Guifang Explained

Guifang ([1]) was an ancient ethnonym for a northern people that fought against the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE). Chinese historical tradition used various names, at different periods, for northern tribes such as Guifang, Rong, Di,[2] Xunyu, Xianyun, or Xiongnu peoples.[3] [4] This Chinese exonym combines gui (鬼 "ghost, spirit, devil") and fang (方 "side, border, country, region"), a suffix referring to "non-Shang or enemy countries that existed in and beyond the borders of the Shang polity."[5]

Overview

Chinese annals contain a number of references to the Guifang. Earliest sources mentioning the Guifang are the Oracle Bones.[6] [7] [8] Extant oracle bones record no military action between Shang and Guifang, yet Guifang have been interpreted as hostile towards Shang[9] [6] or not hostile.[8]

The Bamboo Annals, interred with King Xiang of Wei (died 296 BC) and re-discovered nearly six centuries later in 281 AD (Western Jin dynasty) in the Jizhong discovery, state that:

The oracle bones indicate that, following Wu Ding's conquest, the Guifang became Shang's subjects and even assisted the Shang against other polities, e.g. the Qiang. Gui officials even managed to achieve high statuses in the Shang court; for examples, a Gui official, Geng, was ordered to perform the gang sacrifice 剛 in the xiang 亯 sacrificial temple.[6]

Up to the time of Shang king Di Xin, Gui chiefs had been long-enfeoffed vassals of Shang and even participated in the Shang royal government.[6] In Stratagem of the Warring States, Lu Zhonglian (魯仲連) related that the Marquis of Gui (鬼侯) ranked among Di Xin's Three Ducal Ministers (along with the Marquis of E (鄂侯) and the Western Count [Ji] Chang (西伯昌)) and married his beloved daughter to Di Xin. However, Di Xin considered her detestably ugly (惡), so he killed her and boiled alive the Marquis of Gui; the Marquis of E sharply criticized Di Xin and was butchered.[16] A parallel account in Shiji features Marquis of Jiu (九侯), his daughter (九侯女), and Marquis of E (鄂侯);[17] Marquis of Jiu was identified with Marquis of Gui.[6] Another parallel account in Taiping Yulan states Marquis of Gui's daughter disapproved of Di Xin's debaucheries so Di Xin killed her and her father; and Di Xin had Marquis of Xing butchered instead of Marquis of E.[18]

Among the succeeding Zhou dynasty's bronze inscriptions, the Xiao Yu Ding (小盂鼎) –cast in the twenty-fifth year (976 BCE) of King Kang of Zhou (r. 1005/03–978 BCE)– mentioned the Guifang, probably located northeast of the initial Zhou domain. After two successful battles against the Guifang, the Zhou victors brought captured enemies to the Zhou temple and offered to the king. The prisoners numbered over 13,000 with four chiefs who were subsequently executed. Zhou also captured a large amount of booty.[19]

No events involving the Guifang are reported after 650 BCE, which is also the last mention of the Northern Rong (北戎). They were replaced by a new group of Northern foreigners, the Di (狄).[19]

The Guifang do not seem to have seriously challenged Chinese rule, they did not invade China, and on the contrary were the victims of Chinese expeditions. They may only have been an early people which was conquered by the Western Zhou, and ultimately disappeared from history.[20]

Interpretations

As a result of phonetical studies and comparisons based on the inscriptions on bronze and the structure of the characters, Wang Guowei came to the conclusion that the tribal names in the annalistic sources Guifang, Xunyu, Xianyu, Xianyun, Rong, Di, and Hu designated one and the same people, who later entered history under the name Xiongnu.[21] [22] [23]

Likewise, using Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian and other sources, Vsevolod Taskin proposes that in the earlier pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor) the Xiongnu were called Hunyu; and in the late pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun) they were called Rong; in the literate period starting with the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) they were called Guifang, in the Zhou period (1045–256 BC) they were called Xianyun, and starting from the Qin period (221–206 BC) the Chinese annalists called them Xiongnu.[24] [25] [26]

Even so, Paul R. Goldin (2011) reconstructs the Old Chinese pronunciations of 葷粥 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 薰育 as *xur-luk, 獫狁 as hram′-lun′, and 匈奴 as *xoŋ-NA; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated". He further states that sound changes made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during the Warring States period would never have been thus misled.[27]

Other fang-countries

The Shang state had a system of writing attested to by bronze inscriptions and oracle bones, which record Shang troops fighting frequent wars with neighboring nomadic herdsmen from the inner Asian steppes. In his oracular divinations, a Shang king repeatedly showed concern about the fang (方, likely meaning "border-region"; the modern term for them is 方国 fāngguó "fang-countries"),[28] groups of barbarians outside his inner tu (土) regions in the center of Shang territory. A particularly hostile tribe, Tufang from the Yan Mountains region, is regularly mentioned in divinatory records.[29] Another Chinese ethnonym for the animal husbandry nomads was ma (馬) or "horse" barbarians mentioned at the Shang western military frontier in the Taihang Mountains, where they fought and may have used chariots.[30]

Seima-Turbino culture as "Guifang"

The Guifang may also correspond to the Seima-Turbino culture of the Altai Mountains. Several of the Shang dynasty artifacts of the Yin Ruins and from the tomb of Fu Hao (died), excavated in Shang capital of Anyang, are similar to Seima-Turbino culture artifacts, such as socketed spearheads with a single side hook, jade figurines and knives with deer-headed pommel. These Late Shang artifacts, visibly derived from the Seima-Turbino culture to the north, were made precisely at the same time the Shang reported intense protracted conflicts with the northern tribes of the "Guifang". This would suggest that the Guifang were the Altaic Seima-Turbino culture itself, and that their century-long conflict with the Shang led to the transfer of various object and manufacturing techniques.[31] [32]

Particularly, the introduction of the socketed spearheads with a single side hook seems to date back to the period of the Taosi culture, when the earliest and most faithfull Seima-Turbino types start to appear in China, circa 2100-2000 BCE.[31] These early artifacts suggest that Chinese bronze metallurgy initially derived from the cultures of the Eurasian steppes.[33] Soon however, China was able to appropriate this technology and refine it, particularly through its mastery of bronze casting, to create a highly sophisticated and massive bronze industry.[33]

Northern tribes in the Late Shang period

The nomadic leaders depicted in Deer stones in Mongolia, dated to 1400-700 BCE, leading large-scale organized nomadic groups, may have affected the late Shang and early Zhou dynasties of China to their south.

They were equipped with weapons and instruments of war, such as daggers, shafted axes, or curved rein holders for their horses. They may not have ridden on horseback, but they are documented to have possessed horse-drawn charriots, with two or four horses, as shown in the drawings on Deer Stones and multiple finds of horse skeletons with heavy wear. These powerful nomadic leaders, leading large-scale organized nomadic groups capable of building monumental decorated stone tombs, may have being part of the nomadic challenge to the early Chinese dynasties.[34] They may also be connected to the rise of the horse chariot during the Shang dynasty.

Siwa culture (1300–600 BCE)

The Siwa culture culture is sometimes proposed as being connected to the northern tribes which challenged the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but questions are raised against this theory because the Siwa sites are small with low subsistence levels, whereas the northern tribes, particularly the Xianyun, seem to have been more advanced, using bronze weapons and chariots.[35] According to Feng Li, the archaeological remains of the Siwa culture suggest that they could not have sustained an advanced society capable of rivalizing with contemporary Chinese armies. The debate remains open.[36]

Epigraphy

Comments about the conflicts against the Guifang appear in bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou.

Name !! scope = "col"
Artifact !Inscription Translation
Xiaoyu ding

小盂鼎
979 BCE
(King Kang)[37] 		Lost in the Taiping Rebellion (19th century)


[38] [39]

References

Sources

Further reading

See also

Notes and References

  1. Creel, Herrlee G. (1970). The Origins of Statecraft in China. The University of Chicago Press. p. 232.
  2. Old Text Bamboo Annals. "Wu Yi" quote: "三十五年，周王季伐西落鬼戎，俘二十翟王。"
  3. [Book of Jin]
  4. Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc", Issue 3 "Mujuns", "Science", Moscow, 1992, p.10,
  5. Loewe M. and Shaughnessy E.L., eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., New York, Cambridge, 1999,, p. 269.
  6. Yu Taishan. (2000). "A Hypothesis about the Source of the Sai Tribes" in Sino-Platonic Papers 106. Ed. Victor Mair. p. 106-109
  7. Khayutina, Maria. (2016). "The Tombs of the Rulers of Peng and Relationships between Zhou and Northern Non-Zhou Lineages (Until the Early Ninth Century B.C.)" in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.) Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China Publisher: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. pp. 71-132. p. 26 of pdf
  8. Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 p. 106
  9. Shima Kunio 島邦男, Yinxu buci yanjiu 殷墟卜辞研究, tr. Pu Maozuo 濮茅左 and Gu Weiliang 顧偉良 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 2006), pp. 802-04; Wang Yuzhe, “Guifang kao buzheng” 鬼方考補正, in Wang Yuzhe, Gu shi jilin, pp. 309-17. cited in Khayutina (2016) p. 26
  10. Current Text Bamboo Annals "Wu Ding" quote: "三十二年，伐鬼方。次于荊。三十四年，王師克鬼方。氐、羗來賓。"
  11. Creel (1970), p. 232.
  12. Yijing "䷾既濟 - Ji Ji" quote: "高宗伐鬼方，三年克之" James Legge's translation: "[Gao Zong], who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it."
  13. Theobald, U. (2011) "Wu Ding 武丁" ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art quote: "Wu Ding was a great warrior and was able to defeat the Guifang 鬼方 (or Gongfang []方) in the north [...] Wu Ding's dynastic temple name is Gaozong 高宗."
  14. Current Text Bamboo Annals "Wu Yi" quote: "三十五年，周公季歷伐西落鬼戎。"
  15. Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 919
  16. Zhanguo Ce "Stratagems of Zhao 3 - Qin besieged Zhao's Handan" quote: "昔者，鬼侯之鄂侯、文王，紂之三公也。鬼侯有子而好，故入之於紂，紂以為惡，醢鬼侯。鄂侯爭之急，辯之疾，故脯鄂侯。"
  17. Shiji, "Annals of Yin" quote: "以西伯昌、九侯、鄂侯為三公。九侯有好女，入之紂。九侯女不喜淫，紂怒，殺之，而醢九侯。鄂侯爭之彊，辨之疾，并脯鄂侯。"
  18. Taiping Yulan, Sovereigns and Kings - Part 8" quote: "以西伯昌、鬼侯、邢侯為三公。鬼侯有好女，入之紂。鬼侯女不僖淫，紂殺之，而醢鬼侯。刑侯爭之，并脯之。"
  19. Book: Cosmo . Nicola Di . Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China (Cambridge History of Ancient China) . 2008 . Cambridge University Press, 2008 . 919 .
  20. Book: Cosmo . Nicola Di . Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China (Cambridge History of Ancient China) . 2008 . Cambridge University Press, 2008 . 919 . In general the Guifang do not seem to have posed any serious threat to the Zhou frontier and must have been either conquered by the Zhou at an early stage or dissolved politically, since their name soon disappears from the patchy sources at our disposal..
  21. Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc", Issue 3 "Mujuns", p. 10
  22. Wang Guowei, "Guantang Jilin" (觀堂集林, Wang Guowei collection of works), Ch.2, Ch. 13
  23. Taskin V.S., 1968, "Materials on history of Sünnu", "Science", Moscow, p.10
  24. [Sima Qian]
  25. in Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of Sünnu", p.10
  26. Classic of Poetry "Major Hymns - Decade of Dang - Dang" quote: "文王曰咨、咨女殷商。……內奰于中國、覃及鬼方。" Legge's translation: "King Wen said, 'Alas! Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, [...] Indignation is rife against you here in the Middle kingdom, and extends to the demon regions."
  27. Goldin, Paul R. "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 225-226; p. 237, n.22
  28. Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 pp. 94-95
  29. Sun. Yan. Colonizing China's Northern Frontier: Yan and Her Neighbors During the Early Western Zhou Period. June 2006. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 10. 2. 159–177(19). 10.1007/s10761-006-0005-3.
  30. Shaughnessy . Edward L. . Historical Perspectives on The Introduction of The Chariot Into China . Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . 48 . 1 . 1988 . 189–237 . 10.2307/2719276 . 2719276 .
  31. Lin . Meicun . Seima-Turbino Culture and the Proto-Silk Road . Chinese Cultural Relics . 2016 . 3 . 1–002 . 256–257 . 2330-5169 . The report on the archaeological excavation of the Yin (Shang) ruins published in 2011 shows a Seima-Turbino style bronze socketed spearhead with a single side hook. (...) It is worth noting that a jade figurine (Figure 15:5) that resembles a Seima-Turbino-style bronze figurine (Figure 15:3) and a knife with deer-head pommel (Figure 15:6) were unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao at the Yin ruins. A similar knife with deer-head pommel is also in the collection of the Baoji Museum of Bronze Collections (Figure 12:4). These discoveries and collected artifacts reveal the cultural transmission between ancient inhabitants of the Yellow River region and nomads of the Eurasian Steppe.(...) The Illustrious Ancestor [King Gaozong of Yin] disciplines the Devil’s Country. After three years he conquers it.” (...) Seima-Turbino-style artifacts unearthed at the Yin ruins, including the bronze socketed spearhead with a single side hook, the jade figurine and the knife with deer-head pommel, indicate that the “Devil’s Country” refers to the far-away Altai Mountains..
  32. Meicun . Lin . Liu . Xiang . The origins of metallurgy in China . Antiquity . October 2017 . 91 . 359 . e6 . 10.15184/aqy.2017.177 . en . 0003-598X. free .
  33. Lin . Meicun . Seima-Turbino Culture and the Proto-Silk Road . Chinese Cultural Relics . 2016 . 3 . 1–002 . 256–257 . 2330-5169 . The discovery of the Seima-Turbino culture in China is of great importance, as it demonstrates with material evidence that Chinese metallurgy derives from the cultures of the Eurasian Steppe..
  34. Rawson . Jessica . Steppe Weapons in Ancient China and the Role of Hand-to-hand Combat . 故宮學術季刊 (The National Palace Museum Research Quarterly) . 2015 . 33 . 1 . 59–60 . We can look first at Mongolia to explain this shift, for a new development, the creation of large stone monuments, khirigsuurs (fig. 19) and deer stones (fig. 20), marks significant on-going changes in steppe societies. These impressive structures are widespread across western and central Mongolia, dating from 1400-700 BC. It would have taken a large labour force to create the mounds of stones that make up khirigsuurs, which seem to have been both burial and ceremonial sites for central figures of the many small groups of Mongolian mobile pastoralist societies. (...) In some tombs are horse fittings, such as bits. Parts of hundreds of horses might be interred over time around a major khirigsuur. (...) Deer stones tell the same story (fig 20). Although the majority are stylised, a few of these tall, originally standing, stones have a human head carved on one side at the rounded top, sometimes with temple rings shown on two of the other three sides, perhaps representing a powerful individual, or the more general concept of powerful leaders. (...) Then comes a horizontal belt and from this hang weapons, especially knives or daggers, and shafted axes, with curved rein holders below. A shield is often shown higher up. Not only do these deer stones represent people, they memorialise the achievements of warriors with their personal weapons. (...) These developments had probably had an impact on the peoples in the arc who had then interacted with the late Shang and early Zhou states..
  35. Book: Feng, Li. Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC. 2006. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-139-45688-3. Cambridge. 187.
  36. Shelach . Gideon . Gideon Shelach-Lavi . Review of Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC . The Journal of Asian Studies . 2008 . 67 . 1 . 281–284 . 10.1017/S0021911808000259 . 20203333 . 0021-9118 . Li argues that the Xianyun cannot be identified with the archaeological remains of the Siwa culture because all the sites that are associated with this archaeological culture are small and simple, whereas the activities of the Xianyun suggest a much more complex society (p. 187). While this observation makes sense, it may have more to do with the problematic definition of the archaeological "culture" rather than with Xianyun society. Pushing the location of the Xianyun further north and identifying them with a vaguely defined "Northern Zone" tradition (p. 188) certainly does not advance our under standing of the Xianyun society..
  37. Minford . John . The Triumph: A Heritage of Sorts. CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY China Heritage Project, China Heritage Quarterly. The Australian National University . 2009 . 19 .
  38. Edward Shaughnessy, in Loewe and Shaughnessy, eds., Cambridge History of Ancient China, 1999, p.320ff, in Minford . John . The Triumph: A Heritage of Sorts. CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY China Heritage Project, China Heritage Quarterly. The Australian National University . 2009 . 19 .
  39. See another translation at Eno . Robert . INSCRIPTIONAL RECORDS OF THE WESTERN ZHOU . 25–26 . 2012 .

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