THE TOMBS OF THE RULERS OF PENG AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ZHOU AND NORTHERN NON-ZHOU LINEAGES (UNTIL THE EARLY NINTH CENTURY B.C (original) (raw)

2016, Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China, ed. Edward L. Shaughnessy

A Western Zhou period cemetery near Hengshui zhen 横水鎮 in Jiang 降 county, southwest Shanxi, was discovered in 2004. A comprehensive report about the excavations of the whole site has not yet been published, but some observations can be made based on preliminary reports about the tombs of Pengbo Cheng 倗伯爯 and his spouse Bi Ji 畢姬. Inscriptions discovered elsewhere reveal that Peng 倗 was a lineage of the Kui 媿/Gui 鬼 surname. Some received texts associate Kui/Gui-surnamed lineages with the Di 狄/翟 group of northern non-Zhou peoples. According to the Chinese historiographical tradition, the Di remained autonomous from the Huaxia 華夏 cultural and political community, which was dominated during the Western Zhou period by polities ruled by lineages of the Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜 surnames. The new discovery shows that a small non-Zhou polity, not referred to in transmitted literature, existed quite close to the eastern residence of the Zhou kings at Chengzhou 成周 and just to the south of Jin 晉, one of the major Zhou colonies ruled by a lineage of Ji surname. Moreover, rulers of Peng had marital relations with Bi 畢, another distinguished Ji-surnamed lineage closely related to the Zhou royal house. Thus, the case of Peng can be very instructive for understanding geopolitical and cultural relations in China during the Western Zhou period. In the following, I briefly introduce the tombs of the Peng ruling couple and the inscriptions on their bronzes, and then proceed to discuss the following four issues: • the date of tombs M1 and M2 of the Peng cemetery; • the relationship of Peng with non-Zhou peoples, as it can be observed based on the analysis of material remains and onomastic evidence; • the integration of the Peng lineage into the Zhou political and social network; • the role played by Yigong 益公, mentioned in the inscription on the Pengbo Cheng gui 倗伯爯簋 tureen, in the acquisition of allies among non-Zhou peoples. In the conclusion, I use the case of Peng to discuss some general issues in the relationships between Zhou and non-Zhou polities of central China during the late tenth to the early ninth centuries B.C.