p. 52: The interpretation of the change of myths in this period is based in part upon the work done by H. Maspero, G. Haloun, and Ku Chieh-kang. The analysis of legends made by B. Karlgren from a philological point of view ("Legends and Cults in Ancient China", The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Bulletin No. 18, 1946, pp. 199-365) follows another direction.
p. 53: The discussion on riding involves the theories concerning horse-nomadic tribes and the period of this way of life. It also involves the problem of the invention of stirrup and saddle. The saddle seems to have been used in China already at the beginning of our period; the stirrup seems to be as late as the fifth century A.D. The article by A. Kroeber, The Ancient Oikumene as an Historic Culture Aggregate, Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1945, is very instructive for our problems and also for its theoretical approach.—The custom of attracting settlers from other areas in order to have more production as well as more manpower seems to have been known in India at the same time.
p. 54: The work done by Kat[=o] Shigeru and Niida Noboru on property and family has been used here. For the later period, work done by Makino Tatsumi has also been incorporated.—Literature on the plough and on iron for implements has been mentioned above. Concerning the fallow system, I have incorporated the ideas of Kat[=o] Shigeru, [=O]shima Toshikaza, Hsü Ti-shan and Wan Kuo-ting. Hsü Ti-shan believes that a kind of 3-field system had developed by this time. Traces of such a system have been observed in modern China (H.D. Scholz). For these questions, the translation by N. Lee Swann, Food and Money in Ancient China, 1959 is very important.
p. 55: For all questions of money and credit from this period down to modern times, the best brief introduction is by Lien-sheng Yang, Money and Credit in China, Cambridge 1952. The Introduction to the Economic History of China, London 1954, by E. Stuart Kirby is certainly still the best brief introduction into all problems of Chinese Economic history and contains a bibliography in Western and Chinese-Japanese languages. Articles by Chinese authors on economic problems have been translated in E-tu Zen Sun and J. de Francis, Chinese Social History, Washington 1956.—Data on the size of early cities have been collected by T. Sekino and Kat[=o] Shigeru.
p. 56: T. Sekino studied the forms of cities. C. Hentze believes that the city even in the Shang period normally had a square plan.—T. Sekino has also made the first research on city coins. Such a privilege and such independence of cities disappear later, but occasionally the privilege of minting was given to persons of high rank.—K.A. Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, New Haven 1957 regards irrigation as a key economic and social factor and has built up his theory around this concept. I do not accept his theory here or later. Evidence seems to point towards the importance of transportation systems rather than of government-sponsored or operated irrigation systems.—Concerning steel, we follow Yang K'uan; a special study by J. Needham is under preparation. Centre of steel production at this time was Wan (later Nanyang in Honan).—For early Chinese law, the study by A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, Leiden 1955 is the best work in English. He does not, however, regard Li K'ui as the main creator of Chinese law, though Kuo Mo-jo and others do. It is obvious, however, that Han law was not a creation of the Han Chinese alone and that some type of code must have existed before Han, even if such a code was not written by the man Li K'ui. A special study on Li was made by O. Franke.
p. 57: In the description of border conditions, research by O. Lattimore has been taken into consideration.
p. 59: For Shang Yang and this whole period, the classical work in English is still J.J.L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang, London 1928; the translation by Ma Perleberg of The Works of Kung-sun Lung-tzu, Hongkong 1952 as well as the translation of the Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: The Kuan-tzu, edited by L. Maverick, New Haven 1954 have not found general approval, but may serve as introductions to the way philosophers of our period worked. Han Fei Tz[)u]; has been translated by W.K. Liao, The Complete Works of Han Fei Tz[)u], London 1939 (only part 1).
p. 60: Needham does not have such a positive attitude towards Tsou Yen, and regards Western influences upon Tsou Yen as not too likely. The discussion on pp. 60-1 follows mainly my own researches.
p. 61: The interpretation of secret societies is influenced by general sociological theory and detailed reports on later secret societies. S. Murayama and most modern Chinese scholars stress almost solely the social element in the so-called "peasant rebellions".
Chapter Five