ABSTRACT
According to the traditionally received account of ancient Chinese history the Shang dynasty, corrupted by the exercise of absolute power over several centuries, was overthrown by a coalition of tribes under the leadership of one of its own feudatories which went under the style of Chou( * *Tiog). According to these same sources the Chou were rude barbarian tribes whose harsh existence on the steppes and hills of the northwest both fitted them to preserve the virtues of ancient times and consequently to deserve the Mandate of Heaven, and endowed them with the martial qualities necessary to wrest supreme power from the effete and decadent Shang dynasty. In the traditional chronology this was achieved in 1122 Bc when King * *Miwo (Wu ), profiting from the absence of the Shang ruler on a military expedition, was able to seize the Shang capital. Much of the success with which the Chou consolidated their victory is attributed to the Duke of Chou, younger brother of King Miwo and de f a c t o ruler of the new Chou state during the minority of his nephew Ch'eng ( **f>ieng). He it was, according to the traditional account, who suppressed a Shang rebellion (or, in the language of bronze inscriptions, effected 'the second conquest of Shang' ), pacified the state, and ensured the continuation of the Shang sacrifices by establishing members of the deposed royal lineage in the district of **Song (Sung) in present-day eastern Ho-nan. In the light of Chinese beliefs in later times this superficially altruistic act can be construed as having been motivated by the desire to avoid retribution at the hands of the powerful Shang ancestors if their sacrifices were discontinued.
