China in the Early Bronze Age
China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization
Robert L. Thorp
Series: Encounters with Asia
Copyright Date: 2006
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Pages: 320
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhxmw
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China in the Early Bronze Age
Book Description:

One of the great breakthroughs in Chinese studies in the early twentieth century was the archaeological identification of the earliest, fully historical dynasty of kings, the Shang (ca. 1300-1050 B.C.E.). The last fifty years have seen major advances in all areas of Chinese archaeology, but recent studies of the Shang, their ancestors, and their contemporaries have been especially rich. Since the last English-language overview of Shang civilization appeared in 1980, the pace of discovery has quickened. China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization is the first work in twenty-five years to synthesize current knowledge of the Shang for everyone interested in the origins of Chinese civilization. China in the Early Bronze Age traces the development of early Bronze Age cultures in North and Northwestern China from about 2000 B.C.E., including the Erlitou culture (often identified with the Xia) and the Erligang culture. Robert L. Thorp introduces major sites, their architectural remains, burials, and material culture, with special attention to jades and bronze. He reviews the many discoveries near Anyang, site of two capitals of the Shang kings. In addition to the topography of these sites, Thorp discusses elite crafts and devotes a chapter to the Shang cult, its divination practices, and its rituals. The volume concludes with a survey of the late Shang world, cultures contemporary with Anyang during the late second millennium B.C.E. Fully documented with references to Chinese archaeological sources and illustrated with more than one hundred line drawings, China in the Early Bronze Age also includes informative sidebars on related topics and suggested readings. Students of the history and archaeology of early civilizations will find China in the Early Bronze Age the most up-to-date and wide-ranging introduction to its topic now in print. Scholars in Chinese studies will use this work as a handbook and research guide. This volume makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the formative stages of Chinese culture.

eISBN: 978-0-8122-0361-5
Subjects: History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. List of Illustrations
    List of Illustrations (pp. ix-xvi)
  4. A Note on Documentation
    A Note on Documentation (pp. xvii-xviii)
  5. Preface
    Preface (pp. xix-xxviii)
  6. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. 1-20)

    Early Bronze Age societies grew from deep roots in several regions of modern-day China. Before embarking on our survey of those developments, we should review both the physical setting and cultural developments at the beginning of this new age.

    Most readers carry in their heads an icon of China derived from contemporary maps. This mental picture represents the greater part of East Asia, from Manchuria to Hainan Island and from coastal cities to Central Asian deserts. An expansive map of China—now the territory of the PRC—is an abberation in the context of Chinese history. This map dates only...

  7. Chapter 1 Dawn of the Bronze Age: The Erlitou Culture (c. 1900–1500 b.c.e.)
    Chapter 1 Dawn of the Bronze Age: The Erlitou Culture (c. 1900–1500 b.c.e.) (pp. 21-61)

    In Chinese archaeology today, discussions of the origins of civilization and of the Bronze Age generally begin with Erlitou. Erlitou is a village south of the Luo River in Yanshi County that resembles many others in this part of North China. In archaeology, Erlitou is both a site, specifically a type site, and the name for an archaeological culture that existed in Henan and neighboring regions in the early second millennium b.c.e. The site stretches across open winter wheat fields south of the village toward two other hamlets, Gedangtou on the southeast and Sijiaolou to the south (Figure 1.1). A...

  8. Chapter 2 Foundations of the Bronze Age: The Erligang Culture (c. 1600–1300 b.c.e.)
    Chapter 2 Foundations of the Bronze Age: The Erligang Culture (c. 1600–1300 b.c.e.) (pp. 62-116)

    If Erlitou witnessed the dawn of the Bronze Age in North China, then the far more extensive Erligang Culture represents its broad foundations. The material evidence documented at sites of this archaeological culture (Map 5) underlies the civilization with which Chinese history properly begins, and also constitutes the baseline for developments outside the central plains. Since its discovery in the early 1950s at Zhengzhou (Henan), the Erligang Culture has been interpreted as the direct predecessor of the historic Shang culture known from Anyang (see Chapters 3–4). Chinese scholars generally assume Zhengzhou itself was a capital occupied by the same...

  9. Chapter 3 The Shang Kings at Anyang (c. 1300–1046 b.c.e.)
    Chapter 3 The Shang Kings at Anyang (c. 1300–1046 b.c.e.) (pp. 117-171)

    Our discussions of the Erlitou and Erligang Cultures established the pedigree of the archaeological culture known from the large complex of sites near Anyang, in northern Henan province (Map 6). Work here began at about the same time the discovery of the Longshan type site took place. But whereas the Shandong excavations were limited to two seasons, campaigns at Anyang proceeded for fifteen seasons over a decade (1928–37). More than the better-known investigations at the “cave home of Peking man,” the work at Anyang had a decisive impact on the definition, theory, and practice of archaeology in China. From...

  10. Chapter 4 Shang Cult: Divination and Sacrifice
    Chapter 4 Shang Cult: Divination and Sacrifice (pp. 172-213)

    The development of oracle-bone studies has made our view of the Late Shang (or Yinxu) period categorically different from all earlier eras. History begins at Anyang, and so too does the study of those ideas and practices that characterized Shang society. The emphasis on cult in this chapter matches this evidence, both inscriptional and archaeological. More than any other factor we can isolate, the Shang royal cult held society together. The cult gave the king his role, his authority, and his place in history. The cult was both familial and societal, both a lineage matter and a political one. Status...

  11. Chapter 5 The Late Shang World (c. 1300–1050 b.c.e.)
    Chapter 5 The Late Shang World (c. 1300–1050 b.c.e.) (pp. 214-263)

    In rediscovering the Shang kings and their civilization, archaeologists and historians have created an “Anyang-centered” view of the late second millennium b.c.e. Contemporary cultures have generally been judged against the archaeological record at Anyang. They are classified as more or less advanced, even civilized, by the degree to which they manifest the traits of Yinxu: for example, impressive buildings and tombs, bronze ritual vessels and weaponry, sophisticated crafts more generally, and not least, writing. Since some historical traditions were verified at Anyang, these same sources are also assumed to contain kernels of truth about contemporary regional cultures. Thus these archaeological...

  12. Afterword: The Invention of Chinese Civilization
    Afterword: The Invention of Chinese Civilization (pp. 264-266)

    Throughout this book I have been at pains to qualify what I write. My efforts are more than an abundance of scholarly caution or a nod to contemporary academic fashion. As a non-Chinese researcher writing about the early Bronze Age, I am acutely aware that my assumptions are not the same as those of my Chinese peers. By choice I have placed information about the earliest historiographic traditions into a series of boxes labeled “Mythic Narratives” and “Myths of the Xia.” Following the good lead of other scholars (Robert Bagley, for one), I have tried to reserve the term “Shang”...

  13. Suggested Reading
    Suggested Reading (pp. 267-274)
  14. Notes
    Notes (pp. 275-282)
  15. Index
    Index (pp. 283-290)
  16. Acknowledgments
    Acknowledgments (pp. 291-292)
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