The Bu Qi Gui Inscription and Genesis of the Qin State

The aim of this paper is to define the institutional difference between the aristocratic lineage ruling the service fief of the Western Zhou era and the royal dynasty, reigning over the independent state of the Eastern Zhou era. Different approaches to the genesis of the Qin State are discussed in this paper: the archaeological approach and the “Zhou fiefdom” approach. The first one lacks data directly describing the political process. The problem of the second one is its being based practically on one written source that postdates the events described by 500 years. Therefore, to escape the failures of these methods, the author developed a specific approach that would both deal with political and institutional data on the one side while using data from different sources contemporary to the events in question. Data explicated from Bu Qi gui, Qin gong zhong and Guo ji zi Bai pan – three inscriptions on the bronze vessels dating between IX and VII centuries BC was scrutinized and compared. Two of them were cast by Qin rulers and the third describes the events leading to the creation of the Qin domain. Comparing information of these sources with the data from Sima Qian’s Shi ji allows to determine the precise moment of the Qin domain being transformed into the Qin State and show the institutional innovations that went along with this process. The interior political change of this time is described (i.e. the political crisis of royal inheritance) as well as the exterior change in Qin’s place inside the hierarchy of Zhou domains, particularly the changing relations between the Qin State and the domain of Xiao Guo. This clarified the place that the process of territorial expansion had in this transformation. As a hypothesis, the author built a model presenting the properties distinguishing a service fief and an independent state.

A Dramaturgy of Death: Performing (And Spectating) Filial Piety in Early China

This essay analyzes the early Chinese elite discourse on filial death rituals, arguing that early Chinese texts depict these rituals as performance events. Building on spectacle of xiao sacrifices in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Eastern Zhou authors conceived of filial death rituals as dramaturgical phenomena that underscored not only what needed to be performed, but also how it should be performed, and led to an important distinction between personal dispositions and inherited ritual protocol. This distinction, then, led to concerns about artifice in human behavior, both inside and outside the Ruist (Confucian) tradition. By end of the Warring States Period and in the early Western Han Dynasty, with the embracement of artifice in self-cultivation, the dramatic role of the filial son in death rituals became even more developed and complex, requiring the role of cultivated spectators to be engaged critics who recognized the nuances of cultivated performances.

試論《東周列國志》對周桓王之形塑及評騭

<p>孔子主張「禮樂征伐自天子出」，但周桓王因與鄭莊公交惡，不滿周王室二任天子面對鄭莊公總是處於劣勢。桓王即位後先是與鄭國交惡情況已無力迴轉。周桓王聯軍攻鄭，卻敗於繻葛，桓王本人更於此役受射箭中傷。鄭卻壓倒性的戰勝周室的聯軍，導致周天子顏面盡失，王朝秩序亦蕩然無存，「尊王」的時代一去不復返。「禮」是周朝立國之基礎，凡事都堅持按禮樂制度辦事，為西周之周公所制定，但在很多地方，均已過時了。眾多諸侯也一一不再遵循，周桓王時期雖仍能影響虢國，但已無力阻止王室轉衰，亦無力阻止諸侯間的互相攻伐。《東周列國志》採用「歷史演義」手法，依序道出周桓王之委屈與還擊，卻也將周桓王思維不夠縝密、不擅用人等埋伏在隱線裡。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>Confucius advocated that &quot;the courtesy and conquest came from the emperor.&quot; However, due to the disagreement between the king and the emperor Zheng Zhuang, the second emperor of the royal family was always at a disadvantage when facing the emperor Zheng Zhuang. Zhou Zhen Wang Lianjun attacked Zheng, but lost to Yu Ge. Zheng’s overwhelming victory over Zhou’s coalition forces led to the loss of Zhou Tianzi’s face and the disappearance of the international order. The era of &quot;respecting the king&quot; is gone forever. Many princes no longer followed one by one, and King Zhou Xuan had no power to prevent the royal family from turning down, nor could they prevent each other from attacking each other. &quot;Eastern Zhou Dynasty Records&quot; adopts the &quot;historical romance&quot; method, which in turn reveals the grievances and counterattacks of Zhou Zhenwang, but also ambushes Zhou Zhou’s inadequate thinking and is not good at using people.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

How can Archaeological Scientist Integrate the Typological and Stylistic Characteristics with Scientific Results: A Case Study on Bronze Spearheads Unearthed from the Shuangyuan Village, Chengdu City, Southwest China

Background: Bronze spears are weapons with unique regional characteristics of the Shu culture, Southwest China in the Bronze Age, which reflect the bronze manufacturing tradition and the utilization of mineral resources of ancestors. Previous studies mainly focused on the classification, the alloy composition or the production of bronze spearheads of the Shu culture. The purpose of this paper was to make a comprehensive discussion on the Shu culture from the aspects of the relationship between typology and scientific characteristics, the differences in metal raw material selection with the Ba culture, and the contact with the culture in the Central Plains. Results : Methods: In this study, typology, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) and multi collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) were used to analyze thirteen bronze spearheads unearthed from Shuangyuan site, an Eastern Zhou cemetery in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Southwest China. Methods: The results show that the spearheads can be classified into three types in typology. All samples are tin-lead ternary bronzes, and the lead isotope data indicate the lead ore. Most spearheads show ordinary lead and only one spearhead has highly radiogenic lead. Conclusion: The typical Shu-style bronze spearheads have distinct shapes but similar ore materials. Meanwhile, people of the Ba culture and the Shu culture used different metal sources to make bronze spearheads. In addition, a very special bronze spearhead suggests that ancestors of the Shu culture in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty imitated the late Shang culture in the Central Plains.