¹ Maspero, Henri, ‘Légendes mythologiques dans le Chou king’, Journal Asiatique CCIV (1924), 1–100Google Scholar; Jiegang, Gu, ed. Gu shi bian 7 vols., Peking and Shanghai, 1926–1941Google Scholar; see also Eberhard, Wolfram, Lokalkulturen im Alten China I (supplement to T'oung Pao, v. 37, Leiden, 1942)Google Scholar, II (Monumenta Serica, monograph III, Peking, 1942).Google Scholar

² Mengjia, Chen ‘Shangdaide shenhua yu wushu’ Yanjing Xuebao XX, 12, 1936, p. 291.Google Scholar

³ See, for example, Chang, K. C., Archaeology in China, 3rd ed., New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1977, p. 216.Google Scholar

⁴ Xunsheng, Xu ‘1959 nian yu xi diaocha “Xia Xu” de chubu baogao’ 1959 Kaogu 1959, no. 11, pp. 592–600Google Scholar; ‘Henan Erlitou yizhi fajue baogao’ Kaogu 1965, no. 5, pp. 215–224Google Scholar; ‘Henan Yanshi Erlitou zao Shang gongdian yizhi fajue jianbao’ Kaogu 1974, no. 4, 234–48Google Scholar; Henan Yanshi Erlitou yizhi san ba qu fajue jian bao' Kaogu 1975, no. 5, pp. 302–9.Google Scholar

⁵ For a sympathetic summary of the new attributions see Chang, K. C., Shang Civilization, New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1980, pp. 335–55.Google Scholar

⁶ CMC, San Francisco, 1981.Google Scholar

⁷ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies XLIV, pt. 2, 1981, pp. 290–326.Google Scholar

⁸ E.g., the Shao Gao, Duo Shi and Duo Fang. See The heir and the sage, p. 4.Google Scholar

⁹ For discussion of the development of the theory of a changing mandate of Heaven, see also Allan, S., “Drought, Human Sacrifice and the mandate of Heaven in a lost text from the Shang shu”, B.S.O.A.S., forthcoming.Google Scholar

¹⁰ (Chan Ping-leung) “Zhongguo gudai shenhua xinshi liang ze” , Qinghua xuebao VII, 2, 1969, p. 212.Google Scholar

¹¹ Peking, , shuju, Zhonghua, 1959, juan 2, p. 49.Google Scholar

¹² Ibid., v. 7, pt. 1, p. 189 ff.

¹³ See The heir and the sage, p. 6.Google Scholar

¹⁴ “Shangdaide shenhua yu wushu”, op. cit., p. 323.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The character may be read as xiong, ‘bear’, or nai, a three-legged tortoise or dragon, the gloss given to the creature into which Gun and Yŭ turned - see note 38 below. As Chen Mengjia, ibid., p. 523, observed, Han Yuan is the name of the heavenly tortoise and in some versions of the Yu myth, the mountain through which he passed before turning into a nai. Thus, nai should also be the reading for Huang Di's clan name.

¹⁶ Gu shi bian, v. 7, p. 196.Google Scholar

¹⁷ All reconstructions given in this form are from Karlgren, Bernhard, Grammata Serica Recensa, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities XXIX, 1957.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Shi jing, 12/4b (song 192, Xiao Yu, Zheng Yue), 16/2b (241, Da Ya, Huang Yi).

¹⁹ I have translated xuan, the colour of the bird from whom the Shang descended as black but, more precisely, it is the colour of mystery, the darkness of the unknown, not a colour on t h e spectrum. Similarly huang describes a murky dimness difficult to penetrate, not simply the colour yellow. In the Yijing ( l/; 6b, hexagram 2), xuan huang is used to describe the blood of a dragon.

²⁰ Changsha Mawangdui yihao Han mu Peking, Wenwu Press, I, p. 39; II, pl. 72Google Scholar; “Shandong Linyi Jinjueshan jiu hao Han mu chutu baihua” Wenwu 1979, no. 11Google Scholar, inside cover; “Changsha Mawangdui er, san hao Han mu fajuejian bao” Wenwu 1974, no. 7, pl. 5.Google Scholar

²¹ Yin Gong 1 (Zongtong, Li ed., Chunqiu Zuozhuan jinshu jinyi Taibei, Commercial Press, 1970, p. 4.)Google Scholar

²² Mengzi 6/15a (3B.10); Xunzi l/10a; Huainanzi 3/5a (All references given in this form refer to the juan/page number of the Sibu congkan editions published in Shanghai in the 1930's. This belief may extend to snakes which may explain the prominence of snakes in both oracle bone characters for curses and disasters and in the bronze vessels for making ritual offerings to the ancestors of the Shang period.

²³ Lun hengjiaoshi Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1964, 06 13, p. 207.Google Scholar

²⁴ Zhuangzi 6/26b (pian 17). See also Huainanzi 19/6a, “if it is not the top of the ninelayered sky, it is the bottom of the Yellow Springs”.

²⁵ See the Nineteen Old Songs, no. 16 (Gushi yuan Taiping shuju, Hong Kong, 1966, p. 91).Google Scholar

²⁶ Shanhai jing jiaozhu Ke, Yuan ed., Shanghai, Guji chubanshe, 1980, 446 (Hainei jing).Google Scholar These identifications are also made by Bingliang, Chen, op. cit., p. 212.Google Scholar

²⁷ See, for example, Huainanzi 9/lb.

²⁸ Jinshu jinyi, p. 1112.Google Scholar

²⁹ See Creel, H. G., The origins of statecraft in China, v. 1, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, pp. 493–506.Google Scholar

³⁰ Cf. Shanhai jing 17/6a, Huainanzi 15/la/b, Lushi chunqiu 7/3a.

³¹ juan 1, p. 10Google Scholar; juan 2, p. 49.Google Scholar

³² Shanhai jing jiaozhu (Hainei dong jing), p. 443.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ Guben zhushu jinian jijiao dingbu Shanghai, Xin zhishi chubanshe, 1956, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar The identification Han Liu and Han Huang was first made by Guo Pu, see ibid.

³⁵ Shanhai jing jiaoshu (Dahuang xijing), p. 416.Google Scholar

³⁶ Zhuangzi 9/38b.

³⁷ p. 413.

³⁸ See Huainanzi 4/la for the yellow clouds which rise from the Yellow Springs; see also Zuo zhuan jinzhu jinyi (Shao Gong 17, p. 1192) for Huang Di's emblem as clouds.Google Scholar

³⁹ See Boltz, Willam G., “Kung Kung and the flood: Reverse euhemerism in the Yao Tien”, T'oung Pao, 67, 3–5 (1981), pp. 141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁰ Chu ci 3/7b (lines 35–6, Hawkes, David' translation, Chu Tz'u: Songs of the south, New York, Beacon, 1962).Google Scholar

⁴¹ For discussion of Yi Yin as a mythical figure, see “Sons of suns”, 306–7, 313; for the drought at the beginning of the Shang, see my article, “Drought and human sacrifice in a lost text from the Shang shu,” B.S.O.A.S., forthcoming.

⁴² For this identification, see “Sons of suns”, 322–3.

⁴³ Karlgren, B., The book of documents, B.M.F.E.A. XXII (1950), pp. 2–3, 11.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Chu ci 3/6b–7a (1. 31–2).

⁴⁵ Boltz, W., 150–3.Google Scholar I disagree, however, with Boltz's interpretation of Gong Gong as a personification of the flood. There are water spirits in ancient Chinese texts (and rivers were worshipped in t h e oracle bone inscriptions), but there is no pattern of personifying phenomena such as flooding as opposed to natural objects such as rivers and mountains, though there appears to be in Indian mythology. Although the Yao Dian states that Gong Gong “swelled up to Heaven” (tao tian), the text may be corrupt – elsewhere he is described as causing the waters to swell up to Heaven and the Yao Dian appears to have many layers of different periods. In any case, this one line is insufficient evidence upon which to establish a mythical system.

⁴⁶ Chu ci 3/6a (1. 25–6). In a painting found in tomb no. 1 at Mawangdui (see note 20), owls and turtles are depicted in the underworld, flanking large fishlike creatures in the centre.

⁴⁷ Hainei jing, op. cit., 06 13, p. 492; see also Li ji 14/4a for the damming up of the waters by Gun. The meaning of xi xiang is uncertain. The Huainanzi (5/15a) refers to the states in Kunlun's eastern range (in the far west of the central region) where the “swelling mould dams up the flooding waters. Cf. Huainanzi 4/2a which refers to Yu rather than Gun damming u p the waters with the swelling mould.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ For the story of Gun's punishment by Yao, , see the Heir and the Sage, pp. 35–6, 6206.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ This character is glossed in the Er Ya as a three-legged turtle and may also be written as , as in the Guo Yu 14/14b (Jin yu 8). According to some accounts, it was once written with three dots, but I have not found any extant examples. Some commentators have alleged that it is an error for long ‘dragon’, but the consistent use of the character nai in various contexts makes this interpretation less likely. The three legs of the turtle recall those of the sun-bird.

⁵⁰ Chu ci 3/6a–b (Tian wen, 27–8, 73–4Google Scholar, based on Hawkes', translation, p. 48).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Gui cang Changsha, Yu han shan fang jiyi shu, 1884, 12b (Qi shibian).Google Scholar

⁵² See p. 8 above.

⁵³ Huainanzi 7/7a.

⁵⁴ See the commentaries of the Shi ji, 06 2, 51Google Scholar, and the Diwang shiji jicun Zongyuan, Xu ed., Zhonghua shuju, Peking, 1964, p. 52.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Chu ci 3/15aGoogle Scholar (Tian wen, 66).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ From a citation of the Sui chaozi as cited in the Yi shi, see Shanhai jing jiaozhu, p. 210.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Chu ci 3/15a (Tian wen, 1. 65)Google Scholar, 1/llb (Li sao, 1. 74).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Shanhai jing jiaozhu, juan 16 (Dahuang xijing), p. 414.Google Scholar See also juan 7 (Hainei xijing) and the Gui cang, 9a (Zheng Mu) for this story. For the Jiu shao, see the Guben zhushu jinian, p. 9 (in which Qi danced the Jiu shao in the ninth year)Google Scholar, and Shanhai jing jiaozhu, j. 16, 414.Google Scholar The Shi ji j. 1, p. 43, describes Yŭ as the creator of this music.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Shi ji j. 2, 85–6.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ The earliest references to this story are in the Chu ci, 3/15b–16b, 18b–19a, lines 67–72, 85–90.

⁶¹ v. 7, 282–92.

⁶² Junshi, Yang “Kang Keng yu Xia hui” Dalu zazhi 20, no. 3 (1960), 83–88.Google Scholar

⁶³ Guo yu, Lu yu, shang, 4/9a.

⁶⁴ jijiao dingbu, p. 14.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ See, for example, Heng, ZouXia, Shang, Zhou kaogu lunwenji Beijing, Wenwu Press, 1980.Google Scholar