Epigraphical Evidence of the Shang State Enfeoﬀment System
A set of XII cent. B.C. oracle bone inscriptions found in the ruins of ancient Shang state capital narrates on bestowing a title of hou of the place named Gan (geniune reading unknown) upon the person named Shang. The case of Gan-hou Shang cannot be explained with but a formal recognition and subjection of previously independent peripheral chieftain, it must have been either a feudal-like enfeoﬀment, or an assign- ment of an oﬃcer. Some evidence suggests, Gan was originally a part of the royal domain, granted later to hou Shang as a ﬁef. Thus, inscriptions shed light on the Shang period enfeoﬀment system, saying little of its actual scale and characteristics.