China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization

Suggested Reading

Suggested Reading These recommendations highlight the work of scholars writing in English . Chinese-language scholarship is introduced through notes at the end of each chapter. Introduction The best overall treatment of the lead-up to state-level societies remains Kwang-chih Chang, The Archaeology ofAncient China, 4th ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986), ch. 5, "The Chinese Interaction Sphere and the Foundation of Civilization," pp. 234-94. More up-to-date, albeit brief treatments of several cultures will be found in Xiaoneng Yang, ed., The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People 's Republic ofChina (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery ofArt, 1999). Longshan Age. Two studies address walled sites and settlement patterns in North China: Anne P. Underhill, "Variation in Settlements During the Longshan Period of North China," Asian Perspectives 33, 2 (1994): 197-228, and Liu Li, "Settlement Patterns, Chiefdom Variability, and the Development of Early States in North China," Journal ofAnthropological Archaeology 15 (1996),237-88. On Shijiahe, see Zhang Chi and Okamura Hidenori, "Excavation of Cities: Shijiahe and Yinxiangcheng," in Exploring China's Past: New Discoveries and Studies in Archaeology and Art, ed. Roderick Whitfield and Wang Tao (London: Saffron, 1999), pp. 86-94. A recent summation is Xiaoneng Yang, "Urban Revolution in Late Prehistoric China," in New Perspectives on China's Past: Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century, ed. Xiaoneng Yang (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004), vol. 1, pp. 98-143. Underhill's "Pottery Production in Chiefdoms: The Longshan Period in Northern China," World Archaeology 23, 1 (1991): 12-27, and Li's "Mortuary Ritual and Social Hierarchy in the Longshan Culture," Early China 21 (1996): 1-46, assemble most of the available data on their respective topics with anthropological analysis. 268 Suggested Reading The best overview of Liangzhu archaeology and jades is Sun Zhixin, "The Liangzhu Culture: Its Discovery and Its Jades," Early China 18 (1993): 1-40. See also Filippo Salviati, "Decorated Pottery and Jade Carving of the Liangzhu Culture," in Exploring China's Past, ed. Whitfield and Wang Tao, pp. 212-26. A path-breaking scientific study ofjades including Liangzhu evidence is Wen Guang and Zhichun Jing, "Chinese Neolithic Jades: A Preliminary Geoarchaeological Study," Geoarchaeology 7 (1992): 251-75. Kwang-chih Chang grapples with the significance of ritual jades in "An Essay on Cong," Orientations 20 (1989): 37-43. Another approach to these ritual objects will be found in Wu Hung, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1995), "Decoration and Emblem," pp. 28-44. Chapter 1. Dawn of the Bronze Age: The Erlitou Culture On the Three Dynasties Chronology Project, see the articles by both Chinese and international scholars in Journal ofEast Asian Archaeology 4 (2002). Early overviews of Erlitou are offered in Robert W. Bagley, "The Beginnings of the Bronze Age: The Erlitou Culture Period," in The Great Bronze Age of China, ed. Wen Fong (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980), pp. 69-77 and entries nos. 1-3; Chang, The Archaeology ofAncient China, pp. 307-16; and Yin Wei-chang, "Reexamination of Erh-lit 'ou Culture," in Studies of Shang Archaeology: Selected Papers from the International Conference on Shang Civilization, ed. K. C. Chang (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 1-13. A more complete treatment is Robert L. Thorp, "Erlitou and the Search for the Xia," Early China 16 (1991): 1-38. Two experienced field archaeologists have published a superb study of the Erlitou (and Erligang) Cultures from the standpoint of contemporary anthropological theory; see Liu Li and Xingcan Chen, State Formation in Early China, Duckworth Debates in Archaeology (London: Duckworth, 2003). Neighbors and Interaction. Gideon Shelach has produced the only extensive analysis of Erlitou in relation to any of its neighbors; see "Social Complexity in North China During the Early Bronze Age: A Comparative Study of the Erlitou and Lower Xiajiadian Cultures," Asian Perspectives 33, 2 (1994): 261-92. More on the Lower Xiajiadian Culture will be found in Guo Dashun's overview in The Archaeology of North China: Beyond the Great Wall, ed. Sarah Milledge Nelson (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 147-81. A broad treatment of early evidence of metal is An Zhimin, "Some Problems Concerning China Early Copper and Bronze Artifacts," trans. Julia K. Murray, Early China 8 (1982-83): 53-75. Suggested Reading 269 Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber argues for distant sources for Erlitou metallurgy ; see "Qijia and Erlitou: The Question of Contact with Distant Cultures , Early China 20 (1995...