A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard - HTML preview

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Chapter Four

p. 51: I have used here the general framework of R.L. Walker, but more upon Yang K'uan's studies.

p. 52: The interpretation of the change of myths in this period is based in part upon the work done by H.

Maspero, G. Haloun, and Ku Chieh-kang. The analysis of legends made by B. Karlgren from a philological point

of view ("Legends and Cults in Ancient China", The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Bulletin No. 18, 1946, pp. 199-365) folows another direction.

p. 53: The discussion on riding involves the theories concerning horse-nomadic tribes and the period of this way of life. It also involves the problem of the invention of stirrup and saddle. The saddle seems to have been used in China already at the beginning of our period; the stirrup seems to be as late as the fifth century A.D. The article www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11367/pg11367.html

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by A. Kroeber, The Ancient Oikumene as an Historic Culture Aggregate, Huxley Memorial Lecture for

1945, is very instructive for our problems and also for its theoretical approach.—The custom of attracting

settlers from other areas in order to have more production as wel as more manpower seems to have been

known in India at the same time.

p. 54: The work done by Kat[=o] Shigeru and Nida Noboru on property and family has been used here. For

the later period, work done by Makino Tatsumi has also been incorporated.—Literature on the plough and on

iron for implements has been mentioned above. Concerning the falow system, I have incorporated the ideas of

Kat[=o] Shigeru, [=O]shima Toshikaza, Hsü Ti-shan and Wan Kuo-ting. Hsü Ti-shan believes that a kind of 3-

field system had developed by this time. Traces of such a system have been observed in modern China (H.D.

Scholz). For these questions, the translation by N. Lee Swann, Food and Money in Ancient China, 1959 is very important.

p. 55: For al questions of money and credit from this period down to modern times, the best brief introduction is by Lien-sheng Yang, Money and Credit in China, Cambridge 1952. The Introduction to the Economic

History of China, London 1954, by E. Stuart Kirby is certainly stil the best brief introduction into al problems of Chinese Economic history and contains a bibliography in Western and Chinese-Japanese languages. Articles

by Chinese authors on economic problems have been translated in E-tu Zen Sun and J. de Francis, Chinese

Social History, Washington 1956.—Data on the size of early cities have been colected by T. Sekino and

Kat[=o] Shigeru.

p. 56: T. Sekino studied the forms of cities. C. Hentze believes that the city even in the Shang period normaly had a square plan.—T. Sekino has also made the first research on city coins. Such a privilege and such

independence of cities disappear later, but occasionaly the privilege of minting was given to persons of high rank.

—K.A. Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, New Haven 1957 regards irrigation as a key economic and social

factor and has built up his theory around this concept. I do not accept his theory here or later. Evidence seems to point towards the importance of transportation systems rather than of government-sponsored or operated

irrigation systems.—Concerning steel, we folow Yang K'uan; a special study by J. Needham is under

preparation. Centre of steel production at this time was Wan (later Nanyang in Honan).—For early Chinese law,

the study by A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, Leiden 1955 is the best work in English. He does not, however, regard Li K'ui as the main creator of Chinese law, though Kuo Mo-jo and others do. It is obvious,

however, that Han law was not a creation of the Han Chinese alone and that some type of code must have

existed before Han, even if such a code was not written by the man Li K'ui. A special study on Li was made by

O. Franke.

p. 57: In the description of border conditions, research by O. Lattimore has been taken into consideration.

p. 59: For Shang Yang and this whole period, the classical work in English is stil J.J.L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang, London 1928; the translation by Ma Perleberg of The Works of Kung-sun Lung-tzu, Hongkong 1952 as wel as the translation of the Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: The Kuan-tzu, edited by L. Maverick, New Haven 1954 have not found general approval, but may serve as introductions to the way

philosophers of our period worked. Han Fei Tz[)u]; has been translated by W.K. Liao, The Complete Works

of Han Fei Tz[)u], London 1939 (only part 1).

p. 60: Needham does not have such a positive attitude towards Tsou Yen, and regards Western influences upon

Tsou Yen as not too likely. The discussion on pp. 60-1 folows mainly my own researches.

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p. 61: The interpretation of secret societies is influenced by general sociological theory and detailed reports on later secret societies. S. Murayama and most modern Chinese scholars stress almost solely the social element in the so-caled "peasant rebelions".