La civilisation du royaume de Dian a l'époque Han d'après le matériel exhumé à Shizhai Shan(Yunnan) by Michèle Pirazzoli-t'SerstevensReview by: Kwang-chih ChangJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 97, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1977), pp. 567-568Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/598648 .

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Reviews of Books Reviews of Books

be to Allah who has created such a wondrous child full of words of good counsel I What a pleasure it is to converse with him Surely he is a messenger of God." (p. 2) Sikh traditions hold that Nanak was educated both by a Hindu pandit and a Muslim mullah. (Why, one wonders, was he "sent to the village mosque to learn Arabic and other subjects?" (p. 3). In the end, "Nanak talked to the Muslims of their faith in their own language and to Hindus of theirs in their language; both the communities were well pleased with him." (p. 3) In another context, for anyone who has, for example, read in Hindi Sufi literature, it would be difficult to distinguish aspects of it from the Sant literature of poets like Kabir and Na- nak who share with the Sfifis a tendency to use a mixed Hindu-Muslim religious vocabulary and are theologically monotheistic, opposing the worship of images, avatars and so on.

The later development of Sikhism beyond Nanak is outside the scope of this review, but it is annoying to read in the third chapter of K. Singh's Hymns a re-

hashing of Hindu anti-Muslim cant today. He writes, "The early Muslim invaders... levelled Hindu tem-

ples to the ground, raised pyramids of Hindu skulls and rammed Islam down the throats of the populace. It took the Muslims many years of bloodshed to realize that force steeled a people's hearts, but could not convert them." (p. 20) Aside from the violence of war, of which the Muslims were not the only perpetrators in the Indian middle ages, there is not much evidence of "forced conversion" in the Muslim conquest. In any case it is

contrary to Muslim law. The Muslim minority in the sub-continent has run as high as twenty-five per cent of the total pcpulation in a land where Hindus raised every social and moral obstacle in the pathway to conversion.

(One might compare the number of Christians,sometimes estimated at one per cent of the population, to show the effective resistance of the Hindu masses to conversion, even given optimum conditions for the converting religion). As in the case of other parts of the Muslim

world, the rapid assimilation to Islam of subject and other peoples is inadequately studied and should be

judged cautiously in a framework of many factors. It does little good for the cause of understanding to manufacture stale, but provocative, shibolleths when the Muslim question is broached in the Indian setting.

As for K. Singh's interpretation of the history of Hin- duism up to the middle ages, his statements on pages 21, 22 and 23, especially, appear to be garbled versions from handbooks. Surely you must deny the merits of such pro- nouncements as, "In Sankara's monism there was no room for idols, neither for the caste system nor for many of the practices of the Brahmins. He believed in the one indefinable, omnipresent God"; or "The main points of

be to Allah who has created such a wondrous child full of words of good counsel I What a pleasure it is to converse with him Surely he is a messenger of God." (p. 2) Sikh traditions hold that Nanak was educated both by a Hindu pandit and a Muslim mullah. (Why, one wonders, was he "sent to the village mosque to learn Arabic and other subjects?" (p. 3). In the end, "Nanak talked to the Muslims of their faith in their own language and to Hindus of theirs in their language; both the communities were well pleased with him." (p. 3) In another context, for anyone who has, for example, read in Hindi Sufi literature, it would be difficult to distinguish aspects of it from the Sant literature of poets like Kabir and Na- nak who share with the Sfifis a tendency to use a mixed Hindu-Muslim religious vocabulary and are theologically monotheistic, opposing the worship of images, avatars and so on.

The later development of Sikhism beyond Nanak is outside the scope of this review, but it is annoying to read in the third chapter of K. Singh's Hymns a re-

hashing of Hindu anti-Muslim cant today. He writes, "The early Muslim invaders... levelled Hindu tem-

ples to the ground, raised pyramids of Hindu skulls and rammed Islam down the throats of the populace. It took the Muslims many years of bloodshed to realize that force steeled a people's hearts, but could not convert them." (p. 20) Aside from the violence of war, of which the Muslims were not the only perpetrators in the Indian middle ages, there is not much evidence of "forced conversion" in the Muslim conquest. In any case it is

contrary to Muslim law. The Muslim minority in the sub-continent has run as high as twenty-five per cent of the total pcpulation in a land where Hindus raised every social and moral obstacle in the pathway to conversion.

(One might compare the number of Christians,sometimes estimated at one per cent of the population, to show the effective resistance of the Hindu masses to conversion, even given optimum conditions for the converting religion). As in the case of other parts of the Muslim

world, the rapid assimilation to Islam of subject and other peoples is inadequately studied and should be

judged cautiously in a framework of many factors. It does little good for the cause of understanding to manufacture stale, but provocative, shibolleths when the Muslim question is broached in the Indian setting.

As for K. Singh's interpretation of the history of Hin- duism up to the middle ages, his statements on pages 21, 22 and 23, especially, appear to be garbled versions from handbooks. Surely you must deny the merits of such pro- nouncements as, "In Sankara's monism there was no room for idols, neither for the caste system nor for many of the practices of the Brahmins. He believed in the one indefinable, omnipresent God"; or "The main points of

the teaching of the Bhaktas were that God was one and the only reality; the rest was maya or illusion .. ." (p. 22)

Disregarding certain of the inadequacies of these

opening chapters, a student who wished to have a rapid' introduction to the nearly thousand hymns of Nanak in the Guru Granth, will find the remainder of K. Singhs work, the translation of some of these hymns, useful.

However, the translation is often poor in English, i.e., p. 5, "He who claims to know blasphemeth / and is the worst among the stupidest." Moreover, the translator would have done well to stick to astraight,free-verse form rather than arbitrarily bursting out in jogging endrhymes that do not work, i.e., in the same verse, "If Thou didst

many more create / Not one could anymore state, / For Thou art as great as is Thy pleasure. / O Nanak, Thou alone knowest Thy measure." In some places in the book it was puzzling to find lapses from English idiom

by an author who is regarded, from evidence elsewhere, as one of the best Indian writers in English. These inter al. may be pondered on p. 32, "He instills the fear of God in his disciple so that fear may spring love of God." Or p. 138, "Beg for a pinchful of dust off feet of the faithful . . . See that when weighed in a pair of heavier scales, the object which is nearer the base is the heavier." The closing chapter on the Bara Mah ("twelve months") cycle comes closest to being a beautiful version in English and sums up Guru Nanak's bhakti.

CHARLES S. J. WHITE

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

La civilisation du royaume de Dian a l'epoque Han d'apres le materiel exhume a Shizhai Shan (Yunnan). By MICHHLE PIRAZZOLI-t'SERSTEVENS. Pp. 339 + 37

figs., 8 maps, 3 tables. Publications de l'1icole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, volume XCIV. Paris: 1.COLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT. 1974.

In the past twenty years spectacular finds of a hitherto

archaeologically unknown ancient civilization came to

light in Yunnan Province, southwestern China, in the environs of Lake Tien. Most of the finds came from three sites: Shih-chai-shan, in Chin-ning county, about half a kilometer off the southeastern shore of the lake, excavated between 1955 and 1960; T' ai-chi-shan, in An-ning county, 13 km to the west of the northwestern shore of the lake, excavated in 1964; and Li-chia-shan, in Chiang-ch'uan county, about 40 km south-southeast of Shih-chai-shan, near the northern shore of a small lake, Lake Hsing-yiin, excavated in 1972. All three sites were cemeteries, and

they yielded a large number of objects of bronze, iron, stone, pottery and so forth, that represent a single civilization. On the basis of datable objects (coins,

the teaching of the Bhaktas were that God was one and the only reality; the rest was maya or illusion .. ." (p. 22)

Disregarding certain of the inadequacies of these

opening chapters, a student who wished to have a rapid' introduction to the nearly thousand hymns of Nanak in the Guru Granth, will find the remainder of K. Singhs work, the translation of some of these hymns, useful.

However, the translation is often poor in English, i.e., p. 5, "He who claims to know blasphemeth / and is the worst among the stupidest." Moreover, the translator would have done well to stick to astraight,free-verse form rather than arbitrarily bursting out in jogging endrhymes that do not work, i.e., in the same verse, "If Thou didst

many more create / Not one could anymore state, / For Thou art as great as is Thy pleasure. / O Nanak, Thou alone knowest Thy measure." In some places in the book it was puzzling to find lapses from English idiom

by an author who is regarded, from evidence elsewhere, as one of the best Indian writers in English. These inter al. may be pondered on p. 32, "He instills the fear of God in his disciple so that fear may spring love of God." Or p. 138, "Beg for a pinchful of dust off feet of the faithful . . . See that when weighed in a pair of heavier scales, the object which is nearer the base is the heavier." The closing chapter on the Bara Mah ("twelve months") cycle comes closest to being a beautiful version in English and sums up Guru Nanak's bhakti.

CHARLES S. J. WHITE

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

La civilisation du royaume de Dian a l'epoque Han d'apres le materiel exhume a Shizhai Shan (Yunnan). By MICHHLE PIRAZZOLI-t'SERSTEVENS. Pp. 339 + 37

figs., 8 maps, 3 tables. Publications de l'1icole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, volume XCIV. Paris: 1.COLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT. 1974.

In the past twenty years spectacular finds of a hitherto

archaeologically unknown ancient civilization came to

light in Yunnan Province, southwestern China, in the environs of Lake Tien. Most of the finds came from three sites: Shih-chai-shan, in Chin-ning county, about half a kilometer off the southeastern shore of the lake, excavated between 1955 and 1960; T' ai-chi-shan, in An-ning county, 13 km to the west of the northwestern shore of the lake, excavated in 1964; and Li-chia-shan, in Chiang-ch'uan county, about 40 km south-southeast of Shih-chai-shan, near the northern shore of a small lake, Lake Hsing-yiin, excavated in 1972. All three sites were cemeteries, and

they yielded a large number of objects of bronze, iron, stone, pottery and so forth, that represent a single civilization. On the basis of datable objects (coins,

567 567

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.4 (1977) Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.4 (1977)

mirrors, seals with Chinese characters, and inscribed cross-bow mechanisms), archaeologists are agreed that these finds were left by the inhabitants of the Lake Tien region sometime during Western Han (206 B.c.-8 A.D.). Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the famous Han historian who compiled the Shih Chi around 100 B.C., described what he knew of the culture of a Tien people in the Lake Tien region, which he personally visited in 110-111 B.C., in the 116th

Chapter ("Story of the Southwestern Peoples") of his tome. It is reasonable to speculate that this newly discovered archaeological civilization was that of the Tien people described in Shih Chi, a speculation given credence by the finding of a seal from one of the Shih- chai-shan tombs that bears characters which read: Seal of the King of Tien.

The archaeological finds of the Tien civilization disclose a society of complexity and sharp stratification, and an art style, mainly in bronze, of unsurpassed richness and

sophistication, providing important data for students of the ancient cultures of China and Southeast Asia. Of the three sites, Shih-chai-shan is the largest, and it is also the best known because a monographic report of the first three excavations at the site was published in 1959. All recent Chinese archaeology texts and a few articles in Western languages contain some description and discussion of this highly important site, but La civilisation du royaume de Dian a l'epoque Han, the book under review, is the first comprehensive treatise on the Shih-chai-shan site in any language since the appearance of the 1959 report.

The book consists of two sections. The first 132 pages, slightly less than half of the total 283, present the author's synthesis of the kingdom of Tien (Dian, in the pin-yin system, which the book uses throughout) on the basis of the Shih-chai-shan archaeology, supplemented by textual data. This synthesis is divided into four parts -aside from an Introduction and a General Conclusion -as follows: I. The Kingdom of Tien (Introduction; Chapter 1, Economic resources; 2, Social organization and social life; 3, Techniques of consumption and the organization of space); II. The religious world of Tien (Introduction; 1, Bronze drums; 2, Other themes and

representations; 3, The mode of burial); III. The King- dom of Tien and the external world: Political and eco- nomic contacts (1, Tien's neighbors; 2, The expedition of Chuang Ch'iao and the commercial routes); IV. The Art of Tien: It's sources and its diffusion (Introduction; 1, Chinese influences on Tien; 2, The intermediaries between China and Tien; 3, Shih-chai-shan, Kueichou, and Dong-son; 4, The contribution of the steppes region of Asia to the art of Shih-chai-shan). This whole section is well-researched, documented with not only archae- ological and textual data-but also modern Chinese and

mirrors, seals with Chinese characters, and inscribed cross-bow mechanisms), archaeologists are agreed that these finds were left by the inhabitants of the Lake Tien region sometime during Western Han (206 B.c.-8 A.D.). Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the famous Han historian who compiled the Shih Chi around 100 B.C., described what he knew of the culture of a Tien people in the Lake Tien region, which he personally visited in 110-111 B.C., in the 116th

Chapter ("Story of the Southwestern Peoples") of his tome. It is reasonable to speculate that this newly discovered archaeological civilization was that of the Tien people described in Shih Chi, a speculation given credence by the finding of a seal from one of the Shih- chai-shan tombs that bears characters which read: Seal of the King of Tien.

The archaeological finds of the Tien civilization disclose a society of complexity and sharp stratification, and an art style, mainly in bronze, of unsurpassed richness and

sophistication, providing important data for students of the ancient cultures of China and Southeast Asia. Of the three sites, Shih-chai-shan is the largest, and it is also the best known because a monographic report of the first three excavations at the site was published in 1959. All recent Chinese archaeology texts and a few articles in Western languages contain some description and discussion of this highly important site, but La civilisation du royaume de Dian a l'epoque Han, the book under review, is the first comprehensive treatise on the Shih-chai-shan site in any language since the appearance of the 1959 report.

The book consists of two sections. The first 132 pages, slightly less than half of the total 283, present the author's synthesis of the kingdom of Tien (Dian, in the pin-yin system, which the book uses throughout) on the basis of the Shih-chai-shan archaeology, supplemented by textual data. This synthesis is divided into four parts -aside from an Introduction and a General Conclusion -as follows: I. The Kingdom of Tien (Introduction; Chapter 1, Economic resources; 2, Social organization and social life; 3, Techniques of consumption and the organization of space); II. The religious world of Tien (Introduction; 1, Bronze drums; 2, Other themes and

representations; 3, The mode of burial); III. The King- dom of Tien and the external world: Political and eco- nomic contacts (1, Tien's neighbors; 2, The expedition of Chuang Ch'iao and the commercial routes); IV. The Art of Tien: It's sources and its diffusion (Introduction; 1, Chinese influences on Tien; 2, The intermediaries between China and Tien; 3, Shih-chai-shan, Kueichou, and Dong-son; 4, The contribution of the steppes region of Asia to the art of Shih-chai-shan). This whole section is well-researched, documented with not only archae- ological and textual data-but also modern Chinese and

Western scholarship in southwestern Chinese and Indo- Chinese ethnology and history. Significant omissions (e.g., works by Ling Shun-sheng, especially his important papers on the bronze drums) are inevitable, but the author is to be congratulated for the tremendous and successful effort of pulling together a whole array of diverse sources on the subject. The author's contention that the Tien civilization is neither wholly Han Chinese nor wholly Dong-son, but has distinctive characters of its own, is convincing, and the observations made here on chronology and on Tien's multifarious connections with its neighbors are reasonable.

The second section of the book, "Documentation," contains 151 pages of historical and archaeological materials on the Tien Kingdom. Included are a transla- tion of Chapter 116 of Shih Chi, a summary of the ar- chaeological discoveries in Yunnan from neolithic to Eastern Han, a condensed translation of the Shih-chai- shan report, and an appendix consisting of translations and summarized accounts of some chemical analyses of bronze, iron, a plaque from M13, and Feng Han-yi's ethnological studies. The primary usefulness of this section is to document the previous half of the book, but parts of it are also useful for interested students who do not have easy access to all the data described here. Unfortunately, probably because of economic considera- tions, only about 30 of the 126 plates and 30 figures in the original Shih-chai-shan monograph are reproduced here to accompany the condensed translation. The result is that, even though the translation takes up 113 pages-almost 40 % of the entire text of the book-the reader still has to go to the original monograph for any serious research.

KWANG-CHIH CHANG HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Le Fen-teng, Rituele taoiste. By K. M. SCHIPPER. Pp. 43 + 35 + 88 (Chinese text) + 8 plates. Publications de l'licole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, volume CIII. Paris: tICOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT. 1975. 86 F.

The Fen-teng, Rituele taoiste is a readable and extremely detailed study by Dr. Kristofer Schipper, concerning a popular Taoist ritual commonly seen in Tainan city, south Taiwan. The description of the ritual was made from field notes taken on March 26, 1967, in the village of Su-ts'o, near Tainan. The monograph, some 43 pages long, consists mainly of a rubrical account of the foot- work, hand motions, melodies, and recitations of the five Taoist priests celebrating the rite. An introduction in 13 pages gives the background for the three parts to

Western scholarship in southwestern Chinese and Indo- Chinese ethnology and history. Significant omissions (e.g., works by Ling Shun-sheng, especially his important papers on the bronze drums) are inevitable, but the author is to be congratulated for the tremendous and successful effort of pulling together a whole array of diverse sources on the subject. The author's contention that the Tien civilization is neither wholly Han Chinese nor wholly Dong-son, but has distinctive characters of its own, is convincing, and the observations made here on chronology and on Tien's multifarious connections with its neighbors are reasonable.

The second section of the book, "Documentation," contains 151 pages of historical and archaeological materials on the Tien Kingdom. Included are a transla- tion of Chapter 116 of Shih Chi, a summary of the ar- chaeological discoveries in Yunnan from neolithic to Eastern Han, a condensed translation of the Shih-chai- shan report, and an appendix consisting of translations and summarized accounts of some chemical analyses of bronze, iron, a plaque from M13, and Feng Han-yi's ethnological studies. The primary usefulness of this section is to document the previous half of the book, but parts of it are also useful for interested students who do not have easy access to all the data described here. Unfortunately, probably because of economic considera- tions, only about 30 of the 126 plates and 30 figures in the original Shih-chai-shan monograph are reproduced here to accompany the condensed translation. The result is that, even though the translation takes up 113 pages-almost 40 % of the entire text of the book-the reader still has to go to the original monograph for any serious research.

KWANG-CHIH CHANG HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Le Fen-teng, Rituele taoiste. By K. M. SCHIPPER. Pp. 43 + 35 + 88 (Chinese text) + 8 plates. Publications de l'licole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, volume CIII. Paris: tICOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT. 1975. 86 F.

The Fen-teng, Rituele taoiste is a readable and extremely detailed study by Dr. Kristofer Schipper, concerning a popular Taoist ritual commonly seen in Tainan city, south Taiwan. The description of the ritual was made from field notes taken on March 26, 1967, in the village of Su-ts'o, near Tainan. The monograph, some 43 pages long, consists mainly of a rubrical account of the foot- work, hand motions, melodies, and recitations of the five Taoist priests celebrating the rite. An introduction in 13 pages gives the background for the three parts to

568 568

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