摘要
Ｉ
The idea that the survivors of the Yin 殷 dynasty were oppressed by the Chou conquerors has been popularly accepted by historians for the last half-century. The most important articulation of this theory was published by Dr. Hu Shih 胡適 in his 1934 article Shuo-ju 說儒 (On the Origins of Ju), in which he proposed that the original meaning of the term ju is "coward." According to Dr. Hu, this term was applied to the survivors of the Yin dynasty, who were so subjugated by the Chou people after their conquest that a prophetic myth spread among them to the effect that they would be emancipated after five hundred years by a Sage, a kind of Chinese Messiah.
Dr. Hu's theory was severely criticised by Feng Yu-lan 馮友蘭, Kuo Mo-jo 郭沫若, Ch'ien Mu 錢穆, and others, but with the exception of Feng, most of this criticism was focussed on the characteristics of the Ju or Confucians as a group, while little was said about the main point of Dr. Hu's article, i. e. the close relation between the Ju and the survivors of the Yin dynasty; meanwhile, Dr. Hu's basic hypothesis was generally accepted as historical truth. Although Fu Ssu-nien 傅斯年, for example, found that the survivors of the Yin were treated conciliatorily, he nevertheless believed that the Chou conquerors completely stripped them of political power. Subsequent historians have believed that all the Yin commoners were dispersed as slaves, or that the Yin nobles became captives. Such approaches clearly follow Dr. Hu's early theory.
However, Dr. Hu's hypothesis about the Yin survivors is not supported by classical documents or by the inscriptions on bronze vessels of the period; the information contained in these sources leads us to an entirely different conclusion. For this reason, I would like to review this historical problem in this article.
Ⅱ
Pre-Ch'in historical data contain no hint at all that the survivors of the Yin dynasty were oppressed by the Chou conquerors and endured a "sorrowful condition." On the contrary, such sources as the Shang-shu 尚書, Tso-chuan 左傳, Yi Chou-shu 逸周書, and Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu 呂氏春秋, give the impression that the surviving Yin aristocracy largely retained their social status, political power and economic interests, and also their control over the peasants who farmed their lands. Even though the last Yin dynastyic ruler, King Chou 紂, was beheaded by King Wu 武 of Chou, Chou's son Wu-keng 武庚 was permitted to continue to administer the capital city of Yin as the de facto ruler of the Yin people. The Tso-chuan (Ting 4) contains the lats Spring-and-Autumn period court recorder Chu T'o 祝佗 of Wei 's description of the early Chou "feng-chien 封建" socio-political system; in it, Chu T'o recounts how large numbers of Yin survivors ended up in the states of Lu 魯 and Wei, with the result that the political systems of those states were modelled on that of the Shang 商. Chu T'o uses the phrase "ch'i yi Shang-cheng 啟以商政" (of governing according to the institutions of Shang).
The general meaning of this term "Shang-cheng" can be found in the "K'ang-kao 康誥" and "Chiu-kao 酒誥" Chapters of the Shang-shu. These two texts contain the Duke of Chou (Chou-kung 周公)'s admonition to Uncle K'ang 康叔 to carefully administer the Yin people, and were given on the occasion of the Duke's enfeoffment of Uncle K'ang in Wei after the Duke of Chou had successfully put down the rebellion of Uncle Kuan 管叔, Uncle Ts'ai 蔡叔 and Wu-Keng. The Duke's admonitions can be understood as the basic outline of political principles on which the state of Wei was founded, and contain the following three major points: First, the Duke of Chou ordered Uncle K'ang to work hard to emulate the excellent words and actions of the sage rulers of the history of the Shang, and to find ways to apply these words and actions to protecting and fostering the people. These sage rulers of the Yin-Shang period were most likely Ch'eng-t'ang 成湯, Tsu-yi 祖乙, Wu-ting 武丁 and Tsu-chia 祖甲, whose deeds are recorded in the "Wu-yi 無逸" Chapter of the Shang-shu; they are also described in the "Shang-she 商誓" Chapter of the Yi Chou-shu, while poems praising them make up the "Shang-sung 商頌" section of the Shih-ching 詩經. The principles of rulership embodied by the sage rulers in these texts are none other than respecting and fearing The Heaven God, self-control, not to daring to indulge in dissipation, awareness of the people's suffering, and being able to love and protect the people. The second major point is that the laws having the closest direct effect on the common people, i. e. the system of penalties and punishments, should be modelled on those of the Yin-Shang period. The Duke of Chou ordered the Yin punishments to be set up as the new law of the Wei state so that by using these Yin punishments to punish criminals among the people, the Yin people would not feel that the Chou conquerors were using harsh methods to oppress them. The punishments emphasized by the Duke of Chou at that time were those for murder and theft, which directly reflected the social conditions obtaining at the end of the Yin dynasty. The "Wei-tzu 微子" Chapter of the Shang-shu records that during the time of King Chou, T'ai Shih 太師, the military leader, lamented the prevailing social disorder, in which the people dared even to steal the sacrificial offerings to the spirits and eat them themselves; in addition to such sacrilege, every other crime imaginable was committed. That the Chou conquerors strictly enforced the laws against murder and theft should thus have been welcomed by the Yin survivors. The third major point is that the Duke of Chou advised Uncle K'ang to respectfully approach the surviving elders of Yin-Shang and request their guidance in formulating his ruling policies, and also to obtain the assistance of the ancient clans of Yin-Shang in ruling the state. These people were called the "Yin hsien-ch'en 殷獻臣" in the "Chiu-kao" Chapter of the Shang-shu, while the "Tzu-ts'ai 梓材" Chapter calls them the "Ta-chia 大家," and the "Huang-men 皇民" Chapter of the Yi-Chou-shu calls them the "Ta-men 大門," "Tsung-tzu 宗子," or "Shih-ch'en 勢臣"; in any case, they were to be used as Uncle K'ang's "legs and arms" in assisting him to rule the state of Wei. One of the goals of this policy was to gain the support of the surviving Yin nobles, for we know that the Yin nobles were strongly dissatisfied by their King Chou's defiance of the elders and ancient clans, his abandonment of his brothers, and the way he would listen instead to the advice of his favorite women and of fugitives from other states. After the Chou conquest, the ancient clans and great families were respected and restored to positions of influence; those outside the capital were given lands and titles such as hou 侯, t'ien 甸, wei , and pai-kuan 邦伯, while those within the capital were given the titles of pai-kuan 百官, tsung-yin 眾尹, pai-hsing 百姓, li-chun 里君 and so on. All of this conclusively recorded in the Shang-shu "Chiu-kao" and Yi-Choh-shu "Shang-che" chapters.
Although the Shang-shu has no "admonition of Lu," Chu T'o's account quoted above indicates that the foregoing discussion could be applied to the state of Lu as well. Chu T'o, in his speech at Tso-chuan mentions that six of the surviving Yin clans in Lu followed the orders of the Duke of Chou and were given offices by the Duke of Lu, so their situation was similar to that of the "Yin hsien-ch'en" in Wei. The Yin survivors moved to Ch'eng-chou 成周 (the Chou eastern capital) by the Duke of Chou apparently put up the most stubborn resistance, but the "To-shih 多士" and "To-fang 多方" Chapters of the Shang-shu record that the Duke of Chou told these people that if they only faithfully served Chou kings, they could still have lands and rank, and would even be given rich rewards.
From these documentary sources it is difficult to support the idea that the survivors of the Yin dynasty endured the painful tragedy of a vanquished kingdom. Of course, their merciful treatment by the Chou was contingent on their faithfully serving their conquerors; otherwise, just as the "To-shih" and "Tofang" Chapters recount, the Duke of Chou told them that not only their lands would be confiscated, but their lives would also be in danger. Since even the Duke's brothers of Kuan and Ts'ai had been put to death and exile respectively without mercy when they rebelled, what better fate could these survivors of a conquered kingdom expect? Thus we cannot view the harsh warnings in the "To-shih" and "To-fang" Chapters as proving that the Yin survivors indeed met with a "tragic fate."
The Tso-chuan account at Hsi 24 contains a conversation between Huang Wu-tzu 皇武子 and the Duke of Cheng 鄭, in which the Chou Emperor is described as treating the ruler of the state of Sung 宋 as an honoured guest and not as a vassal; he offered sacrifices of meat to the Sung ruler, and when there was a funeral in the Chou royal house, the Sung ruler attended as a mourner, for which the Chou Emperor especially expressed his gratitude. From this it is clear that the state of Sung, founded as it was by Yin survivors, nevertheless enjoyed a higher status than other lords in the feng-chien system. The "Honoured Guests" (k'o 客) mentioned in the "Yu-k'o 有客" and "Chen-lu 振鷺" Odes of the "Chou-sung 周頌" section of the Shih-ching are interpreted by the Han Scholiasts as references to the rulers of the states of Ch'i and Sung (descendants of the Hsia 夏 and Shang dynasties respectively); this interpretation seems indeed to be based on fact.
With King Wu of Chou's victory over the Yin, the Chou became the masters of China, but they did not make this struggle into an all-out popular war; on the contrary, they used the Yin King Chou's corruption and despotism as an excuse for starting the struggle. The Yi Chou-shu "Shang-che" Chapter describes King Wu's announcement of the Shang people's innocence; only King Chou himself was guilty of any crime, and this account is similar to that in the "Mu-shih 牧誓" Chapter of the Shang-shu. Mencius's "Wen chu yi-fu Chou 聞誅一夫紂 (I have heard of the putting to death of that fellow Chou)" (Mencius I-B/8) and T'ai-tzu Chin 太子晉 's statement that King Wu "yi-sha yi-jen 義殺一人 (dutifully slew the king)" (Yi Chou-shu Chapter 64) were probably the battle cries of the Chou in their attack on the Yin. In this way the Chou conquerors were able to enlist the support of the Yin people and sow rebellion among King Chou's armies, thus creating the precedent for their merciful treatment of the Yin after the victory. For this reason the accounts of King Wu's merciful treatment of the Yin after his victory over King Chou in the "Shen ta-lan 慎大覽" and "Chien-hsuan 簡選" Chapters of the Lu-shih Ch'un-ch'iu are basically the same as those in the other pre-Ch'in works, and hardly qualify as excessive praise of King Wu's actions.
Ⅲ
Besides documentary sources, I would like to use the inscriptions on bronze vessels to pursue my hypothesis concerning the political and social status of the Yin survivors under Chou rule. These materials can be divided into two categories: those vessels which have been known for some time but which were not scientifically excavated, and those which have been more recently excavated under scientifically-controlled conditions. Among the most extensive recent archaeological excavations have been those carried out in 1976 at Chuang-po 庄白 in Fu-feng 扶風 county of Shensi province, which uncovered the vault of the Wei-shih 微史 Clan; in 1975 the same village yielded the Po-tund 伯□ bronze vessels, which in combination with some earlier known bronze inscriptions allow us to reconstruct the history of the Lu-tung 彔□ Clan. Moreover, the groups of the "□" will figure in our discussion.
A total of 103 bronze vessels were unearthed in the Wei-shih Clan group. These vessels bear the names of seven people who had them made: Shang 商, Ling 陵, Che 折, Feng 豐, Ch'iang 墻, Hsing □ and Po Hsien-Fu 伯先父; on the basis of inscription content, clan relationships, the names of those sacrificed to, and the styles of the vessels temselves, we can reconstruct the genealogy of this clan as follows:
TABLE 1: Genealogy of the Wei-shih Clan
Wen-wu-ting 文武丁
│
Shang=Keng Ch'i 庚姬
│
Kao-tsu 高祖 (Wei-tzu Ch'i 微子啟)
│
(1) Lieh-tsu 烈祖 (Wei-shih 微史)
│
(2) Yi-tsu 乙祖 (Yi-kung 乙公)
│
(3) Ya-tsu Tsu-hsin 亞祖祖辛 (Hsin-kung 辛公/Tso-ts'e Che 作冊折)
│
(4) Wen-tsu Yi-kung 文祖乙公 (Feng 豐)
│
(5) Ting-yung 丁公 (Shih-ch'iang 史墻)
│
(6) Wei-po Hsing 微伯□
│
(7) Po Hsien-fu 伯先父
In this genealogy, the first generation of Yin survivors is represented by no.1, Lieh-tsu. From there down to no. 5, Shih-ch'iang, the genealogy is clearly enumerated in the Ch'iang-p'an 墻盤 vessel-inscription; it matches the traditional genealogy of the Chou kings from Wu 武 to Kung 共, so we will not elaborate further here. The Hsing-chung □鐘 vessel inscription tells us that Hsing was the son of Shih-ch'iang. Meanwhile, the Po Hsien-fu vessels belong to the latter part of the Western Chou dynasty in terms of artistic style, and are the latest of all the bronzes under discussion, so Po Hsien-fu is quite possibly the son of Wei-po Hsing for this reason. Again according to style, the vessels bearing the name of Shang 商 are the earliest in this group, and the "Wen-p'i Jih-ting 文辟日丁" to whom they are dedicated is probably Wen-wu Ting (also called Wen Ting 文丁 in Shih-chi 史記); thus Shang is the son of Wen-wu Ting, of the same generation as Ti Yi 帝乙, and thus also of Wei-tzu Chi's father's generation. Moreover, a ku 觚 beaker in the Wei-shih Clan bronzes bears the clan-symbol □, which is the same as that on the well known □-kuei vessel. This kuei's inscription says it was made by □ in the 20th year of King Chou's reign and dedicated to P'i-wu 妣戊 and Wu-yi 武乙, indicating that its owner was a member of the Yin-Shang royal clan. From these two points we can establish that the Wei-shih Clan belonged to the royal clan of the Yin without a doubt. The phrase "ching-yu Kao-tsu 靜幽高祖 (the quiet and melancholy High Ancestor)" in the Ch'iang-p'an inscription can thus be analysed as referring to Wei-tzu Ch'i, a point that has been conclusively discussed by Professor Hsu Chung-shu 徐中舒.
Following the Chou conquest, this clan came to serve the Chou; King Wu ordered the Duke of Chou to establish Wei-shih 微史, of the first generation of Yin survivors, in the Chou homeland of Chou-yuan 周原, with a fief of fifty sung 頌 of land. Yi-tsu, of the second generation, supported the Chou King and became his favoured assistant, while Ya-tsu Tsu-hsin (also known as Tso-ts'e Che) accompanied the Chou King on military expeditions to the south; he was even entrusted with the duty of enfeoffment of Hsiang-hou 相侯, a southern barbarian. Feng, of the fourth generation, participated in the Chou King's visits to the regional lords and the officers, and made the formal announcements of the King's commands. Shih-ch'iang, of the fifth generation, not only continued in his clan's hereditary office of court recorders, participating in the government of the royal state, but also probably made a name for himself in the military arena as well. Wei-po Hsing, of the sixth generation, given assistance to Yin-shih 尹氏, was twice personally rewarded by the Chou Kings; he enjoyed great favour at his court. Thus although the Wei-shih Clan was made up not just of Yin survivors, but was descended from the Yin royal house, yet their high social and political status under the Chou is clearly illustrated by the history of these six generations.
Another case is the Lu-tung 彔□ Clan. The name Po-tung 伯□ appearing on bronzes excavated at the Chuang-po site in Fu-feng county is that of a relatively late member of the Lu-tung Clan, while Lu-tung himself was an early member of it. Bronze-inscription scholars generally date Lu-tung to around the time of the Western Chou King Mu 穆. However, an analysis of the names of persons to whom vessels in these two groups were dedicated reveals that Po-tung's father was Chia-kung 甲公 and his grandfather was Yi-kung 乙公, while Lu-tung's father was Yi-kung and his grandfather was Hsin-kung 辛公; thus it is very possible that Po-tung was Lu-tung's own son. Moreover, Po-tung and Lu-tung are both mentioned in bronze inscriptions as taking part in military expeditions against the Huai 淮 barbarians; during an invasion by the Huai-i 淮夷, the Chou King ordered Lu-tung to lead a regiment of troops from Ch'eng-chou under the command of Po Huai-fu 淮□父 to attack Fu-hou □侯, while Po-tung also led the Hu-ch'en 虎臣 (royal guards) and officers in attack on the Huai-jung 淮戎 and Jung-fu 戎□, in which he established a glorious record of military prowess. The similarity of the duties of these members of two generations of the same clan may reflect what classical sources refer to as a "shih-kuan 世官" or hereditary office. Finally, that Lu-tung twice received rewards from Po Huai-fu on military campaigns, and that a bronze p'an-vessel found among the Po-tung vessels at Chuang-po bears the inscription "Po Huai-fu tsu-tso yung-ch'i 伯□父 自作用器 (Vessel made by Po Huai-fu for personal use)," both lend further support to the fact that Lu-tung's relationship to Po-tung was that of father to son.
Lu-tung's native state of Lu 彔 was actually founded by Yin survivors; its founding ancestor was probably one Lu-fu 祿父, who had been granted a recorded fief by the Chou conquerors. Lu-fu's own origins have been debated since the Han dynasty; some say he was Wu-keng 武庚, while others say the two names are of different people. The bronze inscriptions tend to support the latter view. Early in the Chou period, there was a rebellion by Lu-tzu Sheng 彔子□, which was put down by the t'ai-pao Shao-kung 太保召公. The rebel is alternatively called Wang-tzu Sheng 王子□ or T'ien-tzu Sheng 天子□ in the inscriptions; I suspect that the cognomen "Wang-tzu" or prince reflects Sheng's royal origins, while the "T'ien-tzu" or the Son of Heaven he arrogated to himself during his rebellion against the Chou. If he was indeed a prince, Lu-tzu Sheng must then have belonged to the Yin royal clan, so his father Ting-kung 丁公 could possibly also have been called T'ai-tzu Ting 太子丁, and his descendant Lu-tung would have used the respectful epithet King Hsi 釐 for his father. These materials again show that the Lu-tung Clan was not only a Yin survivor but part of the Yin royal clan; its genealogy can be tentatively reconstructed on the basis of new and old bronze-inscriptious and dates as in Table 2.
TABLE 2: Genealogy of the Lu-tung Clan
(1) Fu-ting 父丁 (Wang-tzu Lu-fu 王子祿父; T'ai-tzu Ting 太子丁)
│
(2) Lu-tzu Sheng 彔子□ (Hsin-Kung 辛公)
│
(3) Yi-kung 乙公 (Hsi-wang-釐王)
│
(4) Chia-kung 甲公 (Lu-tung 彔□)
│
(5) Po-tung 伯□
That Lu-tung's and Po-tung's exploits were recorded in the bronze inscriptions shows that they were not of low official rank; Lu-tung's father's and grandfather's ranks were also quite high. The Lu-po Tung kuei 彔伯□□ inscription quotes the Chou King's charge to Lu-tung, in which he says that Lu-tung's father and grandfather served the Chou court, conducting military campaings in the four quarters and opening up the borderlands in accordance with the Chou heavenly mandate, and tells Lu-tung that he must not fail to continue his father's and grandfather's record of service. This shows that Lu-tzu Sheng eventually capitulated to the Chou King and became one of his trusted "legs and arms." Lu-tung himself led Ch'eng-chou troops against the Huai barbarians, and his son Po-tung commanded the Hu-ch'en guards, officers and troops against the Huai-jung; all of this was indeed a continuation of their ancestors' accomplishments. Thus this clan of Yin survivors also enjoyed a position that was not inferior to that of the Wei-shih Clan, and again cannot be seen as enduring a tragic fate under the Chou conquerors.
Numerous previously-known as well as newly-excavated Western Chou bronzes bear the □ Clan-symbol. For example, in 1975 excavations were carried out at the Tomb 25 site at Huang-t'u-p'o 黃土坡村 at Liu-li-ho 琉璃河 in Fang-shan 房山 county of Hopei province; the tomb was that of a person named Fu 復. This tomb had a double coffin-wall construction, and contained one human sacrifice and a very rich array of funerary goods, mostly weapons, which indicated that the person buried there had been a military commander or general. A tsun 尊 and a ting 鼎 vessel were also recovered from the tomb, and bore inscriptions with the clan-ymbols □ and □, which would appear to be simplified variants of □. This tomb has been dated to the early Western Chou period. Meanwhile, some vessels discovered at An-chou 安州 in Hupei during the Sung dynasty bear inscriptions recording the deeds of one Chung □, who, at the time when the Chou King ordered Nan-kung 南宮 to put down a rebellion among the state of Hu 虎, was sent by the king to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance of the territory of Hu. Chung's troops encamped at a place called Ch'i-chou □州, on the Han 漢 river, and are said to have brought a number of large and small states in the area under control; they probably oversaw the non-Hua-hsia 華夏 states in the Han river plain. According to the inscription on the Chung tsun published in the Chou chin-wen ts'un 周金文存, Chung was also a member of the □ Clan; most bronze-inscription scholars feel that the An-chou Chung vessel group belongs to the early Western Chou period. Moreover, a certain Yuan 員 appears in another inscription as having accompanied the court recorder □ on an expedition against the state of K'uai 鄶, in which he distinguished himself heroically while leading an attack; the clan-symbol □ again appears at the end of this inscription. Another Western Chou tomb-site was found in 1971 on the west bank of the Nan-Ch'an 南瀍 river in the village of Pei-yao-ts'un 北瑤村, northeast of the old city of Loyang. This site yielded a number of bronzes bearing basically similar inscriptions and made by a person named Teng □; a previously-known early bronze, the Teng-ting □鼎, also bears the same clan-symbol as Yuan's.
Most of the previously-known bronzes, bearing either the clan-symbol alone or the name of an ancestor as well, are Yin vessels; thus the □ was clearly a large clan at that time. The vessels belonging to the Shang 商 generation in the above mentioned Wei-shih Clan vessel group have this symbol at the end of their inscriptions, as do the previously-known Keng-ch'i kuei 庚姬□ and the Shang-fu yen 商婦甗. We know that Shang's wife was named Keng-ch'i, as we have discussed; the Wei-shih Clan came from the Yin royal house, so the □ clan-symbol is closely connected with the Yin royal clan. From the Chung □ sub-clan of the □ clan, we have a Chung chueh 爵 -vessel unearthed at Tomb 1022 at Hou-chia-chung 侯家莊, the Yin-Shang cemetery site at Anyang, while a bronze ku and chueh bearing the character Chung were recovered from a rifled tomb, No. 1080, in Zone 6 of the western Yin-hsu 殷墟 grave area during the digging which was conducted there from 1969 to 1977. Tomb 699 in Zone 3 of the same area is one of only five large tombs among the more than nine hundred tombs there; it contains four human sacifices, and yielded three bronze nao 鐃-bells bearing the character Chung. The finding of bronzes bearing this name in the Yin-hsu area reflects the close relationship between the Chung Clan and the Yin royal house. The head of the Chung Clan served as the Yin king's chen-jen 貞人 or oracle-bone diviner. Teng, mentioned above, also appears in the oracle inscriptions as the name of a sub-clan. All of this reveals the □ Clan's special status.
The symbol □ itself has been interpreted by Professor Ting Shan 丁山 as Chi 冀, the name of as ancient state in present-day Chi county, Shansi province, but this interpretation does not appear to fit with the bronze inscriptions seen so far. The character contains the element tzu 子, "son" or "child", which was used in oracle inscriptions in combination with personal nambes; such compounds have been tentatively interpreted by Professor Tung Tso-pin 董作賓 as the formal names of royal princes. Thus the character □ may be connected to a princely clan; but Professor Kaizuka Shigeki 貝塚茂樹 goes a step further to suggest that this character represents a young clan group made up of princes of Yin royal house and that of the vassal states. We presently lack sufficient documentation to establish whether or not such a group included vassal states of the Yin-Shang kingdom itself, but it does appear that the Yin-Shang princes and their descendants generally used the character as their clan-symbol. If individual members of the group had separate fiefs, they world then use the names of their sub-clans such as Chung or Teng; originally they belonged to the □ Clan. If this hypothesis is correct, then the Western Chou vessels bearing the clan-symbol □, like those of the Wei-shih and Lu-tung Clans, provide ample proof that the survivors of the Yin dynasty enjoyed quite a high socio-political status under the Chou.
Ⅳ
The clan structure of the Yin period, just as Chu T'o said, included tsung-shih 宗氏 (main clans), fen-tsu 分族 (branch-clans), and lei-ch'ou 類醜 (associated groups). Tsung-shih were made up of direct relatives, and fen-tsu of branch-relatives, while lei-ch'ou were those ruled by the clan and engaged in productive labour. The Yin clans were constantly sub-dividing and establishing new, independent states and clans; since they did not emphasize the same-surname relationship, sub-clans sharing a common ancestor eventually developed into independent and apparently unrelated groups. As Professor Tung Tso-pin has discussed, the "tzu-X 子某" name-compounds in the oracle inscriptions were the names of Yin princes, but we can see that once these princes had established their owen states, they would eventually come into conflict with the Yin royal house; such conflicts could even develop into open warfare, as if they were indeed different countries. Prime examples of this phenomenon in the inscriptions are the "states" of Pu □, Pu 不, and Mu 目. Since the clan was thus the basic political and social unit of Yin society, and each was effectively independent with its own land and population, the Chou conquerors were able to kill "that fellow Chou", but were unable to eradicate the widely-scattered Yin-clan states that has evolved over several centuries. Added to this is the fact that many of these clan-states were not particularly subservient to the Yin royal house, or had mobilized their own troops against it; in this situation, the Chou King Wu could naturally sow mutiny among the Yin armies. To the survivors of the Yin dynasty, the Chou conquest was in reality a simple change of the master of the states; although they lost their own kingdom, they did not taste the bitter fruits of that loss. To understand the Chou's merciful treatment of the Yin survivors and their consequent high political and social status during the Western Chou period, it would thus appear necessary to take into account the socio-political structure of the Yin Shang period itself, as revealed by the oraclebone inscriptions. As I have relied primarily on Chou-period materials in this paper, I can attempt no conclusive answers to this major question in Yin-Shang history here; I seek rather to simply open discussion on this topic.