The Formation of Chinese Civilization; An Archaeological Perspective

by Kwang-chih Chang, Xu Pingfang, Lu Liancheng, Shao Wangping, Wang Youping, Yan Wenming, Zhang Zhongpei, with Xu Hong and Wang Renxiang; Edited and with an introduction by Sarah Allan; Foreword by Peter J. Ucko

• ISBN13: 9780300093827
• ISBN10: 0300093829
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-08-12
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Paleolithic sites from one million years ago, Neolithic sites with extraordinary jade and ceramic artifacts, excavated tombs and palaces of the Shang and Zhou dynastiesall these are part of the archaeological riches of China. This magnificent book surveys China's archaeological remains and in the process rewrites the early history of the world's most enduring civilization.Eminent scholars from China and America show how archaeological evidence establishes that Chinese culture did not spread from a single central area, as was long assumed, but emerged out of geographically diverse, interacting Neolithic cultures. Taking us to the great archaeological finds of the past hundred yearstombs, temples, palaces, citiesthey shed new light on many aspects of Chinese life. With a wealth of fascinating detail and hundreds of reproductions of archaeological discoveries, including very recent ones, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Chinese antiquity and Chinese views on the formation of their own civilization.

Author Biography

K. C. Chang, the late John E. Hudson Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, was the author of many books, including The Archaeology of Ancient China, published by Yale University Press. Xu Pingfang is the former director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Sarah Allan is the Burlington Northern Foundation Chair of Asian Studies at Dartmouth College and the author of numerous books.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Peter J. Ucko
Chronology with Dynastic Rulers	xiii
Map of Paleoanthropological Sites in China	xvi
Introduction
Part I	1	(6)
Sarah Allan
Part II	7	(4)
Xu Pingfang
Early Humans in China	11	(16)
Yan Wenming
Wang Youping
The Beginning of Farming	27	(16)
Yan Wenming
The Yangshao Period: Prosperity and the Transformation of Prehistoric Society	43	(42)
Zhang Zhongpei
The Formation of Civilization: The Interaction Sphere of the Longshan Period	85	(40)
Shao Wangping
The Rise of Kings and the Formation of City-States	125	(16)
Kwang-chih Chang
Society During the Three Dynasties	141	(62)
Lu Liancheng
Yan Wenming
The Eastern Zhou and the Growth of Regionalism	203	(46)
Lu Liancheng
The Formation of the Empire by the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Unification of China	249	(46)
Xu Pingfang
EPILOGUE
Part I	283	(6)
Xu Pingfang
Part II	289	(6)
Kwang-chih Chang
List of Selected Sites	295	(13)
Glossary of Artifacts: Illustrated Examples	308	(3)
Notes	311	(36)
Further Readings	347	(6)
List of Contributors	353	(2)
Acknowledgments	355	(2)
Index	357