MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
south of the Yangtse River remained uncivilized and al- 
most unknown. 
Most of the art of Bronze Age China is typified by geo- 
metric forms of a symbolic nature, which undoubtedly 
were based on designs already in existence in that coun- 
try during its New Stone Age. These seem to have been 
originally carved on wood or molded on pottery. Their 
sacred and magical character led to their retention for the 
decoration of weapons, ornaments, horse trappings, and 
the great bronze sacrificial vessels used in connection with 
the ancestor worship of the feudal aristocracy (Plate g1). 
During the earlier part of the Chinese Bronze Age, the 
ownership of land formed the basis of wealth. Trade was 
carried on by barter, eked out with the use of cowries as 
a medium of exchange. But in time true money, in the 
shape of copper models of hoes, spades, and knives, came 
into being. This helped, as elsewhere, to undermine the 
old social system through the possibilities which it offered 
for the accumulation of wealth other than that in land. 
Thus the nobles could no longer monopolize riches. 
A radical alteration in the method of fighting, which 
took place shortly after the middle of the first millenium 
B. C., contributed immensely to the overthrow of the old 
feudal organization. This change corresponds precisely 
to that which had already occurred in the West a few cen- 
turies earlier. 
The ancient Chinese records show us that the war 
chariot was the mark of a nobleman. Only despised peas- 
ants fought on foot. The story has come down to us of a 
battle of the Chinese against the barbarians to the north— 
the ancestors of the Tartars—which illustrates this clearly. 
The barbarians had not yet learned to fight on horse- 
back. In fact their tactics of guerilla warfare seem to have 
pretty much resembled those of the Indians of eastern 
America—the Iroquois and others. The Chinese com- 
mander saw the impossibility of contending successfully 
from chariots against such nimble foes, so ordered his 
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