SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 99 February, 2000 Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 2000–741 B.C.) by Anthony J. Barbieri-Low Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. 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You should also check our Web site at www.sino-platonic.org, as back issues are regularly rereleased for free as PDF editions. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 2000-741 B.C.) Anthony J. Barbieri-Low Doctoral Candidate Department of Art and Archaeology Princeton University o Sino-Platonic Papers, 99 (February, 2000) 111 Table of Contents I. Introduction--Wheeled Transport around the World ...................... 1 The Near East . ................................................... 3 Europe .. ....................... '" .............................. 5 ! India ........................................................... 6 China ...................................... ..................... 8 II. The Earliest Chinese Wheeled Vehicles ................................. 9 A. Legendary Origins .............................................. 9 B. Actual Vehicle Remains ......................................... 10 C. Representational Evidence . ...................................... 14 D. Indirect Evidence . ............................................. 15 E. Conclusions. .. 17 III. The Shang Chariot at Anyang ....................................... 18 A. Background . .................................................. 18 B. Archaeological Context ......................................... 19 C. Structure of the Shang Chariot . ................................... 23 Wheels .................................................. 24 Axle and Axle End-cap .................................... 26 Draught Pole and Yoke Bar ................................ 27 Chariot Box . 29 Bronze Fittings and Decorations ............................ 30 Harnessing ......................................... ..... 31 D. Function of the Shang Chariot . ................................... 32 Burial Ritual ............................................. 32 Royal Hunt .............................................. 34 Ritual Display ............................................ 35 Warfare ................................................. 35 E. Origins of the Shang Chariot ..................................... 37 Structural Evidence ....................................... 37 Stylistic Evidence ......................................... 39 Textual Evidence ......................................... 43 Linguistic Evidence ....................................... 44 Route & Method of Transmission ........................... 45 Summary ................................................ 48 IV. Other Wheeled Vehicles at Anyang ................................... 48 A. Small Carts . .................................................. 49 B. Quadrigae . ................................................... 50 C. 51 • Human-Powered Chariots . ...................................... D. Sheep-Drawn Carts ............................................ 52 V. Wheeled Transportation Outside Anyang .............................. 53 A. Shaanxi ...................................................... 53 B. Shandong . .. 54 C. Sichuan . ..................................................... 56 VI. Wheeled Vehicles in the Western Zhou ................................ 58 A. Archaeological Examples . ....................................... 59 IV Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, "Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age, c. 2000-74] B.C." Beijing, Liulihe ........................................... 60 Henan, Xincun ........................................... 61 Fengxi, Zhangjiapo ....................................... 62 Baoji, Rujiazhuang ....................................... 63 B. Function of the Western Zhou Chariot . ............................. 65 Status . .................................................. 65 Ritual . .................................................. 66 Warfare ...... ........................................... 67 C. Other Western Zhou Vehicles . .................................... 68 VD. Conclusion ...................................................... 73 References Cited and Additional Works Consulted ......................... 75 Sino-PLatonic Papers, 99 (February, 2000) v List of Figures Figure 1: Wheeled pottery toy from Mesoamerica (Aztec) .......................................2 Figure 2: Uruk IVa pictographs ............................................................3 Figure 3: A "battle car" depicted on the so-called "Standard ofUr." .............................. .3 Figure 4: Copper model of a "straddle car" from the site of Tell Agrab, Iraq ....................... .4 Figure 5: Map showing the loca~ons of Central Asian and Russian chariot finds and the probable routes of transmission to China during the Bronze Age. .......................................5 Figure 6: Terracotta model of Harappan ox-cart. ..............................................6 Figure 7: Outline of a livestock pen found at the site of Nomhon ................................. 11 Figure 8: Wooden wheel hubs found near Nomhon ............................................ 12 Figure 9: Spindle whorl with spoked-wheel pattern, from site of Liuwan in Qinghai province ......... .14 Figure to: Wheel ruts near the city wall of the early Bronze Age site at Yanshi, Henan ............... 15 Figure I I : Locations of major Anyang chariot finds ..............................' .............20 Figure 12: Plan of the chariot pit at Guojiazhuang, M52 ........................................21 Figure 13: Various fonns of the Shang graph for chariot. .......................................39 Figure 14: Rock carvings of chariots from Central Asia and Mongolia............................ .39 Figure IS: Bow-shaped bronze objects from East Asia and Siberia.............................. .40 Figure 16: Bronze animal-style knives from Xiaotun, Anyang .................................. .42 Figure] 7: Wheel tracks from the midden pit at Anyang, Huayuanzhuang......................... .49 Figure 18: Rubbing of the character nian ....................................................51 Figure 19: Harnessed sheep and sacrificed human from Anyang, Guojiazhuang M148 ...............52 Figure 20: Bronze wheel cover from the site of Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. ....................57 Figure 21: Chariot pit M I 100 from the site of Beijing, Liulihe................................... 60 Figure 22: Chariot pit #2 from the site of Fengxi, Zhangjiapo ....................................62 Figure 23: Metal nave bands from the site of Baoji, Rujiazhuang. ..............................64 Figure 24: Metal hub reinforcements from the site of Baoji, Rujiazhuang