Ancient China: A History

301 Pages·2016·10.71 MB·English

by  John S. Major

Ancient China
Ancient China: A History surveys the East Asian Heartland Region—the geographical area
that eventually became known as China—from the Neolithic period through the Bronze Age,
to the early imperial era of Qin and Han, up to the threshold of the medieval period in the
third century CE. For most of that long span of time there was no such place as “China”; the
vast and varied territory of the Heartland Region was home to many diverse cultures that
only slowly coalesced, culturally, linguistically, and politically, to form the fi rst recognizably
Chinese empires.
The fi eld of Early China Studies is being revolutionized in our time by a wealth of archae-
ologically recovered texts and artefacts. Major and Cook draw on this exciting new evidence
and a rich harvest of contemporary scholarship to present a leading-edge account of ancient
China and its antecedents.
With handy pedagogical features such as maps and illustrations, as well as an extensive list
of recommendations for further reading, Ancient China: A History is an important resource
for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Chinese History, and those studying Chinese
Culture and Society more generally.
John S. Major taught East Asian History at Dartmouth College, US, from 1971 to 1984.
Thereafter he has been an independent scholar based in New York City, US.
Constance A. Cook is Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Lehigh University, US.

Ancient China
A history

John S. Major and Constance A. Cook
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 John S. Major and Constance A. Cook
The right of John S. Major and Constance A. Cook to be identifi ed as the
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-7656-1599-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-7656-1600-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71532-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK
Contents
List of fi gures ix
List of maps xiii
List of tables xiv
Illustration credits xv
About the authors xvii
1 Introduction to Ancient China 1
Introduction 1
Diversity and continuity in ancient China 2
Eras, cultures, nations, states, and dynasties 4
Dynastic rule in the ancient East Asian Heartland Region 5
Two historical myths: “isolated China” and “unchanging China” 7
Why study ancient China? 8
2 Geography, climate, and the physical setting of Chinese history 10
Introduction 10
The Northern Heartland Region 10
The Southern Heartland Region 14
The Extended East Asian Heartland Region: The northeast and north 15
The Extended East Asian Heartland Region: The northwest and west 17
The Extended East Asian Heartland Region: The south 17
The climate of the East Asian Heartland Region 19
The human landscape 21
Focus: Loess 23
Focus: The Qinling Mountains 24
Focus: Millet 25
Focus: Rice 25
Focus: Ox Mountain 27
3 The Neolithic Era and the Jade Age 28
Introduction 28
Overview 28
The end of the Paleolithic, and the Neolithic transition 30
The Neolithic transition in East Asia 32
The Early Neolithic 33
vi Contents
Representative Early Neolithic sites 36
The Middle Neolithic and the beginning of the Jade Age 40
The Late Neolithic: Longshan 47
Focus: Shamanism 54
Focus: Signs on Neolithic pottery 55
Focus: Jade 56
Focus: Ritual jades and cosmic symbolism 57
4 The Early Bronze Age 59
Introduction 59
The Three Dynasties and the Bronze Age 59
The Xia enigma 60
Erlitou 61
The Erlitou economy 63
Bronze and bronze production 63
Religion, rituals, and cosmology at Erlitou 65
Erlitou in context 67
Focus: A tomb at Erlitou 67
Focus: Yu the Great and China’s fl ood myth 68
Focus: Bronze casting by the piece-mold method 69
Focus: The Erlitou sky 69
Focus: Early Bronze Age warfare 71
Focus: The sixty-day cycle and the ten-day week 72
5 The Shang dynasty 75
Introduction 75
An overview of Shang history 77
Characteristics of Shang government and society 80
Shang religion 84
Shang and its neighbors 86
The decline and fall of Shang 89
Focus: Oracle bones 90
Focus: The discovery of the Shang dynasty 91
Focus: Shang bronzes 92
Focus: What is Chinese writing? 93
Focus: The tomb of Fu Hao 94
Focus: Human sacrifi ce 95
Focus: Were Shang kings shamans? 97
Focus: The chariot 97
6 The Western Zhou Period 99
Introduction 99
The Zhou founding myth 104
An historical overview 107
Inscriptions and literacy 110
The ritual state 112
Women, commoners, and slaves 115
The Western Zhou legacy 116
Focus: A Western Zhou tomb 116
Contents vii
Focus: What is De (cid:5515)? 118
Focus: Zhou “feudalism”? 119
Focus: A Zhou ancestral hymn from the Book of Odes 120
Focus: The Duke of Zhou lectures the nobles of Shang 121
Focus: A Zhou bronze inscription 122
7 The Spring and Autumn Period 125
Introduction 125
Regional cultures and the rise of the peripheral states 126
The ba “hegemons” 134
Agriculture, technology, and commerce 135
Literature, music, and intellectual life 137
Focus: A year in the Springs and Autumns 138
Focus: The Book of Changes 140
Focus: Chong’er 143
Focus: Confucius and the Analects 144
8 The Warring States Period 146
Introduction 146
The states at war 147
Warfare 150
Administrative reform 152
Law 153
The expansion of literacy 153
Intellectual life 154
Texts and trends 156
Literature 160
Texts from tombs 162
The arts 164
Burials and funerary practices 169
Focus: The Jixia Academy 172
Focus: Who is a Ru? 173
Focus: Mozi and Mohism 174
Focus: Zhuangzi on death and transformation 175
Focus: Lord Yi of Zeng’s tomb 175
Focus: The death of Shao Tuo 177
9 The rise and fall of the Qin dynasty 179
Introduction 179
The campaigns of conquest 180
Administering the empire 183
Public works 184
Standardization 186
Monopolizing knowledge 187
Intellectual and religious currents 188
Imperial progresses 189
Ershihuangdi and the collapse of the state 190
Qin Shihuangdi in retrospect 191
Focus: The terra-cotta warriors 192
viii Contents
Focus: Weights and measures 194
Focus: A protest song from the Book of Odes 195
10 The Western Han dynasty through the reign of Emperor Wu 197
Introduction 197
The struggle to succeed Qin 198
Challenges to imperial authority 199
Governing the empire 205
Imperial rites and religion 207
Imperial and elite tombs 209
Art and literature 214
Intellectual life 216
Cosmology 219
Emperor Wu’s waning years 224
Focus: The travels of Zhang Qian 225
Focus: The Mawangdui funerary banner 226
Focus: The Great Learning 229
Focus: The Shiji 230
11 The Later Western Han and the Wang Mang Interregnum 232
Introduction 232
Chaos under Emperor Zhao 232
The fate of the Huo Clan 233
A look back: Modernists versus Reformers 236
Religious and government reform 238
Han popular religion 240
Disruption and usurpation: The Xin dynasty 242
The restoration of the Han dynasty 243
Focus: Debates on Salt and Iron 244
Focus: Liu Xiang and Liu Xin 246
Focus: A TLV mirror 247
12 The Han restoration, the Eastern Han dynasty, and the Three
Kingdoms Period 249
Introduction 249
Emperor Guangwu 249
Emperor Guangwu’s successors 252
The rise of the eunuchs 255
The fall of the Eastern Han 256
The Three Kingdoms 257
Intellectual life and the arts 259
Buddhism and Daoism 264
The legacy of the Three Kingdoms 267
Focus: The Ban family 268
Focus: Zhang Heng 269
Suggestions for further reading 271
Index 277
Figures
2.1 The landscape of the Loess Highlands in the northwestern Heartland Region
is characterized by windblown soil that is fertile but easily eroded 12
2.2 Much of the terrain of the southern Heartland Region is mountainous, with
steep valleys and abundant water. Over a period of many centuries, hillsides
have been terraced to create paddy fi elds 18
2.3 A woman threshing millet, using technology nearly unchanged from
the Neolithic era 25
2.4 Farmers weeding a recently planted rice fi eld. Rice produces a high yield
of calories per area of land, but is very labor-intensive 26
3.1 Burnished red-pottery bowl with fi sh motif, from Banpo Neolithic village,
Shaanxi, c. 5000 BCE 37
3.2 Two jade “pig-dragons,” apparently worn as pendants, from the Hongshan
Culture in the Near Northeast sector of the Heartland Region, c. 3500 BCE 41
3.3 Jade cong (prismatic tube) from the Liangzhu Culture of the Lower Yangzi
Valley, c. 3000 BCE. The corners of the cong are carved with a repeating pattern
of a simplifi ed and stylized version of the Liangzhu metamorphic deity fi gure
(compare Figure 3.5) 43
3.4 Jade bi (pierced disk) from the Liangzhu Culture of the Lower Yangzi
Valley, c. 3000 BCE 44
3.5 Metamorphic fi gure, presumed to be a deity of some kind, on a jade cong
from the Liangzhu Culture of the Lower Yangzi Valley, c. 3000 BCE 44
3.6 The so-called Lingjiatan Jade Plaque from the Liangzhu Culture, evidence
of the importance of directional orientation in Liangzhu cultural and
intellectual life 46
3.7 Black-ware goblet from the Longshan Culture, Shandong, c. 2500 BCE.
Goblets of this kind are often found in Longshan Culture graves, sometimes
on top of the corpse, perhaps giving evidence of some sort of graveside
ceremony 52
3.8 Pitcher for warming and serving millet ale, from a late Longshan Culture
site in Shandong contemporary with the Early Bronze Age Erlitou Culture,
c. 2000 BCE. The clay vessel seems to imitate a metal one, held together
with rivets 52
4.1 A bronze jue vessel for warming and serving millet ale, Erlitou Culture,
c. 2000 BCE. This is one of the earliest extant bronze ritual vessels in the
Heartland Region 64