Gender Structure in Pre-Qin China with Focus on
Anyang Yinxu
UCHIDA Junko1
ABSTRACTIn China and other parts of Asia, the framework of patriarchy was ﬁrmly established against the
backdrop of Confucianism. A patriarchal system similar to that of the present day was alreadyestablished by the period of written and recorded history. it can be inferred that the major paradigm
shift establishing gender disparity occurred in the prehistoric period and can only be known througharchaeological research. If this is the case, then archaeology should play a signiﬁcant role in the studyof gender. My research leads me to believe that the gender structure of China changed signiﬁcantly
during the Shang dynasty and the subsequent Western Zhou period (Uchida 2020, 2021).
(1) The gender structure of Asia was created not only by the decline in women’s status due tochanges in agriculture, but the establishment of urban civilization urged the division of gender
structure.
(2) During the transition from the Shang dynasty to the Western Zhou, there was a major paradigm
shift in gender due to the emergence of clans with headquarters in various regions and thesigniﬁcant expansion of the regional scope of intermarriage.
(3) Many women gave birth to multiple children between the ages of 15 and 35, and many lost theirlives, resulting in a shorter life expectancy than for men. This may have been another factor thatprevented them from entering the upper echelons of society, and the “roles” of men and women andtheir “hierarchy” became ﬁxed.
How that social system came into being is the clue to how the gender problems that pervade our time
have arisen, and unless we reconsider where the errors lie, the gender problem will not be solved.
KEYWORDS: Gender structure, Anyang Yinxu, Shang dynasty, subsistence activity, social activity,
urbanization

1.

Introduction

As Ueno Chizuko argues from the perspective of feminist sociology, it is widely
recognized that the current status of women in society is a product of “patriarchy” (Ueno
1990, pp. 3–17). So when did the paradigm shift to patriarchy occur?
In China and other parts of Asia, the framework of patriarchy was ﬁrmly establishedagainst the backdrop of Confucianism. A patriarchal system similar to that of the present
day was already established by the period of written and recorded history, as argued by the
1 Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 130 Academia Rd. Section 2, Nankang,

Taipei 11529, Taiwan (junkocbe@ihp.sinica.edu.tw)
Category: Original Article Received: 11 April 2021; Accepted: 9 March 2022
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 10 (2022): 3–34

UCHIDA Junko

authors of Chūgoku jendā-shi kenkyū nyūmon (Gender History in China in 2018; Kohama
et al. eds., 2021). On the other hand, in the early Neolithic period, which in human historyis the preliminary stage of civilization, there was no disparity between men and women,
so it can be inferred that the major paradigm shift establishing gender disparity occurred in
the prehistoric period and can only be known through archaeological research. If this is thecase, then archaeology should play a signiﬁcant role in the study of gender. My researchleads me to believe that the gender structure of China changed signiﬁcantly during theShang Dynasty and the subsequent Western Zhou period (Uchida 2020, 2021). Therefore,
the discussion here focuses on the process of gender structural changes from the Late
Shang period to the Western Zhou period presenting data based on archaeological andwritten sources.
Unravelling changes in gender structure requires investigating many factors and is
not limited to patriarchy and gender inequality. This paper argues that in an large ancient
city known as Yinxu (殷墟), the surplus of time and the abilities of the men were used topromote specialization. This led to women being relegated to subsistence activities, andit created the gender that became prevalent throughout Asia. Customs such as the burialsof chiefs and attitudes towards the patriarchy and the meaning of marriage in the Shang
Dynasty led to the belief that women were not important partners in marriage alliances. In
the ﬁnal section of this article argues that the roles of men and and women became ﬁxed
because women spent most of their lives engaged in subsistence activities while raising
their children, and could not make use of surplus power to earn a living.

2.

Problems with Conventional Chinese Gender History

At the beginning of the Neolithic period, women appear to have played a major role in theprocess of gathering plants, selecting grains and the initial stages of their cultivation, andcooking. But later, men played a major role in the adoption of irrigation, which increased
productivity. And the shift in those roles is said to have lowered the social status of women.
Miyamoto Kazuo and Watanabe Yoshiro, who analysed grave goods from the early
Neolithic period, speculate that there was a diﬀerence in the nature of labour, as farming
tools such as ploughs and axes were concentrated in male graves, while cooking tools andspindles were deposited in female graves (Watanabe 1989; Miyamoto 2005) (Figure 4-a,b). With the development of agriculture came the concentration of wealth and with it the
emergence of burials with many burial accessories. Burial practices have sometimes been
linked to gender. Richard Pearson noted that female burials with fewer burial artefacts
than male burials indicate the emergence of gender disparity in Neolithic times (Pearson
1981, p. 1086). Sarah M. Nelson notes that women were involved in the rituals at the
Hongshan (紅山) cultural site in Liaoning Province (Nelson 2014, pp. 81–82). Anne B.
© Japanese Archaeological Association

4

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Kinney has also previously summarized gender arrangements in the Neolithic period,
which in addition to these three characteristics as also included women’s involvement in
the occupation of spinning and weaving (Kinney 2018, p. 373).
Gender structure is discussed based on an analysis of oracle inscription. David Keightley
observed that queens were the object of periodic rituals and were worshipped as ancestors.
On the other hand, Keightley, Ying Wang, Katheryn M. Linduﬀ, and others have pointed
out that grave goods from the unclaimed tomb of Fu-hao (IA CASS 1980), the spouseof King Shang Wu-ding (武丁), are of a lower grade than those from the royal tombs in
Xibeigang (西北岡 ; Keightley 1999, pp. 26–46) and that the owner of the Si-Mu-Wu (司母戊) ding (鼎) tripod, Fu-Jing (婦妌), was the ﬁrst woman with a rank higher than Fu-hao,suggesting that disparities existed among women (Wang Y. 2006; Linduﬀ 2006).
Research has been conducted to clarify the transition from a primitive “matriarchal
society” characterized by equality between men and women to a “patriarchal society”
displaying clear gender disparities during the Shang Dynasty by examining archaeologicalartefacts discovered in various regions. The changes in society as a whole that occurred
during this period are thought to have extended to many ﬁelds, and changes in gender
structure are thought to have occurred in conjunction with other changes. Unravelling theprocess of change in the gender structure requires investigating a number of factors that are
not limited to patriarchy and gender inequality.
Furthermore, it is likely that changes in the gender structure will diﬀer, or the degree
will diﬀer, even in the same period, depending on the circumstances of rural and urban
areas, upper and lower social strata, grave goods and goods for daily use, events appearing
in written materials and real life, and so on. In contrast to previous studies, which havemade fragmentary use of documents and archaeological data to establish the existence ofthe patriarchal system, this paper discusses various phenomena that may have contributed
to the establishment of the gender structure.

3.

Gender-Division-of-Labour Stratiﬁcation and Urban Society

3-1.

Gender Division of Labour in a “Primitive” Society

George P. Murdock compiled a table of the division of labour by gender for 224 tribes
selected from all parts of the world at the beginning of the twentieth century, listing
male-dominated labour, female-dominated labour, and labour performed by both sexes(Murdock 1965, p. 309) (Table 1).
Maria Mies distinguishes between “the production of human life and living-working
capacity” from “subsistence production and reproduction” which maintain the capitalist
system. She deﬁnes it as subsistence production involving a variety of human activities
ranging from pregnancy and birth of children to the production, processing and preparation© Japanese Archaeological Association

5

UCHIDA Junko

Table 1.

Murdock’s table: “Divisions of Labor by sex” (Murdock 1965: p. 309)
Labours

Metal working
Weapon making
Pursuit of sea mammals
Hunting
Manufacture of musical instruments
Boatbuilding
Mining and quarrying
Work in wood and bark
Work in stone
Trapping or catching of small animals
Work in bone, horn and shall
Lumbering
Fishing
Manufacture of ceremonial objects
Herding
Housebuilding
Clearing of land for agriculture
Netmaking
Trade
Dairy operations
Manufacture of ornaments
Agriculture-soil preparation and planting
Manufacture of leather products
Body mutilation, e.g., tattooing
Erection and dismantling of shelter Hide preparation
Hide Preparation
Tending of fowls and small animals
Agriculture-crop tending and harvesting
Gathering of shellﬁsh
Manufacture of nontextile fabrics
Fire making and tending
Burden bearing
Preparation of drinks and narcotics
Manufacture of thread and cordage
Basketmaking
MatmakingWeaving
Gathering of fruits, berries, and nuts
Fuel gathering
Pottery making
Preservation of meat and ﬁsh
Manufacture and repair of clothing
Gathering of herbs, roots, and seeds
Cooking
Water carrying
Grain grinding© Japanese Archaeological Association

6

M

F

Percent

78
121
34
166
45
91
35
113
68
128
67
104
98
37
38
86
73
44
51
17
24
31
29
16
14
31
21
10
9
14
18
12
20
23
25
16
19
12
22
13
8
12
8
5
7
2

0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
2
2
3
6
4
1
5
14
13
11
7
13
18
37
32
20
22
49
39
44
25
32
62
57
57
9–73
82
61
67
63
89
77
74
95
74
158
119
114

100.0
99.8
99.3
98.2
96.9
96.0
95.4
95.0
95.0
94.9
93.0
92.2
85.6
85.1
83.6
77.0
76.3
74.1
73.7
57.1
52.5
48.4
48.0
46.6
39.8
39.4
38.7
33.9
33.5
33.3
30.5
29.9
29.5
27.3
24.4
24.2
23.9
23.6
23.0
18.4
16.7
16.1
15.8
8.6
8.2
7.8

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

of food, clothing, making of a home, cleaning, as well as the satisfaction of emotionaland sexual needs. (Mies et al. 1988, pp. 27–28). On the other hand, secondary products
are used to maintain the capitalist system, which Mies calls subsistence production. But
in this article, “subsistence activity” refers to “activities necessary for human beings asorganisms.” Most of the activities of the primitive societies listed by Murdock consist of
essentially subsistence activities. Although men and women had their own dominant labour
activities, in general it can be said that in primitive societies, subsistence activities wereshared by men and women, and they provided for their own food and necessities.
In addition to subsistence activities, human beings communicate with each otherusing complex languages, maintain mutual, coexistent relationships, form groups, andexpand the scope of their activities. As a result, they have come to adapt to various
environments around the world and live in a variety of places. The web of relationships
among them is deﬁned as “society” and their activities to maintain those relationhips while
complementing each other are “social activities.” Added to these are the “labour force
production” of Marxist sociology and the subsistence reproduction of Mies’s deﬁnition.1
Both of these systems diverge from subsistence activity, in which people make available
their surplus time, energy, and abilities in exchange for compensation. If we lump allthese activities together as “social reproductive activity,” we can see that in modern urban
society there is a dichotomy between personal subsistence activity and social reproductive
activity. The balance between the two is closely related to the gender structure. In the next
section, I would like to consider how the two sides diverged and came to be in conﬂict bycomparing the case of Yinxu with the previous stage of development.

3-2.

Farming and Gender

As mentioned above, in early agriculture, women are said to have played the primary rolein the process of gathering plants, selecting grains, and the initial stages of cultivation,
but later, with the development of irrigation practices, productivity increased and stablesettlements were established. It is believed that the role of men became more important inthis process. The “primitive society” referred to by Murdock in the previous section seems
to include ethnographic examples up to this stage. Looking at the data, we can see thatthe work of preparing the ﬁelds, cultivating, harvesting, etc. is not so unevenly distributed
among men and women; they appear to have worked together.
Surveys of contemporary ethnographic societies indicate that while the spread ofplantation farming and the payment for labour created a situation in which men were
exclusively engaged in plantation farming, gender collaboration was universal in
farming societies that were not embedded in colonial-rule or capitalist systems (Tanaka
and Nakatani, eds., 2005, pp. 126–129). In China, men and women have collaborated
in agriculture, including heavy-labour tasks, in rural areas up to the present day, as© Japanese Archaeological Association

7

UCHIDA Junko

is conﬁrmed by Murdock’s ﬁndings. I believe that men and women have basicallycollaborated not only in small-scale agricultural production as a subsistence activity to
produce their own food but also in situations where intensive agriculture progressed to thepoint of exceeding their own life support requirements.
The stage at which intensive agriculture progressed, including the Liangzhu (良渚)culture where agricultural dams had already been constructed, probably corresponds to thelate Neolithic period. A male grave with rich burials was found at the late Neolithic Taosi(陶寺) site in Shanxi province. In this period, it is inevitable that the social conﬁguration
changed from tribal to the more complex chiefdom society. Hence, it is understandable thatthe status of men, who can be presumed to be mainly concerned with the control of society,increased relatively. It is also true that there was a bias toward wealth among those who
successfully managed agriculture. However, the conclusion that women’s status declined
and society shifted to a male-dominated patriarchal system mainly because male strength
was essential for agricultural development may be considered short-sighted.
Murdock’s table shows a clear gender diﬀerence in spinning and weaving, which ismainly performed by women. This diﬀerence is consistent with archaeological data fromthe late Neolithic period in China, where spindles were found only in female graves. This
will be discussed again in a later chapter.

3-3.

Cities, Politics, and Gendered Division of Labour in the Shang Dynasty

Broadly speaking, complex and hierarchical settlement systems increased throughout the
Neolithic period in China, and late in the period central place-type settlements appeared.
At the Erlitou (二里頭) site, which is presumed to be the historical capital of the Xia(夏) Dynasty, large-scale architectural remains have been found that are believed to bepalace ruins. The appearance of such buildings is said to indicate the establishment of anearly state where power was concentrated in a ruling class. In the ﬁrst half of the Shang
Dynasty, the capital was located in Zhengzhou and is said to have been encircled bydouble city walls. In the middle stage of the dynasty, the capital is believed to have been
Huanbei (洹北), and it had square city walls with sides 2-kilometers long. In the latter
half of the dynasty, the capital was located on the south bank of the Huan River (Anyang
River). Today it is called Anyang Yinxu (殷墟), but then was called Dayishang (大邑商).
Dayishang developed into a huge city of about four to ﬁve square kilometers (Figure 1).
The residential patterns of urban people, clans, lineages,2 etc. in cities up to the adventof Huanbei are largely unknown. In other words, it is still unclear which settlement/
city in the Xia-Shang period can be considered a turning point in social systems, fromthe aforementioned farming villages with intensive agriculture to the conglomeration of
settlements that can be deﬁned as a “city.” This article takes Yinxu as representative of theearly cities of ancient society from the perspective of gender. The social systems of Yinxu© Japanese Archaeological Association

8

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 1.

The map of Anyang Yinxu (Dayishang).

are quite clear due to the existence of primary sources such as artefacts inscribed withancient bone regions and seaside villages had been engaged in subsistence activities, whilelarge cities such as Yinxu, did not have farmland and urban residents could only consume
surplus harvests from rural areas. The diﬀerences between urban and rural areas suggestthat the social systems were very diﬀerent. In contrast to large rural settlements, in cities in
the late Shang period, society was supported by interdependent labour, and society shifted
dramatically into a new phase. From that time onward, the social stratiﬁcation of urban andrural areas seems to have progressed.
Drawing on the abundant artefacts that have been excavated, the following provides an
overview of the society of Yinxu and examines its gender structure.

3-3-1.

Specialized Craft Industries

It is natural to assume that in a primitive, rural, and self-suﬃcient society, people would
make the tools necessary for their own work. Women naturally collected plants and gamethat needed to be cooked and made earthenware to prepare them, and men would havemade the stone and bone tools needed for hunting. Later, roughly in the late Neolithic
period, as agriculture and animal husbandry developed and there was a surplus in food
© Japanese Archaeological Association

9

UCHIDA Junko

Figure 2.
Sinica).

Bronze vessels in HPKM1400, Xibeigang (Institute of History and Philology, Academia

production, it is believed that specialized artisans emerged to make the vessels necessary
for daily life and the maintenance of society. From the Neolithic period to the Shang
Dynasty, the original specialized handicraft production included pottery making (especially
reﬁned earthenware such as coloured pottery, black pottery, and specially moulded
vessels), jade ware, and bronze ware.3
Nishiaki Yoshihiro’s paper on craft specialization and social complexity (Nishiaki 2000)
citing analyses by Vere G. Childe (Childe 1951), John E. Clark (Clark & Patty 1990),
and Cathy L. Costin (Costin 1991), concludes that in a simple chiefdom-type society, theruling class began “attached specialization” to gain control of authority and the economy
and that “independent specialization” developed in more complex, highly stratiﬁedsocieties. In Mesopotamia, potters had been producing pottery even before the emergenceof cities, according to Uruk-period archaeological records, and production corresponding
to independent specialization or attached specialization4 may have been carried out by
the end of the 4th millennium BC (Nishiaki 2000, pp. 5–6). Nishiaki cites events that do
not necessarily evolve from attached specialization to independent specialization, but inany case, craft specialization was established in social systems mediated by fairly highlevels of mutual-supply relationships, as specialized craftspeople provided labour throughorganizations in the societies and earned compensation in return. The author believes that
this surplus of labour greatly inﬂuenced the activities of men and women.
Let us apply this hypothesis to the situation of socioeconomic development in China.
From the late Neolithic period onward, surpluses arose in rural economies and ruling© Japanese Archaeological Association

10

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 3.

The tomb of oracle diviner, Wangyukou M103 (photo by He Yuling).

classes that could collectively absorb these surpluses emerged. As societies became more
complex the economies began to revolve around these surpluses. Jade ware, in particular,
developed in the late Neolithic period, and bronze ware, probably introduced from thenorthern steppes region, developed in the (Xia) Shang period. Notably, a highly skilled
and specialized production system that used raw materials from distant regions to produce
bronze and jade ware emerged in the (Xia) Shang period, from the Erlitou period to the late
Shang period. However, the production of jade and bronze wares from the late Neolithic
period to the Erlitou period was only for chiefs and a very limited number of membersof the higherranks of society. Considering that jade and bronze were not continuously
produced in large quantities throughout the period, production was probably at theattached specialization stage under the chiefs. On the other hand, the discovery of bronze
workshops in the latter half of the Shang Dynasty at the Xiaomintun (孝民屯) site, theTiesanlu (鉄三路) bone tool workshop group, the Tiesanlu earthenware kiln group, etc.
suggest, based on their large-scale production and stable transmission of techniques, thatthey were in the independent specialization stage (Figure 2). In the clan cemetery next
to these workshops, graves of artisans with tools and raw materials buried beside them
have been discovered. Graves of jade-ware artisans at the Tiesanlu site 2006 ATSM89 (He2017), graves of presumed bronze-ware artisans at Renjiazhuang (任家庄) M168 (Instituteof Relics in Anyang City 2018), Xiaomintun SM952, and SM918 (Anyang ArchaeologicalTeam 2018) are examples, and all the deceased are male. In order to develop and passon advanced technology, it was necessary to set aside time from subsistence activities toaccumulate experience and to receive compensation for performing activities that are not© Japanese Archaeological Association

11

UCHIDA Junko

related to one’s own life, such as mould making, melting copper, and casting. Therefore,
it is natural to think that the emergence of professional artisans was a system formed by
men who were freed from subsistence activities to work as professional artisans for thechiefs and other higher-ranked individuals, or to engage in trade with them. As for pottery
makers, there is no evidence of gender diﬀerences, but the pottery workers of Dayishang(Yinxu) constructed a number of kilns with advanced techniques to mass produce pottery(Anyang Archaeological Team 2012b). This is comparable to the situation of independent
professional production, so it is assumed that, as in the case of bronze ware, pottery was
mainly produced by male professional artisans.

3-3-2.

Specialized Arts for the Ruling Elite (Centre of Authority)

Religious leaders, kings (chiefs), and other powerful people, as well as professional
artisan with special skills, rely on speciﬁc large-scale settlements to establish themselves.
Dayishang was the royal capital of the late Shang Dynasty (1300 BC to 1050 BC), and it
was a large city.
The kings of the Shang Dynasty also played important roles as religious ﬁgures
worshipping ancestral deities known as di (帝) (divine). In the Xiaotun (小屯) Palace area,
the oracle bones and tortoise plastrons with script used for divination have survived andbeen excavated. The inscriptions show that divination was carried out by specialists called
zhenren (貞人), who named the kings. There is a possibility that important matters werealready being recorded and preserved in writing at that time. In addition, historical books
and classics such as Shiji (史記), Shangshu (尚書), and Zhushujinian (竹書紀年), which
are believed to have been written in later times, contain detailed records of the same kings
and their respective achievements. In Chinese society since the beginning of history, it iswell known that the bureaucracy plays a central role in government. This is presumed to be
the case with civil oﬃcials such as Shi (史) and Zuoce (作冊). What was the gender of theusers of writing, i.e., civil servants, during the period when writing became established?
M103 and M94 in the clan cemetery in Wangyukou (王裕口) village contained luxurious
burial goods including bronze and jade vessels (Anyang Archaeological Team 2012a);
M103 contained bronze vessels with identical inscriptions, seals, engraved swords, andcrowns with numerous hairpins inserted, and He Yuling has speculated that it was thegrave of a zhenren diviner (He 2017, Figure 3). The deceased was a man in his thirties.
The zhenren inscribed on the oracle bones are also presumed to be all males. Therefore,
it is assumed that already male diviners monopolized knowledge of writing and controlof written information. From the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it is also likely thatmen completely monopolized writing and control of written information. The exclusionof women from the world of politics and learning is thought to have occurred throughthis process, and the invention of writing, the development of information control, and© Japanese Archaeological Association

12

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

the monopolization of these tasks by men are thought to be factors that led to the rapid
expansion of the gap between men and women. On the other hand, it is well known thatwomen taught their children writing and learning at home in later periods, and it is clear
from various episodes in later documents that a considerable number of women acquired
knowledge of writing. They were restrained, however, from using their knowledge ofwriting to take an active part in society.
The side of the abdomen of tortoise plastrons is called the “shell joint,” and the backof the shell joint is sometimes inscribed with numbers and a person’s name, for example“Fu-someone,” or “a certain woman.” Miao Lijuan hypothesizes that this is the name ofthe person who ﬁled the inscriptions and that normally it was a man but that some women
were also involved in inscribing prastrons (Miao 2013, pp. 21–25). This article takes
the position that these names were of those who were involved in the processing of theinscriptions and the names on the tortoise plastrons were of women. Wang Zhenzhong,on the other hand, thinks that the name on the bridge of the tortoise plastron is the nameof the person who contributed the plastron, and that “a certain woman” could be a female
lord (Wang 2013, pp. 489–491). In addition, Ochiai Atsushi aﬃrms the existence of female
domain overseers, and states that “a certain woman” includes women who were relativesof the king who married a lord (Ochiai 2015, pp. 141–143). There is also an oracle
inscription stating that one of those women, Fu-Jing, should go to patrol the millet ﬁelds(Jiaguwen heji [Oracle Bone Collection] 9598). So presumably there were times when
women of the royal family went to oversee the ﬁelds (Lin 2018, p. 134). Evidence for the
existence of female lords, however, as noted by Wang and Ochiai, is insuﬃcient and needs
to be examined further.
There is no established theory as to what the status of the woman was during the late
Shang period. According to inscriptions on bronze ware and the oracle bone script, theFu (婦) character is composed of a pictograph of a woman and a broom, and the author
assumes it to have been a symbol of a noble woman who served the king. Fu is also said tohave been one of the king’s multiple spouses.

3-3-3.

Soldiers and Gender

Fu-hao (婦好), the woman’s name that appears most frequently in the ancient [oracle bone]
script, is said to be one of King Wu-ding’s spouses. In the historical records on Fu-hao,there are divination records on military prowess, good luck in childbirth, and toothache.
While there is a sense of her life as a woman, R044577 oracle plastron (in the collectionof the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica) predicts the success or failureof Fu-hao’s military campaign. The fact that Fuhao, the wife of a king, was also involved
in military aﬀairs has attracted considerable attention. To further support this record,
there were a total of 134 bronze weapons and items of armour buried in her tomb. It is© Japanese Archaeological Association

13

UCHIDA Junko

noteworthy that the tomb has a large number of symbolic and practical weapons, such as
two large broad axes (yue 鉞), which were considered symbols of power at that time, with
the Fu-hao inscription; two small broad axes, 91 (ge 戈), and six bow-shaped instruments(Gongxingqi 弓形器). However, no other example of a woman carrying multiple weapons
and participating in warfare as a soldier has been found.
In the Xiaomintun clan cemetery excavated in 2003–2004, 133 graves were identiﬁed
as female based on the human remains excavated (Anyang Archaeological Team 2018).
According to the results, female graves rarely have jue (爵) and gu (觚) as the ritual
drinking sets and almost never have weapons and tools. On the other hand, of the 121
tombs that it is certain are male tombs, 33 had bronze ritual vessels and armour, and 46
had pottery. In the sacriﬁcial pits in the southern part of the architectural altar of B7 at the
Xiaotun Palace site, there are rows of armour-clad sacriﬁcial burials, including chariots andhorses, suggesting that a coherent military unit had been formed. The burial of weapons
by men in the general clan cemetery may indicate that some of the city dwellers in the cityof Yinxu served as soldiers. While those without weapons but with bronze ware related torituals may not have been soldiers but rather had a political role. These phenomena in the
Xiaomintun cemetery indicate that some kinds of social roles in civil and military aﬀairs
were reserved for men.

3-4. “Men Till the Land and Women Weave Cloth”: Elevated as a Symbol of
Women

The old saying in China “Men till the land and women weave cloth” evokes an image
that spinning and weaving were a woman’s occupation. Spinning and weaving were theonly industries left for women in handicraft production. The author believes that there
were some changes in the way spinning and weaving was done before and after the Shang
Dynasty.
From the Neolithic period plant ﬁbres were used, and by the Shang Dynasty silk
was deﬁnitely used. Sato Taketoshi has suggested that silk textiles made from wild anddomestic silkworms were developed, based on the fact that there are oracle inscriptions
that suggest the worship of silkworm gods (Sato 1977, pp. 90–95). From the expression ofclothing on jade ﬁgures and the traces of woven cloth remaining on artefacts, it is likelythat various kinds of costumes and cloth products with rich ornamentation and quality interms of coloration, weaving, and embroidery were already being produced in Shang. In
many places in the late Neolithic period, spindle whorls were found in women’s tombs(Figure 4-a, b), and it is believed that women were probably engaged in textile weaving(Watanabe 1989; Namba 2005). Also women may have continued spinning and weaving
after the Neolithic period, as jade spindle whorls have been found in the Fu-hao tomb.
However, only a few spindle whorls have been found in women’s tombs in the© Japanese Archaeological Association

14

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 4. Gender division of the objects in tombs.
a, b: Neolithic tombs in Wangyin, Shangdong (IA CASS 2000, pp. 177, 188); c, d: Late Shang tombs
in Xiaomintun, Anyang (Anyang Archaeological Team 2018, pp. 157, 178).

Xiaomintun south-eastern area of Yinxu (Anyang Archaeological Team 2018) (Figure
4-c, d). In other words, it can be assumed that women of the residential areas of the clansthat mainly operated bronze workshops did not do spinning and weaving work on a daily
basis.5 Spindle whorls have rarely been found in clan tombs in other areas of Yinxu. An
integral part of spinning and weaving is the gathering of plants as the raw materials forﬁbre and mulberry leaves as food for raising silkworms, and it involves agricultural work.
For this reason, spinning and weaving must have been basically done in rural areas. In
other words, at least the production of thread may no longer have been self-suﬃcient in
the late Shang period.6 As specialization of handicrafts increased, urban and rural areas
became more socially stratiﬁed, indicating that spinning and weaving were no longer theuniversal handicraft of all women in the same period.
In the following Western Zhou Dynasty period, spindle whorls were also found inseveral female tombs at the Tianma Qucun site in Shanxi province. For example, stone© Japanese Archaeological Association

15

UCHIDA Junko

and clay spindle whorls have been found in the medium-sized tomb M6080 (Faculty ofArchaeology, Beijing University, etc. 2000, pp. 395–404). However only in some of thesmall tombs was a single earthen spindle whorl found with two or three earthenware items
and a jade ball, suggesting that urban spinning had ceased. The inscriptions on bronze
ware in the Zhou period often include the phrase “thread will be given to you as a reward,”
suggesting that at least some thread was being brought into the cities at that time.
The Fu-hao tomb in Yinxu was found to contain a ﬂat jade silkworm. In the Western
Zhou period, there were a number of silkworm-shaped jade items that were combinedwith agate tubes to form necklaces. As these were worn by both men and women, Chen
Chaojung points out that the silkworm had already come to symbolize reincarnation, rather
than being a symbol of weaving (C. Chen 2009, pp. 30–38).
However, the pattern on a bronze vase from the Warring States period shows womenpicking mulberry trees, symbolically indicating that sericulture was a female occupation.
In the Lushi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋), which is said to have been established in the Warring
States period, there are descriptions of “men till land and women weave cloth,” and itis thought that the concept of spinning and weaving as an occupation speciﬁc to women
was generally established during that period. However, as mentioned earlier, weaving had
already become an occupation unique to women in rural areas, and in the Shi Jing (詩経), a collection of songs mainly from the Western Zhou period, there are descriptions ofmen also picking mulberry leaves.7 Sato speculates that after the Spring and Autumn and
Warring States periods, spinning and weaving were carried out by several classes including
at the court, private production by urban scholar-oﬃcial families, as a rural sub-industry,and by independent artisans (Sato 1977, pp. 132–133). Although it is certain that women
were heavily involved in spinning and weaving for the handicraft industry, it is probably
more likely that independent specialization progressed in response to the multi-layeredsocial structure of rural and urban areas and the diﬀerences in the classes within cities.

3-5.

Urban Civilization and the Gendered Structure

The city is a highly complex form of living that emerged as a result of the pursuit ofeﬃciency in human social activities. Goods and services were exchanged, and governance,
religious activities, and various kinds of interaction were carried out to strengthen humanrelationships.
No matter how much social activities ﬂourish, there are some subsistence activities thathuman beings cannot survive without (Figure 5-1). In other words, we need to secure andcook food, procure housing and clothing to maintain our body temperature, and give birth
to and raise children. After the early Neolithic period, among the subsistence activities that
men and women originally performed together, the supply of food in particular became
more stable with the development of agriculture in rural areas, and systems of socially© Japanese Archaeological Association

16

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 5.

Modeling of the gender division of labors.

concentrated supply were gradually established (Figure 5-2). Meanwhile, few urban
dwellers were likely involved in agricultural and pastoral food production (Nishiaki 2000,
pp. 1–9).
The procurement of food and goods, which had been subsistence activities in rural
areas, was intensiﬁed to support urban life. As a result, individuals or single families nolonger had to perform subsistence activities such as hunting and making tools, which© Japanese Archaeological Association

17

UCHIDA Junko

Murdock listed as examples of subsistence activities that were carried out mainly by men
in primitive societies (Murdock 1965, p. 309). This freed up time and energy for leisureor other activities. It can be said that the surplus created by urban social activities wasinvested in further social activities, making the activities more complex and requiring moretime to maintain the system. On the other hand, some subsistence activities of individuals
that were not part of the aggregate system were activities that individuals could not aﬀord
to neglect. For example, preparing food, maintaining cleanliness, and other so-called“household chores.” And especially childbirth and infant care cannot be separated fromthe home, which is biologically the place of women and daily life. Thus, these subsistence
activities in individual households continued to be assigned to women. It can be said thatthe surplus was generated exclusively by men, and the need for men to go out of the homeand devote more energy to social activities also increased greatly. In other words, men
who sought compensation for their labour removed themselves from subsistence activities.
Those who stood at the top of society as chiefs, rulers, religious leaders, and militaryleaders, and who were in charge of organizing and maintaining the social structure, werealso expected to be men whose households had surplus capacity. According to the evidence
found in graves in archaeological sites in the city of Yinxu, such status holders were mostlymen (Figure 5-3).
Therefore, after the Neolithic period, as society became more complex and urban
civilization more established, the surplus of time and the abilities of the people living
there were used to promote specialization. As this process progressed, there was gender
stratiﬁcation, with women made responsible for subsistence activities and men responsible
for specialized social activities. It may be speculated that the gender structure of Asia wascreated not only by the decline in women’s status due to changes in agriculture but alsochanged signiﬁcantly with the establishment of urban civilization.

4.

Patriarchy and Marriage

4-1.

Patriarchy and the Burial of Chiefs

Next, I would like to examine the form of marriage in the city of Yinxu.
Friedrich Engels’s The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, based on
Morgan’s theory, describes the process of change from primitive society, which originallydeveloped from matriarchal societies, to a male-dominated patriarchy. “The overthrowingof mother’s rights was the world historical defeat of the female sex” that led to the shift
to a ﬁxed patriarchal society (Engels 1972, pp. 120, 138). As Engels mentioned, in thepatriarchy, the principal forms of marriage in civilizations is “monogamy supplemented
by adultery and prostitution,” which is radically interpreted as a ﬁxed, male-centred formof marriage in which women fell into slavery and at the same time became the objects of© Japanese Archaeological Association

18

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

sexual exploitation. The change in the family form from the perspective of the propertysystem led to women falling into the status of slaves.
Looking back to the middle Neolithic period in China, an analysis of the cemetery at
the Jiangsai (姜塞) site, Lindong, Shanxi province, shows that it was in fact two family
cemeteries, which has been interpreted as indicating a dual organization. In addition,
Imamura Yoshiko considers that at the Shijia (史家) site, males were often placed inreburial graves (of blood relatives), so the basic unit of society was males of the same
bloodline in which only males remained with their original group (Imamura 1996, pp.
15–30). Many scholars have observed that in the late Neolithic period wealth graduallybecame unevenly distributed and hierarchies emerged as wealth and poverty became
clearly visible in grave goods. The Liangzhu, Dawenkou (大汶口), and Taosi cultures, aswell as other large settlement sites of the late Neolithic period all have a large numberof extravagant burials in speciﬁc tombs, with grave goods such as jade, lacquer ware,coloured earthenware, and bronze ware (Wang 2013, pp. 218–237). In the wealthy tombsof the Dawenkou and Liangzhu cultures, there are coﬃn tombs for both men and women,
multiple burials with both sexes, and in some cases tombs for females that are also richin grave goods. On the other hand, the large tombs of the Taosi culture are considered
to be male tombs. How the gender bias in wealth emerged in the late Neolithic period,
both chronologically and regionally, is also an indicator of the status of women, so it isimportant to pay attention to this issue in the future.8
It is clear that the lineage of kings in the Xia and Shang Dynasties that are recordedin the classics followed the father-to-son and brother inheritance, indicating that they
were already completely patrilineal. In other words, from the archaeological point ofview, the central urban sites of the Shang Dynasty, preceding periods such as Erlitou, theZhengzhou Shang capital, and the city of Dayishang (Yinxu) are considered to be sites
where the patrilineal system was ﬁrmly established. The Xibeigang site at AnyangYinxu
is considered to be the origin of the patrilineal system. In the Xibeigang royal cemeteryat Anyang, a large tomb with eight cross-shaped tomb ramps, two large tombs with
two north-south tomb ramps, and two large tombs with a south tomb ramp have been
discovered and are presumed to be royal tombs. However, no tombs believed to be tombsof chiefs have been discovered at the Erlitou site and the Zhengzhou capital sites.
When we think about child rearing, it is unnatural for a mother to raise her child together
with the mother of the child's father (mother-in-law), who is a stranger (patriarchy),and it is more natural for the mother to raise the child together with her own relatives(matriarchy). This is probably why the matriarchal system was the ﬁrst to appear inpractice. In order to maintain the unnatural patrilineal system of later generations, spiritualstrictures and props must have been necessary, and one of them is ancestor worship. A
clan is a group of blood relatives who have the same ancestors, and in a patrilineal system,© Japanese Archaeological Association

19

UCHIDA Junko

worshipping the same patrilineal ancestor helps maintain the unity of the clan. In Yinxu,
there is vivid evidence of various kinds that the royal family practiced ancestor worship.
In particular, there are records of periodic rituals to past kings (father gods) and repeateddivination of their male ancestors in the oracle inscriptions. On the other hand, as describedby Keightley, there are also records of rituals for queens and mother goddesses (Bi 妣),
who are also included among the ancestors, but the number of rituals is small (Keightley
1999, pp. 31–46). The large number of rituals in the oracle inscriptions indicates that thepatrilineal ancestral deity rituals were overwhelmingly important, suggesting that thepatrilineal system was strengthened through rituals. In addition, if the hypothesis that Wuding and other Shang kings had more than one spouse is true, as has been assumed basedon the contents of the oracle inscriptions, it may resemble the system of concubines of latertimes, where high status men married multiple women to have more than one male heir inorder to maintain the patrilineal system. It is necessary to examine archaeologically how
these mothers were ranked.

4-2. The Position of “Husband and Wife” in Dynastic Burials

Tomb No. 5 at Yinxu, located on the west side of the Xiaotun Palace Area, is believed tobe the tomb of Fu-hao, one of the spouses of the 22nd Shang King Wu-ding. Among thebronze artefacts deposited in the Fu-hao tomb is a large ding vessel with the inscription“Si-mu-xin,” suggesting that Fu-hao was oﬃcially known as “母辛” (Mu-Xin, “MotherXin”) or “妣辛” (Bi-Xin, “Consort Xin”). In the Xibeigang royal cemetery area, eight large
tombs with cross-shaped grave ramps, an abandoned and unﬁnished tomb, three medium-

Figure 6.

Location of the tombs of kings and queens in Xibeigang royal cemetery.

© Japanese Archaeological Association

20

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 7. Comparison of Wu-ding, Bi-wu, Bi-xin (Fuhao)’s tombs: 1, 2: HPKM1400 (chamber
size: 18.3 × 15.7 × 10.6m); 3, 4, 5: 84AWBN260 and Si-mu-wu ding (chamber size: 9.6 × 8.1 ×8.1m); 6, 7, 8: Fu-hao’s tomb (chamber size: 5.6 × 4.0 × 7.5m).
(Photos of tombs: IHP collection and by J. Uchida, source of photos of bronzes: Zhongguo
Qingtongqi Quanji Bianji Weiyuanhui 1997: Figure 47, 39, IA CASS 1980: Figure 25-2.)

sized tombs, and two large tombs with only one ramp were found (Figure 6, Figure 7-1,
3, 5). The large cross-shaped tomb is interpreted to be the tomb of successive kings of the
Shang Dynasty. Tomb No. 1400 Great Tomb may be considered the tomb of King Wu-dingand the 84AWBM260 tomb located on the extension of the southern tomb road ramp, andfrom which the “Si-mu-wu Ding” (Figure 7-4, 5) was found, is the tomb of Queen Bi-wu© Japanese Archaeological Association

21

UCHIDA Junko(Mizoguchi and Uchida 2018). The tomb of Fu-hao, in which “Si-mu-xin Ding” (Figure
7-7, 8) was unearthed, is less than one-third the size of Tomb No. 1400, and the presence
and number of tomb roads ramps may have indicated a diﬀerence in status. It is speculated
that a shrine was built on the tomb of Fu-hao and that a shrine was also built on the king’s
tombs. Tombs Nos. 1400 and 260 are aligned north to south, while the tomb of Fu-hao wasbuilt in a diﬀerent area from Tomb No. 1400. Tomb No. 1400 was severely looted and thenumber of artifacts excavated is limited. If we compare the grave goods of Fu-hao tomb tothose of Tomb 1001, which is chronologically close to Tomb No. 1400, the latter surpasses
the former both in the number and quality. This clearly shows the disparity in wealth andpower between the king and his wife (concubine).
In addition to the combination of Tomb Nos. 1400 and 260, there is a possibility that
Tomb Nos. 1001 and 70AHBM1, which has only one tomb ramp and is built to thesoutheast of No. 1001, are husband and wife tombs. There are no examples of couples
building shrines side by side or artefacts showing the name of the wife’s lineage. No otherexamples highlight the pairing of the king and queen.
In contrast to these royal and ruling elites’ tombs of Yinxu, the “husband and wife”
arrangements of later aristocratic burial tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty changed
dramatically.
Many middle-size tombs from the beginning to the middle Western Zhou period havebeen found at Baoji (宝鶏) in Sha’anxi and are thought to belong to a powerful family fromthe Yu (𢐗) area, which was a major transportation hub to Sichuan. Zhuyuangou (竹園溝)M13 is the tomb of an aristocratic couple of the early Western Zhou period, where the wife
was buried in an adjacent tomb of the same size (Lu and Hu 1988).
At the cemetery in Jin-hou (晋侯), Tianma Qucun (天馬曲村), Quyu County, Shanxi
Province, there are groups of two or three large tombs with parallel grave ramps (Figure8). The cemetery is thought to be the tomb of a couple (plus the second wife) of successive
Jin marquesses (Faculty of Archaeology, Beijing University 2000). From the middleof the Western Zhou Dynasty onwards, the number of bronze ding (鼎) and gui (簋)oﬀering vessels owned by a person indicated his or her rank. Tomb M64 of the male Jinhou Bangfu contains ﬁve ding and four gui, weapons, and a bell, while tomb M62 of thesecond wife contains no weapons, but three ding and four gui. The second wife’s tomb,
M63, also has no weapons but three ding and two gui. “The general rule thus seems tohave been that females were given the number of ding due to a male ranked one sumptuary
step below their husbands; wives, in other words, systematically ranked one notch lower
than their husbands” (von Falkenhausen 2006, p. 122). The lords and ladies of Qucun, liketheir counterparts in other regions, wore ornaments made of agate beads (Huang 2013,
pp. 559–600). However, the shape of the ornaments of the couples is diﬀerent, and Huang
Tsui Mei shows that the tombs of the lords and ladies have unique female hair ornaments.
© Japanese Archaeological Association

22

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 8. The Jin rulers’ burial compound at Beizhao (Qucun Locus III), Quwo
(Source: Von Falkenhausen 2006: Map 4).

(Huang 2013, pp. 559–600). At the time, the red agate jade ornaments, a luxury item
imported from the West, were worn by the couple to show oﬀ their high status and toemphasize their appearance as a couple by showing a marked diﬀerence between the man
and the woman.

4-3. The Rise of the Clans and the Paradigm Shift in the Meaning of Marriage

Bronze vessels from the late Shang period are sometimes cast with tribal inscriptions,which are interpreted to indicate the broad aﬃliation of the vessel, such as the ancestraldeity to which it is dedicated, the position of the bearer, or the mark of the clan. In the late
Shang Dynasty, many bronze artefacts excavated from small and medium-sized tombs
were cast with clan inscriptions. However, the inscriptions did not display the symbols of
the wife’s clan to indicate marriage. While families had been marrying oﬀ women to eachother since the Neolithic period, even if the patrilineal system was observed, marriage did
not have a strategic element to increase the power and wealth of the clans, because theclans did not attach importance to the marriage bond.
Lin Yun has discussed the family structure of the Shang Dynasty based on the study oforacle inscriptions (Lin 2007, pp. 15–19). The inscription Zi (子), which is often found in
the ﬁrst half of the Yinxu period when bronze inscriptions ﬁrst appear, is thought to refer© Japanese Archaeological Association

23

UCHIDA Junko

to a male member of the royal family. Many inscriptions related to Zi have been foundin the later Yinxu periods, suggesting that the Zi family were divined with oracle bones,
and became a somewhat distant branch of the royal family and even a semi-independent
clan with a new residential area (Lin 2018, pp. 52–94). Lin speculates, based on Zi-related
oracle inscriptions, that husband and wife, underage brothers and sisters, child couples,and male and female grandchildren lived together. Lin points out that there is an article in
the inscription about a betrothal between the Ni (逆) family and the He (何) family. Thissuggests that clans with relations of equal status set up the arrangement ceremony between
the families at each residence.
In the late Shang Dynasty, the clans rose to prominence, and the residential areas ofeach clan spread outside the palace area. When not only the Zi clan but also outer clans
emerged, the clans must have become rivals of each other. And when the survival of thefamily became unstable, they would enter into strategic marriages. Generally speaking,by marrying a woman in a patrilineal society, the husband will gain the right to inherit thefather-in-law’s property, consolidate the revenue organization, or gain power. Thus we may
speculate that women’s role in the marriage strategies became stronger in that period.
Let us compare the above situation to that in the following Western Zhou period. Lothar
V. Falkenhausen points out that: “In China during the ‘Age of Confucius’, patrilineal
kin groups constituted the basic units of social, political, and military organizations.
These groups, which I shall hereafter refer to as lineages, held land and other property incommon.” Falkenhausen also notes that the cult of deceased lineage ancestors constituted
the major form of religious activity (von Falkenhausen 2006, p. 28). During this period,
bronze vessels used in ancestral rituals were often inscribed, and there were many
inscriptions with long sentences and clear contents, such as identifying the speciﬁc rituals,
the person who made the vessel, and the reason for making the vessel. Some of them
indicate that bronze was made for women and were called “bridal bronzes.”
Falkenhausen remarks: “unlike the names of males, in which the name of the lineage
was the principal identifying element, names of Zhou-period elite women always comprisethat of their natal clan, to which the name of a lineage, an indicator of seniority, and apersonal name could be joined”9 (von Falkenhausen 2006, p. 118).
Chen Chaojung analysed the circumstances under which such bridal bronzes Yingqi
媵器 (Figure 9) were made through the inscriptions and observed the following types:“presented by a woman to her daughter at her marriage,” “presented by a husband to
his wife,” “presented by a woman to her mother-in-law,” “presented by a woman to herhusband’s ancestors,” “presented by a wife to her husband,” “presented by the head of thefamily to her husband,” and “presented by a wife to her husband when he sets out on an
expedition” (Chen 2009, pp. 66–85). Chen and Falkenhausen show how these bronzes veryclearly identify the giver and receiver and that the reason for giving and receiving bronzes© Japanese Archaeological Association

24

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Figure 9. Guo Meng Ji vessel (yi 匜 ) (Source: Chen 2004: 559; Yan 1983, Vol. 9: 6866).
虢孟姫匜「斉侯作虢孟姫良母寶匜、其万年無疆、子子孫孫永寶用」 A vessel made for a daughterof the Ji family of Guo (merely called a liag-mu) by the Meng family of Qi into which she was tomarry.

is often related to marriage, and they observed that: “Those bronzes show that the system
of marital alliances based on clan exogamy was ﬁrmly in place” (von Falkenhausen 2006,
p. 121). In other words, one gets the impression that the signiﬁcance of women’s existence
was concentrated in marriage. The signiﬁcance of women’s presence in marriage seems
to have been concentrated in the upper classes at the beginning of the Western Zhou when
feudalism began.
This emphasis on the role of women as marriage partners is probably embodied in thedisplay of marital status in upper-class tombs, as mentioned in the previous section. In
other words, during the Shang Dynasty, when such events were not observed, women were
not considered important as marriage partners, and the idea of marriage alliances may nothave existed. Therefore, we can assume that during the transition from the Shang Dynasty
to the Western Zhou, there was a major paradigm shift in gender structure due to theemergence of clans with headquarters in various regions and the signiﬁcant expansion of
the regional scope of intermarriage.

5.

Sexual Exploitation and Lifespans

5-1.

Sexual Exploitation

One subsistence activity is sex. It can be called one of the most important activities
for maintaining the continuation of human life. The idea of sexual access to womenas “property” was a more radicalized idea in Marxism, which relied on the thinking of© Japanese Archaeological Association

25

UCHIDA Junko

modern society. Ueno Chizuko states in the Marxist concept of patriarchy, female sexuality
is provided as a form of “labour” (Ueno 1990, pp. 89–93). Were women, as Engels says,
already the object of sexual exploitation with the start of primitive opposite-sex marriage
and civilized patriarchal monogamy in the late Neolithic?
Many women appear in the oracle inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty. Some, but
probably not all, of them are considered to be spouses who were not the regular wives of
the king. If this was the case, we can say that this is a form of polygamy with a concubine
system and a typical form of marriage for a high-ranked person in a patrilineal system.
It is also possible that polygamy existed in the case of the tomb of the Marquess of Jinin Qucun during the Western Zhou Dynasty (von Falkenhausen 2006), and it can be
conﬁrmed that polygamy existed universally in later historical records. In other words,
women valued for their sexuality were placed under the control of their husbands, which isa kind of sexual exploitation. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, the wife was recognized
as belonging to a higher class even though she might be from one level lower.
One of the most egregious examples of sexual exploitation is prostitution. Women
who work in these positions today are isolated from their families, and they are paid forproviding their sexuality as a form of labour. It is not common for a woman who has afamily to fall into such a position. But the situation of a woman who is isolated from herfamily for some reason falling into such a status has often occurred in modern society, andwe have witnessed it in the recent pandemic. How long have there been women who do notbelong to a family?
In Yinxu, many sacriﬁcial pits have been found around the base of the palace area andin the Xibeigang royal cemetery area, including many containing the remains of men,children, and a few women. In the oracle inscriptions, there are also records of many
people being killed for sacriﬁces, and many of these people are called “Qiang” (羌), andare considered to have been prisoners of war from the Qiang tribe. The sacriﬁcial pits
appear to contain men who were labourers but were no longer needed, but very few womenare seen, probably because they did not come from other regions in the ﬁrst place or they
had other uses. Women who lost their economic base in their hometowns and moved tocities, whose families had been killed, or who were separated from the family unit losttheir safe haven and had no choice but to live by subsistence activities. In other words,
they would have to take on household chores as slaves or servants, and eventually, theymight have to provide sexual services and give themselves up to prostitution. On the other
hand, in the oracle inscriptions, there are the characters “妾于婦好” (e.g., Hua-yuan-zhuang
No. 265: IA CASS 2003, 2, p. 565), where qie (妾) is presumed to be a female slave (Lin2018, p. 68). It is possible that there were isolated women with the status of slaves in thecity of Yinxu, which needs to be archaeologically veriﬁed.

© Japanese Archaeological Association

26

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

5-2. Life Expectancy and the Status of Buried Persons in Small andMedium-Sized Graves

In terms of female childbirth mortality rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) report(WHO 2015) on the situation in modern low-income countries shows that in Africa andlow-income countries with the highest mortality ﬁgures, the rate was 900–960 deaths per
100000 people in 1990 (in Japan in 1899 it was 409.8). The death rate during childbirth inunsanitary conditions today is about 1 in 100 (NIPSSR 2020a). The fertility rate was 4.72
in 1930, which means that a child was born every ﬁve years (NIPSSR 2020b). Repeatedbirths every few years would have increased the probability of death. It is assumed thatthe reason for this is due to infections during pregnancy and childbirth. The mortality
rate would have been even higher in ancient China, because medical care was still
undeveloped.
Studies of excavated human remains in large-scale grave sites from the Neolithic to
the Spring and Autumn period provide statistics on the average age of death by gender inseveral cases in China. In the 659 tombs at the Daidianzi (大甸子) site in Inner Mongolia,
the average life expectancy of women was in the low 30s, with 61 per cent dying between
the ages of 15–35 and 26 per cent between 36–55 years. In contrast, 55 per cent of males
die between the ages of 15–35 and 35 per cent between the ages of 36–55, so the survival
rate to age 36 or older is higher for males (Wu 2004, pp. 52–55).
One-hundred and one small and medium-sized tombs have been excavated in the South
Zone of the Qianzhangda (前掌大) site, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, from the late
Shang period to the Early Western Zhou period. The average age of males and females
in the late Shang period was 40 years and 32.5 years, respectively, and the average ageof males and females in the Early Western Zhou period was 34.25 years and 30.25 years,
respectively (Wang and Cao 2014, pp. 530–532).
von Falkenhausen discusses gender in terms of human remains excavated from theShangma (上馬) Cemetery in Houma, Shanxi Province. The Shangma Cemetery dates
from the Early to Middle Spring and Autumn period (1994, Shanxi Provincial Instituteof Cultural Relics). Of the 1059 tombs with human remains, 486 were for females. It isinterpreted as a cemetery that was maintained by the clans based in this area and included
both common people and the slightly higher classes. Estimates of age at death indicate thatabout 60 per cent of males buried died in middle age (35–54 years), while nearly half offemales buried died at a young age (15–34 years) (von Falkenhausen 2006, pp. 134–136).
Falkenhausen also notes that the proportion of adult women is small.10
Thus, although there is some variation among the sites, it can be said that more thanhalf of the women died while still young at ages between 15 and 35, while the age of deathfor men was generally higher, and the number of deaths in middle age (35–55) increased
during the Spring and Autumn period. The lower age of death for women is thought to be© Japanese Archaeological Association

27

UCHIDA Junko

due to the fact that many women gave birth to multiple children between the ages of 15
and 35. Many women lost their lives, resulting in a shorter life expectancy than men whose
average life expectancy was in the 40s. This may have been another factor that prevented
them from entering the upper echelons of society.
In other words, the life cycle of women, which was short because of their role inchildbearing, has remained almost unchanged since the Neolithic period. They would havespent most of their lives engaged in subsistence activities while raising young children
under the age of ﬁve. Moreover, urban women as well as some men, did not have time
to improve their abilities or engage in social activities without having to worry aboutsubsistence activities and could not be said to be in a position to make use of surplus powerand earn a living. In this way, the roles of men and women and their hierarchy became
ﬁxed.

6. The Role of Archaeologists in Gender Studies
In archaeology, research seems to have focused on the changes in the forms of social
integration that were mainly assumed by men. In Chinese archaeology, the process oftransformation of social forms has been studied up to the Shang Dynasty, and the formsof social control have been classiﬁed based on the perspective of social activities that are
mainly carried out by men. In the background of the transformation of forms of social
control, which became more complex, women were isolated from the social systemand the state built by men, and were relegated to a diﬀerent substratum of society, andlittle attention has been paid to their lives. Emphasis has been placed on the fact that theestablishment of the patriarchal system directly led to the decline of women’s status.
Because the gender structure has been viewed on this basis, individual events have notbeen examined in detail.
Even in the early historical period, research on women, who appear in written sourcesin only the most cursory ways, has been insuﬃcient, and gender studies has been further
delayed. However, many clues on the history of gender can be found in archaeologicalmaterials. In this paper, I have tried to present a number of viewpoints, albeit without
suﬃcient and systematic support. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, where there is a
wealth of material, we can see that the patriarchal situation that exists today was nearly
established, although it was in a transitional stage. The events leading to the establishmentof a patriarchy and the patriarchy in the prehistoric and historical periods before andafter the Shang and Zhou dynasties should be carefully studied from the archaeologicalmaterials and details of that process should be clariﬁed.
Although the situation is slowly easing, there are still cases in Japanese society where
women are encouraged to return to subsistence activities and leave their jobs to care
© Japanese Archaeological Association

28

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

for and raise children. Meanwhile, subsistence activities are marginalized by society as“anti-social behaviour” and treated as a nuisance to social activities. In the midst of the
COVID-19 pandemic, women who were unable to cut free from their subsistence activities
were the ﬁrst to be forced out of their jobs. Many suﬀer from poverty and are pushed into
the lower strata of society. Yet subsistence activity is the most necessary activity for all
human beings regardless of gender. We should not forget that human beings need morethan the social systems that allow them to donate their time and abilities for the beneﬁt
of other people in return for compensation. How that social system came into being is
the clue to how the gender problems that pervade our time have arisen, and unless wereconsider where the errors lie, the gender problem will not be solved. We believe that theadvancement of gender studies from the perspective of archaeology is required to provide
clues for solving these problems.

Notes
1 Murdoch’s table includes the male-dominated “metalworking” and “weapon making,”
which would originally have been tool-making associated with subsistence activities.
We believe that metalworking was already a specialized form of labour production
requiring specialized knowledge which became a male occupation.
2 A group of people who are descended from a common ancestor is called a clan, and alineage is distinguished as a group belonging to a clan (Keesing 1976, p. 251).
3 Originally, the tools necessary for subsistence activities were produced at home, but thetechniques and materials were reﬁned and specialized to produce these implements.
4 Costin remarks that the work of attached specialists was upon “command” (sponsoredand managed by an elite or government). In contrast, independent specialists produced
for a general market of potential customers (Costin 1991, p. 11).
5 It is possible that they were working on bronze ware, but no evidence of tools has beenfound.
6 There is a record in the inscriptions on bronze ware that thread was presented as a giftfrom the king, so from that point of view, it is possible that only thread was treated as a
circulating commodity.
7 The idea that “men till the land and women weave cloth” was handed down to the Han
Dynasty, and in the Nara period (710–794), it was copied by Japanese emperors as partof their rituals.
8 A comparison of the distribution of wealth between males and females in the urban
lower classes after the Shang Dynasty can be made in the Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou(e.g., Curved Village), and the Shangma Village cemetery in the early to mid-Springand Autumn period. In the small tombs of the urban lower classes, the number of grave© Japanese Archaeological Association

29

UCHIDA Junko

goods is small in all cases, but women are especially likely to have only one burial
object. There are also few burials of bronze or imitation bronze pottery.
9 In addition to Figure 8, other notable examples of yingqi(媵器) include the Xing-Ji ding
Xing Princess ding (excavated from Rujiazhuang Bojiazhuang Tomb No. 2, Baoji, Sha’anxi). The Xing-Ji ding was presented to a woman from Xing with the clan surname.
10 The small number of females may indicate that they were killed or left the clan as soon
as they were born as a way of reducing their number.

References
Anyang Archaeological Team. IA CASS. 2012a. Henan Anyang-shi Yinxu Wang-Yu-Kou
Nan-di Fajue Baogao 2009 [A brief report on the 2009 excavations at the South
Ground of Wang-Yu-Kou Village. Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province, China].
Institute of Archaeology, Anyang Working Team 2012. Kaogu (Archaeology) 12(2012): 3–25. 中国社会科学院考古研究所安陽工作隊 2012a「河南安陽市殷墟王裕口村
南地 2009 年発掘簡報」『考古』2012 年第 12 期、pp. 3–25.
Anyang Archaeological Team. IA CASS. 2012b. Henan Anyang-shi Yinxu Liu-Jia-Zhuang
Bei-di Zhitao Zuofang 2009 [A brief report on the excavations at Liu-Jia-Zhuang
pottery workshops. Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province, China]. Institute ofArchaeology, Anyang Working Team 2012. Kaogu (Archaeology) 12 (2012): 43–58.
中国社会科学院考古研究所安陽工作隊 2012b「河南安陽市殷墟劉家荘北地製陶作坊」『考古』2012 年第 12 期、pp. 43–58.
Anyang Archaeological Team. IA CASS. 2018. Anyang Xiao-min-tun IV—Late Shang
Burials. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press. 中国社会科学院考古研究所編 2018『安陽孝民屯 (四) 殷商遺存・墓葬』．北京：文物出版社．
CHEN Chaojung 2009. Xingbie, Shenfen yu Caifu [Gender, identity and wealth]. In Li J.
(ed.). Zhongguo shi xinlun: Gender History. Taipei: Academia Sinica: 19–86. 陳昭容
2009「性別、身分与財富」李貞徳主編『中国史新論 性別史分冊』pp. 19–86. 台北：
中央研究院叢書院、中央研究院歴史語言研究所．

CHEN Peifen 2004. Xia Shang Zhou qingtongqi yanjiu: Xizhou pian [Studies of Xia Shang
Zhou bronzes]. Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House. 陳佩芬 2004『夏商周青銅器研究西周篇』上海：上海古籍出版社．
Childe, V.G. 1951. Man makes himself. London: Mentor Book.
Clarke, J.E. and W. Patty 1990. Craft specialization and cultural complexity. Research in
Economic Anthropology 12: 289–346.
Costin, C.L. 1991. Craft specialization: issues in deﬁning, documenting, and explaining theorganization of production. Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 1–55.
Engels F. 1972. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Edited by
Leacock, E.B. New York: International Publishers.
Faculty of Archaeology, Beijing University and Institute of Archaeology of Shanxi© Japanese Archaeological Association

30

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Province. 2000. Tianma-Qucun 1980–1989, Volume 2 [Excavation report at
Tianma-Qucun]. Beijing: Science Press. 北京大学考古学系商周組・山西省考古研究所(編) 2000『天馬—曲村 1980–1989』第 2 冊、北京：科学出版社．
HE Yuling 2017. Henan Anyang-shi Yinxu Tiesanlu 89 haomu de fajue [The Excavation
report of the No. 89 Tiesanlu Tomb in Anyang Yinxu. Henan province]. Kaogu(Chinese Archaeology) 2017(3): 23–36. 何毓霊「河南安陽市殷墟鉄三路 89 号墓的発掘」『考古』2017 年第 3 期、pp. 23–36.
HUANG Tsui Mei 2013. Liuguang Yicai, Cuirao Zhuwei: Xizhou zhi Chunqiu zaoqi de
Dixing bailian zhuangshi. In Chen K. T. (ed.) Jinyu Jiaohui: Shang Zhou Kaogu,
Yishu yu Wenhua Lunwenji [Radiance between bronze and jade: archaeology, art andculture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties]: 559–601. Taipei: Academia Sinica. 黄翠梅「流光溢彩、翠繞珠圍 - 西周至春秋早期的梯形牌聯串飾」陳光祖主編『金玉交輝—商
周考古、芸術与文化論文集』台北：中央研究院歴史語言研究所，pp. 559–601.
IMAMURA Yoshiko 1996. Chūgoku shinsekki jidai no shakai kōzō [Social structure of theChinese Neolithic]. Kodaigaku kenkyū 136: 15–30. 今村佳子「中国新石器時代の社会構造」『古代学研究』第 136 号、pp.15–30.
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (IA CASS) 1980. Yinxu
Fu-Hao mu [Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang]. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.
中国社会科学院考古研究所 1980『殷墟婦好墓』北京：文物出版社．
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (IA CASS) 2000. Shandong Wang-Yin [Excavation report at Wangyin site in Shandong]. Beijing: Science
Press. 中国社会科学院考古研究所 2000『山東王因』北京：科学出版社．
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (IA CASS) 2003. Yinxu Hua-yuan-zhuang dong-di jia-gu vol. 2. [Oracle bones from the Huayuanzhuang
dongdi site at Yinxu in Anyang]. Yunnan: Yunnan People’s Publishing House. 中国社
会科学院考古研究所 2003『殷墟花園荘東地甲骨』第二分冊、昆明：雲南人民出版社．
Institute of Relics in Anyang City 2018. Henan Anyangshi Renjiazhuang nandi Shangdai
wanqi Zhudong yizhi 2016–2017 nian Fajue jianbao [Short report of 2016–2017
excavation of the Renjiazhuang nandi Shangdai wanqi Zhudong site, Henan Anyang].
Zhongyuan wenwu 2018 (5): 9–26. 安陽市文物研究所「河南安陽市任家荘南地商代晩期鋳銅遺址 2016–2017 年発掘簡報」『中原文物』2018 年第 5 期、pp. 9–26.
KAO ChuHsun 1962. Houjiazhuang (Henan Anyang Houjiazhuang Yin dai mudi) Volume
2, 1001 hao da mu [The Yin-Shang Cemetery Site at Anyang, Honan, tomb 1001].
Taipei: academia Sinica. 高去尋 1962『侯家荘 (河南安陽侯家荘殷代墓地) 第 2 冊、1001 号大墓』台北：中央研究院歴史語言研究所．
Keesing, R.M. 1976. Cultural anthropology: a contemporary perspective. New York. Holt.
Rinehart and Winston.
Keightley, D.N. 1999. At the beginning: the status of women in Neolithic and Shang
China. Nan Nu 1: 1.
Kinney, A.B. 2018. Women in early China: views from the archaeological record, in P.R.
Goldin (ed.) Routledge handbook of Early Chinese history: 373–391. New York:© Japanese Archaeological Association

31

UCHIDA Junko

Routledge.
KOHAMA Masako et al. (eds) 2018. Chūgoku jendā-shi kenkyū nyūmon [Introduction to
the study of Chinese gender history]. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press. 小浜正子 2018
『中国ジェンダー史研究入門』京都：京都大学学術出版会．
LIN Yun 2007. Hua-dong Zi Bu-ci suojian renwu yanjiu [The divination of Hua Dongzi:
studies on the characters seen], in Chen C.J. (ed.) Ancient writing and ancient history,
volume 1. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. 林澐 2007.「花東子卜辞所見人物研究」陳昭容主編『古文字与古代史』第 1 輯、台北：中央研究院歴史語言研究所．

LIN Yun 2018. Shangshi san-di [Three Topics in Shang History]. Taipei: Academia Sinica.
林澐 2018『商史三題』台北：中央研究院歴史語言研究所．
Linduﬀ, K.M. 2006. Anyang Yin-mu zhong de Nuxing: Wangshi zhufu, Jizi, Muqing,Junshi jiangling he Nubi [Women in the tombs of Anyang: royal ladies, wives,
mothers, soldiers, and slaves], in Lin J.L. and Sun Y. (ed.) Xingbie yanjiu yu
Zhongguo kaoguxue [Gender and Chinese archaeology]: 73–104. Beijing: Science
Press. 林嘉琳 2006「安陽殷墓中的女性—王室諸婦、祭祀、母親、軍事将領和奴婢」林嘉琳・孫岩 (編)『性別研究与中国考古学』北京：科学出版社．
LU Liancheng and HU Zhisheng 1988. Bao-Ji Yu-Guo Mu-di. Beijing: Cultural Relics
Press. 盧連成・胡智生 1988『宝鶏𢐗国墓地』北京：文物出版社．
MIAO Lijuan 2013. Shixi Jiagu Jishi keci zhong de Fu-Mao-Lai [An analysis of ‘Fu-maolai’ in the oracle bone inscriptions]. Shixue Yuekan 2013 (3): 21–25. 苗利娟 2013「試析甲骨記事刻辞中的“婦某来”」『史学月刊』2013 (3): 21–25.
Mies, M., V. Bennholdt-Thomsen, and C. V. Werlhof 1988. Social origins of the sexual
divisions of labour, in Mies M. (ed.) Women: The Last Colony. London and New
Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.
MIYAMOTO Kazuo 2005. Chugoku no rekishi 1: Shinwa kara rekishi [The history of
China. volume 1: from myth to history]. Tokyo: Kodansha. 宮本一夫 2005『中国の歴史 01 神話から歴史へ』東京：講談社．
Murdock, G.P. 1965. Culture and society. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
NAMBA (Uchida) Junko 2005. Chūgoku kodai no jendā rōru: Jokō no kigen [Gender
Roles in Ancient China: The Origins of Female Workers]. Chūgoku bunka kenkyū 21:『中国文化研究』75–88. 難波純子 2005「中国古代のジェンダーロール—女工の起源」
第 21 巻、pp. 75–88.
National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare. Population Statistics: Japan (2020) (Maternal deaths andmaternal mortality rate: 1899–2015) http://www.ipss.go.jp/syoushika/tohkei/Data/
Popular2005/05-31.htm (Reproduction rates for females: 1925–2018) http://www.
ipss.go.jp/syoushika/tohkei/Popular/P_Detail2020.asp?fname=T04-03.htm
Nelson, S.M. 2014. The Hongshan Papers Collected studies on the archaeology ofNorthern China. Oxford: BAR International Series 2618.
NISHIAKI Yoshihiro 2000. Kōgei no sengyōka to shakai no fukuzatsuka: Nishi Asia
© Japanese Archaeological Association

32

GENDER STRUCTURE IN PRE-QIN CHINA WITH FOCUS ON ANYANG YINXU

Kodai toshi shutsugenki no doki seisan [The Professionalization of craft and thecomplexiﬁcation of society: pottery production during the emergence of ancient cities
in Western Asia]. Nishi Asia kōkogaku [Journal of Western Asian Archaeology] 1:
1–9. 西秋良宏 2000「工芸の専業化と社会の複雑化—西アジア古代都市出現期の土器生産—」『西アジア考古学』第 1 号、pp. 1–9.
OCHIAI Atsushi 2015. In: Chūgokushi saiko no ōchō [Yin: The oldest dynasty in Chinese
history]. Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha. 落合淳思 2015『殷—中国史最古の王朝』中公新書 2303 、東京：中央公論新社．
Pearson, R. 1981. Social complexity in Chinese coastal Neolithic sites. Science 213(4512): 1078–1086.
SATŌ Taketoshi 1977. Chūgoku kodai kinu orimono shi kenkyū [A study of the history ofancient Chinese silk]. 2 vols. Tokyo: Kazama Shobō. 佐藤武敏 1977『中国古代絹織物史研究』上、東京：風間書房．
Shanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics 1994. Shang-ma mudi [Cemetery at Shangma]. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press. 山西省考古研究所 1994『上馬墓地』北京：文物出
版社．

TANAKA M. and A. NAKATANI (ed.) 2005. Jendā de manabu bunka jinrui gaku
[Learning from gender in cultural anthropology]. Kyoto: Sekai Shisō Sha. 田中雅一・
中谷文美 (編) 2005『ジェンダーで学ぶ文化人類学』京都：世界思想社．
UCHIDA Junko 2020. Chenshi hua yu xingbie hua shehui–yi Yinxu wei li [Urbanizationand gendered stratiﬁcation of society]. Fuyancongheng 112: 10–21. 内田純子「城市化与性別化社会—以殷墟為例」『婦研縦横』112 期、pp. 10–21.
UCHIDA Junko 2021. Gender structure in pre-Qin China from an archaeologicalperspective, in Kohama M. and Grove L. (ed.) Gender history in China. Kyoto: Kyoto
University Press.
UENO Chizuko 1990. Kafuchō-sei to shihon-sei [Patriarchy and capitalism]. Tokyo:
Iwanami Shoten. 上野千鶴子 1990『家父長制と資本制』東京：岩波書店．
von Falkenhausen, Lother. 2006. Chinese society in the age of Confucius: thearchaeological evidence. Los Angeles (CA): Cotten Institute of Archaeology Press.
WANG J.H. and CAO J. 2014. Qian-chang-da mudi renkou xingbie yanjiu [Study on Qianchang-da cemetery from the approach of gender], in Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (ed.) Xia-shang duyu yu wenhua I: 530–546. Beijing: China Social Sciences
Press. 王建華・曹静 2014「前掌大墓地人口性別研究」中国社会科学院考古研究所編『夏商都邑与文化』(一)、北京：中国社会科学出版社、pp. 530–546.
WANG Y. 2006. Rank and power among court ladies at Anyang, in K. M. Linduﬀ and A.
Yan (eds.) Gender and Chinese archaeology: 5–116. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press.
WANG Zhengzhong 2013. Zhongguo gudai guojia de qiyuan yu wangquan de xingcheng[State formation and the rise of kingship in early China]. Beijing: China Social
Sciences Press. 王震中 2013『中国古代国家的起源与王権的形成』北京：中国社会科
学出版社．

WATANABE Yoshirō 1989. Ryūrin iseki kō [A study of mortuary practices at the Liulin© Japanese Archaeological Association

33

UCHIDA Junkosite]. Shien 126: 25–60. 渡辺芳郎「劉林遺跡考」『史淵』126 号、pp. 25–60.
WHO 2015. World Health Statistics 2015. http://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_
health_statistics/2015/en/
WU J.M. 2004. The late Neolithic cemetery at Dadianzi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region, in K.M. Linduﬀ and S. Yan (ed.) Gender and Chinese archaeology: 47–94
Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press.
YAN Yiping (ed.) 1983. Yin-Zhou Jinwen Zongji [Collection of bronze inscriptions of the
Shang and Zhou dynasties]. Volume 9. Taipei: Yiwen Yinshuguan. 厳一萍 1983『殷周金文総集』9 台北：芸文印書館．
Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji Bianji Weiyuanhui 1997. Zhongguo Qngotongqi Quanji[Collection of Chinese bronzes] Volume2. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press. 中国青銅器
全集編集委員会 1997『中国青銅器全集』第 2 巻、北京：文物出版社．

© Japanese Archaeological Association34