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Scribes, Cooks, and Artisans: Breaking Zhou Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Constance A. Cook
Constance A. Cook*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Foreign Languages, Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA 18015
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Abstract

Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou period show how ritualists were once dedicated to maintaining the ritual apparatus supporting the divine authority of the royal Zhou lineage. Bronze and bamboo texts of the Eastern Zhou period reveal, on the other hand, that ritualists able to manipulate local rulers reliant on their knowledge subsequently subverted power into their own hands. Ritualists such as scribes, cooks, and artisans were involved in the transmission of Zhou “power” through the creation and use of inscribed bronze vessels during feasts. The expansion and bureaucratization of their roles in the Chu state provided economic and ultimately political control of the state. This was particularly the case as the Chu, like the Zhou before them, fled east to escape western invaders.

西周銅器銘文顯示了當時參與儀式者是如何盡心竭力地維護象徵周天子神聖統治的禮器的.而東周時期的銅器銘文和竹帛文書則記載了當時的儀式主持者如何仰仗於其對早期禮儀方面的知識而有能力控制操縱地方統治者,從而將權力掌握在自己的手中.這些儀式的參與者,諸如文書, 廚師和手工藝匠人,通過製作及在盛宴中使用這些帶有銘文的靑銅禮器而參與了周王朝“德”的交替變換.他們的作用在周王朝滅亡之後而强盛起來的楚國得到了進一歩的擴張和官僚化,形成了對楚國政權在經濟上, 最終以致在政治上的控制力量.特別是當楚國踵周王朝之前例東遷以避西方入侵之敵時,更是如此.

Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 20 , 1995 , pp. 241 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1995

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References

1. Bronze inscriptions from the Western Zhou era suggest that the title wang was not simply reserved for the Zhou king, but was used by the heads of other powerful lineage heads or the chiefs of other corporate groups outside the sway of the Zhou wang. For examples and discussion, see Liancheng, Lu 盧連成 and Zhisheng, Hu 胡智生, Baoji Yuguo mudi 寶雞漁國墓地 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1988), 421Google Scholar; for an explanation of wang as “Big Man,” see Wenxin, Qi 齊文心,”Wang zi benyi shitan 王字本義試探,” Lishiyanjiu 歴史硏究 1991.4, 141–145Google Scholar.

2. According to the transmitted and paleographical texts, there were hundreds of guo of various sizes that were eventually incorporated by the larger guo. Whether and when a guo qualified as a “state” versus simply a walled-settlement with surrounding agricultural and hunting areas is a point which will not be debated here. The word guo is conventionally translated as “state.” For a extensive study of the rise of the state and of city-states in a reconstruction of ancient China from the perspective of feudalism, see Zhengsheng, Du 杜正勝, Gudai shehui yu guojia 古代社會與國家 (Taibei: Yunchen, 1992)Google Scholar. For an alternative perspective of ancient China, see Constance A. Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou,” (1995 ms.), forthcoming.

3. In an early article, W. A. C. H. Dobson pointed out the connection between ming which he explains as “Heaven's charge” and political legitimacy, see ”Some Legal Instruments of Ancient China: The Ming and the Meng” in Wenlin: Studies in the Chinese Humanities, ed. Tse-tsung, Chow, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), 269–282Google Scholar. As his article focused on the relations between Eastern Zhou period “feudal lords,” he did not explore the fundamental connection of ming for the Zhou to mili-taiy conquest, particularly their conquest over the Shang.

4. For a description of Chu expansion, see Barry Blakeley, “Geographical Parameters of Chu History,” in Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China, eds. Constance A. Cook and John S. Major (forthcoming).

5. For a discussion of the paléographie evidence (bronze inscriptions) for the Zhou exchange and gift-giving system as well as the role of military conquest see Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou.” For examples of ceremonies involving the Meiao 眉敦peoples, see the Bo, Guaigui 乖伯 and the Meiao gui 眉教墓, in Shang Zhou qing-tongeji mingwenxuan 商周靑銅銘文選, eds. Chengyuan, Ma 馬承原 et al., 4 vols. (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1986–1990), vols. I and III, inscription nos. 206 and 480Google Scholar. The Jiunian Wei di'iig 九年衛鼎 (no. 203) also records a visit by a Meiao representative and his receipt of gifts (translated in Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou”). For an example where the Zhou king rewards the attack upon a people to force tribute, as in the case against the Huaiyi see the Shi Huan gui 師桌墓 (no. 439).

6. The use of warfare for expanding territory and for winning prestige and honor during the Eastern Zhou period has been well-documented by Lewis, Mark Edward in his Sanctioned Violence in Early China (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990), esp. 36–43Google Scholar for specific reference to Chu warfare.

7. See Constance A. Cook, “The Ideology of the Chu Ruling Class: Ritual Rhetoric and Bronze Inscriptions,” in Defining Chu.

8. For a discussion of ritual feasting in ancient China, see Cook, Constance, “Ritual Feasting in Ancient China: Preliminary Study I,” The Second international Conference Volume on Chinese Paleography (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1993), 469–487Google Scholar, and Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou.” The confusion of the two xiang is generally not evident in the bronze inscriptions until the Warring States period, e.g., the Zhongshan bronze inscriptions of around 308 B.C. See Xueqin, Li 李學勤 and Ling, Li 李零, “Pingshan sanqi yu Zhongshanguo shi de ruogan wenti” 平山三器與中山國史的若干問題, Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1979.2, 147–170Google Scholar; Constance Cook, , “The Chung-shan Bronze Inscriptions: Introduction and Translation” (M.A. thesis: University of Washington, 1980)Google Scholar.

9. For a discussion of the rise of covenant in the Spring and Autumn period and the ritual involved, see Weld, Susan, “Covenant in Jin's Walled Cities: The Discoveries at Houma and Wenxian” (Ph.D. diss.: Harvard University, 1990)Google Scholar, Chapter 3 “The Covenant Texts and the Ritual Classics,” See also Lewis, , Sanctioned Violence, 43–50Google Scholar.

10. Unfortunately the records of economic transactions are sparse and a thorough study based on recent archaeological finds has yet to be done. I suspect that many military expeditions, such as those of the Zhou and the Chu to the east and south, may have been motivated by the need for resources such as those essential to the ritual system such as cowries or metal alloys for bronze or, in the case of the Chu, to control the flow of resources and exotica desired by northern elites. For the importance of trade in the build-up of the CKu polity see, Heather Peters, “Towns and Trade: Cultural Diversity and Chu Daily Life,” in Defining Chu.

11. See Cook, “Ritual Feasting” and the discussion of the word xiang as a feast for ancestral spirits during the Shang in Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth, “Relationship between Symbolism and Function in Ritual Bronze Art of the Shang: New Archaeological and Bone Inscriptional Evidence” (Ph.D. diss.: New York University, 1984), 274–276Google Scholar.

12. Many examples are discussed in Cook, Constance, “Auspicious Metals and Southern Spirits: An Analysis of the Chu Bronze Inscriptions” (Ph.D. diss.: University of California, Berkeley, 1990), 213–238Google Scholar.

13. Xing was a metaphor drawn from the casting of the sacrificial vessels; see the definition in the Shuowen jieziguiin 說文解字詰林 (rptv Taibei: Dingwen, 1977), 1168Google Scholar.

14. It is unclear if tian for the Zhou referred to a sky spirit, a place that embodied the power of the spirits and/or the supreme spirit (shangdi), or simply to an “idea”; see also the discussion by David Pankenier, “The Cosmo-political Background of Heaven's Mandate,” this issue.

15. For an early example of the tale of conquest, see the Da Yu ding 大孟通

; 丕顯玟王受天有大令,在武王嗣玟作邦, 闢慝敷有四方峻正厥民

The Greatly Manifest King Wen received the Great Mandate from Heaven. When it came to King Wu, he succeeded King Wen and created a nation (bang). Driving out its evil, he extended and possessed the four directions, greatly correcting (i.e., governing) its people (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi ming-wenxuan, no. 62).

For a brief discussion of the names Yin and Shang, see Keightley, David N., Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978) xiii-xiv, xviiGoogle Scholar. For further discussion of the modeling process with numerous examples see Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” and Savage, William E., “Archetypes, Model Emulation, and the Confucian Gentleman,” Early China 17 (1992), 1–26Google Scholar.

16. In Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, the graph 工 represented a series of cognate verbs and nouns all pronounced gong: “to work,” “to attack” (later distinguished as 攻),”artisan” and “merit” (later distinguished as 功).Often the context was ambiguous. See, for example, the Shi Shou ding 師獣鼎 and Meng gui 孟直 inscriptions in Shirakawa Shizuka 白川靜, Kinbun tsūshaku 金文通釋 (Kobe: Hakutsuru Bijutsukan, 1962–1984) I: 366, III: 29-34Google Scholar. For the Meng gui, see also Keightley, David, “Public Work in Ancient China: A Study of Forced Labor in the Shang and Western Chou” (Ph.D. diss.: Columbia University, 1969), 155–156Google Scholar. For further discussion, see Cook, Constance A., “Artisans and the Ritual Role of Metallurgy in Ancient China,” The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, forthcoming)Google Scholar. For a study of how soldiers accrued a record of merit through labor as recorded in the Han bamboo strips of Juyan, see Pingsheng, Hu 胡平生, “Juyan Hanjian zhong de ‘gong’ yu lao'” 居延漢簡中的׳功與׳勞׳ Wenwu 文物 1995.4, 51–55Google Scholar.

17. In the Shi Qiang pan 史墙盤 inscription, the history of the Zhou is re-told in-eluding Shi Qiang's ancestral connections to the kings. It notes that in antiquity during the time of King Wen, the High God “sent down an impressive power and great protection to extend and possess everything above and below (i.e., the world)” (上帝降翁徳大粤敷有上下); Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, no. 225. My translation is adapted from Paul Serruys, “Remarks on the Shih Ch'iang P'an” 1980 ms; see also the commentary by Xigui, Qiu 裘錫圭, “Shi Qiang pan ming jieshi” 史墙盤銘釋, Wenwu 1978.3, 25–26Google Scholar.). Examples also include the Fan Sheng gui 番生墓 and the Liang Qi zhong 梁其鐘(Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi ming-wenxuan, nos. 310 & 397). The Fan Sheng gui has “I, Fan Sheng (the recipient), do not dare to not follow and model myself upon the Brilliant Ancestors' and Dead-fathers' magnificent Primal Power, using it to extend and continue the Great Mandate. …” (番生不敢弗帥型皇祖考丕元德用申絡大令) and the Liang Qi zhong 梁其鐘 (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou aingtongai ming-wenxuan, nos. 310 & 397). The Fan Sheng gui has “I, Fan Sheng (the recipient), do not dare to not follow and model myself upon the Brilliant Ancestors' and Dead-fathers' grasping (their) luminous power. …” (梁其肇帥型皇祖考秉明德).In each case, Fan Sheng and Liang Qi first praised the de and protective behavior of their ancestors first. Liang Qi also referred to how his ancestors had diligently served the former kings. For further examples and notes of the word bing see Cook, “Auspicious Metals,” 229–230, 313–314Google Scholar. See Edward Shaughnessy's discussion on the importance of military activity in Western Zhou inscriptions; Sources of Western Zhou History: Incribed Bronzes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 176–182Google Scholar.

18. For an early Western Zhou use of de in Shang graphic form (i.e. no “heart” 心 signifie) in the context of King Wen, the end of the Zhou conquest, and a feast, see the Tian Wang gui 天亡â (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, no. 23). Early Western Zhou usages with the heart signifie include the He zun 何尊 and the Da Yu ding (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, nos. 32 & 62). In the Da Yu ding the king (the gift-giver) legitimizes himself with the statement “Now I have modeled myself upon and stored up the corrective de of King Wen,”

19. For examples, see Kunio, Shima, Inkyo bokuji sōrui (Tokyo: Kuko shoin, 1971), 101Google Scholar.

20. Serruys, Paul L-M, “Towards a Grammar of the Language of the Shang Bone Inscriptions,” Proceedings of the First international Conference on Sinology: Section on Linguistics and Paleography (Taipei, 1980), 359Google Scholar

21. Nivison, David S., “Royal ‘Virtue’ in Shang Oracle Inscriptions,” Early China 4 (1978–1979), 52–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22. Major, John S., “The Meaning of Hsing-te,” Blanc, Charles Le and Blader, Susan, eds., Chinese Ideas about Nature and Society: Studies in Henour of Derk Bodde (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1987), 281–291Google Scholar.

23. For a discussion of gifts, ming, and contract, see David Keightley, “The Giver and the Gift: The Western Chou State as Social Polity,” (1981 ms.), “The Western Chou as Social Polity: Vassalage without Feudalism,” (1982 ms.); Kane, Virginia, “Aspects of Western Zhou Appointment Inscriptions: The Charge, the Gifts, and the Response,” Early China 8 (1982–1983), 14–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Cook, “Ritual Feasting.”

24. See, for example, the Shi Qiang pan in Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, 191 line 34. Shaughnessy translates zhui as “drop.”

25. For examples see the Xing 滴 inscriptions from Fufeng 扶風, Shaanxi, and the Shu Xiang Fu Yu gui 叔向父禹甚 (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwen-xuan, nos. 266-270, 409).

26. Large scale sacrificial feasts such as the dali 大禮 > 酷or the xiangli 架醴 and other religious occasions may also have been the occasion for the gift-giving ceremony and perhaps preceded the award ceremony. Feasts of thanks and mortuary feasts in which thanks are expressed on the part of the recipient to his ancestral spirits and to the “grace” of the gift-giver most likely followed the ceremony. For translated Shijing descriptions of feasts, see the sections on “Sacrifice,” “Music and Dancing,” “Dynastic Songs” in Waley, Arthur, The Book of Songs (New York: Grove Press, 1960)Google Scholar. As it is difficult to be sure how old these songs are, they are referred to here not as exact descriptions of Western Zhou feasting scenarios but as descriptions that might retain ritual elements of the era before the songs were transcribed (sometime in the Eastern Zhou period).

27. I know of no study as yet that has attempted to link the name of the temple in which the ceremony takes place and the participants. In some cases, the temple is clearly one belonging to a royal ancestor, but in other cases, it is not so clear. For a discussion of temples to royal ancestors, see Lan, Tang 唐蘭,”Xi-Zhou tongqi duandai zhong de Kanggong wenti” 西周銅器斷代中的康宮問題, Kaogu xuebao 1962.1, 15–48Google Scholar. The architectural structure of these individual enclosures is also unclear: were they perhaps single structures attached to the side of a tomb complex as the later “Hall for Mortuary Feasts” (xiangtang 享堂)(see n. 64 below) or were they rooms in a larger structure as seen in the building excavated in Qishan 岐山, Shaanxi (kaogudui, Shaanxi Zhou-yuan, “Shaanxi Qishan Fengchucun Xi-Zhou jianzhu jizhi fajue jianbao” 陕 Wenwu 1979.10, 27–37Google Scholar)?

28. See, for example, the case of the recipient Mian 免 and the Elder Jing 井伯 , both of Zheng 鄭, in Cook, “Artisans.”

29. See Cook, , “Ritual Feasting,” 476Google Scholar for discussion and 482-484 for tables with examples from both the Western and Eastern Zhou periods. Ritualists will be further discussed below.

30. An early Western Zhou set of inscriptions, the Shi Yu zun 師俞尊 and ding 鼎, place de instead of xiu in this formula (Shirakawa, , Kinbun tsūshaku, III, 14–15Google Scholar). For examples and a debate over the meaning of dui yang, see Wenzhuo, Shen 沈文悼, “Duiyang bushi” 對揚補釋, Kaogu 1963.4, 182Google Scholar and Yun, Lin 林沄 and Yachu, Zhang 張 亞初, “‘Ouiyang bushi' zhiyi”’ 對揚捕釋׳質疑, Kaogu 1964.5, 246–248Google Scholar.

31. See the Ling gui 令签, (Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, no. 94).

32. For further discussion and examples, see Cook, “Ritual Feasting”; Yu, Liu 劉雨, “Xi-Zhou jinwen zhong de Da Feng Xiao Feng he citianli” 西周金文辛的大封小封和賜田里, in Kaoguxue lunwenji 考舌學論文桌 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogusuo, 1993), 315–322Google Scholar; Falkenhausen, Lothar von, Suspended Music: Chime-bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 25–32Google Scholar.

33. See the reconstruction and discussion of this dance from separate Shijing odes by Zuoyun, Sun 孫作云, Shijing yu Zhoudai shehui yanjiu 詩經周代社會硏究 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), 239–272Google Scholar; for a translation see Cook, , “The Great War Dance,” in The World Treasury of Poetry (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., forthcoming)Google Scholar. In the Ling gui inscription the recipient sang one stanza from this dance to “extol” the gift-giver during a mortuary feast; see n. 31 above. Robert Eno claimed that the “Great War Dance” recorded in the Han ritual text Liji as part of a royal sacrifice may have been part of the repertoire of li forms practiced by early Ruists; see The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990), 36Google Scholar. It is unclear whether the early Ruists were actual descendants of Zhou ritualists (or a Zhou school of ritual) and thus maintained a tradition or simply a group of disaffected sons of the elite looking for a cause and thus re-creating a tradition from remnants they associated with the Zhou.

34. See Childs-Johnson, , “Relationship,” Chang, K.C., Art, Myth, and Ritual: the Path to Political Authority in Ancient China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

35. Shang ritualists included what Chen Mengjia 陳夢家 labels the shi 史class of officials, as opposed to chen 臣 “subservient” or wu 武 “military” class officers (Yinxu bud zongshu 虛卜辭綜述 [Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1956], 503–522Google Scholar). The shi class includes those who were most associated with the performance and interpretation of ceremonies that involve relations with the spirits: yin 尹, zuoce 作冊, bu 卜 and duobu 多卜, gong 工 and duogong 多工, shi 史 and li 吏.For the ranks of scribes during the Western Zhou period see Yachu, Zhang 張亞初 and Yu, Liu 劉雨eds., Xi-Zhou jinwen guanzhi yanjiu 西周金文官制硏究 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 26–36Google Scholar, and Hanping, Chen 陳漢平, Xi-Zhou cemingzhidu yanjiu 西周冊命制度硏究 (Shanghai: Xuelin, 1986), 119–130Google Scholar.

36. For a discussion of the duties of shi in transmitted texts, see Hanjing, Xi 席涵靜, Zhoudai shiguan yanjiu 周代史官硏究 (Taipei: Fuji wenhua tushu, 1983)Google Scholar; Chang-yang, Lai 賴長揚 and Xiang, Liu 劉翔, “Liang Zhou shiguan kao” 兩周史官考, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史 1985.2, 97–108Google Scholar. For a discussion of the dashi, see Lewis, , Sanctioned Violence, 17 ffGoogle Scholar.

37. Earlier studies on the zai and shanfu emphasize their role in royal household and in domestic politics, Creel, Herrlee G., The Origins of Statecraft in China Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 118–121Google Scholar. Their roles were like the shi multifaceted. For their role in mortuary ritual and sacrificial feasts, see Fujin, Xu 徐復金ed., Yili shisangli jixili yijie yanjiu 儀禮士喪禮旣夕禮儀節硏究 (Taipei: Hongshi, 1979), 14–24Google Scholar.

38. The best example is the Wei 微 family described by Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 113 n. 10, 183-192Google Scholar.

39. Fubao, Ding福保 ed., Shuowen jiezi gulin zhengbu hebian 說文解字話林正補合編 (rpt., Taipei: Dingwen, 1978), 1063Google Scholar. For biographical information on Xu Shen and his presentation of the Shuowen jiezi to the throne in 121, see Roth, Harold, The Textual History of the Huai-nan Tzu (Ann Arbor: AAS Monograph, 1992), 34–36Google Scholar.

40. For shi, see Shuowen jiezi gulin, 1068, and for zhi see 1090. The three words were probably cognates: Karlgren reconstructs:事 *dz'ig; 史 *slig, 職 *lik; Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1972)Google Scholar, nos. 971, a-c, 975, a-f, g). The “recording of minutia” (jiwei 記微) may also have connoted the recording of the “mysterious.”

41. The Xizhuan 繁傳 commentary was collected by Xu Kai 徐鍇, an Inner Scribe in the Southern Tang court which lasted from 937 to 975.

42. For a history of the debate and the authors own interpretations based on earlier transmitted texts, see Lai Changyang and Liu Xiang, “Liang Zhou shiguan kao.”

43. See, for example, Gan, Lao 勞餘, “Shi zi de jiegou ji shiguan de yuanshi zhivvu” 史字結構及史官的原始職務, Dalu zazhi 大陸雜誌 14.3 (02 15, 1957), 1–6Google Scholar, and Dianmin, Zhang 張殿民,”Cong Shang Zhou kaogu ciliao tan woguo shiguanzhi de jige wenti” 從商周考古資料談我國史官制度的幾個問題, Beifang luncong 北方論叢 1985.2, 38–41Google Scholar.

44. See Creel, Origins of Statecraft, and Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History. See also the review of Shaughnessy's book by von Falkenhausen, Lothar, “Issues in Western Zhou Studies,” Early China 18 (1993), 146ffGoogle Scholar. While I disagree with much of Falkenhausen's specific analysis of inscriptions and their role in Western Zhou ritual and society (see Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou” for a different analysis), he has made the important observation that one can not ignore the ritual context of the bronze vessel when analyzing the inscriptions.

45. See Lai, and Liu, , Liang Zhou shiguan, 103Google Scholar; Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 169Google Scholar.

46. Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 193–216Google Scholar.

47. Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 213Google Scholar; see also 196 n. 8 where Shaughnessy refers to “corps of scribes” (dashiliao 大史寮) mentioned in late Western Zhou period inscriptions.

48. Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 169Google Scholar. His use of the term “castor” must be understood as a metaphor for the entire casting and inscribing process initi¬ated by the royal authorization to zuo 作, “initiate” or “make,” a sacrificial vessel. We must not assume that the numerous and various gift-recipients were themselves artisans or even scribes (although many were shi 師 “[military] masters” or “commanders”, a title used by artisans in the late Warring States period). While there may be a legitim ate doubt that the Shang diviners may have been involved in the actual crafting and inscribing of the bone, we cannot assume the same for the technically sophisticated bronzes.

49. Chang, , Art, Myth, and Ritual 90–91Google Scholar.

50. See the Zuoce Ban yan 作冊般航(Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi ming wenxuan, no. 8) and Bagley, Robert, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collec-Hon (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 530Google Scholar.

51. Shaughnessy based his observation on a quote from the Zhouli 周禮: see Sources of Western Zhou History, 175-182.

52. On the scribe as the earliest “storyteller,” see Shi, Hu 胡適, “Shuo ׳ shi” 說‘史’, Dalu zazhi 16.11 (1955), 1–2Google Scholar.

53. In the Mai fangzun 麥方尊 inscription, the zuoce was also referred to as a ruling lord (bihou 辟侯). If we can rely on this unauthenticated inscription, we know that scribes were also local rulers.

54. Chen Hanping divided the numerous similar-sounding titles into four overlapping classes; Xi-Zhou ceming zhidu, 124. Lai and Liu's chart shows a different ranking; Liang Zhou shiguan, 101. They see a major division between the tai shi 太史 and nei shi 內史, groups that correspond to the Liji description of scribes.

55. See Xiaosui, Yao 姚孝遂, Yinxu jiagu keci leizuan 殷虛甲古刻辭類篸 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989), 353Google Scholar: Moruo, Guo 郭沫若, ed., Jiaguwen heji 甲古文合集, 13 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1978–1982)Google Scholar, nos. 5452, 5618, 27894, 32980, 33209, 5840, 9472, 22083.

56. Jiaguwen heji, no. 5450.

57. This is understood as “our scribes,” meaning scribes of the royal house. The fragmentary nature of the bone inscriptions does not rule out the interpretation of “our service” or “our affairs, duty.” Other inscriptions with wo shi, however, suggest that officials were being referred to rather than “affairs”.

58. Dianmin, Zhang, “Cong Shang Zhou kaogu,” 39Google Scholar.

59. Jiaguwen heji, nos. 26937, 25950.

60. Hanping, Chen, “Xi Zhou ceming zhidu,” 124Google Scholar.

61. For a general description of the Eastern Zhou economy, see Hsu, Cho-yun, Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social Mobility, 722–222 BC (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965): 107–139Google Scholar; for more recent discussions regarding the development of a market economy in early China, see Hongyan, Zhang 張鴻雁, Chunqiu Zhan-guo chengshi jingjifazhan shilun 春秋戰國城市經濟發展 (Shenyang: Liaoning daxue chubanshe, 1988)Google Scholar; Feng, Cai 蔡鋒, “Chunqiu Zhanguo lisu de chayixing ji qi dui she-hui biange de yingxiang” 春秋戰國禮俗的差異性及其對社會變革的影響, Gansu lilun xuekan 甘肅理論學刊 1991.3, 58–62Google Scholar; Shao Hong 邵鴻 ”‘Gong shang shi guan’ xinjie” ׳工商食官'新解, Nanjing xuebao 1991.6, 54–55Google Scholar; Huaming, Lai 賴華明, “Lun Zhanguo Qin Han de shangyechao” 論戰國秦漢的商業潮, Sichuan shifan daxue xue׳ bao (shehui kexue מ〕四川師范大學學報 (社會科學版) 22.1 (1994), 112–120Google Scholar.

62. See Cook, “The Ideology of the Chu Ruling Class,” for examples.

63. The state of Chu rose and reached a peak of power during the Spring and Autumn period, no doubt owing in part to its access and control over goods coveted by the north. See Peters, “Towns and Trade”; Zhimei, Shu 舒之梅, “Chuguo jingji fazhan mailuo” 楚國經濟發展脈絡, Jiang-Han lunian 江漢論壇 1984.4, 69–75Google Scholar; Rencheng, Guo 郭仁成, “Chuguo shangye chutan” 楚國商業初探, Jiang-Han luntan 1984.5, 75–79Google Scholar; Dexin, Zhao 趙德馨, “Chuguo jinbi liutong diyu de kaocha” 楚國金幣流通地域的考察, kaogu 江漢考古 1985.3, 66–72Google Scholar.

64. There may have been a xiangtang “hall for present mortuary feasts” that was burned; see the discussions by Zhongshu, Wang 王仲殊,”Zhongguo gudai muzang gaishuo” 中國古代墓葬概說, Kaogu 1981.5, 449–459Google Scholar; Shimin, Wang 王世民, “Zhong-guo Chunqiu Zhanguo shidai de zhongmu” 中國春秋戰國時代的冢墓, Kaogu 1981.5, 459–466Google Scholar; Hongxun, Yang 楊鴻勳,”Guanyu Qindai yiqian mushang jianzhu de wenti” 關于秦代以前墓上建築的問題, Kaogu 1982.4, 402–406Google Scholar. No Chu royal tombs have been excavated from this period. Yiling was clearly located near the capital Ying, most likely the Ying located in southwestern Hubei at Jinancheng 記南城 in Jiangling district. Yang Minghong 楊明洪 suggests the Balingshan 乂岭山 section where a number of ancient tombs of different ages are located (”Chu Yiling tantao” 楚夷陵探討, Jiang-Han kaogu 1983.2, 66–67, 73Google Scholar). The Baoshan 包山 bamboo texts found here in the 290 B.C. tomb of a court official mention a number of places with the name X-ling (see kaogudui, Hubeisheng Jingsha tielu, Baoshan Chujian 包山楚簡[Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1991], nos. 12, 40, 106, 112, 117, 155, and 166)Google Scholar. They do not mention an Yiling, although there was a village named Yi (strip no. 124). The word ling, according to the Shuowen, means a large mound; whether or not this specifically refers to a manmade mound is unclear. Yang Kuan楊寬understands it as a mausoleum; see Zhong-guo gudai lingqin zhidushi yanjiu 中國古代陵寢制度史硏究 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 1985)Google Scholar.

65. Shiji 40 (Kametaro, Takikawa 瀧川龜太郞, Shiki kaichu koshō 史記會注考證[rpt., Taipei: Hongshi, 1977], 663Google Scholar (78 in the original)); Zhanguoce, “Qin ce, 4.9 “ (Zhan-guocejizhu huikao 戰國策集注棄考 [rptv Jiangsu: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1985], 377Google Scholar).

66. Shiji 84 (Shiki kaichu koshō, 103); for English summaries of Qu Yuan's life, see Walker, Galal, “Toward a Formal History of the Chuci” (Ph.D. diss.: Cornell University, 1982), 12, 22–108Google Scholar; Hawkes, David, The Songs of the South (Hannondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985), 32–33, 51–66Google Scholar; Schneider, Laurence, A Madman of Chu: The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

67. In the biography of the Lord of Chunshen, Shiji 78, Sima Qian simply noted that Huang was a wandering learned man of Chu; but in chapter 64 (“You xia lie-zhuan” 游俠歹傳) Chunshen is listed as a member of the Chu royal family. The Han Feizi 韓非子 (Sibu beiyao ed.), 4.15a, refers to Chunshen as the younger son of Chu king Zhuang (r. 616-591). This was obviously an error unless a different Chunshen was meant. For details and further discussion see Linyi, He 何林儀, “Chu Eling jun sanqi kaobian” 楚郎陵君三器考辨, Jiang Han kaogu 1984.1, 103–104Google Scholar. Chunshen's activities are also recorded in the Zhanguoce “Chu ce,” 3.10, “Chu ce, 4.9-13 “.

68. For a reconstruction of the Ying capital at Shouchun from textual and archaeological evidence, see Yingjie, Qu 曲英杰,”Chudu Shouchun Yingcheng fuyuan yan-jiu” 楚都壽春郢城復原研究 1992.3, 81–90Google Scholar.

69. This tale is preserved in the Shiji 78 (18; 970) and at length in Zhanguoce “Chu ce,” 4.12.

70. For a discussion of the state's failure based on its adherence to the antiquated Zhou ideology of “invested lords” (fengjun 封君), see Chang, Wei 魏昌,”Lun Chuguo monian zhengzhi de shiwu yu baiwang” 論楚國末年政治的朵誤與敗亡, Jingzhou shizhuan xuebao (shehui kexue ban) 荆州專學報 (社會科學版) 1992.4, 17–22Google Scholar.

71. See Blakeley, , “King, Clan, and Courtier in Ancient Ch'u” Asia Major, 3rd Series, 5.2, 1–39Google Scholar.

72. The Chu in fact had been in contact with eastern cultures for hundreds of years through either warfare or trade. For Chu's military expansion into the Huai river region, particularly during the fifth century B.C., see Blakeley, “The Geographical Parameters,” in Defining Chu.

73. For translation and discussion of Chu bronze inscriptions, see Cook “Auspi-cious Metals”; for the Shouxian set, 523-555; for the Wuxi set, 556-561.

74. Blakeley, , “In Search of Danyang. I: Historical Geography and Archaeological Sites,” Early China 13 (1988), 116–152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75. See my discussions in Cook, “The Ideology of the Chu Ruling Class,” and in Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 241–259Google Scholar; see also Qikang, Sun 孫啓康, “Chuqi ‘Wangsun Yizhe zhong’ kaobian” 楚器׳王孫遺鐘׳考辨, Jiang Han kaogu 1983.4, 41–46Google Scholar; hausen, Falken, “Ritual Music in Bronze Age China: An Archeological Perspective” (Ph.D. diss.: Harvard University, 1989), 1078–1086Google Scholar.

76. Falkenhausen suggests that bells in particular may have been the gift that Chu kings gave their vassals; see “Chu Ritual Music,” 85. By this time, the Zhou rhetoric of gift-giving had fallen into disuse. Bronzes since the late Western Zhou period were generally claimed by those who commission their manufacture to be zizuo 自作, “made on one's own initiative.” During the Western Zhou, this indicated the local (versus metropolitan) manufacture of the bronze (see articles by Michio, Matsumaru 松丸道雄 and Shō, Wusha 武者章 in Matsumaru, ed.. Sei-Shū seidōki to sono kokka 西周靑銅器國家 [Tokyo: Tokyo daigakku, 1980], 2–180, 141–324)Google Scholar. This convention during the Eastern Zhou period was used by every local ruler or member of the elite who through political or military access to bronze resources was able to commission the manufacture of bronze ritual vessels or bells.

77. See Zuo zhuan, Xiang 31, where the ritualist explains that if you possess wei 畏, “make others fear you,” you have the ability to be awe-inspiring or fearsome (wei), and if you possesses yi, you have the ability to be an emblem (xiang 像, behavior that others will emulate and respect). One must exhibit an “awe-inspiring demeanor” in order to maintain social order and to preserve one's status.

78. See, for example, the feasting of an envoy from Wei at Lu; Zuo zhuan, Wen 4. Afterwards it is explained that certain songs were originally played by the king when lords came to his court and that the king would give gifts “to show how a feast was one of recompense”; see Legge, , The Chinese Classics, vol. 5, 239Google Scholar.

79. This assumes that shi and yin posts were hereditary rather than earned, although there appears to have been a great deal of flexibility as to the assignment of ranks. Although Hsu Cho-yun and Katheryn Linduff interpret this flexibility as evi-deuce of the influence of incipient institutionalization (see Western Chou Civilization [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988], 255–256)Google Scholar, it might more simply confirm Liu Yu's suggestion that ranks, like property, all belonged to the king (“Xi-Zhou jinwen zhong de Dafeng Xiaofeng”).

80. This bell was included in a set entombed with Lord Yi of Zeng; see Thorp, Robert L., “The Sui Xian Tomb: Re-thinking the Fifth Century,” Artibus Asiae 43 (1981–1982), 67–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar. His tomb was discovered at Leigudun 擂鼓敦, in Suizhou 隨州, Hubei. Two bells with the same inscription were discovered in the area during the Sung period. Qian Boquan 錢־白泉 suggests that these bells may have been originally left in the Zeng ancestral temple (“Guanyu Zeng Hou Yi mu Chu boming kaoshi de shangque” 關于曾侯乙墓楚餺銘文考釋的商椎, Jiang Han kaogu 1984.4: 93–94Google Scholar). The central chamber of the tomb was set up to imitate a ritual feast with musical instruments set up along the northern and western walls and vessels for eating and drinking concentrated behind one set of bell tiers along the southern wall and with some large drinking vessels along eastern wall.

81. Falkenhausen assumes that because the inscription notes that King Hui made it for Zeng Hou Yi that the bell was “undoubtedly a Chu product” (“Chu Ritual Music” 70). However, the graph 寺 for zhi 之 is found on other Zeng Hou inscriptions and not on Chu inscriptions (Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 485–486Google Scholar). This suggests a loca manufacturing site or at least a common scribal tradition for all these inscriptions.

82. Western Zhou examples include the Dayu ding, Shi Ju gui 師遽墓, and Wu fang-yi 吳方弊: see Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, nos. 62, 196, 246.

83. The bell was possibly one of a set of sacrificial bronzes presented; see Thorp, , “The Sui Xian Tomb,” 68–72Google Scholar; Falkenhausen, , Suspended Music, 51Google Scholar.

84. Falkenhausen from other bronze evidence suggests that there was intermar¬riage between Chu and Zeng (Suspended Music, 6 n. 18). If Zeng Hou Yi was King Hui's grandfather, then the memorial nature of the bell inscription would be unusual but still characteristic of ancestor worship. Unfortunately, this explanation is unlikely given the fact that King Hui had the bell made during the fifty-sixth year of his reign. It would seem unlikely that the king would patronize the lineage of a father-in-law with as much pomp as evident in the bamboo lists of donations in the tomb (Thorp, 'The Sui Xian Tomb,” 72).

85. The inscription states that the king had just returned from Xiyang and that the “sacrificial temple bronze” was to be placed in Xiyang where it would be used for mortuary feast. Although the location of Xiyang is unknown, it must have been the site of the ancestral temple of Zeng (see Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 482–488Google Scholar).

86. Ling, Li. “Formulaic Structure of Chu Divinatory Bamboo Slips,” Early China 15 (1990), 71–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hao, Peng 彭浩, “Baoshan erhao Chumu bushi he jidao zhujian de chu-buyanjiu” 山二號楚墓卜筮和祭禱竹簡的初步硏究, in Baoshan Chumu 包山楚墓, ed. kaogudui, Hubeishen Jingsha tielu, 2 vols. (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1991), 555–563Google Scholar.

87. See Binhui, Liu 劉彬徽 and Hao, He 何浩, “Lun Baoshan Chujian zhong de jichu Chu Ying diming” 論包山楚簡中的幾處楚郢地名, in Baoshan Chumu, 564–567Google Scholar. The bamboo texts discovered in the Jiangling or Jinancheng region all date to between 350 and 300 B.C. (Ling, Li, “Formulaic Structure,” 71Google Scholar). For a description of Baoshan tomb no. 2 and its contents, see Susan Weld, “Legal Administration: Cases from the Provinces,׳ in Defining Chu.

88. See Hanjing, Xi, Zhoudai zhuguan 周代祝官硏究 (Taipei: Lizhi, 1978), 140–150Google Scholar; Carr, Michael, “Personation of the Dead in Ancient China,” Computational Analysis of Asian and African Languages 24 (1985), 1–107Google Scholar; Xinsheng, Hu 胡新生, “Zhoudai jisi zhong de lishili ji qi zongjiao yiyi” 周代祭祀羊的立尸禮及其宗敎意義, Shijie zong-jiao yanjiu 世界宗敎硏究 1990.4, 14–25Google Scholar; Yujie, Li 李玉潔, “Lun Zhoudai de shiji ji qi yuanliu” 論周代的尸祭及其源流, Henau daxue xuebao (Shehui kexue ban) 河南大學學報) 社會科學版) 1992.1, 27–30, 13Google Scholar.

89. We see, for example, on the Hu ding of the middle Western Zhou period, a gift-giving ceremony in which the recipient Hu was taking the place of his father in the ancestral position of “divination service officer” (bushi 卜事〉史)(Ma Chengyuan, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwenxuan, no. 242). Divination on the morning of the Zhou conquest is discussed in Hsu, and Linduff, , Western Chou Civilization, 94–95Google Scholar, and in Shaughnessy, , Sources of Western Zhou History, 94–95Google Scholar.

90. See, for example, strips 197-249 in Baoshan Chujian, 32-37. Perhaps, one of the duties of the zuoyin was to perform divination for the king. See Zuo zhuan, Zhao 13 where a member of the Guan family (possibly originally from the state of Chen or Cai) is appointed as “Divination Minister” (buyin) because his ancestors used to be in charge of tortoise divination. One of the diviners in the Baoshan text was also of the Guan family. His specialty seems also to have been tortoise divination (see strips 230-231).

91. Guoyu, “Chu yü, xia” (Sibu beiyao ed.), 18.1a-5a. For details on Guan Shefu, see Hanmin, Xiao 蕭漢明, “Guan Shefu- Chunqiu moqi Chuguo zongjiao sixiangjia” 觀射父一春秋末期楚國宗敎思想家, Jiang Han luntan 1986.5, 60–65Google Scholar.

92. For a discussion of the multiple personalities and roles of Zhu Rong see Constance Cook, , “Three High Gods of Chu,” Journal of Chinese Religions 22 (Fall 1994), 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

93. For a study of artisans as ritualists in Han records, see Chard, Robert, “Magidans as Artisans: A Han Usage of the Word Kung 工,” Phi Theta Papers 16 (08 1984), 61–81Google Scholar.

94. Guangjun, Li 李光, “Qin ‘gongshi’ kao” 秦׳工師׳考, Wewbo 文博 1992.3, 59–64, 72Google Scholar, suggests that including the name of artisans on Qin bronzes was a method of forcing them to be responsible for their work.

95. They are described in the Zuo zhuan as being the officials in charge of state sacrifices (Min 2).

96. See Jenny So, “Chu Art: Intermediary between Ancient and Modern,” Defining Chu, where she discusses the shift of the use of prestigious materials in courtly ritual to private entertainment. Falkenhausen has noticed a similar shift in the use of ritual music (“Chu Ritual Music,” 95).

97. Ling, Li 李零 and Yu, Liu, “Chu Eling Jun sanqi,” 33–34Google Scholar; He Linyi, “Chu Eling Jun sanqi.”

98. See Cook, “Three High Gods of Chu.”

99. Shuqin, Cao 曹淑琴 and Weizhang, Yin 殷璋璋, “Shouxian Zhujiaji tongqiqun yanjiu” 赛春朱家集銅器群硏究, Kaoguxue wenhua lunji I, ed. Bingqi, Su 蘇秉奇 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1987), 199–220Google Scholar. The names of officers in charge of many of these food categories are also found in the Baoshan and Tianxingguan Chu bamboo texts; see Benxing, Hao 郝本性,”Shouchun Chuqi jidou zhuming kaoshi” 赛春楚器集脰諸銘考釋, Guwenzi yanjiu 古文字硏究 10 (1983), 205–213Google Scholar; CBingxin, hen 陳秉新, “Shouchun Chuqi mingwen kaoshi shiling” 壽春楚器銘文考釋拾零, Chu wenhua yanjiu lunji 楚文化硏究論集, Vol. 1 (Hubei: Jing Chu shushe, 1987), 327–340Google Scholar. Sacrificial offering categories include grains (raw, cooked, and in soups), wines, and sliced meats.

100. See the Shuihudi Qinmu zhujian 睡虎地秦墓竹簡, “Falü dawen” 法律答問, slips no. 192 and 193. For a discussion of these terms and their relation to the X-ren category of food specialists in the ritual texts, see Zhenglang, Zhang 張政浪, “Qinlü ‘Jiren’ yinyi” 秦律׳集人׳音義, Yunmeng Qinjian yanjiu 雲参秦簡硏究 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 346–350Google Scholar.

101. For the titles of metallurgists in different states, see Chao, Zhao 趙超, “‘Zhushi’ kao” ‘禱師’考, paper presented at the Tenth Annual Paleography Conference, Jilin, China, 08 1988, 8Google Scholar. In the Three Jin region they were: gong shi I 師, ye 冶, and zhiqi 執齊; in Qin, they were gong shi, gong dafu 工大夫, zheng 添, and gong; in Yen, they were gong yin and gong. All examples appear on weapons except Chu titles which appear also on food vessels.

102. Dexi, Zhu 朱徳熙 and Xigui, Qiu 裘錫圭,”Zhanguo tongqi mingwen zhong de shiguan” 戰國銅器銘文中的食官, Wenwu 1973.12, 59–61, 13Google Scholar. Hao Benxing under¬stands jidou to refer to the officer in charge of xiu 羞 “sacrificial foods” (“Shouchun Chuqi jidou” 211). Chen Bingxin understands the Chu officer jidou to be equivalent to the shangxiu or shanfu “Chief Cook” in the ritual texts (“Shouchun Chuqi mingwen”). For examples of Han inscribed bronzes made for the “kitchen” see Shanggong, Xue 薛尙功, Lidai zhong-ding yiqi kuanzhi 歷代鐘鼎彝器款識 (rpt., Liaoning: Liaoshen, 1985), 405–407Google Scholar.

103. Baoshan chujian, strips 224-225. The same graph was incised into the decor on the lid of the Chu Wang Yin Ken qiaoding in the line: jidou gongding 集胆舡鼎, “The Chief Cook's offering cauldron” (Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 525, 528, 530Google Scholar). For a description of a kitchen for preparing sacrifices at the Lishan mausoleum of Qin period, see Xueli, Wang 王學理, “‘Lishan shiguan’ (dongduan) fuyuan de gonxiang’” Ä山食官׳ (東段) 復原的构想, Kaogu yu wenwu 1989.5, 125–129Google Scholar. The use of drainage in the food preparation area of this kitchen leads me to suspect that a similar drainage system in two back courtyards behind the central platformed hall in the Zhou temple at Fengchu may also been used in sacrificial food preparation (see the renderings in Hsu, and Linduff, , Western Chou Civilization, 292–293Google Scholar).

104. Keightley, , “Public Work in Ancient China,” 26–64, 178Google Scholar.

105. See, for example, Cheng 16, Xuan 12, Zhao 12 and 27. For a discussion of the Chu Minister of Works and other Chu “yin” (Ministers), see Gongwen, Sung 宋公文, Ckushi xintan 楚史新探 (Zhengzhou: Henan daxue chubanshe, 1988), 342–344Google Scholar.

106. The gong yin commanded the service personnel to perform prayers and sacrifices to the specific ancestral spirits recorded in the Baoshan divination text, strip nos. 224 and 225. A gong yin is also listed as one of many gift-givers in the Zeng Hou Yi bamboo record on tomb donations (see Yunhuan, Luo 羅ί環, “Guwenzi ziliao suo jian Chuguo guanji yanjiu” 古文字資料所見楚國官制硏究, in Chu wenhua yanjiu lunji II [Hubei: Hubei renmin, 1991], 278–280Google Scholar). It is clear from the Baoshan bamboo texts that there were many local gong yin and dou yin officers as well as those at the main court.

107. For the management of the purchase and casting of metals, see the Ε Jun Tallies 鄂君節, the Baoshan metal records (strip nos. 103-119), and the inscription on the Chu bronze measure cup found in Changsha (Luo Yunhuan, “Guwenzi ziliao suo jian”). One of the officers under the command of the gong yin was the ji yin, possibly a bronze caster or metallurgist of some kind (Benxing, Hao, “Shi lun Chuguo qiming zhong suo jian de fu he zhuzao zuzhi” 試論楚國器銘中所見的府和鑄造組織, in Chu wenhua yanjiu lunji I, 321–324Google Scholar). I suspect that the ji yin was a master ritualist in charge of cooking vessels and their use as other ji-X officers were all concerned with food ritual preparation. However, the jidou yin (the Chief Cook), like the gong yin (see n. 106 above), was involved in the donation of items for burial in tombs; see ”Jiangling Tianxingguan yihao Chumu” 江陵天星觀一號楚墓, Kaogu xuebao 1982.1, 108–109Google Scholar). Interestingly, in both cases the donations were of items for chariots or of weapons and not of food vessels, suggesting that both officers were rather high in a ritual bureaucracy that included a variety of interrelated jobs. See also the caidou yin 采胆尹, whom I understand to be the same as or similar to a jidou yin, in charge of Baoshan donations (strip no. 278, the only strip with writing found in a bundle of bamboo strips placed on top of a bronze basin in the western chamber; Baoshan Chujian, 3, 39). This officer came from the same family as did one of the diviners in the Baoshan divination text.

108. Gong yin and gong shi were terms used for officers in charge of metallurgy and other manufactured products (such as weaving) in other states besides Chu (xing, Hao Ben, “Shi lun,” 321–322Google Scholar).

109. Zhu Rong's duty was titled huozheng 火正 (Shiji 40). The duty of the gong yin was referred to in the Zuozhuan as gongzheng 工正 (Xuan 4).

110. This is recorded in the Zuozhuan and the Chu bamboo divination texts; see Cook, “Three High Gods.”

111. See Savage, , “Archetypes,” 18–25Google Scholar for Confucian worship of what was then understood to be Zhou culture and the “assault on hereditary privilege” by the ministerial class.

a Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 23. The vessels was discovered in 1844 in Qishan district, Shaanxi. It is now in the History Museum in Beijing. A photo of the vessel is published in the Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 1958.1:52Google Scholar. This is a difficult inscription due to its archaic style and graphs. I consider this translation tentative. There is a large body of commentary on the inscription. I have consulted: Shuda, Yang 楊樹達, “Guanshe Zhoudai shishi zhi yiming wupian” 關涉周代史實之彝銘五篇, Lishi yanjiu 1954.2: 118–20Google Scholar; Mengjia, Chen, “Xi Zhou tongqi duandai (1)” 西周銅器斷代, Kaogu xuebao 1955.9:14–21Google Scholar; Moruo, Guo 郭沫若,Yin-Zhou cjingtongqi mingwen yanjiu 殷周鲁銅器銘文硏究 (Beijing: Renmin, 1958)Google Scholarzhuan 1, 17–32Google ScholarPubMed; Zuoyun, Sun, Shijing yu Zhoudai, 57–64Google Scholar.

b For the reading of li as the Sweet Wine Ritual, see the documentation in Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 116–121Google Scholar.

c Traditionally this line is interpreted as the performance of the dali or xiangli at the Biyong pool, following the Mai zun, Jing gui 靜墓, and other inscriptions which records the king floated around in the Great Pool shooting large birds before performing sacrifices and gift-giving rituals (see Ma Chengyuan et al., V.III, n.2; Cook, “Auspicious Metals” op cit.). Here, I have followed the interpretation of Lin Yim, who in his paper “Tian Wang gui 'si yu Tianshi' xinjie” 天亡簋׳祀于天室׳新解 (presented at the International Conference on Western Zhou Civilization, Xian 1993) suggested that the entire ceremony took place on top of Song mountain south of Luoyang as an ur-fengshan ritual after King Wu׳s successful conquest of the Shang.

d Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 232. For extensive annotation, see Cook, “Auspicious Metals” 292-298. Four gut vessels with this inscription were found in a cache in Wu-gong district, Shaanxi with six other inscribed vessels.

e Chengyuan, Ma, “Shuo duan” 說喘, Guwenzi yanjiu 12 (1985): 173–80Google Scholar.

f Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 220. This vessel was found in 1959 in a ditch north of Nansipocun 南寺坡村, Lantian 藍田 city, Shaanxi. It is presently in the Shaanxi Provincial Historical Museum. A Sung hand-copy of a different inscription by a army commander named Xu was recorded by Xue Shanggong (see Kinbun tsūshaku III.710–20Google Scholar). For an early commentary on the excavated bronze and the Song version, see Moruo, Guo, “Er Shu gui ji Xun gui kaoshi,” 弭叔簋及訇簋考釋 Wenwu 1960.2: 5–9Google Scholar.

g For the interpretation of gift items, I generally follow Wong Yin-wai黃然偉,Yin Zhou qingtongqi shangci mingwen yanjiu 酾編扁匪闞 (Hong Kong: Longmen, 1978), 163–185Google Scholar and Hanping, Chen, Xi-Zhou ceming, 223–62Google Scholar. For a partially translated list, see Shaughnessy, , Sources, 82–83Google Scholar.

h Typically, choreographic details (even abbreviated ones such as these) are found the beginning of the inscription with a dating given in Zhou agricultural years, nian, although Zhou inscriptions with dating formulas using the Shang sacrificial calendar term, si, are usually placed at the end. This may have influenced the placement of the choreographic information after the king's oration and charge.

h Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 427. For museum locations of these bells, presumably found in Chang'an, Shaanxi, see Falkenhausen, , Suspended Music, p. 358Google Scholar. For a commentary on this inscription in the context of similar inscriptions see Cook, , “Auspi-cious Metals,” 213–59, esp. 229–30Google Scholar; see also Kinbun tsūshaku 111:368Google Scholar.

j For how the term lin might refer to “ordered bells,” see Falkenhausen, , Suspended Music, 91Google Scholar.

k It is unclear whether these reduplicated words, such as (*miok-miok in the first line), are included in the text of the inscription to imitate either bell sounds or other special sounds intoned during the ceremony. See Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 226–53Google Scholar where I suggest these sounds represent not only the sound of the bells but the sound of the spirits sending down blessings. Falkenhausen refers to the “singing” of the bells imitated in some inscriptions (Suspended Music, 199).

l Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 644. The vessel is from Tomb 2 at the sixth century B.C.E. Xiasi Chu mortuary complex in Xichuan, Henan. For full discussion and detailed annotation of the site and all published inscriptions up to 1990 see Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 375–410, esp. 385–96Google Scholar; see also Cook, “The Ideology of the Chu Ruling Class.” This translated in slightly amended from my 1990 version.

m Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 655. The bell was found in the center of the lower tier of “ordered” bells in the tomb of Zeng Hou Yi in Suixian, Hubei. A Song rubbing of an almost identical inscription was preserved by Xue Shanggong. For details of the site and annotation see Cook, , “Auspicious Metals” 482–489Google Scholar and Falkenhausen, , Suspended Music, 5–6, 50–51Google Scholar (including a photograph), 245.

n Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 663. For details on the site, identification of the kings, and annotations of this and other inscriptions from the site see Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 523–555, esp. 534–38Google Scholar. King Yin Ken is believed to be King Kaolie.

o Ma Chengyuan et al., no. 664. King Han is believed to be King Yu, son of King Kaolie.

p Ma Chengyuan, no. 670.

q Ma Chengyuan, no. 675.

r Ma Chengyuan, no. 678.

s Ma Chengyuan, no. 681. See Cook, , “Auspicious Metals,” 558Google Scholar–61 for discussion and annotation.