THE SHANG DYNASTY MENZIES 557 



reference — a sort of key to the tj^pe of divination based on the oracle 

 bones. A similar book, recording the historical fulfillment of 

 auguries, was compiled during the Third Dynasty of Ur, in Meso- 

 potamia, about 2500 B. C. There is no reference in the bone inscrip- 

 tions to that later philosophical concept of the Yin and Yang (the 

 Female and Male Principles in Nature), which appears to form the 

 backbone of the I Ching as we have it to-day. There does seem, 

 however, to be a definite relationship between the six successive 

 divinations, each covering ten consecutive days in the cycle of sixty, 

 and the six continuous and broken lines of the hexagrams. For in 

 both bones and hexagrams, the order is from bottom to top and 

 not the reverse, as one would expect. 



THE SHANG RACE BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE DYNASTY 



The Shang race naturally claimed descent from a long line of 

 ancestors. Allowing 25 years to a generation, we are able to trace 

 the existence of the family back to a period around 2200 B. C. 

 There were undoubtedly other ancestors in the line, and in fact 

 about most of them we have some historical statement in addition 

 to the mere recording of their names. We have no space here to 

 tell of Wang Hai and his troubles with the Yu I, or Ti as they 

 were called in later times. ^ The story is given in part in a verse 

 or two of the T'ien Wen P'ien of the Elegies of Ch'u, as well as in 

 passages in the Shan Hai Ching, and is confirmed by the inscribed 

 bones. Nor can we pause to speak of Hsiang T'u, or of Ti K'u, 

 whose personal name was Chiin. It is of interest, however, to note 

 that the name Chiin of his Exalted Ancestor (called Kao Tsu Chiin) 

 is interpreted in the Shuo Wen dictionary as Mu Hou, or " Mother 

 Monkey," as the character graphically pictures. 



THE ART AND MATERIAL CIVILIZATION OF THE SHANG DYNASTY 



Let US now turn from the history to the art of the Shang Dynasty. 

 It is a common mistake to confuse the long development of the hu- 

 man race with the period of historic time, or to suppose that the art 

 of Egypt and Mesopotamia, or Crete and India and China, must 

 have been very rude at the time when the written record begins. 

 Nothing is further from the truth. This is shown, in the present 

 connection, by the sculpture of the Shang Dynasty, as exemplified 

 by the torso \vhich Dr. C. Li found at An-yang, and by a broken 

 piece of ivory representing a coiled dragon in my own collection. 

 These are superb in their execution. The jade carvings and bronze 

 castings were magnificent, nnich excelling the work of any succeed- 

 ing dynasty down to the present. The incised white pottery already 



^ A group of " barbarian " tribes on the north of the ancient Chinese feudal states 

 which was not thoroughly subdued by the latter until well along in the first mll- 

 lenium, B. C. 



