Preface

The archaeological materials recovered from the Anyang excavations by the Institute of History and Philology，Academia Sinica，in the period between 1928 and 1937，published in several series of Archaeologia Sinica since wartime，have laid a new foundation for the study of ancient China．They are important for a number of reasons；the following three may be considered primary.

In the first place，when oracle bone inscriptions became known to the antiquarians at the end of last century，they were considered as mere curiosities and left in the hands of peddlers and curio-dealers．The learned world at large was more or less skeptical about the academic value of these written inscriptions．In fact one of the leading paleographers in the early Republican era openly charged that these new curiosities were mere forgeries，in spite of the publication of many scholarly investigations and inquiries about the nature and contents of the inscriptions by a few serious students．When the Archaeological Section of the Institute of History and Philology started digging at Hsiao-t'un（known as the Waste of Yin，or Yin-hsü）in Anyang in 1928，and found the inscribed oracle bones through scientific excavation，the fact that oracle bone inscriptions actually existed in the Yin-Shang time was settled beyond dispute．From then on，Chinese paleography advanced on a new basis．Hsü Shen，the compiler of the Shuo-wen dictionary during the Eastern Han dynasty，was no longer considered as the final authority in the definition of all Chinese written characters as he had been for almost two millennia.

Second，what was totally new to historians of the old school was the discovery of many prehistoric sites through modern archaeology．Field archaeologists digging the Hsiao-t'un site systematically recorded，season after season，all the artifacts whether associated with the inscribed oracle bones or not，including of course all the potteries and the pot-sherds．From a total of nearly a quarter million sherds，nearly fifteen hundred complete specimens could be restored．From this group of ceramic materials the author has been able to compile a corpus of the Yin-hsü pottery on the basis of their shapes and stratified typology．And this pottery corpus，completed during wartime and published in Archaeologia Sinica in 1954，has provided the most substantial link of the earliest written history with newly discovered prehistoric cultures—both the Lungshan and the Yangshao types．The turning point occurred in the course of the Anyang excavations，when the field archaeologists working on the site of Hsiao-t'un discovered that beneath the main cultural stratum of Yin-Shang period，as dated by inscribed oracle bones，there is another cultural deposit of prehistorical remains，similar in contents to the prehistoric Lungshan culture widely distributed in Shantung and the eastern seacoast.

Equally significant is the fact that the pottery corpus has provided important background material for the study of ritual bronzes in many burials at Hsiao-t'un and the royal tombs of Hou-chia-chuang．Two characteristics of the ritual bronzes from the various tombs deserve special notice．On the one hand，most of these ritual vessels are obviously the forerunners of what were used in the early Chou dynasty，such as the ting，li，ku，chia，chüeh，yü，p'an，and so on．The other aspect is perhaps even more interesting，namely，most of the shapes of these ritual bronzes find their prototypes in the pottery either contemporary with the bronzes or in the prehistorical deposit underneath．So these metallic finds from the burials in these two localities actually have provided definite ancestral types of the better-known Chou vessels；and in addition the establishment of a strong linkage with possible prehistorical utensils for ritual purposes may be clearly shown in the external forms of the neolithic pottery which the Anyang ritual bronzes closely followed.

The Anyang discoveries are important in many other respects，cultural and social as well as geographical．This book covers the contents of these discoveries only in a general way．In preparing the text of this book，the author has been assisted by many friends．He must mention first and foremost the debt he owes to his colleagues and fellow workers of the institute；all of them have assisted him in one way or another，in checking source materials，re-examining the archaeological finds，and tracing bibliographical sources．Among his American friends，Mrs．Wilma Fairbank，who has for more than ten years read all his English texts published in the new series of Archaeologia Sinica，has once more given her time to read the manuscripts of this book with many valuable suggestions for making the language more readable．Professor Millard Rogers，an old friend of the author，has not only improved the text but has also contributed a Foreword which the author deeply appreciates．

Miss Shih-heng Chia has assisted the author in more than one way；from the beginning she helped him gather the source materials，compile the bibliography，type the notes and the text，and finally read with care all the galley proofs；to her patient and skillful assistance，he is particularly grateful．The author's thanks are also due to Mr．Y．N．Kung who helped to secure all the photographical works．The author is also grateful to the authority of the Institute of History and Philology for giving him special permission to make use of a number of unpublished photographs.

LI CHI