1
From the Stone Age to the End of the Spring
and Autumn Period
The bow and arrow was for savagery what the iron sword was for barbarism
andfire-arms for civilization–the decisive weapon.
Friedrich Engels ( 1820 – 95 )^1Women in Warfare
One of thefirst named martial artists in Chinese history is a woman known
as Fu Hao. She was, of course, not thefirst martial artist in China; that
distinction is lost to our records, but Fu Hao is thefirst person for whom
we have a name, an account of her military exploits, and an intact tomb.
Her particular importance is due to the fortunes of archaeology, though it
is clear from what we know of her that she was a woman of considerable
significance in her own time. Her tomb was discovered in 1976 at Anyang
and was the only undisturbed royal tomb from the Shang dynasty (ca.
1600 – ca.1045 bce) royal cemetery complex, dated to approximately
1200 bce(Fu Hao’s tomb itself has been dated to 1180 – 70 bce). Lady
Hao was a consort of the Shang king Wu Ding, and when she was buried,
her tomb wasfilled with a staggering array of bronze, jade, stone, ceramic,
and bone objects. These ranged from exquisitely carved knickknacks, to
large bronze food vessels, to real bronze weapons. And yet despite this
immense display of wealth, her tomb was actually one of the smaller ones.
By itself, Fu Hao’s tomb would have been simply sensational, even if
the presence of weapons, both real and ritual, in a woman’s tomb might
have been a problematic curiosity. But among the thousands of oracle
bones recovered at Anyang, over a hundred inscriptions relate to Lady
Hao, with twelve specifically concerned with her military activities.^2 On
13