Life and Afterlife in Ancient China by Jessica Rawson

Professor Dame Jessica Rawson’s latest volume on early China is an ambitious chronological survey of major archaeological finds spanning the late Neolithic period in the fourth millennium b.c.e. to the construction of the first emperor of China’s enormous mausoleum in the first millennium b.c.e. It is divided into four sections organized by period and topic and includes a short introduction and epilogue alongside a list of tombs mentioned, extensive black and white images, as well as two sections of color plates with a detailed list of illustrations in the back, extensive endnotes, suggestions for further reading, and a usable index.

Rawson lays out the ambitious goals of the volume in the introduction, making the point that China today is often perceived as strange and obscure, leading to a lack of empathy toward it. Her attempt to correct this perception begins with the claim that understanding ancient Chinese culture, in particular the ancestral cult, the universe of correlations and analogies that undergirded ancient Chinese symbol systems, and the shared semiotic script that these correlations and analogies created can help us better understand China today. Or at least that it can help us acknowledge the contributions that ancient peoples of a rich variety of backgrounds made toward the development of “one of the world’s greatest civilizations” and perhaps to understand “… the world view that was formed” as a result (p. xxxiv).

The first section, “Building and Dwelling, 3200–1600 BC,” covers findings from Liangzhu in the southeast, Taosi in the north, and remains from Anyang in the Central Plains. In Chapter 1, she summarizes new discoveries at Liangzhu City and provides context for an ancient jade-making culture there. She argues that what came to be seen as “age-old” associations between jade, ritual power, and social/political prestige during the Zhou period were later linked to pre-Zhou cultures. In studies of these associations that see jade usage and jade worship as one, we now know that these pre-Zhou cultures were rich in traditions that often are mistakenly ignored. In other words, we are our long cultural traditions. She also briefly discusses water management in the southern reaches of ancient China, including summarizing theories of Liangzhu’s fall, which include catastrophic flooding. In doing so, she acknowledges and highlights the increasing importance and growing popularity of the study of water management in the ancient Yangzi region.

In Chapter 2, Rawson takes us to the remains of the Taosi settlement, located in the heart of the Loess Plateau of northern China, along the Fen River. This Taosi settlement dates back to 2300–1900 b.c.e. and was discovered in the 1950s. This chapter also walks readers through a tomb associated with the Taosi from the southeastern quadrant of the walled settlement, which has since seen evidence of looting. Here, she shows how the evidence of large-scale feasting from the tombs at Taosi indicates the presence of a rich pottery tradition that resulted from the settlement of people in the rich riverine floodplain of the Fen River valley and the abundant resources these environments provided for both a robust early ceramic industry and the foodstuffs used in these feasting rituals.

In Chapter 3, Rawson introduces the reader to the tomb of Fu Hao. She provides a highly detailed description of this tomb and the burial of Fu Hao to survey the most salient features of Shang civilization, such as divination, the royal network of Fang polities and the Shang’s fluctuating relationships with them, the calendar of rituals, the ancestral cult, burial and sacrifices, chariot warfare and the domestication of horses, and bronze casting. She argues that Ya Chang’s tomb, and specifically the bronze drinking vessel assemblage therein, the gold implements, and the presence of a chariot gear could indicate a hybrid identity between Shang and northern nomadic groups from which chariot riding and horse-breeding were introduced into the Central Plains cultures. Furthermore, she argues that the presence of Ya Chang’s and Fu Hao’s tombs, both of which have strong military symbols within them such as weaponry both functional and symbolic, suggests that part of these two women’s roles was the protection of the Shang king in a personal and intimate way. Finally, she discusses how the emergence of bronze technology had to have been predicated on the mastery of ceramics first.

Part 2 is entitled “The Language of Objects, 1200–700 BC,” and focuses on the material object finds from Sanxingdui in Sichuan, the Yu lineage cemetery in Baoji, Shaanxi, and the tomb of Lord Rui at Liangdaicun, also in Shaanxi. In Chapter 4, she simultaneously highlights the singularity of Sanxingdui culture in comparison to contemporary Chinese civilizations while also emphasizing that they were still connected to both the late Shang through metallurgy and earlier Liangzhu cultures through jade use and manufacturing. She especially emphasizes the diversity of the cultural outlook at Sanxingdui through her analyses of anthropomorphic representation, as well as of trees and elephants, none of which are found in Central Plains cultures.

In Chapters 5 and 6, Rawson returns to the topic of cultural hybridity, showcasing in Chapter 5 how the Yu lineage’s grave goods reveal an effort to simultaneously legitimize the Zhou conquest over the Shang and highlight the Yu lineage’s role in the conquest. She rightly emphasizes that the Zhou success over the Shang was dependent on creating a coalition of different groups, of whom the Yu lineage was one, who through their northwestern ties served as charioteers during the Zhou campaign and who were richly rewarded as a result. Moving to the tomb of Lord Rui in the Wei River valley in Chapter 6, Rawson discusses the evolution of cultural hybridity between Steppe and Zhou cultures into the eighth and seventh centuries b.c.e., focusing especially on changes in Zhou ritual that took place in the mid-eighth century, like the emergence of graduated sets of bronze vessels,¹ which she explains as evidence of an emerging requirement for all Zhou-affiliated lineages to “adhere absolutely to the rituals of the ancestral cult, cementing the legitimacy of Zhou rule” (p. 163). At the same time, she argues that Lord Rui’s deliberate retention of archaic bronze items, such as a tenth-century alcohol bucket (you 卣), indicates the Lord’s individual desire to pay homage in death to his family’s deeper history further west in the Baoji area. Rawson highlights across these two chapters the diversity of cultural connections between elite Zhou culture and the Steppe as well as its long history going as far back as the Taosi culture discussed in Chapter 2, treating each episode of encounter as nodes in a continuous sequence of contact rather than as singular events.

Cultural hybridity features prominently again in part three of the book, “Converging Cultures, 700–300 BC.” In Chapter 7, Rawson takes us back in time to the Yuhuangmiao cemetery of the Yan Polity in northeastern Hebei Province, which dates to the tenth century b.c.e. and probably belonged, as she claims, to northern clans who lived alongside Zhou peoples in Yan. Importantly, she observes that the burials here reveal few adoptions of Zhou ritual trappings, unlike at the elite tombs at Baoji and Liangdaicun (p. 187), suggesting that Yuhuangmiao individuals may have prized finely cast bronze pieces as commodities to showcase wealth rather than as expressions of ancestral worship (pp. 191–192). Despite this, she nevertheless emphasizes that the adoption of bronze by pastoralists was evidence that the cultural dialogue between Zhou and non-Zhou groups in this area was of immense value to both sides, with “… perhaps the settled inhabitants of the river basins” making “… the greatest gains” (p. 194) according to archaeological evidence, contrary to what textual records suggest about this relationship.

In Chapter 8, she focuses on the sixth century b.c.e. tomb of Lord Bai of the small polity of Zhongli at Shuangdun in Anhui. Here, she highlights the tomb’s unusual circular structure and concomitantly unusual placement of grave goods, Lord Bai’s inscribed bell set—which was made in deliberate imitation of Chu metropolitan styles—and the presence of northern-style weaponry to argue that the ritual of the ancestral cult was one way in which southern polities like Zhongli and Wu were able to engage with Zhou polities, but that this situation generated a paradox wherein “… ritual vessels were combined with local practices in structure, burial position and weaponry …, [thereby] … allowing tomb owners to adopt a dual identity” (p. 217). Interestingly, most of the evidence—the tomb’s circular shape and gold-inlaid weaponry in particular—seems to suggest Lord Bai’s ethnic and cultural origins were connected to groups in the north rather than the south. His presence in Anhui, she concludes, illustrates the ability for conflict and warfare (Zhongli was conquered by Wu in 518 b.c.e.) to serve as arenas for cultural transmission in this eastern region of the Yangzi River valley. Staying in the Yangzi region for Chapter 9, Rawson revisits the well-known tomb of Marquis Yi of the Zeng polity, dated to around 433 b.c.e. In addition to the detailed descriptions of Chu’s unique spiritual beliefs as evidenced by the imagery and construction of the tomb chamber and coffins, Rawson draws from a combination of art and poetry from the Chu state using the stylistic motifs of the Marquis of Zeng’s bell set to argue that these grave goods were “… a far cry from soothing music,” and instead were “… a vision of fearful anxiety in an unseen world of spirits,” that stood “… contrary to the staid ritual ceremonies of Zhou” (p. 254). Finally, in Chapter 10, we move north to the polity of Zhongshan in Hebei and the tomb of King Cuo, who died in 313 b.c.e., and the nearby burials of King Cuo’s father and descendants. Echoing work on this burial that has been done previously,² Rawson explores how King Cuo’s burial materializes the complicated position of this polity between the larger polities of Jin, Yan, and Qi during the Warring States period.

The final section of the volume, “Conquest on Horseback, 300–221 BC,” leans fully into the Steppe-central plains relationship. In Chapter 11, Rawson focuses on the tomb of the warrior at Majiayuan cemetery in Gansu Province, arguing against what she claims to be the prevailing view of Majiayuan cemetery as “… lower-ranking subjects, with the Qin and their early tombs about 150 kilometers to the south-west, as their overlords” (p. 308), saying that instead, we ought to take the cemetery as a demonstration that pastoralist groups, likely acting as horse traders, were part of “… an affluent society living a rewarding life, … [and] spending their time enriching their own lives and commemorating their achievements” (p. 307). She goes on to demonstrate this through detailed description and analysis of the warrior’s tomb and its grave goods, focusing on the gold and silver personal ornaments as well as the chariots, all of which indicate not only a cultural basis in the Steppe region for this individual but also a type of wealth that could be considered greater than comparative burials in the region. In Chapter 12, she moves to the cemetery at Yongcheng in Fengxiang County in Shaanxi, focusing on the burials of the lords of Qin. She begins by arguing that the tomb of Lord Jing (r. 576–537 b.c.e.) should be considered “… a bridge between the Steppe kurgans and the afterlife residence eventually adopted at the court of the First Emperor” (p. 330), and then moves on to argue that aside from representing the power of the short-lived Qin dynasty to mobilize and organize labor, the First Emperor’s terracotta army represents Qin’s deeply rooted connections with Central Asia, whose heterogeneity and pastoralism—especially their ability to procure horses— ought to be credited with Qin’s rise.

In the epilogue, Rawson returns to the stated goals of the book, which are to showcase how “… the great tombs of China allow us to enter a deep past that is otherwise difficult to penetrate,” to provide us an alternative history to early texts, and finally to reveal how burials “… grant us access to a vibrant constellation of ideas about life after death, all sustained by one central belief that the dead would continue to follow the life they had lived” (p. 361). She also recapitulates the major themes of the book, which are to show that China was not isolated in the ancient period, that the creation of tombs was dependent on combinations of technical know-how and environmental conditions, and finally that their construction was influenced by the increasing complexities of the requirement to provide suitable dwelling and ritual space as well as regular offerings of nourishment for the dead.

Overall, a volume that claims to use the study of Chinese archaeology to help readers better understand China today is necessarily ambitious. Aside from the challenges of humanizing ancient elites and royalty, which is the focus of much of the archaeological evidence in this book, Rawson is also faced with a huge variety of social, political, and cultural contexts that she needs to make coherent. In this regard, she has done an admirable job of connecting symbolic language and ritual practices across time and space. In addition, her training and skill as an art historian are put on ample display, as each chapter delves deeply into the visual language of both grave goods and tomb architecture. She also makes a strong attempt to be inclusive both chronologically and geographically of major archaeological finds from China from the last century.

At the same time, however, the ambitious scope as well as the abundance and detail of information covered in this volume is also at the root of its major weaknesses. For one thing, it is unclear who the intended reader of the volume is. If it is for casual readers or students of early China, the sheer level of detail of description included in each chapter could be an obstacle to comprehension. If it is for the expert reader, then one cannot help but point out that many of the tombs already have comprehensive single-monograph studies written about them that go into far greater interpretive detail than Rawson does. One could imagine this being a useful reference tool for intermediate readers like master’s-level students, but aside from this niche, it is hard to picture the ideal audience of this lengthy volume. Another curious feature of the book is its strong focus on relations between the Central Plains and the Steppe. While this relationship is vital to an authentic understanding of the ancient world in this region, one would not realize how much of the narrative this relationship takes up from the book’s title, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China, which typically signals more of a focus on the relationship between the living and the dead. Finally, while the book ostensibly aims to use the careful explication of early Chinese beliefs and practices to correct the modern perceptions of China as opaque and unknowable, much of the narrative emphasizes China’s uniqueness in many aspects of life and death. In addition, perhaps due to the length and scope of the text, the author does not have the space to make more than cursory comparisons between early China and other early civilizations, which only serves to reinforce China’s otherness rather than bring it into conversation with other subdisciplines and fields in archaeology. This book is an admirable contribution by an eminent scholar of the field, but its weaknesses prevent it from standing out as a groundbreaking or truly innovative work.