The Cambridge History of Ancient China
From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC

The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the institutional and cultural history of pre-imperial China.

Michael Loewe (Author), Edward L. Shaughnessy (Author)

9780521470308, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 March 1999

1182 pages, 222 b/w illus. 18 tables
23.1 x 16.3 x 7.1 cm, 1.68 kg

'Read as a whole, this volume's advocacy of archaeological insights, combined with more traditional historical approaches, offers a truly stimulating invigoration of how we imagine the ancient world in China … A particularly fascinating chapter by Nicola Di Cosmo surveys the textual and archaeological knowledge of China's northern zone … The archaeological chapters surpass all previous accounts for their narrative cohesion and detailed references.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the cultural history of pre-imperial China. Fourteen leading specialists on early Chinese history and archaeology cover more than one thousand years. There are two chapters for each time-period - Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States: one on institutional history, based on both traditional and palaeographic literature, and one on material culture, based on archaeological evidence. There are also chapters on the Neolithic background, language, intellectual history, relations with Central Asia, and the debts of both the Qin and Han empires to these earlier time-periods. Although written by specialists, this Cambridge history aims to explain and describe pre-imperial China to an audience that will include scholars and students, as well as general readers without specialized knowledge of Chinese history. It can be consulted as a work of reference, or read continuously, alone or as part of The Cambridge History of China series.

List of maps, tables, and figures
Conventions
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy
Calendar and chronology Edward L. Shaughnessy
The environment of ancient China David N. Keightley
1. China on the eve of the historical period Kwang-chih Chang
2. Language and writing William G. Boltz
3. Shang archaeology Robert Bagley
4. The Shang: China's first historical dynasty David N. Keightley
5. Western Zhou history Edward L. Shaughnessy
6. Western Zhou archaeology Jessica Rawson
7. The waning of the Bronze Age: material culture and social developments, 770–481 BC Lothar von Falkenhausen
8. The Spring and Autumn period Cho-yun Hsu
9. Warring States: the political history Mark Edward Lewis
10. The art and architecture of the Warring States period Wu Hung
11. The classical philosophical writings David Sheperd Nivison
12. Warring states: natural philosophy and occult thought Donald Harper
13. The Northern Frontier in pre-Imperial China Nicola Di Cosmo
14. The heritage left to the Empires Michael Loewe
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Asian history [HBJF]