Epigraphical evidence of the Shang state enfeoffment system

Abstract

A set of XII century BC oracle bone inscriptions found in the ruins of the ancient Shang state capital narrates the bestowing of a title of hou of the place named Gan (genuine reading unknown) upon the person named Shang. The case of Gan-hou Shang cannot be explained by merely a formal recognition of the subjection of a previously independent peripheral chieftain; it must have been either a feudal-like enfeoffment or an assignment of an office. Some evidence suggests Gan was originally a part of the royal domain, granted later to hou Shang as a fief. Thus, the inscriptions shed light on the Shang period enfeoffment system, saying little of its actual scale and characteristics.