The priests of Shu

From the land of the undomesticated kittycats, Archaeology is summarising the Shu, at now Sanxingdui. I blame allergies.

Anyway, these were contemporaries with the Shang state. The Shang spoke and wrote Chinese. I always say "pots ain't people - they're language". The Shu, in a valley somewhat separate from the Shang with the tech at the time, did not use the same pots. They liked anthropomorphic designs if stylised, rather like the Maya; the Shang didn't go for that. Also the Shang used bone to cast oracles - luckily for us readers - of which, we've no evidence for the Shu. The two cultures differed, in short, probably not even speaking the same language. But it seems they may have agreed upon similar notions on the State.

When I talk about "Shang" I use the state's own name for itself - because they told us that name, in their inscriptions. Later Chinese recalled the state as "Yin", from their family name (the Zhou let them keep a duchy at Song). We have "Shu" from a "Chronicles of Huayang" of which I hadn't heard. Anyway it too is a later source. So, I use "Shu" for want of any better.

In Mesoamerica, Tlaxcala had a republic and the Aztecs had an amir. The Aztec amir was in-process of making a caliph of himself when the Spaniard showed up. What we're now calling "China", in Shang times, seems more like the Bronze Age over in Mesopotamia. Mitanni and Hatti were not the same, but their mutual treaties could agree upon what a "king" was and what a "temple" was. Likewise, it seems, the Shang and the Shu agreed upon the correct duties of a king and of a priesthood.

The Shang's holy kingship failed its test in 1046 BC, when the Zhou mounted a revolution. Anyang - last city of the Shang - was abandoned, left to modern Chinese to dig back out. The Zhou would rule with more thought to local concerns, and left to others the glory of the gods. Likewise it seems that the Shu faced a contemporary test: priests and nobles alike vanished from Sanxingdui, after which the nobles reappear at Jinsha - without the priests. Before the nobles left Sanxingdui they buried a lot of bronzes - not recast them, just buried them. There never was much of an "iron age" in China, so the archaeologists judge this burial as a simple waste of money. It must have been done for ideology.

I am somewhat reminded of how the priesthood of the Incas gathered wealth unto itself; or maybe the nobles of the Maya.

Unfortunately the Shu didn't leave any writing - like the early Shang and Erlitou didn't leave writing. More likely is that they did have writing but we're not lucky enough to own (say) oracle-bones... because the Shu didn't use bone for oracles. If I had to guess I'd pin the Shu for a Tanggut/Tibetan lot.