Research Articles

 

Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2017

  

Exchanges between Different Tribal Groups in the Fenshui Basin and Shandong in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties: An Investigation Based on Overlapping “Groups of Geographical Names” and Ancient History and Legends

(Abstract)

 

Zhao Qingmiao

 

In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, we find a series of repeated names of places and chiefdoms between the Fenshui Basin and Shandong. This phenomenon arose from interregional tribal exchanges and political linkages. In the early days, the peoples of Qin, Jing and Taidai were moving from east to west, and traces of these place names and legends of great men also spread from Shandong to the Fenshui Basin. The period of secondary clan migration, by such clans as the Bing(竝), Ji(纪), Ju, Zha, Qiang(羌)and Zhao(召), generally occurred in the late Shang dynasty, and basically involved moving from the Fenshui Basin to Shandong. The development of this large-scale migration may have been related to the continued expansion of Shang people in the east in that period. In addition, among the successive waves of migrants were people named Peng and Lü from the Jiang clan. The former had been active in the Linzi region before the late Shang dynasty, while the latter settled in the east following Jiang Taigong’s receipt of the fiefdom of Qi under the early Western Zhou system of enfeoffment.