" Of Wei-shang Kau he said, "Who calls him straightforward?

" Wi-shang Mau accosted Confucius, saying, "Kiu, how comes it that you manage to go perching and roosting in this way?

Resistless came great Heaven's decree; The sons of Shang must bend the knee; The sons of Shang, each one a king, In numbers beyond numbering.

Resistless came great Heaven's decree; The sons of Shang must bend the knee; The sons of Shang, each one a king, In numbers beyond numbering.

Yet as God spoke, so must it be: The sons of Shang all bent the knee.

When we pour our libations here, The officers of Shang appear, Quick and alert to give their aid: Such is the service by them paid, While still they do not cast aside The cap and broidered axetheir pride.

Ere Shang had lost the nation's heart, Its monarchs all with God had part In sacrifice.

To add true lustre to your name, See Shang expire in Heaven's dread flame.

The Shu Chingthe Chinese historical classicgives us full accounts of the events which led to the fall of the successive dynasties of Hsia (1766 B.C.) and Shang (1122 B.C.).

King Hsuan was once discussing with him the successful rebellions against the last sovereigns of the Hsia and Shang dynasties, and, with reference to the slaying of the infamous King Chou (1122 B.C.), asked whether it was allowable for a minister to put his sovereign to death.

During the time of the Shang dynasty the Chou formed a small realm in the west, at first in central Shensi, an area which even in much later times was the home of many "non-Chinese" tribes.

The Chou used Shang and other slaves as domestic servants for their numerous nobility, and Shang serfs as farm labourers on their estates.

p. 21: Kuo Mo-jo believes, that the Shang already used a real plough drawn by animals.

The problem of Shang chronology is still not solved, in spite of extensive work by Liu Ch'ao-yang, Tung Tso-pin and many Japanese and Western scholars.

Discussing the early script and language, I refer to the great number of unidentified Shang characters and, especially, to the composite characters which have been mentioned often by C. Hentze in his research; on the other hand, the original language of the Chou may have been different from classical Chinese, if we can judge from the form of the names of the earliest Chou ancestors.

p. 30: I reject here the statement of classical texts that the last Shang ruler was unworthy, and accept the new interpretation of Ch'en Meng-chia which is based upon oracle bone texts,The most recent general study on feudalism, and on feudalism in China, is in R. Coulborn, Feudalism in History, Princeton 1956.

C. Hentze believes that the city even in the Shang period normally had a square plan.

A different interpretation is indicated by Shang Yüeh in Li-shih yen-chiu 1955, No. 3. p. 268:

In fact, the position of Pachacamac and the Sun is very nearly that of the Blackfoot Creator Nà-pi, and the Sun, or of Shang-ti and the Heaven, in China.

In China, as we shall see, Mr. Tylor thinks, on the other hand, that Heaven is the elder god, and that Shang-ti, the Supreme Being, is the usurper.

The Chinese religion of Heaven is also coloured by Chinese political conditions; Heaven (Tien) corresponds to the Emperor, and tends to be confounded with Shang-ti, the Emperor above.

If the personal Supreme Being, Shang-ti, occupies in older documents the situation held by Tien (Heaven) in Confucius's later system, why are we to say that Confucius, by putting forward Heaven in place of Shang-ti, was restoring an older conception?

If the personal Supreme Being, Shang-ti, occupies in older documents the situation held by Tien (Heaven) in Confucius's later system, why are we to say that Confucius, by putting forward Heaven in place of Shang-ti, was restoring an older conception?

On the highest plane is either a personal Supreme Being, Shang-ti, or there is Tien, Heaven (with Earth, parent of men), neither of them necessarily owing, in origin, anything to Animism.

Nothing shows or hints that Shang-ti is merely an imaginary idealised first ancestor.