bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Religion, Symbol, and the Twenty-Year-Old Demythologizer
Authors: Sawicki Marianne
Published: August 2016

Without an appreciation of symbol, one cannot hope to grasp concepts such as revelation and incarnation which are foundational for theology and for other varieties of religious thought. Unfortunately, the undergraduate years find our students at an age when they are natural demythologizers: impatient and exasperated with symbols. Are we wasting our breath in trying to teach them disciplines which are constitutionally disabled from understanding? This article suggests that human cognition must develop through the successive stages of literal, conventional, critical, and conjunctive understanding. It recommends strategies for helping students move from conventional to critical thinking so as to prepare the way for conjunctive thought beyond age thirty.
Feminist Ethics in the Christian Ethics Curriculum
Authors: Farley Margaret A.
Published: August 2016

The incorporation of feminist issues and feminist methods and sources into a Christian ethics curriculum is at once a simple and a complex enterprise. It is simple because a feminist approach to ethics can be made explicit at almost every juncture in the curriculum. It is complex because feminist ethics is, like most other general approaches to ethics, pluralistic. Moreover, as a systematic discipline it is in its beginning stages, and there are few comprehensive sources to which students can turn for analytical foundations. The difficulties which students and teachers face in building a syllabus for feminist ethics, however, are not essentially different from those we confront in much of the teaching of ethics. That is, controversy demands the use of a variety of sources; most of the appropriate readings are to be found in short essays rather than in book-length treatments; and since ethics is in many respects a derivative discipline, significant materials must be drawn from many other areas of learning, including theology, biblical studies, and the behavioral, social, and natural sciences.
Algonquian Shamans and Puritan Saints
Authors: Porterfield Amanda
Published: August 2016

This paper compares the shamanism of seventeenth-century Indians in southern New England with the religion of the New England Puritans. The paper identifies shamanic elements within Puritan religion, focusing particular attention on the visionary experiences and social control the Puritans gained through praying, preaching, reading, and writing. Although the literacy and moralism essential to Puritan religion were absent in seventeenth-century Algonquian shamanism, the powers of Puritan literacy and moralism can be understood in shamanic terms.
Writing Your Own Scripture?
Authors: Kramer Kenneth P.
Published: August 2016

Is it possible to write contemporary scripture? This discussion highlights the pedagogical value not only of teaching with primary resource materials, but also of having students creatively rewrite sacred texts. First, I discuss the purpose of a religious studies journal, and then provide some practical guidelines for journal-keeping along with suggestions for grading them. Secondly, I focus upon one type of creative journal exercise—rewriting sacred texts. In response to Ira Progoff s statements that we can create the Bibles of the world anew by recording images drawn up from our depth consciousness, I encourage students to write scripture-styled passages which deepen their appreciation for and understanding of sacred texts. To conclude, I provide six sample creative journal exercises, one from each of the sacred texts read in my Eastern Religions classes, along with several student responses.
The Social Rationality of Theological Discourse
Authors: Martin Terence J.
Published: August 2016

Drawing lessons from literary dialogues on religious issues, this essay offers a rhetorical and hermeneutical analysis of the workings and achievements of theological discourse. The rationality proper to theological discourse is found to be a function of interlocutors' communicative actions and reactions, describing the social processes by which speakers sustain common space and time for persuasion and understanding. Standards of rationality are idiosyncratic not simply to individual cultural-linguistic frameworks, but to public, dialogical situations which speakers must create and sustain in their communicative interaction.
Teaching Christology in Light of Feminist Issues
Authors: Kopas Jane
Published: August 2016

While awareness of feminist issues has not left its mark on all professors of theology, much less on all who teach christology, those whose awareness has been changed by facing these issues often find themselves asking how they can bring them to bear on courses with already substantial content. The point of raising feminist issues, however, is not a matter of adding content but of uncovering questions that have not been asked and of transforming the way we look at key areas of the discipline. This is turn leads to the discovery of new resources and new insights.

My own approach in teaching “Christ in Tradition and Culture” to undergraduates has been to uncover feminist issues and concerns that are in the mainstream of christology. I have done this by looking at scriptural, theological, and soteriological/spiritual perspectives that are central to the development of a contemporary christology. The purpose of this article is to share the ways I deal with feminist issues within the perspectives noted and to indicate some of the more important bibliographic resources that address them. Before examining issues that surface in the various perspectives, it may be helpful to underscore some aspects of feminist theology that should be kept in mind.
Reason and Emotion: Modern and Classical Views on Religious Knowing
Authors: Morrissey Michael P.
Published: August 2016

The interdependence of mind and heart forms the basic dynamism in human consciousness. In modernity, however, this vital duality has often been obscured by the infamous dualism between reason and emotion, whereby reason is reduced to an abstract rationalism and emotion is identified with irrational passions—a view that has ancient roots. Given this confused state of affairs, the recovery of an authentic emotional life is not only essential for the preservation of human integrity but also for the possibility of authentic religious knowledge. This essay considers the work of John Macmurray, a rather neglected contemporary philosopher whose reflections on this matter remain worthy of study. Relating his personalist thought to Plato's preeminent myth of the erotic soul will serve to construct on solid footing a philosophy of consciousness that pays due respect to the Pascalian “reasons of the heart.” A wholistic understanding of human personality emerges, one based on an “emotional rationality” that is the condition for authentic human love and the incarnate medium for divine revelation.
Zhong Hui's Laozi Commentary and the Debate on Capacity and Nature in Third-Century China
Authors: Chan Alan K.L.
Published: August 2016

Zhong Hui (a.d. 225–264) was a major, albeit neglected figure in third- century Chinese intellectual history. Author of a Laozi commentary and a treatise on the relationship between “capacity” (cat) and “nature” (xing), Zhong Hui played a significant role in the development of xuanxue (Learning of the Mysterious Dao), which came into prominence during the early Wei dynasty and dominated the Chinese intellectual scene well into the sixth century. This essay presents a reconstructed version of Zhong Hui's Laozi commentary and compares Zhong's approach with Wang Bi's. Zhong Hui's work on “capacity and nature” (caixing) captures a major debate in early xuanxue philosophy and will be scrutinized also in this discussion.
A.C. Graham, tr. Chuang-tzŭ: The Inner Chapters. Indianapolis and Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett, 2001. x + 293 pp
-
Harold D. Roth, ed. A Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang tzu: The Inner Chapters. Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Monograph 20. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. 243 pp.
Authors: Paul R. Goldin
Published: August 2016

With the publication of these two books, A.C. Graham's classic translation of Chuang-tzu is finally available in the form that he intended. The first edition, published in 1981 by Allen & Unwin, has long been out of print, and, as Roth explains (If.; cf. also 184), it was relieved, against Graham's wishes, of several dozen textual notes that he had compiled. These were issued in 1982, by the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), as a sixty-five-page typescript with the title Chuang-tzu: Textual Notes to a Partial Translation. But this pamphlet was not well distributed, and most libraries do not own it. Hackett and Hawai'i are to be hailed, therefore, for bringing both the translation and the textual notes into general circulation, and at very reasonable prices.
The Duke of Zhou's Retirement in the East and the Beginnings of the Ministerial-Monarch Debate in Chinese Political Philosophy
Authors: Shaughnessy Edward L.
Published: August 2016

Virtually all Chinese historians, past and present, have viewed the Duke of Zhou as a paragon of the virtuous minister. However, in traditional Chinese sources concerning the Duke of Zhou there is also a distinct negative undercurrent, several texts recording that the Duke “resided in the east” in contexts implying that he went into a sort of exile. Given this ambivalence in the history and traditions regarding the Duke of Zhou, the author examines two chapters of the Book of Documents: the “Shao gao” or “Announcement of the Duke of Shao” and the “Jun Shi” or “Lord Shi.” He posits that these two chapters represent two sides of a debate over political theory and governance. The “Jun Shi,” a speech by the Duke of Zhou to the Duke of Shao, expounds a political theory that privileges ministers over kings. The “Shao gao,” on the other hand, is an address by the Duke of Shao to the Duke of Zhou in which the Duke of Shao resolutely supports the king's prerogative to rule as the “eldest son” of Heaven.

This debate between the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao was but the first instance of a tension that would continue to occupy statesmen and political theorists throughout Chinese history: between the power of the king or emperor and that of his ministers. While, in later times, neither side was ever able long to maintain supremacy in this debate, in the early Western Zhou the Duke of Shao almost certainly prevailed; shortly after the Duke of Shao made the address contained in the “Shao gao,” the Duke of Zhou first relinquished power to King Cheng and then, somewhat later, went into exile or retreat, never again to play a central role in Western Zhou government.
Archaeological Discovery and Research into the Layout of the
Palaces and Ancestral Shrines of Han Dynasty Chang'an –A
Comparative Essay on the Capital Cities of Ancient Chinese
Kingdoms and Empires
Authors: Qingzhu Liu
Published: August 2016

The principal function of the ancient Chinese royal capital
city was political. From the perspective of archaeology, the
physical manifestation of this is primarily revealed through
palace buildings and ancestral shrines. Chang’an was the capital
city of the Western Han Empire. After extensive excavation and
research into the sites of palatial structures and ancestral
shrines of Han Dynasty Chang’an city, it is clear that the two
are distinct in form. Also, comparative research into the layout
of the palaces and ancestral shrines of Han Chang’an that have
undergone excavation beside those palaces and shrines of the
capital cities of the kingdoms of the pre-Qin era also reveals
that the two architectural forms have clear differences. The
difference in architectural form between palaces and ancestral
shrines reflects the difference in function they performed,
between rule through territorial authority and rule through
kinship. From the side-by-side placement of palaces and
ancestral shrines within the royal precincts of capital cities
of the kingdom era (the pre-Qin period), to the separate
placement of palaces and shrines in the capital cities of the
imperial era (Qin-Han to Ming-Qing periods), as well as in the
formation of the system centered on the royal palace, whereby
the “ancestors occupy the left, while the altar of soil occupies
the right,” the difference in the layout of palaces and
ancestral shrines in the capital cities of the kingdom era and
those of the imperial era clearly explains how the palace, which
represents rule by territorial authority, and the ancestral
shrine, which represents rule by kinship, wax and wane in the
strength of their social function with the development of
society and the change in societal configuration. Archaeological
discovery and research into the architectural sites of palaces
and ancestral shrines of Han Chang’an city reveals that the
kingdom era of ancient Chinese society was a time for the
integration of rule through kinship and rule through territorial
authority, while from the Qin-Han period to the Ming-Qing era
was a time of centralized imperial power, where rule by
territorial authority was primary, and rule through kinship was
secondary.
The Fickle Brush: Chinese Orthography in the Age of
Manuscripts: A Review of Imre Galambos's Orthography of Early
Chinese writing: Evidence from Newly Excavated
Manuscripts
Authors: Richter Matthias L.
Published: August 2016

In the past decade, it seems, the study of early Chinese
manuscripts has at last begun to move from its rather marginal
position as a highly specialized subject into the mainstream of
scholarship on the Warring States and early imperial periods.
This is certainly due in part to the impressive quantity of
manuscripts found so far. A still more important factor is
probably the fact that the manuscripts recovered to date now
include a significant number of politico-philosophical texts.
While literature of a more technical nature has attracted
attention only in smaller circles of scholars, these more
generally appealing finds have spurred a markedly increased
interest in early Chinese manuscripts both in China and in the
West. This is also reflected by the vast improvement in the
quality of publications with regard both to photographic
reproduction and to transcription and/or interpretation. The
field of palaeography has accordingly gained visibility and
esteem. It hardly need be mentioned that orthography is a vital
concern in reading manuscripts. Many books and articles on the
manuscripts consequently touch upon the subject of orthography
when they interpret manuscripts or discuss special palaeographic
issues, or when they address the Chinese writing system in a
more general way. Yet, to my knowledge, Imre Galambos’s
Orthography of Early Chinese
Writing is the first monograph ever to
elevate the question of early Chinese manuscript orthography to
the status of its central subject matter.
A First Reading of the Shanghai Museum Bamboo-Strip Manuscript of the Zhou Yi
Authors: Shaughnessy Edward L.
Published: August 2016

This study introduces a bamboo-strip manuscript of the Zhou Yi or Zhou Changes purchased by the Shanghai Museum in 1994. The fragmentary manuscript includes 58 strips, about one-third of the received text of the Zhou Yi. Orthographic features suggest that it was copied in the southern state of Chu about 300 B.C.E. Although the manuscript includes numerous orthographic variants vis-à-vis the received text, it does show that the text was stable by this date of copying. The most unusual feature of the manuscript is a pair of symbols written after the hexagram name and at the end of the hexagram text. Although several explanations of these symbols have been advanced, none of them appears to be convincing to date. A final question about the manuscript concerns the sequence of hexagrams in it. Since the binding straps of the manuscript had already decayed and the strips become disordered, and since each hexagram text begins on a new bamboo strip, no sequence is apparent. However, the physical circumstances of the strips, especially the points at which they are broken, may suggest that the sequence was more or less similar to that of the received Zhou Yi.
3. Shang and Zhou Bronze

Nao

Bells Excavated in South China
Authors: Zhixi Gao
Published: August 2016

Twenty-two bronze nao-bells dating to the late Shang and early Western Zhou periods have been unearthed from the five southern provinces of Hunan, Jiangsi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian. Of these, sixteen were from Hunan, three from Zhejiang, and one each from the remaining three provinces. These bells can be classified into four categories: type A has an animal mask decoration (eleven examples); type B has a cloud pattern (three examples); type C has nipples (only one example); type D has stalks (mei, seven examples).

The nao is a bell that can produce two tones. It can be used in sacrificial offerings as well as war. Because most of these bells have been discovered at the top, mid-section, or foot of mountains or on the banks of a river, we surmise that they may have been used in contemporary sacrifices to the mountains and streams, wind and rain, and stars, etc. Based on the periodization of the style of their shape and decoration we conclude that type A may be as early as late Shang, type B can be assigned to the end of the Shang, type C is from the beginning of the Zhou and type D belongs to the early Western Zhou. They developed from type A to B to C to D and then to the yong-bell. The characteristics of southern nao bells are: they are large, thick and heavy; most have whorls on the circular handle; many animal masks and cloud and lightning patterns are formed from thick lines among the decoration; the entire body is usually covered with decoration; most appear singly, and they were set up on their stands with the mouth facing up. In contrast, northern nao-bells are very small, they have no whorls on the handle, their decoration is simple, and they are unearthed in groups of several together.
6. A Tentative Description of the Civilization of the Middle Period of Late Shang
Authors: Guimin Wang
Published: August 2016

The late Shang represents a peak in bronze culture, and was the culmination of a long period of development. The words of the Duke of Zhou in the “Wu yi” chapter of the Shang shu that “The kings who arose after [Zu Jia], during their (whole) life enjoyed ease …. After this there were none who had any chance of reaching a high age…” is not sufficient to be relied upon. Nor is it appropriate to evaluate the entirety of Late Shang history solely on the basis of the large number of oracle bones from the reign of Wu Ding. The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, through an analysis of the contents of oracle-bone inscriptions from the Middle Late Shang, i.e., from Lin Xin to Wen Wu Ding, that there was continued progress in the fields of society, economy, and culture and in the political and military affairs of the ruling house.

Agriculture under the direct control of the Shang ruling house, including all sorts of agricultural activities, continued as before, and in some cases advanced beyond that of the previous age. In the area of handicrafts, metal casting, the “hundred craftsmen,” organizations of craftsmen and the official position of Director of Craftsmen all appear in the oracle bones. In terms of archaeology, the number, shape, manufacture, decoration, and inscriptions of bronze vessels reached a new plateau. The palace architecture and the geographical extent of residences at Yinxu were greatly expanded.
10. The

Si-Tu (“Qiao”)-Mu

Inscriptions Excavated from the Fu Hao Tomb
Authors: Zhenxiang Zheng
Published: August 2016

(N.B. A version of this paper has now been published in Kaogu 1983.8:716-725.)

Of the bronze vessels discovered in 1976 when the Fu Hao tomb at Anyang was excavated, 190 were inscribed. The inscriptions were of 9 types. The most common, occurring on the most complete inventory of vessels, was the inscription Fu Hao (or Zi ), found on 109 vessels. The next most common was the inscription Si Tu Mu, occurring on 26 ritual bronzes, including one pair each of the square hu-jars, round jia-tripods, and round zun-beakers, one set of 11 gu-goblets, and one set of 9 jue-beakers. There was also a pair of large square zun-beakers inscribed with 4 characters, one line containing the characters Si Tu Mu, all written backwards, the other containing the character gui; including these there are 28 examples. The dating of these vessels is essentially the same as that of those vessels inscribed Fu Hao. It is very seldom that we find such a large number of vessels with the same inscription unearthed from the ritual bronze vessel horde of a single tomb. Bronzes with this inscription have been recorded since the Song dynasty and a bronze with this type of inscription was excavated from a Shang tomb at Xiaotun before liberation. There is also a bronze yue-axe with this inscription that currently exists. The study of this group of bronzes is very important.

In analyzing the inscription Si (Hou) Tu Mu Gui, one possible interpretation is that Tu Mu was the cognomen (Zi )of Fu Hao; another, is that it referred to a person close to Fu Hao in position. The inscription can be explained as Tu Mu, whose day name was Gui, or Mu Gui, whose name was Tu. She may have been another queen of Wu Ding, perhaps the Mu Gui sacrificed to in the Zu Geng and Zu Jia inscriptions, i.e., the Bi Gui who was the legitimate consort of Wu Ding in the Di Yi and Di Xin cyclical sacrifice records. Assuming this hypothesis is correct, then objects belonging to consorts Bi Xin and Bi Gui of Wu Ding have already been discovered. Since the discovery of the Fu Hao tomb, some scholars have put forth the theory that Mu Wu mentioned on the large inscribed Si Mu Wu ding-tripod may be Wu Ding's consort, Bi Wu. If the conclusions reached above can be established, then ritual bronze vessels belonging to all three of Wu Ding's consorts have been discovered. This fact is significant both for the study of the Shang ritual system and of the ritual bronzes.
12. An Experiment in Making Late Shang Oracle Bones
Authors: Kwang-Yuan Chang
Published: August 2016

This paper presents the results of a series of experiments attempting to determine the methods of selection, preparation, and use of turtle shell and cattle bone materials for divination during the Late Shang period. Specific topics covered include selection, preparation, drilling of burning-pits and application of heat, the reading by the diviners of the resulting cracks, the function of the historian's first writing the divination data on the bone before it was inscribed, the reason the cracks and divination data were carved into the bone and why pigment was applied to them, the actual inscription-carving technique, the result of experiments on methods of softening bones and shells, and preparing bronze and jade inscription-carving knives. I have examined excavation reports and earlier publications by scholars in the field and compared them with my own results in order to gain more complete understanding of the actual process of Late Shang oracle-bone divination. In the course of carrying out these experiments, I have made a number of discoveries which I hope may fill in some of the gaps that still exist in oraclebone studies after eighty-three years.
22. Some Remarks on the Graph and the Character

Si
Authors: Lefeuvre Jean A.
Published: August 2016

The graph in the Shang oracle inscriptions, transcribed or , until now, among the best authorities, remains the object of different interpretations. Some common translations are: a rhinoceros, a unicorned si having the appearance of an ox, an ox of the si species, a si (without explanation), a coveted game animal, a wild animal of the central plain, etc. The aim of this short paper is to determine to what extent some clarification can be made.

Starting the investigation with Jiabian 3939, it seems that this “big animal's skull,” like the other deer skulls discovered nearby, was considered a hunting trophy. Consequently, the recorded text was inscribed on that trophy, that is on the skull of the animal so skillfully caught. After a careful examination, the paleontologists declared that the “big animal's skull” was the skull of a buffalo. Taking these facts into consideration, we made a new examination of the graph and its variants, of the character cast in the bottom of the Niu fang-ding (HPKM1004), of the head from the small stone bovine (shi niu of M5), of the pronunciation of the character at a later time, of the Shang oracular texts, and of the main ancient texts, starting with the pre-Qin period and going on until the end of the Eastern Jin dynasty. The results can be summarized as follows:

The graph of the Shang oracular texts and the character of the later period seem to be the same word. The elements of the graph may not have been always correctly analyzed, the graphic evolution may have been different from what it was previously thought to be, but the semantic content seems to have been always the same: a wild buffalo.
Han Thanatology and the Division of “Souls”
Authors: Brashier K.E.
Published: August 2016

Modern scholarship has repeatedly maintained that the separation of thehunandposouls at death was a popular Han belief, but a re-examination of the received literature suggests thathunpodualism was at best only a scholastic model. Sources ranging from theZuo zhuanto Han medical texts depict thehunpoas an inherent part of the properly functioning body complex, and any deficiency in thehunpodid not necessarily result in death but in distress and disease. Grave stele texts, which also never distinguish between ahunand aposuggest a different dualism—that between thehunorpowith its corporeal associations on the one hand and the more rarefiedshenon the other. This dualism may have found a practical expression in ancestral worship because thehunpoand body were generally confined to the cemetery but the mobileshenenjoyed its sacrifices at the lineage shrine.
The Ganzhi as Phonograms and their Application to the Calendar
Authors: Pulleyblank Edwin G.
Published: August 2016

Three related but independent propositions are put forward and investigated: (1) a revised version of a theory of the Old Chinese rhymes based on the assumption that there were only two rhyme vowels, ∕ə∕ and ∕a∕, and eighteen final consonants, namely, labials -p, -m, dentals -t, -n, -l, -s, velars -k, -ŋ, -ɤ, palatals, -kj, -ŋj, -j, labiovelars -kw, -ŋw, -w, and palatolabiovelars -kɥ, -ŋɥ, -ɥ (as found in the modern Fuzhou dialect); (2) a revised version of a theory that the ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches originated as phonograms naming acrophonically the initial consonants of the Chinese language at the time of their invention, the consonants being the same as those reconstructed finally, with the addition of the fricatives x-, xj-, xw-, xɥ-;(3) a hypothesis to explain the calendrical use of these signs on the assumption that the Stems were chosen, as far as possible, from signs with the same initial consonants as the numerals from one to ten, while the remaining twelve signs were treated as a supplementary series of twelve.
Heguanziand Huang-Lao Thought
Authors: Peerenboom R.P.
Published: August 2016

TheHeguanzi, an eclectic, composite work arguably of the late Warring States to Han period, has long been associated with a school of thought known as Huang-Lao. Unfortunately, little was known about the school until the recent Mawangdui discovery of four ancient treatises commonly referred to as the Silk Manuscripts of Huang-Lao (Huang-Lao Boshu). This article examines the relation between the Heguanzi and Huang-Lao thought as represented in the Silk Manuscripts. The author argues that many of the chapters of the Heguanzi display key features of Huang-Lao thought, most notably a commitment to foundational naturalism and natural law that is first articulated in mature form in the Silk Manuscripts.
On the Birth of The Birth of China
Authors: Creel Herrlee G.
Published: August 2016

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Birth of China, the author reminisces about the circumstances that led to the writing of this book. This memoir covers the graduate years at the University of Chicago, literati culture in 1930s China, and the return to teach at Chicago.
Yangshao Burial Customs and Social Organization: A Comment on the Theory of Yangshao Matrilineal Society and Its Methodology
Authors: Ningsheng Wang
Published: August 2016

Addressing in part the arguments advanced by Morgan, and depending upon more recent anthropological studies from Madagascar, Sarawak, and elsewhere, it is argued in Part I that the evidence from Yangshao burials resembles that of many modern primitive peoples whose collective secondary burials were not defined by kin unit. The matrilineal view of Yangshao society is also challenged by the widespread existence of single-person burial, which appears to have both pre- and postdated, as well as co-existed with, the practice of collective burial. Similar comparative and contextual criticisms are brought to bear, in Part II, on the argument that Yangshao burial customs reveal the dominance of women. There was evidently no system in which children had to be buried with the mother, there is no evidence that the primary burial of women in multi-person collective burials was either common or prevalent, there is no evidence that single Yangshao female burials were generally more richly furnished with grave goods than those of single males. Finally, in Part III, it is shown that same-sex collective burials were rare; they reflect not social organization but the accident of several contemporary deaths. In short, none of the arguments for Yangshao matriliny are found to be adequate. At present, we lack an effective method for using burial customs to reconstruct social organization. The article ends by raising a series of methodological desiderata for future research.
Once Again on the New Period of Western Zhou Oracle-Bone Research With a Brief Description of the Zhouyuan Sacrifice Inscriptions
Authors: Yuxin Wang
Published: August 2016

If one were to speak of the “incipient period” of research on Western Zhou oracle bones, he would have to refer to that period of time after the discovery in 1950 at Sipanmo (SP 11) of oracle bones whose “writing was not consistent with inscriptional standards,” and before November of 1956 when Professor Li Xueqin pointed out that the inscribed oracle bones from Fangdui village of Shanxi's Hongzhao County were artifacts of the opening period of the Western Zhou. Through the study of these oracle bones discovered at Sipanmo and Fangdui village, as well as in Bin county in Shaanxi and Taishanmiao in Luoyang, it was then possible for the first time to recognize that in addition to Shang oracle bones there were also Western Zhou oracle bones, thus debunking the traditional belief that all oracle bones were produced by the Shang. The excavation in 1956 of inscribed oracle bones at Fengxi in Shaanxi then provided positive proof of the existence of Western Zhou oracle bones.
The Ghost Head Mask and Metamorphic Shang Imagery
Authors: Childs-Johnson Elizabeth
Published: August 2016

The meaning of Shang ritual imagery has long baffled scholars. Art historians and anthropologists have wrestled with its meaning every since 1928 when bronzes began to be excavated at Anyang, the Late Shang capital. It is now possible to explore various data to identify the religious significance of Shang ritual art From an art historical point of view, it is evident that certain standard modes of representation were designed to symbolize the theme of metamorphosis from the human to the animal spirit realm. This symbolism also helps to explain why the ubiquitous animal image in Shang art is conceived as a mask. Epigraph-ical data support the interpretation that Shang religion was based on the belief of metamorphosis as represented in art, and that the Shang king once acted as shaman-priest, chief-in-charge of invocation and a mask wearing rite. This interpretation depends on data provided by key terms in Shang bone inscriptions, such as gui 鬼, usually translated spirit ghost and others, directly related, such as the unpronounceable ff and zhu 祝. My intention is to elucidate why spirit ghosts of ancestors, gui were envisioned as anthropomorphized animal masks and how this conception is connected with the shamanic foundation of Shang religion. Although bone inscriptional data indicates that there is a dramatic shift away from exorcistic practices of shamanic origin to cult worship focused on dead royal ancestors, the combined evidence from art and epigraphy strongly argues for a Shang religion founded on the belief in metamorphosis and the king as shaman-priest.
The Pivot: Comparative Perspectives from the Four Quarters
Authors: Price Nancy Thompson
Published: August 2016

The fixity of urban centers has been deeply implicated in models of political development from chiefdom to the state and early empire. For this reason, both Western and Chinese scholars have neglected the importance of non-permanent or shifting ceremonial centers or capitals like China's in the evolution of complex society. A brief examination of the touchstone cultures of early Mespotamia and Classical Greece, to which China is compared, demonstrates how narrowly conceived and exclusive the Euro-American view of complex society constructed by archeologists and historians has been on the issue of mobility and the relation of ruler and polity to territory. The Chinese case, like those of India and South Asia, suggests that the moving center should be recognized as a common variant in the process of socio-political development and change. The integration of the Asian state and early empires into the comparatist project seeks to analyze the formative relations between religious and cosmological conceptions and social, political and economic development.
A Note on the Translation of Two Technical Terms in Chinese Science:

Wu-Hsing

and

Hsiu
Authors: Major John S.
Published: August 2016

(A recent conversation between the author and Prof. Nathan Sivin of MIT on the correct translation of the term hsiu was followed up by a thoughtful letter from Prof. Sivin which is quoted at length below. It seemed appropriate to broaden the discussion to include the term wu-hsing, to provide some lexical-historical background, and to share the sense of the conversation with our colleagues.)

Technical terms in any language cannot be understood correctly when rendered in another language unless commonly accepted and precise translations, which evoke neither more nor less than the meaning of the original term, can be achieved. Yet that is a difficult task, bounded by prior connotations of the translations chosen, and by differences in general cultural context that may be very great. The task is made more difficult still because any scholarly discipline that relies heavily on translation as one of its methods is often heir to “standard” translations of technical terms. Some of these have achieved general currency through long use, but might not have been, when they were first proposed, well thought out or based on adequate scholarly understanding. Others may be, in some cases, just plain wrong. An example of a standard translation that is not well thought out is “five elements” for wu-hsing; one that is clearly wrong is “lunar mansion” for hsiu.
On the Location of the Chu Capital in Early Chunqiu Times in Light of the Handong Incident of 701 B.C.
Authors: Blakeley Barry B.
Published: August 2016

The location of the Chu core area during the reign of King Wu (740-690) is a question rendered uncertain by two issues: 1) the date of the move from Danyang to Ying, and 2) the locations of these capitals. In the traditional literature, both were considered to have been situated along the Yangzi, in southwest Hubei. Recent suggestions, on the other hand, place Danyang in either the Dan Valley (southwest Henan) or west-central Hubei (Nanzhang or Yicheng counties); and arguments have been offered that Ying was also in the Yicheng area.

In the arguments both for and against these hypotheses, a commonly employed assumption is that Chu military activities under King Wu hold the potential for indicating the area from which the campaigns were launched. The present paper analyzes one of these campaigns, the military encounter at Pusao between Chu and Yun, east of the Han River (Handong), in 701. This episode is noteworthy for the number of states and placenames that occur in the Zuozhuan account of it.

The present study suggests that in plotting the states and placenames appearing in this account, geographical sources dating from the sixth century through the early Qing that are frequently cited in defense of the Southern School (Yangzi Valley) view exhibit several deficiencies. Correcting these leads to the conclusion that regardless of whether Danyang or Ying was the capital at the time, in 701 the Chu force could well have set forth from the Nanzhang/Yicheng region.
Formulaic Structure of Chu Divinatory Bamboo Slips
Authors: Ling Li
Published: August 2016

In recent decades, divination records written on bamboo slips have been discovered at such sites as Wangshan, Tianxingguan and Baoshan, all in Hubei province. These slips derive from the ancient state of Chu and date between 350 and 300 B.C. In this paper, the author suggests that these divination records are of two types: an “initial divination” and a “follow-up divination.” He also demonstrates that the “initial divination” type, which is the fuller form, usually consists of five discrete portions: a Prologue, First Charge, First Prognostication, Second Charge, and Second Prognostication; and provides detailed notes on the terminology found in each portion. Finally, he considers such associated questions as whether the Second Charge is a prayer or divination, whether divination was stated in the form of a question or statement, and the nature of the “follow-up divination.”
Astronomical Evidence for the Bamboo Annals' Chronicle of Early Xia
Authors: Nivison David S. , Pang Kevin D.
Published: August 2016

Tradition says that Yu, first ruler of the Xia Dynasty, was chosen by the “sage emperor” Shun as Shun's successor. The “Modern Text” Bamboo Annals (Jinben Zhushu jinian) dates this act of choice to the fourteenth year of Shun. (With E. L. Shaughnessy, “On the Authenticity of the Bamboo Annals,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 46 (1986), we accept this text as at least in part the text found in a royal tomb of Wei in A.D. 281.) Following D. Pankenier's argument (“Mozi and the Dates of Xia, Shang and Zhou,” Early China 9–10 [1983–85]), we date this event to 1953 B.C., the year of a dramatic five-planet conjunction. (K. Pang independently dated this conjunction to Yu's reign in his article “Extraordinary Floods in Early Chinese History and their Absolute Dates,” Journal of Hydrology 96 [1987].)

We next use K. Pang's discovery (“Extraordinary Floods”) that there was an eclipse of the sun on 16 October 1876 B.C., that exactly satisfies descriptions in the Zuo zhuan (Zhao 17) and in the Bamboo Annals for Xia, Zhong Kang fifth year, of an eclipse associated with the (post-Han Shang shu) “Punitive Expedition of Yin” (except for the day-cycle in the Annals, which we assume to be a later calculation); i.e., it occurred on the first of the ninth lunar month (Xia calendar), the sun's location at the time (188å) was in lunar lodge Fang, and the eclipse was visible in the probable Xia capital area. No other eclipse within many centuries satisfies these criteria.

Extending D. Nivison's theory (“The Dates of Western Chou,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 43 (1983)) that Western Zhou royal calendars began only after completion of mourning, i.e., two years after accession, we then assume that there were similar two-year mourning breaks between Xia royal calendars (possibly reflected in the irregular interregnums in the present Annals). For a demonstration of this chronology, see the chart on page 94.
The Spindle-Wheel: A Chou Chinese Invention
Authors: Kuhn Dieter
Published: August 2016

The early Chinese spindle-wheel was originally invented in conjunction with silk-technology and was linked to silk production, as pictured in some Han stone reliefs. It is concluded that the spindle-wheel is a Chinese Invention which may be dated to the early years of the Warring States period. In the course of time people realized the advantages of the spindle-wheel and it was adopted for plant fiber production.

The spindle-wheel may have been brought to Europe at the same time as silk-technology was introduced, most probably in the second half of the first millenium A.D. Only when the continuously working spinning-wheel with flyer was invented in fifteenth century Europe did a better and more efficient spinning device become available.
A Commentary on the Recent Finds of Neolithic Painted Pottery from Ta-ti-wan, Kansu
Authors: Huber Louisa G. Fitzgerald
Published: August 2016

The present article on the recently excavated neolithic painted pottery fron Ta-ti-wan, Kansu, is intended as a follow-up to a comprehensive treatment of neolithic pottery published in the BMFEA 1981 and is written in light of a re-assessment by some Chinese scholars of the relationships between the Kansu and Central Plains styles. According to the view offered here, the Miao-ti-kou style is seen in its nascent phase at Ta-ti-wan and is explained as having developed from a combination of elements from the Pan-p'o and Wei River styles. The Wei River style is perceived to derive from Ma-chia-yao, although the later stages of Ma-chia-yao may have been coeval with the florescence of Miao-ti-kou.
Reports from the Shang: A Corroboration and Some Speculation
Authors: Keightley David N.
Published: August 2016

Scholars trained in Taiwan tend to read the oracle-bone crack notation as shang chi, “highly auspicious”; scholars in the People's Republic read the same graphs as erh kao,“two reports.” In the first part of this article, a reexamination of the evidence, which was significantly assisted by Ho Hou-hsüan's presence at Berkeley, leads me to conclude that, contrary to what I wrote in Sources of Shang History, erh kao is the correct reading. The second part of the article considers the possible meaning of various kao crack notations, how certain strategic period II inscriptions might be punctuated and translated, and how we can explain the disappearance of kao and the appearance of chi, “auspicious,” as a crack notation in period III and later; some account of the discussions at the Berkeley “Workshop on Divination and Portent Interpretation in China” is provided. Finally, I suggest that kao, “report,” may have referred to the sounds produced by the cracking, but it is clear that we need to know more about the technical aspects of crack production. The comments of five scholars on the hypotheses proposed are given at the end of the article, together with my reply.
Sure Guidance for One's Own Time: Pan Ku and the Tsan to Han Shu 94
Authors: Tinios Ellis
Published: August 2016

One of the characteristic forms of the Shih Chi taken over by Pan Ku in his Han Shu is the short passage of critical appraisal appended to each chapter. Both Pan Ku and Ssu-ma Ch'ien felt free to use these passages to express their personal opinions--sometimes directly and sometimes with subtle indirection—not only on the facts presented in the preceding chapter but also on pressing issues of their own day. Students of the Han Shu refer to these passages as tsan, after the phrase with which they are introduced in that work, tsan yüeh (“In appraisal we say”). These tsan vary in length from a few lines to several pages.

One of the most highly developed of all Pan Ku's tsan is that appended to Han Shu 94, the “Memoir on the Hsiung-nu.” It is a substantial, well-written essay and at over one thousand characters in length, by far the longest in the entire Han Shu. It reveals much about Pan Ku's historical method and also provides us with the key to his attitude toward barbarian management in his own day. Without the understanding provided by the tsan, it is not possible to appreciate fully the implications of the form and organization of the “Memoir on the Hsiung-nu” itself.
Ju-tzu Hsi and the Genealogy of the House of Wei
Authors: Riegel Jeffrey K.
Published: August 2016

Our knowledge of the genealogy of the feudal houses of the Chou period is based primarily on the Shih Chi “Hereditary Houses” and secondarily on frequent quotations in medieval commentaries of the Shih Pen, a systematic genealogical treatise which, before it was lost in the T'ang, found favor among such historians as Tu Yü (222-284) and Ssu-ma Cheng (fl. 719-736) and classicists like K'ung Ying-ta (574-648). In the “Hereditary House of Wei,” the Shih Chi presents a genealogy at some variance with the genealogy quoted from the Shih Pen in Ssu-ma Cheng's commentary to the Shih Chi and K'ung Ying-ta's “sub-commentaries” to the Tso Chuan and Li Chi. A central point of disagreement concerns Marquis Wen , who is described as the son or grandson of Viscount Huan . This conflict of genealogy is coupled with a serious discrepancy concerning the length and date of the reign of Marquis Wen between the Shih Chi and the reconstructed Chu-shu Chi-nien. I believe that a careful examination of the chronological difficulty will contribute to a resolution of the genealogical conflict and thus prepare the way for a more general solution of points of conflict between the Shih Chi and Shih Pen versions of the genealogy of the House of Wei.
Manchu Translations of Chou Dynasty Texts
Authors: Durrant Stephen
Published: August 2016

Manchu language study has played a significant role in the history of Western sinology. The Catholic Fathers who began to study Manchu after the conquest in 1644 often noted the relative ease with which it could be mastered. Unlike Chinese, which Father Domingo Navarette had described as “doubtless the most difficult [language]in the world … dreadful and stupendious (sic),” Manchu possessed a structure readily amenable to the categories and techniques of traditional Western grammatical analysis. An extreme expression of Western infatuation with this “more logical” language can be seen in H.E.M. James statement that if the Manchus “had imposed their language rather than their pigtails on their conquered foes, how much better it would have been.”
The Cradle of the East

: Supplementary Comments
Authors: Keightley David N.
Published: August 2016

Book reviews are too often regarded as an insignificant form of scholarly activity. Journal editors ask us to review a book in 800 words or less. Grant applications ask us to list publications but to omit book reviews. Book reviews do not count, it is rumored, in the publish-or-perish deliberations of tenure committees. This slight regard for reviews -- which is at times accompanied by a decrease in their competence and value (viz. theJASreviewer [and presumably JAS editor] who thought that Chuanatzu and Chuang Chou were two separate philosophers) -- threatens the health of the field. I believe that good book reviews are vital, especially to our teaching. As lecturers who range over a wide range of materials and eras, we all rely on that questionable, tenuous process by which we abstract material from books in fields in which we are not specialists, and pass it on as quasi-truth. Serious book reviews introduce an essential, critical element into that process. They help keep us honest and alert. They generate the dialogue between the author and ourselves, and the author and the reviewer, upon which the evolution of historical understanding must continually depend. Such considerations are particularly important when a book is on a major topic and likely to be consulted and quoted widely by people outside the field. It is these considerations that lead me to publish here a technical addendum to a book that I have already reviewed elsewhere.