p. 26: Concerning the wild animals, I have relied upon Ch'en Meng-chia, Hsü Chung-shu and Tung Tso-pin.—The discussion as to whether there was a period of "slave society" (as postulated by Marxist theory) in China, and when it flourished, is still going on under the leadership of Kuo Mo-jo and his group. I prefer to differentiate between slaves and serfs, and relied for factual data upon texts from oracle bones, not upon historical texts.—The problem of Shang chronology is still not solved, in spite of extensive work by Liu Ch'ao-yang, Tung Tso-pin and many Japanese and Western scholars. The old chronology, however, seems to be rejected by most scholars now.
Chapter Three
p. 29: Discussing the early script and language, I refer to the great number of unidentified Shang characters and, especially, to the composite characters which have been mentioned often by C. Hentze in his research; on the other hand, the original language of the Chou may have been different from classical Chinese, if we can judge from the form of the names of the earliest Chou ancestors. Problems of substrata languages enter at this stage. Our first understanding of Chou language and dialects seems to come through the method applied by P. Serruys, rather than through the more generally accepted theories and methods of B. Karlgren and his school.
p. 30: I reject here the statement of classical texts that the last Shang ruler was unworthy, and accept the new interpretation of Ch'en Meng-chia which is based upon oracle bone texts,—The most recent general study on feudalism, and on feudalism in China, is in R. Coulborn, Feudalism in History, Princeton 1956. Stimulating, but in parts antiquated, is M. Granet, La Féodalité Chinoise, Oslo 1952. I rely here on my own research. The instalment procedure has been described by H. Maspero and Ch'i Sz[)u]-ho.
p. 31: The interpretation of land-holding and clans follows my own research which is influenced by Niida Noboru, Kat[=o] Shigeru and other Japanese scholars, as well as by G. Haloun.—Concerning the origin of family names see preliminarily Yang Hsi-mei; much further research is still necessary. The general development of Chinese names is now studied by Wolfgang Bauer.—The spread of cities in this period has been studied by Li Chi, The Formation of the Chinese People, Cambridge 1928. My interpretation relies mainly upon a study of the distribution of non-Chinese tribes and data on early cities coming from excavation reports (see my "Data on the Structure of the Chinese City" in Economic Development and Cultural Change, 1956, pp. 253-68, and "The Formation of Chinese Civilization" in Sociologus 7, 1959, pp. 97-112).
p. 32: The work on slaves by T. Pippon, E. Erkes, M. Wilbur, Wan Kuo-ting, Kuo Mo-jo, Niida Noboru, Kao Nien-chih and others has been consulted; the interpretation by E.G. Pulleyblank, however, was not accepted.
p. 33: This interpretation of the "well-field" system relies in part upon the work done by Hsü Ti-shan, in part upon M. Granet and H. Maspero, and attempts to utilize insight from general anthropological theory and field-work mainly in South-East Asia. Other interpretations have been proposed by Yang Lien-sheng, Wan Kuo-ting, Ch'i Sz[)u]-ho P. Demiéville, Hu Shih, Chi Ch'ao-ting, K.A. Wittfogel, and others Some authors, such as Kuo Mo-jo, regard the whole system as an utopia, but believe in an original "village community".—The characterization of the Chou-li relies in part upon the work done by Hsü Chung-shu and Ku Chieh-kang on the titles of nobility, research by Yang K'uan and textual criticism by B. Karlgren, O. Franke, and again Ku Chieh-kang and his school.—The discussion on twin cities is intended to draw attention to its West Asian parallels, the "acropolis" or "ark" city, as well as to the theories on the difference between Western and Asian cities (M. Weber) and the specific type of cities in "dual societies" (H. Boeke).
p. 34: This is a modified form of the Hu Shih theory.—The problem of nomadic agrarian inter-action and conflict has been studied for a later period mainly by O. Lattimore. Here, general anthropological research as well as my own have been applied.
p. 36: The supra-stratification theory as developed by R. Thurnwald has been used as analytic tool here.
p. 38: For this period, a novel interpretation is presented by R.L. Walker, The Multi-State System of China, Hamden 1953. For the concepts of sovereignty, I have used here the Chou-li text and interpretations based upon this text.