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Archaeology In The New China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Michael Loewe
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Extract

The discovery of a bronze tripod in 113 B.C. was one of the first recorded occasions on which imperial Chinese authorities expressed an official interest in the material evidence of earlier stages of their civilization. The event was hailed as a highly favourable portent for the Han dynasty and it was commemorated by the restrospective adoption of the regnal title Yuan–ting, which was applied to the years 116 to 111 B.C. Other discoveries which have been of sufficiently great importance to attract the eye of a contemporary chronicler have included the find of several versions of the Classical Scriptures during the Han period, of the uncorrupt body of one of the Han kings of Ch'ang–sha (c. A.D. 225), and of manuscript copies of certain historical texts (c. A.D. 280).

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 65 , March 1976 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1976

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References

* I am grateful to Professor Arthur F. Wright and Professor Wang Gungwu for valuable comments, many of which have been incorporated in this article.

1. Han–shu (Wang Hsien–ch'ien ed., Ch'ang–sha, 1900), 6.20b (Dubs, H. H., History of the Former Han Dynasty (Baltimore and London, 1938–1955), Vol. 2, pp. 77 and 71); and Han–shu, 25A.29a and 64A.16a.Google Scholar

2. For the discovery of these texts and the subsequent complications in regard to textual authenticity, see Han-shu, 30.7a et seq. and 88.11a et seq; and Pelliot, Paul, “Le Chou king en caractères anciens et le Chang chou che wen” in Mémoires concernant l'Asie Orientate (Paris, 1916),Google Scholar Vol. II (summarized by Karlgren, B. in Philology and Ancient China (Oslo: Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, 1926), p. 95et seq.).Google Scholar The subject is also discussed in Dubs’ translation of the Han–shu, Vol. 2, p. 271 et seq; Tjan Tjoe Som, Po Hu T'ung (Leiden: E. J.Brill, 1949);Google Scholar and the collected studies of Mu, Ch'ien, Liang–Han ching–hsüeh chin–ku–wen p'ing–i (Kowloon, 1958).Google Scholar

3. I.e. (1) the body of Wu Jui, who held the title of king of Ch'ang–sha for six months in 202 B.C. (see Han–shu, 13.15b and, for the discovery of the body towards the end of the period 220–26, San–kuo chih (Peking: Chung–hua shu–chü, 1959), p. 771);Google Scholar and (2) the so–called Bamboo Annals (see Sui–shu 33 (Peking: Chung–hua shu–chü, 1973), p. 959;Google Scholar and A. F. P. Hulsewé, “Notes on the historiography of the Han period,” in Beasley, W. G. and Pulleyblank, E. G., Historians of China and Japan (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 33, note 13).Google Scholar

4. For a comprehensive list of these early epigraphical studies, see the bibliography on pp. 1–6 of Tien-hsün's, YangShih–k'o t'i–pa so–yin (Peip'ing: Commercial Press, 1941).Google Scholar

5. Hsia Nai is now director of the Institute of Archaeology, Peking.

6. E.g. reports such as Mu–yang–ch'eng (Tokyo: Far Eastern Archaeological Society, 1931),Google Scholar or Harada, Y., Lo–lang (Tokyo: Toko shoin, 1930).Google Scholar

7. E.g. in Kansu or Sinkiang provinces, where it is understood that security precautions preclude the pursuit of archaeology.

8. Wen–wu (formerly Wen–wu ts'an–k'ao tz'u–liao) and K'ao–ku (formerly K'ao–ku t'ung–hsün) started publication in 1950 and 1955 respectively. This was suspended after the numbers which were issued in May 1966, and restarted in January 1972. K'ao–ku hsüeh–pao was first published in 1936, restarted in 1951 and continued until 1965. Publication started once more in 1972.

9. As a result there are differences to be noted in some of the catalogues of the exhibitions. Thus, in contrast with some others, in the catalogue published in London, indications of date are given in the historical introductions in archaeological or dynastic terms, without the conceptual framework of “primitive, slave, or feudal societies.”

10. E.g. Hui hsien fa–chüeh pao–kao (Peking: K'o–hsüeh ch'u–pan–she, 1956)Google Scholar or Lo–yang Shao–kou Han mu (Peking: K'o–hsüeh ch'u–pan–she, 1959).Google Scholar

11. Exceptions are seen in the finds from the site of Shih–chai–shan, which was excavated in 1955–60, and in individual items such as the wine warmer of the Han dynasty (dated in 26 B.C.; item no. 175 in the catalogue for London).

12. For summaries of the archaeological achievements of the People's Republic, see Hsin Chung–kuo ti k'ao–ku shou–huo (Peking: Wen–wu ch'u–pan–she, 1961);Google Scholar the catalogues published with the exhibitions; Historical Relics Unearthed in New China (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1972) (available in several languages);Google ScholarWen–hua ta–ko–ming ch'i–chien ch'u–t'u wen–wu (Peking: Jen–min ch'u–pan–she, 1972);Google Scholar and Ssu–ch'ou chih lu (Peking: Wen–wu ch'u–pan–she, 1972).Google Scholar

13. Ch'ang–sha Ma–wang–tui i hao Han mu (two volumes) (Peking: Wen–wu ch'u–pan–she, 1973).Google Scholar

14. The Provincial Museum of Hu–nan, in Ch'ang–sha, includes two examples of these outsize wooden tombs, reconstructed in their original form (one from Ma–wang–tui, one from Sha–tzu–t'ang).

15. For the lamp, see Historical Relics Unearthed in New China, No. 99; for the model orchestra, see Wen–wu, No. 5 (1972), p. 19 et seq., and No. 1 (1972), Plate XI

16. Li–shih yen–chiu started in 1954 and continued until early 1966; publication was resumed in December 1974.

17. The first of these (Shih–chi and San–kuo–chih) were published in 1959, and were followed by others until 1965. An interval ensued until the Chou shu appeared in December 1971, and the Nan Ch'i shu (whose draft had been completed in 1966) in January 1972.

18. See p. 1 of the English introduction to Historical Relics Unearthed in New China. Also, Selected Works of Mao Tse–tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965), Vol. II, p. 209.Google Scholar

19. See New Archaeological Finds in China (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1972), p. 9: “This discovery [of the Han tombs at Man–ch'eng] was a penetrating exposure of the idle and extravagant life of the feudal ruling class based on their cruel oppression and exploitation of the labouring people.”Google Scholar

20. See ibid.. p. 40: “While demonstrating the wisdom and creative ability of ancient China's working people, this change [i.e. in the type of weapons manufactured in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods] also reveals the ugly features of the feudal ruling classes, who waged endless wars against each other and fleeced and persecuted the labouring masses.”

21. These protests appear in other contexts, e.g. in connection with the whereabouts of the remains of Sinanthropus Pekinensis (see Chung–kuo jen–lei hua–shih ti fa–hsien yü yen–chiu (Peking: K'o–hsüeh ch'u–pan–she, 1955), p. 17);Google Scholar and the removal to western museums of some of the heads from the statues of the caves at Lung-men (notices and photographs showing the present location of some of these heads have been affixed to the walls of the caves); see also a series of articles in Wen–wu, No. 6 (1955), p. 3 et seq. Examples of the inclusion of other propagandist themes may be seen in K'ao–ku, No. 3 (1955), p. 1 et seq. (Hsia Nai's critique of the place taken by capitalist ideas in archaeology in the past), or ibid.. No. 2 (1956), p. 1 et seq. (Mao Tse–tung on the high tide of socialism in the Chinese village).

22. Contributions by Soviet writers were included in K'ao–ku up to the issues published in 1961 (e.g. the index to 1955 includes six entries which are concerned with Soviet contributions to archaeology). A call for closer links with foreign specialists, notably from the Soviet Union, in connection with the study of early fossil remains is included in Chung–kuo jen–lei hua–shih ti fa–hsien yü yen–chiu, p. 15. See also K'ao–ku, No. 2 (1956), p. 79 et seq., for an article on the Neolithic Age in the Soviet Union, and No. 4 (1956), p. 69 et seq., for an account of archaeological work in Czechoslovakia. For obituary notices of Yetts and Childe, see ibid. No. 2 (1958), p. 9, and No. 5 (1958), p. 54; for the finds at St Albans, ibid. No. 5 (1957), p. 84; and for archaeological work in Egypt, ibid. No. 2 (1957), p. 113, and No. 4 (1957), p. 73.

23. See entries in the indexes to ibid. 1962 and subsequent years, in the category of “foreign.”

24. E.g. see the very first articles in the first numbers of K'ao–ku and Wen–wu to appear after the Cultural Revolution (K'ao–ku), No. 1 (1972), pp. 2–4; and Wen–wu, No. 1 (1972), pp. 1–2; this latter contribution had first appeared in Jen–min jih–pao (People's Daily), 24 July 1971. The slogan, “Let the past serve the present,” may be associated with the expression Hou–chin po–ku (“emphasizing the present more than the past”), which can be traced to a speech delivered by Ch'en Po–ta in March 1958; see Gungwu, Wang, “Burning books and burying scholars alive’: some recent interpretations concerning Ch'in Shih–huang,” Papers on Far Eastern History (Canberra), No. 9 (March 1974), p. 151.Google Scholar

25. New Archaeological Finds in China, p. 19.

26. Sec, e.g., K'ao–ku, No. 6 (1973), p. 364 et seq., and No. 2 (1974), p. 74 el seq; Wang Gungwu, “Burning books and burying scholars alive,’” and M. Loewe,”The vilification of Confucius,” Encounter, November 1975.

27. The exhibition was held in Paris and London from May 1973 to January 1974, and it opened in Stockholm in May 1974. The item appears as no. 249 in the catalogue for the Petit Palais, and no. 257 at Burlington House; it was not shown in Stockholm.

28. Chia-an, Wu and Su-lin, Chang, “Lin Piao's vilification of Ch'in Shih–huang was motivated by his desire to restore capitalism,” K'ao–ku, No. 2 (1974), p. 90.Google Scholar

29. E.g. links between the site of Shih–chai–shan and the kingdom of Tien, and the site of Man–ch'eng and the king of Chung–shan.

30. E.g. the paintings of Ma-wang-tui which have prompted. a re–assessment of early Han beliefs in immortality.

31. Sen-yü, Hsü, Han shih ching chi–ts'un (Peking: K'o–hsüeh ch'u–pan–she, 1957).Google Scholar

32. See note 13.

33. I–nan ku hua–hsiang–shih mu fa–chüeh pao–kao (Shanghai: Wen–hua–pu wen–wu–kuan–li–chu, 1956).Google Scholar