Table Of ContentKINGSHIP, RITUAL, AND ROYAL IDEOLOGY
IN WESTERN ZHOU CHINA
In accounts of Chinese history, the Western Zhou period has been
lionized as a golden age of ritual, when kings created the ceremonies
that underlay the traditions of imperial governance. In this book, Paul
Nicholas Vogt rediscovers early Chinese ritual’s roots in the vagar-
ies of Western Zhou royal geopolitics through an investigation of
inscriptions on bronze vessels, the best contemporary source for this
period. He shows how the kings of the Western Zhou adapted ritual
to create and retain power while introducing changes that affected
later remembrances of Zhou royal ritual and shaped the tradition of
statecraft throughout Chinese history. Using ritual and social theory
to explain Western Zhou history, Vogt traces how the traditions of
premodern China were born, how a ruling dynasty establishes and
holds on to power, how religion and politics can support and restrain
each other, and how ancient peoples made, used, and assigned mean-
ing to art and artifacts.
Paul Nicholas Vogt is Assistant Professor of Early Chinese History at
Indiana University, Bloomington.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
KINGSHIP, RITUAL,
AND ROYAL IDEOLOGY
IN WESTERN ZHOU CHINA
PAUL NICHOLAS VOGT
Indiana University, Bloomington
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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DOI: 10.1017/9781009042741
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Names: Vogt, Paul Nicholas, 1978- author.
Title: Kingship, ritual, and royal ideology in Western Zhou China / Paul
Nicholas Vogt, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Description: Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021063043 (print) | LCCN 2021063044 (ebook) | ISBN
9781316517611 (hardback) | ISBN 9781009045704 (paperback) | ISBN
9781009042741 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: China–History–Zhou dynasty, 1122–221 B.C. | China–Social
life and customs–To 221 B.C. | China–Kings and rulers–History. |
Ancestor worship–China–History–To 1500.
Classification: LCC DS747 .V64 2023 (print) | LCC DS747 (ebook) | DDC
931/.03–dc23/eng/20220103
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021063043
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CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
The Origins of the Zhou 3
The Historical Construct of Zhou Royal Ritual 4
The Projection of li 禮 into the Western Zhou 7
Ritual and Western Zhou Royal Ideology 9
Bronzes as a Source on Western Zhou Ritual 13
Bronzes and Zhou Ideology 16
Structure of the Book 18
1 THE POLITICS OF SHANG RITUAL UNDER THE ZHOU 20
Shared Ritual Techniques 21
Livestock Offerings and Royal Patronage 43
Early Western Zhou Ritual Techniques 56
Ritual Techniques Performed Only by Zhou Kings 65
Nonroyal Ritual Techniques 71
Conclusion: Ancestral Ritual in Zhou Politics 77
2 THE RITUAL FIGURATION OF THE ZHOU KINGS 80
Figuring Kingship 81
The “Great Rite” (da feng 大豐/da li 大禮) 81
Ceremonial Ploughing (jitian/jinong 籍田/籍農) 90
The Seizing of Foals (zhiju 執駒) 98
Conclusion: Figuring and Refiguring the Zhou King 107
3 RITUAL RECOGNITION, REWARD, AND PATRONAGE
UNDER THE ZHOU KINGS 111
“Recounting of Merits” (mieli 蔑歷) 112
Archery 125
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vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Official Appointment Ceremony 144
Conclusion: Evolving Strategies of Patronage 152
4 RITUAL ASSEMBLIES AND THE GEOPOLITICS
OF ZHOU EXPANSION 155
The Mai fangzun Inscription 156
The Mai fangzun Event Assembly: A Persuasive Narrative of Group
Identity 163
The Xiao Yu ding Inscription 164
Control, Coercion, and Contrast in the Xiao Yu ding Event 170
Ritual Assemblies and Early Western Zhou Geopolitics 173
5 READING THE “RITUAL REFORM” 176
The Transformation of Western Zhou Ritual 177
The Issue of the “Ritual Reform” or “Ritual Revolution” 184
Conclusion: Toward a Political Logic of the “Ritual Reform” 190
6 THE ETHIC OF PRESENCE: ROYAL IDEOLOGY
THROUGH BRONZE INSCRIPTIONS 197
The Royal Sphere of Influence in Bronze Inscriptions 198
Case Studies 238
Conclusion: Inscribed Bronzes as Vehicles of Royal Ideology 246
Royal Ritual Messaging Delivered Directly through the
Ancestral Cult: The He zun Inscription 238
Royal Recognition Driving Ancestral Worship: The Yin Ji
li Inscription 242
Ancestral Bronzes Relaying Royal Rites: The Mai fangzun
Inscription 244
CONCLUSION: ZHOU RITUAL AND EARLY CHINESE HISTORY 248
Appendix 258
Bibliography 293
Subject Index 310
Inscription Index 321
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FIGURES
0.1 A Western Zhou bronze vessel (the Yishu Wen gui 義叔聞簋 [3695]) 14
1.1 The Shu Ze fangding 26
1.2 The inscription of the Shu Ze fangding 27
1.3 The inscription of the Gao you 33
1.4 The Ji ding 36
1.5 The Qin gui 41
1.6 The inscription of the Qin gui 41
1.7 The Da gui 47
1.8 The inscription of the Da gui 48
1.9 The Haozi you 51
1.10 The inscription of the Haozi you 52
1.11 The Yongbo X gui 58
1.12 The inscription of the Yongbo X gui 59
2.1 The Scorpion Macehead 91
2.2 Detail of the Scorpion Macehead 92
2.3 The Li juzun 100
3.1 The Si gui 120
3.2 The Ci you and its inscription 120
3.3 The Ci zun and its inscription 121
3.4 The Zuoce Ban yuan 127
3.5 The Zhabo gui 130
3.6 The inscription of the Zhabo gui 130
3.7 The Jingbo Lu gui 147
3.8 The inscription of the Jingbo Lu gui 147
4.1 The Mai fangzun 161
4.2 The inscription of the Mai fangzun 162
4.3 Reconstruction of the Xiao Yu ding inscription 171
5.1 A pair of hu-wine vessels (the Guo Ji hu) 186
5.2 Late Western Zhou vessel sets (the 42nd- and 43rd-year Lai ding) 187
6.1 Discovery locations of Shang dynasty inscribed bronzes 202
6.2 Distribution of provenance Shang bronzes containing the term
“king” (wang) 204
6.3 Discovery locations of Western Zhou inscribed bronzes 206
6.4 Distribution of provenance bronzes mentioning the Western
Zhou king 208
6.5 Discovery locations of inscribed bronzes dating to the early
Western Zhou 212
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viii LIST OF FIGURES
6.6 Discovery locations of inscribed bronzes dating to the middle Western
Zhou 214
6.7 Discovery locations of inscribed bronzes dating to the late
Western Zhou 216
6.8 Discovery locations of inscribed bronzes mentioning the Western
Zhou king, divided by period (6.8a: early; 6.8b: middle; 6.8c: late) 218
6.9 Discovery locations of Western Zhou “date only” bronzes 224
6.10 The Bo yu 240
6.11 The inscription of the He zun 241
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ABBREVIATIONS
AS database Zhongyang yanjiuyuan shiyusuo jinwen gongzuoshi 中
央研究院史語所金文工作室. Yin Zhou jinwen ji qing-
tongqi ziliaoku 殷周金文暨青銅器資料庫 (“Digital
Archives of Bronze Images and Inscriptions”). www
.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~bronze/.
Bogu Wang Fu 王黻 et al. Dongshutang chongxiu Xuanhe
bogu tulu 東書堂重修宣和博古圖錄. 30 vols. Huang
Sheng: 1752.
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London.
Bureaucracy Li Feng. Bureaucracy and the State in Early China:
Governing the Western Zhou. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008.
CHANT Xianggang Zhongwen daxue Zhongguo wenhua yanji-
usuo Zhongguo guji yanjiu zhongxin 香港中文大學中
國文化研究所中國古籍研究中心. CHANT (Chinese
Ancient Texts Database) (Han da wen ku 漢達文庫).
www.chant.org.
Conggu Xu Tongbai 徐同柏. Conggu tang kuanzhi xue 從古
堂款識學. 16 juan. Shanghai: Tongwen shuju, 1886.
Preface by Ruan Yuan, 1839.
Daxi Guo Moruo 郭沫若, Liang Zhou jinwen ci daxi tulu
kaoshi 兩週金文辭大係圖錄考釋. 8 vols. Beijing:
Kexue, 1958.
Duandai Chen Mengjia 陈梦家. Xi Zhou tongqi duandai 西周
铜器断代. Ed. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu
yanjiusuo 中国社会科学院考古研究所. Beijing:
Zhonghua, 2004.
EC Early China.
ECT Loewe, Michael, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical
Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China,
1993.
ix
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