A Han Dynasty Poem About Enduring Love: 情歌: 上邪
Music: Farewell (Instrumental)
Art by: 洛中纪异
Lady of early Eastern Han (Center) on a chariot. In her hand she clasps an aristocrat's fan. She wears an ornate silk 曲裾 Qū jū dress with swirling "prismatic cloud" motif that's covered by a translucent gauze of white silk. She is ringed by attendants in simpler uniforms. The charioteer at the far left of the image sports a strap that is fastened to his topknot. The hairstyles of the figures exemplifies the simple and unadorned styles of Western Han, but by the early Eastern Han period- clothing and hairstyles became more extravagant. The silk dress of the lady is based on the robes recovered from Mawangdui Tomb Complex dated to Eastern Han.
Anachronistic Han dynasty relief depicting a general of Qi from centuries passed.
Eastern Han aristocrats. By the 2nd century A.D the fashions for the aristocrats became more ostentatious. Noblewomen's hairstyles began to incorporate elaborate coiffures.
我欲与君相知，
长命无绝衰。
山无陵，
江水为竭，
冬雷震震，
夏雨雪 ，
天地合，
乃敢与君绝!
"By Heaven"
By Heaven!
I long to ever precipitate your affections,
And hope this long affection will be without end.
Until mountains shatters and flatten,
Until torrential riverbeds run dry,
Until in the harsh winter thunders roll and-
Until snow showers in the scorching heat,
Until the earth breaks and joins with the sky,
Do I dare to renounce my affections.
~An alternative variation of the last line is also translated as:
Until the earth breaks and joins with the sky.
Not till then will I part from you.
ENTER THE SHINING MARTIAL EMPEROR
Above: a modern recreation of the type of Qū jū 曲裾 dress. Qū jū 曲裾 largely wrapped around the woman's body while being secured by the tight belt around her waist.
Detail of the "Prismatic Cloud" motif from the silk dress recovered
from the Mawangdui Tomb Complex. Eastern Han Dynasty.
Zhí jū 直裾, "Straight Uniform" worn by both sexes and was seen as a very informal and ubiquitous attire. The robe wrapped around the man's body while being secured by the tight belt. If the nobleman carries a sword, the scabbard's belt clip could be fastened on the belt.
For more information regarding elaborate Eastern Han dynasty fashion and tombs please check out this article here. Thank you!
The Eastern Han tomb complex from the Horinger County near Shengle City
displays a vast mural of galloping Han cavalry and nobles riding as
passengers atop of chariots.
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Comments
@萧炎, and didn't Eastern Han practise heqin? The Hun threat was no more but Barbarians were still at the gates.
The Shang Kings- through sacrificial rituals (the huge ornate bronze cooking vessels etc) were seen as temporal princes but also mediums between the cosmos and men. This is why Duke Wen of Zhou's reframing of "Mandate of Heaven" is genius if you consider it from religious grounds.
Westerners- especially missionaries were often astounded that there has been this constant vaccum where a unmoving and ever benevolent presence of justice exists but does not directly interfere in the affairs in a personal God sort of way. This is why when Mattheo Ricci and many Jesuits appeared they used the word "Shang Di" to call "God." because its an equivalence.
Yeah I am reading more and more about Guangwudi and I have to say he is quickly becoming one of my favorite Chinese emperors. He did what Liu Bei and Cao Cao combined could never have hoped to achieve, and his story is one of the most remarkable ones in the passage of Chinese sovereigns. If not for the likes of Taizong he's probably one of my favorite now.
It's so hard to think that a figure existed in a time where the world was at the brink of collapse and total anarchy, and it was able to be so thorougly saved that many historians simply glossed through this period merely as a continuation of the dynasty altogether. I think his successes in restoring the dynasty actually undermined him being remembered as the meteroric figure that he was.
It's such a shame that people like Guangwu and Aurelian were not more known ironically because they saved their respective empires so well.
The Shang to Chinese civilization is what the Sumerians are to Western civilization. But I'm curious to know if they made use of surnames? Was it common during Shang times??
Back in those times a lot of things had a supernatural element to it. Even before the Shang, the Xia and the Yellow Emperor was all shrouded in myths. Although some are allegories of real conflicts they partook.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor#History_of_Huangdi's_cult
I know that even before the Xia the Yellow Emperor made at least 1 great war against a coalition of chieftans from the south. And it was immortalized in the figure of his nemisis Chiyou- who later historians have postulated as possibly an allegory of one of his major foes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou
Another of his major enemies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingtian
One of Yellow Emperor's allies personified as the bird headed thunder God
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/ea/93/a6ea93ebe44483dd2b9e6f259a847afa.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor#Origin_of_the_myth
It's possible that Huandi's life is a retelling or distortion of the early Shang King's exploits
The Shang seemed to be very adapt at using chariots which intrigues me. I have thought about this for a long time but do not yet have proof of it. The Shang might have their distant origins from the steppes, or at least were from part of a Sinosized core that was exposed to the Gobi Desert and the steppes.
If you look at the territories of Huangdi- Yellow Emperor, its right on the lands touching the grasslands of the steppe
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Huang_Di.png
Casting techniques were not invented by the Shang, as the Erlitou "Xia" site have shown that primitive ewers and vessels were already casted. However, the Shang perfected it. My guess is that they were somewhat mixed, hence their strange names. Then, through the adoption of high quality chariots and fine bronze forging techniques they became overlords over the many other kings and chieftans in the region.
In terms of territorial divisions, notice that the eastern Chunks of the lands from eastern Henan to Hebei and Shandong belong to another culture and faction? this was a constant during the Shang and lasted until the collapse of the Shang and the early Zhou period. When the Shang fell, many of the tribes in the area of Shandong rebelled against the Zhou because they had been hereditery vassals and allies of the Shang- there also seemed to be strong affinity between the 2.
Those tribes not only strongly resisted Duke Wen of Zhou but- when he refused to allow other royal uncles from becoming the regent of the young King, also rose in rebellion to toppled Duke Wen. The last Shang Prince, Zhou royal uncles, and many of the eastern Tribes all rose in unison against the Duke but he defeated them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_of_the_Three_Guards
In fact, the zhou dynasty was founded by the tibeto-burman people, who spoke "elegant language-雅言", a tibeto-burman language(戎狄藏缅语), the lower classes spoke "vernacular-白话" (the ancestor of modern Chinese), and the zhou people probably used a script invented by the eastern yi people (who founded the shang dynasty). Although the zhou people were not many in number, their influence was very deep, for the "elegant language-雅言" (classical Chinese) of the zhou dynasty were always used by the upper classes of later dynasties, which is why "中国变化之巨,莫甚于商周之变". After the zhou dynasty destroyed the shang dynasty, the zhou people abolished the system of sacrificial burial in the shang dynasty.
The zhou people believed that they were descended from the xia dynasty, and in the early years of the zhou dynasty, they ruled China in the way of"夏君夷民". In fact, this was a kind of colonial rule, but the zhou people ruled in a very clever way, which made the shang people completely lose their identity. That is why the eastern zhou people called themselves the Xia(诸夏).
Zhou people's matrilineal may be Tocharian, make a joke haha
The royal family of Zhou is Ji(姬) clan, and the Zhou people's matrilineal is Jiang(姜) clan (Qiang people)
Did you find anything? Yellow Emperor was surnamed ji(姬), and Yan Emperor was surnamed jiang(姜)，So the legend of Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor was most likely invented by the zhou people. Why is that?The purpose of zhou people is to be able to legalize Ruled China, so the legend was invented. Yellow Emperor may have been based on a leader of the Eastern Qiang tribal alliance , and The Qiang are nomadic tribes , So we have to admit that zhou people have superb political wisdom.
So yes, I think the Zhou is 'more Chinese' than the Shang.
but the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang and Ming dynasties were founded by Chinese(Paternally and culturally)
Hmmm, 1st time I am hearing this, can you provide some sources? I am intrigued
http://www.ranhaer.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=38927&extra=page%3D1&from=singlemessage
In fact, the later tang, later jin, later han, northern han and song dynasties were all founded by the shatuo military nobles，But the later zhou was controversial，Because Unlike li(李)、liu(刘) and zhao(赵), the guo(郭) and chai(柴) are not common Chinese names.