Welcome back! As we come out of the general turkey-and-stuffing-induced comas here in the US, we’ll be taking a break from the Japanese archipelago this episode and looking out across the water at what has been going on over on the mainland. We are especially going to be looking at the Yellow River Basin through to the Korean Peninsula. See the maps here for more context on the geographic settings in this particular episode.

By the way, on the “Emperor Horse Crupper”, I should note that some English texts refer to him as “King”. This is probably a more accurate translation, though the term “Emperor” does show up in the dynastic names of this time. By some accounts “Emperor” really doesn’t apply until the Qin dynasty. There are similar arguments about the Japanese imperial line when we get there. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering what a “horse crupper” refers to (besides the name of the emperor), here is a helpful illustration, on the left. For those wondering, the character is 紂.

Finally, some examples of various bronzes and other artifacts from the continent between the Shang and Zhou Dynasty periods, including artifacts from the Korean bronze age.

References

2018 Li, Dora (trans.); “Two Ancient Chinese Stories:  King Wen and King Wu”, Excerpt from Treasured Tales of China, trans. By Dora Li, https://www.theepochtimes.com/two-ancient-chinese-stories-king-wen-and-king-wu_2601618.html

2017 Barnes, Gina; Archaeology of East Asia: The Rise of Civilisation in China, Korea and Japan. Oxbow Books.

2015 Kim, Bumcheol; “Socioeconomic Development in the Bronze Age: Archaeological Understanding of the Transition from the Early to Middle Bronze Age, South Korea” https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/55550/07_AP_54.1kim.pdf

2010 Ahn, Sung-Mo; “The emergence of rice agriculture in Korea: archaeobotanical perspectives” https://www.academia.edu/26244202/The_emergence_of_rice_agriculture_in_Korea_archaeobotanical_perspectives

2007 RHEE, S., AIKENS, C., CHOI, S., & RO, H. “Korean Contributions to Agriculture, Technology, and State Formation in Japan: Archaeology and History of an Epochal Thousand Years, 400 B.C.–A.D. 600”. Asian Perspectives, 46(2), 404-459. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42928724

2004 Kim, Seong-hwan, ed.; Atlas of Korean History. History Education Department, Korean National University of Education; and Skyejul Publishing, Ltd.

2000 Theobald, Ulrich; China Knowledge.de – An Encyclopedia on Chinese History, Literature, and Art; http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/personszhouwenwang.html

1989 Fairbank-Reischauer; China: Tradition and Transformation (Revised Edition).