Archaeology of East Asia constitutes an introduction to social and political development from the Palaeolithic to 8th-century early historic times. It takes a regional view across China, Korea, Japan and their peripheries that is unbounded by modern…
Sima Qian (c. 100 B.C.E.) was China's first historian-he was known as Grand Astrologer at the court of Emperor Wu during the Han dynasty-and, along with Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, was one of the creators of imperial China. His Shiji (pu…
Ivestigates the development of social complexity and the changes of modes of pottery production from the Neolithic to early Bronze Age in the Yuanqu Basin, north-central China. The research focuses on the development of specialised pottery productio…
Science has played a crucial role in the initial stages of westerners collecting and studying ancient Chinese artworks and archaeological materials. The relevant scientific data were quickly generated using progressively sophisticated examination te…
This book explores the roles of agricultural development and advancing social complexity in the processes of state formation in China. Over a period of about 10,000 years, it follows evolutionary trajectories of society from the last Palaeolithic hu…
The Great Wall of China spans more than 10,000 miles It was built over many centuries, and it remains one of the world's most famous landmarks today. This title for young readers explores the Great Wall's original purpose, how it was built, and how…
Ancient Chinese society developed a sophisticated and complex bureaucracy which is still in operation today and which had its pristine form in the government of the Western Zhou from 1045 to 771 BC. Li Feng, one of the leading scholars of the period…
From pasta to paper, the inventions of the Ancient Chinese remain part of everyday life in our modern world. Learn how items like wheelbarrows, the first toothbrushes, and early earthquake detectors have evolved into devices we know today and discov…
This book addresses a largely untouched historical problem: the fourth to fifth centuries AD witnessed remarkably similar patterns of foreign invasion, conquest, and political fragmentation in Rome and China. Yet while the Western Roman Empire was n…
'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 Feng's…
This volume aims to satisfy a pressing need for an updated account of Chinese archaeology. It covers an extended time period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago. The geographical c…
The Great Wall of China, built many thousands of years ago, still partially stands today throughout the northern parts of the country. Young readers will learn about who built it, when it was built, and why it was built. This title is complete with…
One of the great breakthroughs in Chinese studies in the early twentieth century was the archaeological identification of the earliest, fully historical dynasty of kings, the Shang (ca. 1300-1050 B.C.E.). The last fifty years have seen major advance…
From the seismograph to ice cream to fireworks, the Ancient Chinese continue to influence all aspects of contemporary life. Read this book to find out more about how we encounter links to the ancient world every day.
There is a stark contrast between the overarching importance of history writing in imperial China and the meagerness of historical texts from the centuries preceding the imperial unification of 221 BCE. However, recently discovered bamboo manuscript…
The roles of women in Chinese archaeology, with only a few exceptions, have at worst been overlooked, and at best consigned to conventional Marxist theory that prescribes formulaic frameworks for understanding gender-until now. Renowned archaeologis…
The author of landmark histories such as Genghis Khan, Attila, and Xanadu invites us to discover a fertile period in Asian history that prefigured so much of the world that followed.The people of the first nomadic empire left no written records, but…
Paleolithic sites from one million years ago, Neolithic sites with extraordinary jade and ceramic artifacts, excavated tombs and palaces of the Shang and Zhou dynasties-all these are part of the archaeological riches of China. This magnificent book…
You disobey the Emperor's orders and soon you're marching through deserts on your way to work on the Great Wall of China This interactive series will enthrall young and reluctant readers (Ages 8-12) by making them part of the story, inviting them t…
This second volume of the ongoing annotated translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records), widely acknowledged as the most important early Chinese history, contains the "basic annals" of five early Han-dynasty emperors. The an…
This work explores the many factors underlying the extended popularity of the cliff tomb, a local burial form in the Sichuan Basin in China during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220). The development of the cliff tomb was linked to a complex set of…
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 m…
Sima Qian (first century BCE), the author of Record of the Historian (Shiji), is China's earliest and best-known historian, and his "Letter to Ren An" is the most famous letter in Chinese history. In the letter, Sima Qian explains his decision to fi…
Imagine that you found 'dragon bones' once used to predict the future, or wrote a poem in the Book of Songs, or uncovered the terracotta army guarding the tomb of the First Emperor. Read more about life in this fascinating culture in this pocket-siz…
Luoyang, situated in present-day Henan province, was one of the great urban centres of pre-Qin and early imperial China, the favoured site for dynastic capitals for almost two millennia. This book, the first in any Western language on the subject, t…
In this book, Xiaolong Wu offers a comprehensive and in-depth study of the Zhongshan state during China's Warring States Period (476-221 BCE). Analyzing artefacts, inscriptions, and grandiose funerary structures within a broad archaeological context…
Exciting investigations in northwest China are about to reveal more of the mysteries of the huge mausoleum of the Qin Emperor, a portion of which was accidently discovered in 1974 by farmers who were digging a well. The second phase of an internatio…
What modern boy or girl wouldn't want to be called "Precious Child," as parents in ancient China referred to their children? Or wear a beautiful silk brocade jacket, as wealthy youngsters did? Or nibble on a crunchy roasted cricket? This fun book ex…
A leading scholar in the United States on Chinese archaeology challenges long-standing conceptions of the rise of political authority in ancient China. Questioning Marx's concept of an "Asiatic" mode of production, Wittfogel's "hydraulic hypothesis,…
"An essential source for the study of events in early China, a guide to the moral philosophy of the gentlemen of Han, and a splendid work of literature which may be read for the pleasure of its style and the power of its narrative. . . . This work m…
This book represents the first comprehensive attempt to bring to western scholarship the great advances made in Paleolithic archaeology and palaeoanthropology in the People's Republic of China. The 15 chapters are devoted to a historical overview of…
This book studies the formation of complex societies in prehistoric China during the Neolithic and early state periods, ca. 7000–1500 BC. Archaeological materials are interpreted through anthropological perspectives, using systematic analytic…
This book studies the formation of complex societies in prehistoric China during the Neolithic and early state periods, c. 7000-1500 BC. Archaeological materials are interpreted through anthropological perspectives, using systematic analytic methods…
An attempt to render Chinese archaeology more accessible to Western readers through a detailed case study of approximately 16,000 years of cultural development in northeastern China. The author addresses prehistoric sociopolitical processes in the D…
Who founded China? Are Chinese people religious? What is Chinese culture and how has it changed over time? The accessible and fun Understanding China Through Comics series answers those questions and more. For all ages, Foundations of Chinese Civili…
Examines ancient China and how its politics, daily activities, art, religion, economy, and social structures worked together to form Chinese culture.
An up-to-date synthesis of the archaeology and prehistory of the region called Dongbei by the Chinese, but known in the west as Manchuria. Based on recent archaeological discoveries, the book presents evidence to show that far from being a backwater…
Considers the important aspects of life during the Han period, when the foundations were laid for the chief political, economic, cultural and social structures that would characterise imperial China.
In this lively and accessible account, with illustrations on nearly every page, Michael Loewe gives us a vivid picture of the lives of peasants working the land, the lives of town inhabitants, and the elaborate hierarchy of institutions and civil se…
How did tartan-wearing Indo-Europeans come to be in Asia 2,000 years beforeWest and East admitted each other's existence? Describing their discovery of the Tarim Mummies and revealing the attempts of scientists to determine their ethnic identity, th…
In August 2011, an expedition in the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia uncovered a long-forgotten section of the Great Wall of China. In 2015, nine new sections of the wall were located in northwest China. Researchers and archaeologists have worked for…
Winner of the 2009 Society for American Archaeology Book Award Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius is based on the most up-to-date archaeological discoveries. It introduces new data, as well as new ways to think about them - modes of analysis th…
Explores the history and culture of Ancient China. Eye-catching photos, fascinating sidebars, and a "Contributions" special feature guide readers through the rise and fall of this great civilization, focusing on the people and accomplishments that m…
Mark E. Byington explores the formation, history, and legacy of the ancient state of Puyo, which existed in central Manchuria from the third century BCE until the late fifth century CE. As the earliest archaeologically attested state to arise in nor…
The thousands of ritual bronze vessels discovered by China's archaeologists serve as the major documentary source for the Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.). These vessels contain long inscriptions full of detail on subjects as diverse as the mili…
The Liangzhu Culture (3,300-2,300 BC) represented the peak of prehistoric cultural and social development in the Yangtze Delta. With a wide sphere of influence centred near present-day Hangzhou City, Liangzhu City is considered one of the earliest u…
