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Li Chi

Chinese archaeologist

Alternate titles: Jizhi, Li Ji

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Edit History

Li Chi, Pinyin Li Ji, courtesy name (zi) Jizhi, (born July 12, 1896, Zhongxiang, Hubei province, China—died August 1, 1979, Taipei, Taiwan), archaeologist chiefly responsible for establishing the historical authenticity of the semilegendary Shang dynasty of China. The exact dates of the Shang dynasty are uncertain; traditionally, they have been given as from c. 1766 to c. 1122 BCE, but more recent archaeological evidence has revised the range to between c. 1600 and 1046 BCE.

Born: July 12, 1896 China

Died: August 1, 1979 (aged 83) Taipei Taiwan

Subjects Of Study: Shang dynasty

One of many Chinese students sent to colleges and universities in the West in the early 20th century, Li studied anthropology and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1923. After being associated briefly with the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., he returned to China and taught for a short time. In 1928 he became the director of archaeology for the Academia Sinica, the Chinese national research organization.

That same year, he made a preliminary sounding of the ancient Shang capital at Anyang, Henan province, and, in 1929, under the patronage of the Academia Sinica and the Freer Gallery, he began an organized excavation of the site that continued intermittently from 1929 to 1937. The harsh climate permitted only brief digging seasons, and several factors—including traditional Chinese opposition to any disturbance of the earth, civil war in 1930, large-scale grave looting, and threats by organized bandits—militated against his archaeological efforts. During the final seasons of work, with an armed guard and the official protection of Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi), great progress was made. More than 300 tombs, including 4 important royal burial sites, were uncovered and carefully studied. Some 1,100 skeletons and animal bones inscribed with oracles in an early Chinese script, unquestionably linked with the Shang period, were recovered.

After the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the expulsion of the Chinese Nationalists from the mainland in 1949, many of Li’s Anyang remains and notes were lost. After escaping to Taiwan, he became the head of anthropology and archaeology at the National University in Taipei (1950) and began directing publication of his remaining Anyang materials. He published a number of books, including The Beginnings of Chinese Civilization (1957) and Anyang (1977).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Zhihou Xia.

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Shang dynasty

Chinese history

Alternate titles: Yin dynasty

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Edit History

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Bronze gu

Bronze gu

Shang dynasty, Wade-Giles romanization Shang, the first recorded Chinese dynasty for which there is both documentary and archaeological evidence. The Shang dynasty was the reputed successor to the quasi-legendary first dynasty, the Xia (c. 2070–c. 1600 BCE).

Principle sites of prehistoric and Shang China

Principle sites of prehistoric and Shang China

The dates given for the founding of the Shang dynasty vary from about 1760 to 1520 BCE, and the dates for the dynasty’s fall also vary, from 1122 to 1030 BCE. The period of the dynasty’s rule has traditionally been dated 1766–1122 BCE. However, more recent archaeological work has placed the Shang’s starting date at about 1600 BCE and has identified the dynasty’s end as being 1046 BCE. The latter part of the Shang dynasty, from the reign of the Pangeng emperor onward (i.e., c. 1300 BCE), has also been called the Yin dynasty.

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Bronze jia, Shang dynasty (18th–12th century bce); in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri.

Shang China was centred in the North China Plain and extended as far north as modern Shandong and Hebei provinces and westward through present-day Henan province. The kings of the Shang are believed to have occupied several capitals one after another, one of them possibly at modern Zhengzhou, where there are rich archaeological finds, but they settled at Anyang in the 14th century BCE. The king appointed local governors, and there was an established class of nobles as well as the masses, whose chief labour was in agriculture. The king issued pronouncements as to when to plant crops, and the society had a highly developed calendar system with a 360-day year of 12 months of 30 days each. It was during the Shang that Chinese writing began to develop, and the symbol for “moon” was—as it has remained—that also for “month.” The calendar took cognizance of both lunar and solar cycles, and, when it became necessary to adjust the basically lunar year to the seasonal reality of the solar year, intercalary months were added.

Ceremonial bronze gong, Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 bce); in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Musical instruments had evidently come down from the Xia or whatever society preceded the Shang, for the early Shang instruments were well developed and included a clay ocarina, tuned chimes of stone, and bells and drums of bronze. (Legend traces the origin of pipes of bamboo earlier, even before the mythical Xia.)

The architects of the Shang period built houses of timber over rammed-earth floors, with walls of wattle and daub and roofs of thatch. Tombs were dug in clay, and their walls show traces of paintings that strongly resemble some of the ornamentation and animal shapes reflected in the outstanding bronze work of the period. The earliest bronzes of the Shang were primitive, but a course of development is evident that culminates in elegant ceremonial objects as well as a substantial range of cooking and serving dishes and various utensils and ornaments. There was a three-legged li for cooking, and upon it could be fitted a bronze zeng, a bowl with a pierced bottom to function as a steamer—together called a yan. Serving bowls were often stemmed, and pouring vessels, such as the gu, had long spouts. Those and numerous other vessels were often richly decorated.

Shang dynasty: goblet

Shang dynasty: goblet

Pottery objects were abundant, and Shang potters made fired-clay sectional molds for casting bronzes. They also used clay molds to imprint decorations into clay vessels—whose shapes in many cases clearly inspired designs in bronze. Some of the pottery gives evidence of possibly having been shaped on a potter’s wheel. Pottery included dishes and bowls in a white glaze for ceremonial and ritual use, as well as black pottery and a rich brown glaze for more mundane purposes.

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Jade carving became quite advanced during the Shang dynasty. Ceremonial weapons of jade were made, as well as jade fittings for actual weapons. Jade figurines included both human and animal shapes, carved in the round in careful detail. Many of those objects have been found in tombs of the period. Other funerary art ran a gamut in size from tiny objects of jade or carved bone and ivory (sometimes inlaid with turquoise) to chariots of lacquered wood. Larger sculptures in marble followed animal motifs.

Shang dynasty: oracle bone

Shang dynasty: oracle bone

No literature as such survives from the Shang, but quite numerous records and ceremonial inscriptions and family or clan names exist, carved into or brushed onto bone or tortoise shells. Three kinds of characters were used—pictographs, ideograms, and phonograms—and those records are the earliest known writing in China.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.

Anyang

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Anyang

China

Alternate titles: An-yang, Yin

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Edit History

An-yang

An-yang

Anyang, Wade-Giles romanization An-yang, city, northern Henan sheng (province), northeast-central China, on the Anyang River, a tributary of the Wei River. It was important in history as the site of the ancient city of Yin, the capital of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE) from the 14th century BCE; the Shang palace stood about 10 miles (16 km) west of the present city. Anyang declined when the succeeding Zhou capital arose at Luoyang to the southwest. Archaeological excavations have revealed historical remains of the Shang, illustrating the splendour and advanced stage of the civilization that developed there and providing authentic evidence of the ancient civilization of China.

Yinxu (“The Ruins of Yin”), the site of the Shang capital at Anyang, had been known to scholars since the turn of the 20th century through the accidental discovery in 1899 of inscribed oracle bones, the earliest Chinese written records. It was not until 1928, however, that the first organized scientific expedition started systematic excavation of these remains under the auspices of Academia Sinica, organized by the Nationalist government of the Republic of China. Fieldwork was carried out by the archaeologist Li Ji from 1928 until the Japanese invasion in 1937. The finds include building foundations, bronzes, chariots, pottery, stone and jade, and thousands of oracle bones. Several other excavations were conducted after 1950. Yinxu was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006.

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Anyang has been a regional agricultural and trade centre for centuries. In contemporary times, it became a station on the main north-south rail line from Beijing to Guangzhou (Canton); in addition it is on the expressway from Beijing to Zhuhai (near Macau). Coal mining is important. Anyang’s textile mills and food-processing plants have been supplemented by heavier manufactures since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. More recently, high-technology industries have been established. Tourism has also grown in significance. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 570,773; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 887,000.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.