David Novak Reads Poetry

I awoke with a headache today. Even though my scheduled chapter was a shorter one, I wasn’t up to it. So I started Twain on audiobook. I listened to his introduction—his typical jocularity—and then all the set-up. First a long quote from Mallory (I think), then the prelude to the manuscript of the story being handed off to Twain’s framing narrator. Then I fell asleep.

I wound up sleeping the day away. When I pick Twain back up I’ll go over everything in the text to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I expect mainly to read from Project Gutenberg or Libby if they have it. Given that my scheduled chapter was shorter—the next is shorter as well followed by a long one—I decided to squeeze it in before bed (the headache having abated). Now I have done.

Truth is, most of this archeology stuff flies over my head. Actually Chou/Zhou marks the beginning of literature and my authors do draw on that, but it still doesn’t feel like what we commonly designate when we call something “a history”. My first book of 2026 will be on the Eastern Zhou, after this on the Western Chou. (Though both part of the same Yale series the transliteration is different.) In spite of missing a lot, I am gradually picking up an overall chronology of Chinese history.

My authors, Hsu and Linduff, have not let me down.

2 hours ago | [YT] | 1

David Novak Reads Poetry

Sometimes it feels like I’m reading a foreign language, these first two sentences especially:

“The extension of roles of the inner court staff to include numerous functions was duplicated repeatedly in the history of the imperial Chinese court. The growth of the authority of the inner court emerged in the Chou period…. [T]he royal secretariat was gradually organized to include the scribes of both categories, and the group was so sizable that it required a supervisor of its own. Ch'en Meng-chia thought that the nei-shih (internal scribes) took over the role of issuing royal decrees after the mid-Chou reigns and the yin (chief of staff) appeared only in the late reigns. The distinction probably reveals the change in the royal power from that sanctioned through ritual to one that institutionalized the king's authority by organizing an inner court that helped exercise the power. The growth and differentiation of the inner court, of course, were one more example of bureaucratization. In spite of institutionalization, royal authority was final; the king could alter the decree as he wished even after a written document had been read aloud by his scribal staff.”

Hsu & Linduff

3 hours ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

Hsu & Linduff:

“Tsou-ma 走馬, ch'ü-ma 趣馬. Literally translated, the titles mean ‘walking the horse’ and ‘running after the horse’ and suggest that these were equestrian officers. Although there was no cavalry in the Western Chou, the war chariot was an indispensable part of the Chou army and was drawn by two or four horses. Thus, raising and training of horses for combat duty had to be taken very seriously by the Chou leaders.”

4 hours ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

“Some of the clan emblems on the Yen bronzes found in the region around Peking were Shang…. The burials discovered at Liu-li-ho 琉璃河 of Fang-shan County yielded weapons, human sacrifices, and bronzes with inscriptions recording receipt of gifts from the Duke of Yen. The clan emblem was, however, unmistakably a Shang one. Once again, this evidence shows that some of the original Shang population were encouraged and permitted by the Chou conquerers to preserve their own clan identity. The rich content of these burials and the high status of the deceased show that they were neither captives nor slaves. They enjoyed status as nobilty and allies of the Chou in the state of Yen. Such a strong presence of Shang influence both before and after the conquest leads to the assumption that the Shang had firmly secured the area before they surrendered to King Wu. They had been successful predecessors to the Chou and were afforded privileges accordingly.”

Hsu and Linduff

1 day ago | [YT] | 2

David Novak Reads Poetry

Hsu and Linduff:

“Cooperation between the Chou and local people was essential for the Chou to gain and remain in control. While the Chou were perhaps less sophisticated than the Shang culturally, they continued to develop the baselines of the Shang civilization in their new regime. The archaeological context in the core area, therefore, shows both local homogeneity and temporal continuity among artifacts. In the Chou homeland, because of the immigration of the Shang elite—the scribes, historians, priests, and others—the cultural traditions of the Shang were visible and significant. And although the Chou respected Shang traditions, as strongly evidenced in production of and patronized use of Shang-style cultural artifacts, it was not as poor cousins that they maintained such customs, but as wise political designers.”

1 day ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

Excerpts from Hsu and Linduff:

“The institutionalization of rank occurred as a consequence of a political authority that relied only in part on force to maintain control. Social order had to be made routine and acceptable in order to sustain political control. The regularization of ritual and status ranking reflected social stability, for privileges and obligations of individual members were known and regulated. Internal conflicts were minimized because everyone's place was known. Internal coherence enhanced stability and solidarity; it also cost the ruling group their flexibility and adaptability.”

“Did the Chou kings shower subordinates with gifts and glory primarily to assure obligatory behavior, after the manner of potlatch ceremonies practiced in Eurasian communities? Or was there an actual contract made, as in the medieval European example? The Chinese ritual of investiture was one activity, apparently, in which a contract was made. _Ts'e-ming_ 册命 was evidence of that contract. _Ts'e_ literally means written document, and ming means order or mandate; thus _ts'e-ming_ means a recorded commission. Many bronze inscriptions describe such ceremonies and record the entire verbal commission.”

And then this:

“[T]he presentation and return of the jade token probably was a subtle way of keeping track of the performance of the second-ranked official.

“In summary, the Chou feudal system was an institution of delegated authority; it assigned missions to trustworthy persons. Enfeoffment was not very different from dispatching garrisons and local administration. Not unlike the European feudal system, the Chou relationships were contractual. The token, citation, charge of missions, and gifts were symbolic expressions of the contract between the involved parties. A court visit was a procedure necessary to reconfirm passage of authority from one to another.

“Frequent ritual citing of old relationships respected tradition and demonstrated allegiance to and the routinization of Chou order. The vassals of the Chou were largely members of the Chi and the Chiang; those of other surnames were related through marriage. Infeudation reiterated the delegation of authority and graded order of both the political and lineage systems. The members of the Chou feudal structure, by the Ch'eng-K'ang period, were not strangers to one another. In medieval Europe, however, invaders had little trust or confidence to share with the conquered. Thus the relationship between the European lord and his vassals was built on a foundation of rather rigid and explicit contracts, in which rights and obligations of both parties were clearly stated and assumed by holy oaths. Here the European system departs from that of China. The combination of contractual and personal bonds through family ties between the _tsung-fa_ units was peculiar to the Chou version, and regularization of procedures and ritual was probably a natural outcome of that system. The entire society relied on rituals to reinforce mutual dependence among individuals. Behind the ritual were personal promises and obligations, rectified through the social hierarchy. The elaborate ceremonies, including the bestowal of jades, gifts, and elegant words, embellished the structure of delegated authority.”

2 days ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

Hsu and Linduff:

“Little evidence exists to suggest that the states founded during the early Chou lacked internal stability. On the contrary, throughout the Ch'un-ch'iu period, each state continued its local features and diversity thrived. To some extent, acculturation must have taken place whereby the new multilayered society was unified around mutually acceptable features.”

2 days ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

Hsu and Linduff:

“The Chou could not have maintained their control of the heartland of China, which they had gained through military triumph, without developing a sophisticated and effective ruling apparatus.”

This prompted me to think: Destroying things (parts of the government) may help the Trump regime to gain power; it will not help them keep it.

2 days ago | [YT] | 0

David Novak Reads Poetry

Yesterday and today each I have read a complete chapter of my archaeology book. If I keep it up every day for the next week, I can finish on the 25th. I doubt that’s likely to happen. It’s strenuous reading, and I’m sure that I have days forthcoming that won’t permit that time commitment.

If I did, however, I could probably accomplish Mark Twain during the final week, particularly because, as a public domain work, I could access it diversely, via Project Gutenberg or LibriVox, which offers greater leeway.

I’d like to do it…

3 days ago | [YT] | 2

David Novak Reads Poetry

This is what America has become.

3 days ago | [YT] | 0