Articles

Memory of the Zhou conquest of the Shang and its evolution

Vostok/Oriens '2016, №4

 
The “Shi fu” (“The Universal Captivity”) chapter of the Yi Zhou shu (The Lost Writings of the Zhou Dynasty) is commonly viewed as a chronologically organised account of events related to the Zhou conquest of Shang that somehow survived till the present day. In this paper, I attempt to explore in more details both the compositional concerns of the text and the reasons why it has not been lost in transmission. I suggest that the “Shi fu” can be understood better as a non-chronological text designed to glorify King Wu of Zhou and that the conquest of Shang, despite being brought to the compositional forefront, is not the only event celebrated in the text. I argue that my proposed reading aligns better with similarly structured royal inscriptions known from various cultures of the Near East. Using internal text-critical evidence and evidence from other received texts, I demonstrate how the connection to an important event from the foundational age and the affinity to liturgical practices could have contributed to the continuous transmission of the “Shi fu”. I also show how the text was further re-contextualised and adopted for different non-liturgical uses, ensuring its continuous circulation among broader audiences.

Keywords: Yi Zhou shu, royal inscriptions, ancient China, historical memory, textual analysis

Pages: С. 76–103