554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 31 



from Kansu as far east as the village of Yang Shao, in the Province 

 of Honan, just south of the Yellow River. He has dated this mate- 

 rial as preceding the culture of the Shang Dynasty, perhaps by as 

 much as a thousand years. And Dr. C. Li reports the finding of a 

 single fragment of this painted ware in a pit which also yielded in- 

 scribed bones, at the An-yang site, the " Waste of Yin." On this 

 evidence, he also considers that the " painted pottery " period had its 

 beginning, at least, before the founding of the Shang Dynasty. The 

 pottery of the latter, as found at An-yang, is mainly either of red 

 or gray monochrome or else of that fine incised white ware regarded 

 as especially distinctive of that period. It is to be hoped that a 

 complete excavation of this important site will throw further light 

 on this and other points. 



SHANG DYNASTY HISTORY 



Over half of the inscriptions on the oracle bones are records of 

 divinations or inquiries by means of the bones themselves, regarding 

 the ancestral sacrifices. In them we find recorded the names of 

 the ancestors to whom sacrifices were to be offered. Often a sacri- 

 fice was offered to a number of ancestors in common. On one bone 

 we have mention of a sacrifice to Kao Tsu (" Exalted Ancestor ") 

 Wang Hai. Then follow in order three ancestors whose personal 

 name was the cyclical character I : T'ai I, called T'ien I or Ch'eng 

 T'ang {the founder of the dynasty) ; then Tsu I; and lastly Hsiao I. 

 After these follows Father Ting, by whom is meant Wu Ting, the 

 father of Tsu Keng. From such oracular records as this we can 

 work out the whole ancestral line of the Shang Dynasty. Not only 

 are the names of its kings given, but so also are those of its queens 

 through whom the succession was passed on to the following gen- 

 eration. It may be asked whether this indicates the existence of a 

 matriarchate. Nothing in the line of descent seems to show this. 

 Women were honored in their character of mothers, just as the 

 matron of Honan to-day is most often referred to as " the mother 

 of So-and-so." Several mothers are often associated with one king's 

 name. Whether these were consecutive or concurrent wives does not 

 appear, although there is no reason to suppose that the Shang 

 Dynasty kings were monogamous. In one respect alone does the 

 mother seem to take precedence in the ancestral sacrifice offered to 

 her by her descendants; when a deceased king and queen receive 

 a sacrifice in common, the rite is always performed on the cyclical 

 birthday of the queen and not of the king. 



Succession under the Shang Dynasty was fraternal; that is, the 

 kingly office passed from elder brother to younger brother, and only 



