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Chapter 3 The Shang Kings at Anyang Ie. 1300-1 046 B.C.E.) Our discussions of the Erlitou and Erligang Cultures established the pedigree of the archaeological culture known from the large complex of sites near Anyang, in northern Henan province (Map 6). Work here began at about the same time the discovery of the Longshan type site took place. But whereas the Shandong excavations were limited to two seasons, campaigns at Anyang proceeded for fifteen seasons over a decade (1928-37). More than the better-known investigations at the "cave home of Peking man," the work at Anyang had a decisive impact on the definition, theory, and practice of archaeology in China. From the outset , Anyang was a Chinese project directed by the newly established Academia Sinica (Zhongyang yanjiu yuan) through its Institute of History and Philology (Lishi yuyan yanjiu suo). Motivated by the desire to harvest oracle-bone inscriptions at their source, the Archaeology Section (Kaogu zu) pursued an historical agenda: to recover epigraphic and material remains of the Shang kings. While field techniques were based on practices in Europe and America, they were modified to suit the environment of North China, conditions particular to Anyang, and the goals of Chinese scholars. The excavators themselves blended traditional scholarship with modern archaeology. Dong Zuobin, for example , who revolutionized study of the inscriptions, conducted the first trial excavations in fall 1928, and remained active in the field thereafter. ,Li Ji (Li Chi), who took charge from 1929, on the other hand, was a Harvard-trained anthropologist. Liang Siyong, similarly trained, oversaw important work at Hougang and the royal tombs. Li and Liang and their teams created the theory and practice of a Chinese Bronze Age archaeology conceived as an adjunct to history. A younger generation brought in toward the end of these campaigns, including Hu Houxuan and Xia Nai, went on to assume prominent roles in archaeology and epigraphy from the 1950s through the 1990s (Box 11). 11 8 Chapter 3 [] ~l!atltl~m Iron & Steel Factory o Xibeigang \ iIjt~J~ o ~1k~ o Sanjiazhuang o Xiaotun IJ'\tt! o c:J ~IU~ Huayuanzhuang o :R1!a Anyang Map 6. Late Shang sites near Anyang, Henan. The Shang Kings at Anyang 119 120 Chapter 3 Mter more than seventy years of extensive investigation, the Anyang sites, historically known as Yinxu, "the ruins of Yin," stand at the beginning of Chinese history. With the first Shang king documented in the oracle-bone inscriptions, Wu Ding, we enter a world in which ancient traditions and modern discoveries intersect. The historical reality of the nine kings known retrospectively as the Shang can hardly be challenged . While their ancestry remains clouded, their material culture can be traced to the Erligang and Erlitou Cultures of Henan. Some portion of the Erligang Culture and horizon should represent the ancestors of the Shang kings recorded in the Anyang "shell-and-bone writings" (jiagu wen). Thus the shift from prehistory (or protohistory) to proper history can be examined at Anyang. In a recent survey of archaeologists in China, the manifold discoveries at Anyang were voted the most important archaeological work of the last century. Exploration of Yinxu Dong Zuobin arrived in Zhangde fu, the seat of Anyang County, in August 1928, hoping to find the source of inscribed oracle-bones. Although an amateur in archaeological field methods, he conscientiously inquired among local literati and peasants alike. Eventually, with the aid of a boy from the village of Xiaotun, northwest of the city, Dong located pits where shells and bones had been dug up. Later, in October, Dong was able to recover a modest number of bones himself, and in the process recorded the first "scientific" excavation. Local conditions, Dong The Shang Kings at Anyang 121 concluded, suggested that the oracle-bones had not been exhausted in the three decades since a Beijing official, Wang Yirong, had first recognized the incised marks on shell and bone fragments as archaic script. Tradition says that Wang found these marks in 1899 in a packet of "dragon bones" obtained from a Chinese pharmacy. Whether or not that story is true, within the decade other scholars with epigraphic and antiquarian training assembled collections of fragments and published them. Sun Yirang (1848-1908), Luo Zhenyu (1866-1940), and Wang Guowei (1877-1927) exploited the inscriptions for their contents. Wang in particular quickly established their manifold connections to the late Shang kings as listed in Sima Qian's Historical Records (see Box 3). By 1908...

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