Li Feng - Early China: A Social and Cultural History

Li Feng has delivered a highly competent and accessible account of the social, political, and institutional history of early China. The text incorporates the most current state of scholarship in a rapidly developing field and deserves particular praise for its expert inclusion of archaeological evidence. The book will be welcomed by non-specialists and specialists alike.

Early China refers to the period from the beginning of human history in China to the end of the Han Dynasty in AD 220. The roots of modern Chinese society and culture are all to be found in this formative period of Chinese civilization. Li Fengs new critical interpretation draws on the most recent scholarship and archaeological discoveries from the past thirty years. This fluent and engaging overview of early Chinese civilization explores key topics including the origins of the written language, the rise of the state, the Shang and Zhou religions, bureaucracy, law and governance, the evolving nature of war, the creation of empire, the changing image of art, and the philosophical search for social order. Beautifully illustrated with a wide range of new images, this book is essential reading for all those wanting to know more about the foundations of Chinese history and civilization.

LI FENG is Professor of Early Chinese History and Archaeology at Columbia University. Both a historian and an archaeologist, his research interests extend from bronze inscriptions and Western Zhou history to broader issues such as the nature of early states, bureaucracy, comparative literacy, cross-region cultural relations, and theories of social development. He is also an active archaeologist with extensive fieldwork experience in China and Japan. Lis published English books include Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045771 BC (2006), Bureaucracy and the State in Early China: Governing the Western Zhou (2008), and Writing and Literacy in Early China: Studies from the Columbia Early China Seminar (co-editor, 2011).

This dynamic new series publishes books on the milestones in Asian history, those that have come to define particular periods or to mark turning points in the political, cultural, and social evolution of the region. The books in this series are intended as introductions for students to be used in the classroom. They are written by scholars whose credentials are well established in their particular fields and who have, in many cases, taught the subject across a number of years.

For a list of titles published in the series, please see .

Early China

A Social and Cultural History

Li Feng

Columbia University

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

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Cambridge University Press 2013

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2013

Reprinted with corrections 2014

Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Li, Feng, 1962

Early China: a social and cultural history / Li Feng, Columbia University.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-521-89552-1 ISBN 978-0-521-71981-0 (pbk.)

1. China History To 221 B.C. 2. China History Shang dynasty, 17661122

B.C. 3. China History Zhou dynasty, 1122221 B.C. 4. China History Qin

dynasty, 221207 B.C. 5. China History Han dynasty, 202 B.C.220

A.D. I. Title.

DS741.5.L45 2013

931dc23

2013008431

ISBN 978-0-521-89552-1 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-71981-0 Paperback

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