CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

shaman and ghosts, and favored lewd sacrifice/' an indication that these customs lasted until
the Han dynasty. The many imaginary figures and animal creatures made of lacquered wood
from the Warring States Chu tombs are an artistic reflection of the importance of the shaman.
Scholars of philosophy have noted that Daoism, as represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, was
the mainstream in the regions of Yangzi and Huai River valleys, while the Confucianist and
Mohist schools were popular in the Yellow River valley. In the winter of 1993, an ancient book of
bamboo slips from Chu Tomb i (dated to the Warring States period) in Guodian, Jingmen,
Hubei province, was unearthed; it contained fourteen fragmentary slips containing Confucian
texts, three Lao zi fragments, and one fragment of Taiyi sheng shui; the latter two were popular in
later religious Daoism. 33 Judging from these discoveries, while Confucianism and Daoism were
practiced concurrently, Daoism received greater emphasis.
Another important document is a Warring States period Chu manuscript on silk, reportedly
from Zidanku, Changsha, 34 and now in the Sackler Collection. The historian Li Ling has
tentatively identified the manuscript as calendar of the four seasons (Sishiling) that served as a
guidebook for choosing when a particular activity should take place. 35 During the Han dynasty,
such texts were classified as shushu (mathematics and skills such as divination and astrology).
Other manuscripts from the same site also belong to this category. The content of the Sishiling
is similar to the You guan and You guan tu sections of the Guan zi and reflects parallels between
Yin-Yang theory and Daoist thought. These manuscripts from Warring States period Chu tombs
document the popularity of Daoism under the Chu. Early shamanism is manifested in Daoist
thought and rhetoric, particularly in the transmitted texts of the Lao zi and Zhuang zi; 36 the Chu
ci also reveal elements of shamanic belief. 37 Shamanism, Daoism, and Li sao all inform the colorful
and highly imaginative thought and literature of the Chu tradition.
REMNANTS OF CHU CULTURE IN THE EARLY HAN DYNASTY
The Qin army left a trail of destruction in the course of its conquests — a practice that fundamentally
altered the fabric of the six states that it subjugated. Several tombs of the Qin type
have been discovered within these states, yielding objects that conform to Qin typology but
contain elements of an indigenous style. Only the Changsha region seems to have retained a
rich Chu culture.
Historical texts are ambiguous with regard to precise dates for the Qin occupation of the
Changsha region. The chapter on the genealogy of the Qin and the Bai Qi chronicle in the Shi ji
report that when the Qin general Bai Qi took over the Chu capital of Ying, he also dispersed
other Chu regions in Qianzhong, Wujun, and Jiangnan. The Qin occupation of Changsha may
have been contemporaneous with this campaign, but Changsha tombs from the period still
yield ritual vessels — sheng (he), hu, and fang — that are distinctly Chu in style (short-legged
ding of the Qin type are the exception). Such burial objects endured into the early Han dynasty.
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