CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

The Flamboyance of Eastern Zhou
CHU AND OTHER CULTURES (C. 7/0-221 BCE)
Cat. 113, detail
In 770 BCE, King Ping of Zhou moved his capital east to Luoyang; the five and a half centuries
of the Zhou dynasty that followed, comprising two consecutive phases — the Spring and
Autumn period (770 - 476 BCE) and the Warring States period (475 - 221 BCE) — are generally
called the Eastern Zhou period. The Western Zhou kings had wielded considerable power; the
kings of the Eastern Zhou period, by contrast, were largely puppet figures: during their reign
several regional kingdoms, including Qi, Chu, Jin, and Qin, successively exercised hegemony
over the region and waged frequent wars — both internally and with one another. 1 Remarkably,
the political turmoil did not impede the progress of art, literature, and philosophy; to the contrary,
they flourished, to the point that the extraordinary cultural prosperity of the Eastern
Zhou period has customarily been characterized as the "hundred schools of thought contending"
(baijia zhengming), and the "hundred flowers blooming" (baihua qifang). Archaeological
excavations have revealed several thriving, unique cultures that radiated from present-day Yunnan
province in the southwest into the Mongolian steppe in the northeast. One of these — the
Chu culture — dominated southern China and formed one of the most influential cultures of
the Eastern Zhou period.
"Chu culture" as defined here is not limited to the people or their kingdom but extends to
the cultural attributes and influence of Chu. Over time, through the annexation of more than
forty smaller states, the territory of the Chu kingdom expanded; Chu culture as a result was a
rich amalgam of diverse cultures and groups. 2 Its richness is manifested in literature such as
the Chu ci (Songs of Chu), an anthology that dates to the Late Warring States and the Han periods,
but what of its material culture? A century of archaeological investigation has yielded
remains covering a vast zone that includes the present-day provinces of southern Henan,
Hubei, Hunan, and Anhui, and has considerably expanded our knowledge of the culture. A
distinctively Chu culture seems to have emerged around the sixth century BCE, although archaeologists
have traced its origins back to the Early Western Zhou period on the evidence of
bronzes and oracle-bone inscriptions; Professor Yu Weichao situates the origins of Chu culture
even farther back in time—to the Early Shang period — on the evidence of ceramic li vessels
(see his essay herein). 3
Objects associated with the Chu culture in this exhibition include their signature artifacts
— lacquerware, textiles, and bronzes — from Henan, Hubei and Anhui provinces, ranging
from the Middle Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period (cats. 91-122). These
objects represent the contents of burials identified with the Chu kingdom but also artifacts
associated with other states. The bronzes and lacquerware from the tomb of Zenghou Yi, for
example (cats. 92-102) show the intensity of Chu influence over states that were politically
independent of Chu. The form and the decoration of ritual bronzes from the Chu burials at
Xiasi in Henan province testify to the formation of distinctive artistic characteristics (as does
the technique of lost-wax casting); a chime of bronze bells from the same locality (cat. 91), indi-
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