaogu, regional and frontier cultures con­
sidered distinct from the Shang and Zhou centers of
North China, is the least well served, both by the
available data and by the text. Cultures contem­
poraneous with Erlitou are ignored in Chapter One,
In classifying burials of the late Western
Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods, the author
employs a different organizing principle, in this
儀禮 .
卿,
The author is right to organize Zhou burials
by criteria derived from traditional texts to the
extent those criteria are germane to the topic under
investigation. Too often, however, by embracing one
set of criteria, the author abandons others. Thus
Zhou tombs should also, I would suggest, be viewed
simultaneously as a part of cemeteries, in terms of
their structures, in relation to their ritual vessels, and as reflections of local subcultures and
ongoing historical trends. Because such factors are
largely ignored, portions of the text are unsatisfactory. For example, the first appearance in large
tombs of ceramics that mimic bronze ritual vessels
is explained by Zou Heng as a sign that the deceased
was in economic duress and could not afford a full
complement of bronze vessels (p. 267). This explana-
the Zhangjiapo 張家坡 cemetery near Xi'an (pp.
194-96). This approach to large numbers of burials
and their contents deserves further consideration,
especially in light of the extensive excavations of
Shang period cemetery tracts to the west of Xiao-
case drawn from I li
qing
夫 , shi 士 ). As in earlier discussions of burials,
the author sees this system as a means of enforcing
sharp stratification within the elite and between
the elite and the common people. In the Spring
and Autumn era and especially by the end of that
period, numerous examples of "violations" against
­
the canonical prescriptions of the ritual texts are
evident from excavated tombs. Such "violations" are
taken as evidence of social unrest, signs that the
society was in the midst of momentous social change
(pp. 268-69). Yet the so-called "violations" against
the texts may instead reveal other features of Zhou
civilization, such as regional variety in ritual
life and the limited validity and applicability of
those traditional texts such as Zhou li and I li
that we happen to have.
texts, especially Zhou li 周禮 . The sophistication
of this analysis contrasts with the half-hearted
use of texts in some other portions of the volume.
Zou identifies two kinds of cemeteries: gong mu
天子 ,
That text describes a
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so the reader has no understanding of how the bronzeusing culture of Henan grew from its Neolithic base
or interacted with cultures that did not use bronze.
The very limited data now available and the fact that
important work is only now in progress are responsible for this situation. After examining all of
the Shang materials, the author briefly introduces
typological and stratification studies are useful, their equation with supposed developmental
stages in the life of slave society will not lead
non-Marxist researchers to solutions or research
designs for the kinds of questions they are
likely to ask.
It is incumbent on non-Chinese scholars now
as always to develop their own interpretative
structures in order to understand the wealth of
archaeological data. Unprocessed, that data will
be of only incidental use to students of early
China. If Chinese scholars continue to apply such
Marxist classifications as found in this volume,
a gap will inevitably grow between "our" early
China and "their" early China. Reviews such as
this one may serve a useful purpose if they help
to bridge that gap and to facilitate dialogue.
Just as Marxist, Chinese scholars should evaluate Kwang-chih Chang's Shang Civilization or
David Keightley's Sources of Shang History, so
too western scholars must critically examine the
assumptions and limitations of the works of our
Chinese counterparts.
夏家店 Lower Strata Culture of the
northeast, the Wucheng 吳城 Culture of Jiangxi, and
the Hushu 湖熟 Culture of the lower Yangzi River
the Xiajiadian
in Chapter Two (pp. 127-43). In spite of their great
number of common traits, the Shang and Wucheng sites
are separated, primarily because of the prevalence of
stonewares in the latter (far less common in North
China at the time) and a writing system at Wucheng
judged different from that of the Shang oracle bones
(p. 136). Zou Heng is unwilling to view "Shang civilization" as broader than the Shang polity and its
allied centers. Having identified Panlongcheng as a
fangguo 方國 (border state) of Shang, the text considers sites further removed from the Shang homeland
as different "cultures" (wenhua 文化 ). One result of
this kind of thinking is an inevitable fragmentation
of data. As more sites are reported, more "cultures"
are identified and larger continuities obscured.
A similar problem plagues the discussion of "pre-
dynastic" Zhou (xian Zhou 先周 ) evidence (p. 144).
When bronze vessels of "Shang style" that predate
the fall of the Shang center at Anyang are found in
the Zhou homeland, Zou Heng considers such artifacts
either as booty robbed from the Shang by the Zhou or
products of Shang settlements that encroached on the
predynastic Zhou domains. That Zhou bronze casters
could have made their vessels in a Shang style is
inadmissible. Thus evidence for the Zhou before the
"conquest" is meager in the view of the text, limited to a small number of poorly furnished graves. In
the current debate on the Xia, mainland writers often
suggest that we have had Xia sites and artifacts before us for some time but have been unable to recognize them as such. One wonders if the author's terse
treatment of predynastic Zhou is not handicapped by a
similar inability to view evidence already gathered
with fresh eyes.
III
Read for the archaeological evidence it presents, Shang Zhou kaogu is a valuable reference work,
summarizing important topics while providing numerous
citations for further reading. By contrast, to gain
an introduction to a topic not treated in detail here
(the writing system, ceramics, lacquerware, etc.),
one must still laboriously work through thirty-years'
accumulation of archaeological journals and monohazard
graphs, a venture that is likely to be hap­
given the current state of indexes and reference
works based on the archaeological data. On the other
hand, much if not most of the interpretative framework used by the text will be unpalatable to scholars
who have reservations about slave society and Marxist historiography. While the general classifications
established for much of the archaeological data from
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