The Shang Dynasty civilization in China is based on the development of the bronze techniques. A large amount of Shang Dynasty bronzes, excavated from Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan Provinces, have become a focus of world at...The Shang Dynasty civilization in China is based on the development of the bronze techniques. A large amount of Shang Dynasty bronzes, excavated from Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan Provinces, have become a focus of world attention. However,the Sha-ng Dynasty center was located at Zhenzhou and Allyang city areas, Henan Province, where no large copper ores have been found so far. Therefore, where did the huge ore material for casting the bronzes come from? It is an unsettled question paid attention by the archaeologists and scicntists. 35 Shang Dynasty bronzes and 21 copper and lead ore materials aged in the Shang-Zhou Dynasty, the Spring-Autumn Period and the modern time, have been measured by the use of mass spectrometry.Based upon lead isotopic ratios, the ore material for casting the bronzes with the middle isotopic ratios of 207Pb/206Pb ranged in 0.8～0.9 could come from the ancient copper mine of Tongling, Jiangxi Province and Tong Lushan, Hubei Province and that with the high isotopic ratios (＞0.9) could be from the northern part of the Shang Empire, called "Gongfang" in the historical records, e.g. today’s Hebei and LiaoningProvinces. The others with the low isotopic ratios (＜0.8) might originate from poly-metalic deposits, with the high isotopic ratios of 238U/204 Pb in the ore flux or in the magma.展开更多
The use of lead, some of which is characterized by a highly radiogenic signature, sharply distinguishes Bronze Age China from the rest of Eurasia. Scholars have long hypothesized that silver can offer an independent p...The use of lead, some of which is characterized by a highly radiogenic signature, sharply distinguishes Bronze Age China from the rest of Eurasia. Scholars have long hypothesized that silver can offer an independent proxy to characterize lead minerals. The summary of silver distribution associated with Shang and Western Zhou bronzes in this paper reveals an important difference between the south(Sanxingdui, Hanzhong, Jinsha, Panlongcheng, Xin’gan) and the Central Plains. Correlating silver with lead content as well as with the isotopic signature indicates that south China and the Central Plains had different lead sources during the late Shang period, and also that the highly radiogenic and common lead used at Anyang come from geochemical environments which cannot be distinguished by the level of silver.展开更多
By identifying the dates of the Zhouji materials (one kind of oracle bone) during the period of King Xin (also called Zhou the last monarch in Shang Dynasty), this paper establishes a new 'Direct Solving Method...By identifying the dates of the Zhouji materials (one kind of oracle bone) during the period of King Xin (also called Zhou the last monarch in Shang Dynasty), this paper establishes a new 'Direct Solving Method' (DSM) to solve the chronology problems in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The mathematical models are more suitable for those materials with the Ganzhi (the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Chinese ancient date recorded method being of the 60-day cycle, that the repetitive cycle is independent of any astronomical parameter, each day within this cycle has its own name and can also be expressed by the numbers from 1 to 60) record of the date, lunar month, and their year intervals and all of them are in history documents, oracle bones and bronze vessels. For example, taking the 12 Zhouji materials in the period of King Xin, we derive the two best results of the first year when Xin assumed the reins of government in probably 1063 BC or 1052 BC.展开更多
Tracing back to the historical occurrence of“virtue”,it can be found that it originated from political practice and is an effective political technology with strong historical and political attributes.Among the core...Tracing back to the historical occurrence of“virtue”,it can be found that it originated from political practice and is an effective political technology with strong historical and political attributes.Among the core concepts of Confucianism,such as benevolence,rites,virtue,etc.,virtue should be the earliest to appear.Rites can be regarded as the daily,technical and detailed representation of virtue,while benevolence contains not only all ethical expectations of virtue,but also more complex humanistic information with more explicability.In contrast,“virtue”,with its rich practical color and ancient political experience,appears so simple that when it is regarded as an ideological concept,it is almost covered by the more mature“benevolence”with similar connotation,and overshadowed by richer“rites”.Therefore,virtue is the predecessor of rites and benevolence,which is the historical pedigree of the core concepts of Confucianism.展开更多
IN 1989 on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,a large tomb of the Shang Dynasty(17th-11th century B.C.)was ex-cavated in Xingan County,JiangxiProvince.After viewing the ...IN 1989 on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,a large tomb of the Shang Dynasty(17th-11th century B.C.)was ex-cavated in Xingan County,JiangxiProvince.After viewing the burialobjects the archaeologists concludedthat the history of ancient civiliza-tions south of the Yangtze River willhave to be rewritten.The tomb is located in theCheng Family Village,DayangzhouTownship,and was found by avillager digging for sand.After amonth’s excavation,the layout ofthe ancient burial.site was broughtto light by archaeologists.展开更多
The State Postal Bureau’s latest set of special stamps for 2003 features Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 B,C.) bronzes. This eight-stamp set is the third to feature this type of relic; a set issued in 1964 depicted bro...The State Postal Bureau’s latest set of special stamps for 2003 features Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 B,C.) bronzes. This eight-stamp set is the third to feature this type of relic; a set issued in 1964 depicted bronzes from the Yin Dynasty (14th-11th century}, and one featuring Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-771 B.C.) bronzes was released in 1982.The Eastern Zhou Dynasty followed the Western, and during this period, bronze vessel casting developed remarkably. Artifacts from this period include sacrificial vessels, musical instruments, utensils, weapons and tools.One of these pieces, a rectangular tray decorated with tortoise and fish patterns, dates back to the late Spring and Autumn展开更多
In this paper, we discuss charcoalified foxtail millet grains dated to the middle to late Western Zhou Dynasty and collected from the Chenyuan archeological site in Shangluo, in China's southeastern Shaanxi Provin...In this paper, we discuss charcoalified foxtail millet grains dated to the middle to late Western Zhou Dynasty and collected from the Chenyuan archeological site in Shangluo, in China's southeastern Shaanxi Province. We assigned these specimens to the species Setaria italica based on the following characteristics: an obtuse chalazal apex with missing stigmatic remains; an undulant seed surface composed of rectangular cells with undulate anticlinal walls; an elongated and deeply depressed embryo extending to almost the full seed length; and spherical starch grains. We suggest that the spread of foxtail millet from its original northern distribution center to the southern slopes of the Qinling Mountains could be attributed to: its prominence across Zhou crop systems; the latter area's arid or subarid climate; and the migration south of Zhou people fleeing severe conflict between their nation and northern nomads.展开更多
文摘The Shang Dynasty civilization in China is based on the development of the bronze techniques. A large amount of Shang Dynasty bronzes, excavated from Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan Provinces, have become a focus of world attention. However,the Sha-ng Dynasty center was located at Zhenzhou and Allyang city areas, Henan Province, where no large copper ores have been found so far. Therefore, where did the huge ore material for casting the bronzes come from? It is an unsettled question paid attention by the archaeologists and scicntists. 35 Shang Dynasty bronzes and 21 copper and lead ore materials aged in the Shang-Zhou Dynasty, the Spring-Autumn Period and the modern time, have been measured by the use of mass spectrometry.Based upon lead isotopic ratios, the ore material for casting the bronzes with the middle isotopic ratios of 207Pb/206Pb ranged in 0.8～0.9 could come from the ancient copper mine of Tongling, Jiangxi Province and Tong Lushan, Hubei Province and that with the high isotopic ratios (＞0.9) could be from the northern part of the Shang Empire, called "Gongfang" in the historical records, e.g. today’s Hebei and LiaoningProvinces. The others with the low isotopic ratios (＜0.8) might originate from poly-metalic deposits, with the high isotopic ratios of 238U/204 Pb in the ore flux or in the magma.
基金This work has been partially supported by European Research Council Horizon 2020 Advanced Project FLAME(ERC AdG 670010Flow of Metal Across Eurasia).
文摘The use of lead, some of which is characterized by a highly radiogenic signature, sharply distinguishes Bronze Age China from the rest of Eurasia. Scholars have long hypothesized that silver can offer an independent proxy to characterize lead minerals. The summary of silver distribution associated with Shang and Western Zhou bronzes in this paper reveals an important difference between the south(Sanxingdui, Hanzhong, Jinsha, Panlongcheng, Xin’gan) and the Central Plains. Correlating silver with lead content as well as with the isotopic signature indicates that south China and the Central Plains had different lead sources during the late Shang period, and also that the highly radiogenic and common lead used at Anyang come from geochemical environments which cannot be distinguished by the level of silver.
基金This work was supported by the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project.
文摘By identifying the dates of the Zhouji materials (one kind of oracle bone) during the period of King Xin (also called Zhou the last monarch in Shang Dynasty), this paper establishes a new 'Direct Solving Method' (DSM) to solve the chronology problems in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The mathematical models are more suitable for those materials with the Ganzhi (the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Chinese ancient date recorded method being of the 60-day cycle, that the repetitive cycle is independent of any astronomical parameter, each day within this cycle has its own name and can also be expressed by the numbers from 1 to 60) record of the date, lunar month, and their year intervals and all of them are in history documents, oracle bones and bronze vessels. For example, taking the 12 Zhouji materials in the period of King Xin, we derive the two best results of the first year when Xin assumed the reins of government in probably 1063 BC or 1052 BC.
文摘Tracing back to the historical occurrence of“virtue”,it can be found that it originated from political practice and is an effective political technology with strong historical and political attributes.Among the core concepts of Confucianism,such as benevolence,rites,virtue,etc.,virtue should be the earliest to appear.Rites can be regarded as the daily,technical and detailed representation of virtue,while benevolence contains not only all ethical expectations of virtue,but also more complex humanistic information with more explicability.In contrast,“virtue”,with its rich practical color and ancient political experience,appears so simple that when it is regarded as an ideological concept,it is almost covered by the more mature“benevolence”with similar connotation,and overshadowed by richer“rites”.Therefore,virtue is the predecessor of rites and benevolence,which is the historical pedigree of the core concepts of Confucianism.
文摘IN 1989 on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,a large tomb of the Shang Dynasty(17th-11th century B.C.)was ex-cavated in Xingan County,JiangxiProvince.After viewing the burialobjects the archaeologists concludedthat the history of ancient civiliza-tions south of the Yangtze River willhave to be rewritten.The tomb is located in theCheng Family Village,DayangzhouTownship,and was found by avillager digging for sand.After amonth’s excavation,the layout ofthe ancient burial.site was broughtto light by archaeologists.
文摘The State Postal Bureau’s latest set of special stamps for 2003 features Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 B,C.) bronzes. This eight-stamp set is the third to feature this type of relic; a set issued in 1964 depicted bronzes from the Yin Dynasty (14th-11th century}, and one featuring Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-771 B.C.) bronzes was released in 1982.The Eastern Zhou Dynasty followed the Western, and during this period, bronze vessel casting developed remarkably. Artifacts from this period include sacrificial vessels, musical instruments, utensils, weapons and tools.One of these pieces, a rectangular tray decorated with tortoise and fish patterns, dates back to the late Spring and Autumn
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31070184,30370237,90202019,40325007 and 40121303)the Special Fund of Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology,Academia Sinica(SFPPAS,9713)the Overseas Outstanding Scholar Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences(2003-1-7)
文摘In this paper, we discuss charcoalified foxtail millet grains dated to the middle to late Western Zhou Dynasty and collected from the Chenyuan archeological site in Shangluo, in China's southeastern Shaanxi Province. We assigned these specimens to the species Setaria italica based on the following characteristics: an obtuse chalazal apex with missing stigmatic remains; an undulant seed surface composed of rectangular cells with undulate anticlinal walls; an elongated and deeply depressed embryo extending to almost the full seed length; and spherical starch grains. We suggest that the spread of foxtail millet from its original northern distribution center to the southern slopes of the Qinling Mountains could be attributed to: its prominence across Zhou crop systems; the latter area's arid or subarid climate; and the migration south of Zhou people fleeing severe conflict between their nation and northern nomads.
