Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:40:55.943Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Shang State as Seen in the Oracle-Bone Inscriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

David N. Keightley*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Abstract

This paper was first prepared as a documentary appendix to “The Late Shang State: When, Where, and What?” (to be published in the conference volume, The Origins of Chinese Civilization), which, by analyzing a series of thirty-nine “state criteria” under the general headings of Sovereignty, Territoriality, Religion and Kinship, Alliance and Warfare, and Exchange, attempted to classify the state in developmental terms. The present paper presents the documentary evidence in more detail by translating and discussing characteristic Inscriptions (generally from period I, the reign of Wu Ting) within each of the thirty-nine criteria. In so far as possible, the discussion focuses on the case of the Chou as a Shang state member. The evidence is particularly valuable because of the insights it gives Into the daily activities of the Shang theocrat.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kiyoshi, Akatsuka 1977 Chūgoku kodai no shūkyō to bunka--In ōchō no saishi . Tokyo.Google Scholar
Boodberg, Peter A. 1979 Selected Works of Peter A. Boodberg. Compiled by Cohen, Alvin P.. Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Bucksbaum, Dessa P. 1978A Study of the Word Fang in the OBI.” Typescript. 9 01.Google Scholar
Chang, K.C. 1977 The Archaeology of Ancient China. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. New Haven.Google Scholar
Ping-ch'üan, Chang 1967Chia-ku-wen chung so-chien jen-ti t'ung-ming k'ao. In Ch'ing-chu Li Chi hsien-sheng ch'i-shih-sui lun-wen-chi Taipei. Vol. 2, pp. 687776.Google Scholar
Hung-hsiang, Chou 1968Some Aspects of Shang Administration: A Survey Based Solely on the Evidence Available in the Oracle Bone Texts.” Ph.D. dissertation. Australian National University.Google Scholar
Hung-hsiang, Chou 1970/1971Fu-X Ladies of the Shang Dynasty.” Monuments Serica 29: 346390.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1968State: The Institution.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Science 15:143150. New York.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Minao 1968Inshū jidai no zuzō kigō. Tōhō gakuhō 39:1117.Google Scholar
Hsinhua-she, 1977Shen-hsi Chou-yüan fa-hsien chen-kuei chia-ku. Ta kunq-pao (17 10):1. (Translated in Early China: [Fall 1977]:97-98.)Google Scholar
Suetoshi, Ikeda 1964 Inkyo shokei köhen shakubun kō . Hiroshima.Google Scholar
Tsung-yi, Jao 1959 Yin-tai chen-pu jen-wu t'ung-k'ao . 2 vols. Hongkong.Google Scholar
Karlgren, Bernhard 1950 The Book of Documents. Stockholm.Google Scholar
KKHP (K'ao-ku hsüeh-pao 1977An-yang Yin-hsü wu-hao mu ti fa-chüeh 2:5798.Google Scholar
Keightley, David N. 1969Public Work in Ancient China: A Study of Forced Labor in the Shang and Western Chou.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University. (Published on demand by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich.; no. 72-15, 577.)Google Scholar
Keightley, David N. 1976Shang Divination: The Magico-Religious Legacy.” Paper prepared for the Workshop on Classical Chinese Thought, Harvard University, 2-13 08. Mimeographed. (To appear in Rosemont, Henry Jr., and Schwartz, Benjamin, eds., Explorations in Early Chinese Cosmology. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Supplement. 1980)Google Scholar
Keightley, David N. 1978The Religious Commitment: Shang Theology and the Genesis of Chinese Political Culture.” History of Religions (02-May 1978): 211224.Google Scholar
Keightley, David N. 1978a Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Keightley, David N. in press (ed.) The Origins of Chinese Civilization. Berkeley, Calif.Google Scholar
Michio, Matsumaru 1965Indai no kokka kōzō. Shigaku zasshi 74.12 (12): 9293.Google Scholar
Michio, Matsumaru 1970Inshū kokka no kōzō. Iwanami kōza sekai rekishi 4:49100.Google Scholar
Nivison, David S. 1977Royal Intercession in Curing Illness.” 1 03. Typescript.Google Scholar
Nivison, David S. 1977a “The Pronominal Use of the Verb Yu (: Early Archaic Chinese.” Early China 3 (Fall):117.Google Scholar
Nivison, David S. 1978Some Oracle Inscriptions Concerning Illness.” American Oriental Society Meeting, Seattle. See Shima 1971.Google Scholar
Serruys, Paul L-M. 1974The Language of the Shang Oracle Iriscriptions.” T'oung Pao 60.1-3: 12120.Google Scholar
Kunio, Shima 1958 Inkyo bokuji kenkyū . Hirosaki.Google Scholar
Kunio, Shima 1971 Inkvo bokuji sōrui . 2nd rev, ed. Tokyo.Google Scholar
Takashima, Ken-ichi 1973Negatives in the King Wu-ting Bone Inscriptions.” Ph.D dissertation. University of Washington. (Published on demand by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich.; no. 74-841.)Google Scholar
Vandermeersch, Léon 1977, Wanqdao ou la voie royale: Recherches sur l'esprit des institutions de la Chine archaique. Tome 1: Structures cultuelles et structures familiales. Publications de l'école française d'extrême orient. Vol. 113. Paris.Google Scholar
Yü-hsin, Wang, Yung-shan, Chang, and Yang-sheng-nan, 1977Shih-lun Yin-hsü wu-hao mu ti ‘Fu Hao’,” . K'ao-ku hsüeh-pao 1977.2:122.Google Scholar