Guifang

Guifang (Chinese: 鬼方; Wade–Giles: Kuei-fang; lit. 'Demon Territory'[1]) was an ancient ethnonym for a northern people that fought against the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). Chinese historical tradition identified the Guifang with the Rong, Di,[2] Xunyu, Xianyun, or Xiongnu peoples.[3][4] This Chinese exonym combines gui (鬼 "ghost, spirit, devil") and fang (方 "side, border, country, region"), a suffix referring to "non-Shang or enemy countries that existed in and beyond the borders of the Shang polity."[5]

Overview

Chinese annals contain a number of references to the Guifang. Earliest sources mentioning the Guifang are the Oracle Bones.[6][7][8] Extant oracle bones record no military action between Shang and Guifang, yet Guifang have been interpreted as hostile towards Shang[9][6] or not hostile.[8][lower-alpha 1]

The Bamboo Annals, interred with King Xiang of Wei (died 296 BC) and re-discovered nearly six centuries later in 281 AD (Western Jin dynasty) in the Jizhong discovery, state that:

  • In the thirty-second year of Shang King Wu Ding (fl. 1200s BCE), he attacked the Guifang, and stationed at Jing (荊)[lower-alpha 2]; and in the thirty-fourth year, the King's armies subdued the Guifang, and the Di and Qiang came as guests.[11] Wu Ding's conquests against the Guifang are also mentioned in the Yi Jing "Book of Changes".[12][13][14]
  • in the thirty-fifth year of the Shang King Wu Yi (i.e. 1119 BCE), Zhou leader Jili attacked the Gǔiróng (Chinese: 鬼戎) in Xiluo (西落) and captured twenty Dí kings.[15][2] Historians believe that the Guirong were identical to the Guifang.[16]

The oracle bones indicate that, following Wu Ding's conquest, the Guifang became Shang's subjects and even assisted the Shang against other polities, e.g. the Qiang. Gui officials even managed to achieve high statuses in the Shang court; for examples, a Gui official, Geng, was ordered to perform the gang sacrifice 剛 in the xiang 亯 sacrificial temple.[6]

Up to the time of Shang king Di Xin (lit. 'Thearch Xin'),[lower-alpha 3] Gui chiefs had been long-enfeoffed vassals of Shang and even participated in the Shang royal government.[6] In Stratagem of the Warring States, Lu Zhonglian (魯仲連) related that Marquis of Gui (鬼侯) ranked among Di Xin's Three Ducal Ministers (along with Marquis of E (鄂侯) and Western Count [Ji] Chang (西伯昌)[lower-alpha 4]) and married his beloved daughter to Di Xin. However, Di Xin considered her detestably ugly (惡), so he killed her and boiled alive Marquis of Gui; Marquid of E sharply criticized Di Xin and was butchered.[17] A parallel account in Shiji features Marquis of Jiu (九侯), his daughter (九侯女), and Marquis of E (鄂侯);[18] Marquis of Jiu was identified with Marquis of Gui.[6][lower-alpha 5] Another parallel account in Taiping Yulan states Marquis of Gui's daughter disapproved of Di Xin's debaucheries so Di Xin killed her and her father; and Di Xin had Marquis of Xing butchered instead of Marquis of E.[20].[lower-alpha 6]

Among the succeeding Zhou dynasty's bronze inscriptions, the Xiao Yu Ding (小盂鼎) –cast in the twenty-fifth year (976 BCE) of King Kang of Zhou (r. 1005/03–978 BCE)– mentioned the Guifang, probably located northeast of the initial Zhou domain. After two successful battles against the Guifang, the Zhou victors brought captured enemies to the Zhou temple and offered to the king. The prisoners numbered over 13,000 with four chiefs who were subsequently executed. Zhou also captured a large amount of booty.[16]

As a result of phonetical studies and comparisons based on the inscriptions on bronze and the structure of the characters, Wang Guowei came to the conclusion that the tribal names in the annalistic sources Guifang, Xunyu, Xianyu, Xianyun, Rong, Di,[lower-alpha 7] and Hu designated one and the same people, who later entered history under the name Xiongnu.[24][25][26]

Likewise, using Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian and other sources, Vsevolod Taskin proposes that in the earlier pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor) the Xiongnu were called Hunyu; and in the late pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun) they were called Rong; in the literate period starting with the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) they were called Guifang, in the Zhou period (1045–256 BC) they were called Xianyun, and starting from the Qin period (221–206 BC) the Chinese annalists called them Xiongnu.[27][28][29]

Even so, Paul R. Goldin (2011) reconstructs the Old Chinese pronunciations of 葷粥 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 薰育 as *xur-luk, 獫狁 as hram′-lun′, and 匈奴 as *xoŋ-NA; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated". He further states that sound changes made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during the Warring States period would never have been thus misled.[30]

Other fang-countries

The Shang state had a system of writing attested to by bronze inscriptions and oracle bones, which record Shang troops fighting frequent wars with neighboring nomadic herdsmen from the inner Asian steppes. In his oracular divinations, a Shang king repeatedly showed concern about the fang (方, likely meaning "border-region"; the modern term for them is 方国 fāngguó "fang-countries"),[31] groups of barbarians outside his inner tu (土) regions in the center of Shang territory. A particularly hostile tribe, Tufang (zh:土方) from the Yan Mountains region, is regularly mentioned in divinatory records.[32] Another Chinese ethnonym for the animal husbandry nomads was ma (馬) or "horse" barbarians mentioned at the Shang western military frontier in the Taihang Mountains, where they fought and may have used chariots.[33]

Notes
  1. Anderson (2015) interprets oracle bone inscriptions wherein the Shang divined about whether disasters would happen to Guifang Tang (鬼方昜) (either a Guifang person named Tang or the polities named Guifang and Tang) as possible proofs, though Anderson admits that " the context is too limited and incomplete for this to serve as solid evidence".[8] Yu (2000) interprets the same inscriptions as the Shang's wish that disasters would happen to the Guifang & other opposing polities.[6]
  2. Identified as either Jing Canyon (井經) north of Taihang Mountains and near Heng Mountains, "about 500 km from Wu Ding’s capital at Anyang" or in the same location as the polity Jingfang (井方) and the Ji-surnamed Xing state (邢國) "on the Huabei 華北 Plain near present-day Xingtai 邢臺 in the southern part of Hebei province, only 125 km north of Anyang"[10]
  3. who was posthumously derided as 紂王 King Zhòu
  4. aka King Wen of Zhōu (周文王)
  5. The Bamboo Annals' "current text" version (今本) also mentions Marquis of Jiu instead of Marquis of Gui.[19]
  6. Yuanhe Maps and Records of Prefectures and Counties also mentions that "Marquis of Xing had been [one of] King Zhòu's Three Ducal Ministers; because he'd loyally admonished [King Zhòu] he was executed",[21]
  7. Specifically, Wang connected the 鬼方 Guifang with the leaders of the Red Di (赤狄, Chidi) who were surnamed 隗 ~ 媿 Kuí,[22] a connection also later noticed by Sinologist Ulrich Theobald.[23]

References

Citations
  1. Creel, Herrlee G. (1970). The Origins of Statecraft in China. The University of Chicago Press. p. 232.
  2. Old Text Bamboo Annals. "Wu Yi" quote: "三十五年，周王季伐西落鬼戎，俘二十翟王。"
  3. Book of Jin "Vol. 97, section Northern Di" quote: "匈奴之類，總謂之北狄。…… 夏曰：薰鬻，殷曰鬼方，周曰獫狁，漢曰匈奴。"
  4. Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc", Issue 3 "Mujuns", "Science", Moscow, 1992, p.10, ISBN 5-02-016746-0
  5. Loewe M. and Shaughnessy E.L., eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., New York, Cambridge, 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8, p. 269.
  6. Yu Taishan. (2000). "A Hypothesis about the Source of the Sai Tribes"in Sino-Platonic Papers' 106. Ed. Victor Mair. p. 106-109
  7. Khayutina, Maria. (2016). "The Tombs of the Rulers of Peng and Relationships between Zhou and Northern Non-Zhou Lineages (Until the Early Ninth Century B.C.)" in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.) Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China Publisher: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. pp. 71-132. p. 26 of pdf
  8. Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 p. 106
  9. Shima Kunio 島邦男, Yinxu buci yanjiu 殷墟卜辞研究, tr. Pu Maozuo 濮茅左 and Gu Weiliang 顧偉良 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 2006), pp. 802-04; Wang Yuzhe, “Guifang kao buzheng” 鬼方考補正, in Wang Yuzhe, Gu shi jilin, pp. 309-17. cited in Khayutina (2016) p. 26
  10. Khayutina (2016) p. 26-27
  11. Current Text Bamboo Annals "Wu Ding" quote: "三十二年，伐鬼方。次于荊。三十四年，王師克鬼方。氐、羗來賓。"
  12. Creel (1970), p. 232.
  13. Yijing "䷾既濟 - Ji Ji" quote: "高宗伐鬼方，三年克之" James Legge's translation: "[Gao Zong], who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it."
  14. Theobald, U. (2011) "Wu Ding 武丁" ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art quote: "Wu Ding was a great warrior and was able to defeat the Guifang 鬼方 (or Gongfang [𢀛]方) in the north [...] Wu Ding's dynastic temple name is Gaozong 高宗."
  15. Current Text Bamboo Annals "Wu Yi" quote: "三十五年，周公季歷伐西落鬼戎。"
  16. Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 919
  17. Zhanguo Ce "Stratagems of Zhao 3 - Qin besieged Zhao's Handan" quote: "昔者，鬼侯之鄂侯、文王，紂之三公也。鬼侯有子而好，故入之於紂，紂以為惡，醢鬼侯。鄂侯爭之急，辯之疾，故脯鄂侯。"
  18. Shiji, "Annals of Yin" quote: "以西伯昌、九侯、鄂侯為三公。九侯有好女，入之紂。九侯女不喜淫，紂怒，殺之，而醢九侯。鄂侯爭之彊，辨之疾，并脯鄂侯。"
  19. Current Text Bamboo Annals "Di Xin" quote: "元年己亥，王即位，居殷。命九侯、周侯、邘侯。" translation: "[Thearch Xin's] first year was Jihai; when the king was just enthroned, he dwelt at Yin; he commanded the Marquis of Jiu, Marquis of Zhou, and Marquis of Yu [scribal error for Xing (邢/刑)?]."
  20. Taiping Yulan, Sovereigns and Kings - Part 8" quote: "以西伯昌、鬼侯、邢侯為三公。鬼侯有好女，入之紂。鬼侯女不僖淫，紂殺之，而醢鬼侯。刑侯爭之，并脯之。"
  21. Yuanhe junxian tuzhi "vol. 19" Zhejiang University Library's version p. 24 of 124 quote: "侯為紂三公以忠諫被誅"
  22. Wang Guowei 王國維, “Guifang Kun Yi Xianyun kao” 鬼方昆夷獫狁考, in Peng Lin 彭林 ed. Guantang jilin 觀堂集林, (1923; rpt. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2001), pp. 296-307, esp. p. 300. cited in Khayutina (2016). p. 26
  23. Theobald, U. (2012) Di 狄 ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
  24. Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc", Issue 3 "Mujuns", p. 10
  25. Wang Guowei, "Guantang Jilin" (觀堂集林, Wang Guowei collection of works), Ch.2, Ch. 13
  26. Taskin V.S., 1968, "Materials on history of Sünnu", "Science", Moscow, p.10
  27. Sima Qian, Shiji, Ch. 1, l. 4b; Ch. 110, l. 1a, notes
  28. in Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of Sünnu", p.10
  29. Classic of Poetry "Major Hymns - Decade of Dang - Dang" quote: "文王曰咨、咨女殷商。……內奰于中國、覃及鬼方。" Legge's translation: "King Wen said, 'Alas! Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, [...] Indignation is rife against you here in the Middle kingdom, and extends to the demon regions."
  30. Goldin, Paul R. "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 225-226; p. 237, n.22
  31. Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 pp. 94-95
  32. Sun, Yan (June 2006). "Colonizing China's Northern Frontier: Yan and Her Neighbors During the Early Western Zhou Period". International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 10 (2): 159–177(19). doi:10.1007/s10761-006-0005-3.
  33. Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1988). "Historical Perspectives on The Introduction of The Chariot Into China". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 48 (1): 189–237. doi:10.2307/2719276. JSTOR 2719276.

Sources
  • Wang, Zhonghan (2004). Outlines of Ethnic Groups in China. Taiyuan: Shanxi Education Press. p. 133. ISBN 7-5440-2660-4.

Further reading

See also
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