China in Antiquity

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China in Antiquity

• Chapter 1
• A Brief History of Chinese Civilization

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North China Plains
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Neolithic Age

• Use of polished stone implements
• Agriculture Revolution
• Fixed Human Settlements
• History of Neolithic Age in Flux
• Nuclear Area Thesis
• Interactive Spheres Thesis

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Nuclear Area Thesis

• Chinese Civilization originated from a single
  culture of millet farmers known as Yangshao
  culture in the North China Plain
• 5,000 BC radiated outward
• Distinguished by colorful painted red or brown
  pottery.

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Interactive Spheres

• Yangshao was only one culture among many
• Discovery of other cultures include
• Daxi
• Hemudu Majiabang
• Dalongtan, Dapenkang
• Xinle
• Each had own distinctive forms of pottery

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• Around 4,000 BC Neolithic cultures began to trade
  and share technology with each other
• Around 3,000 BC culture began to converge to give
  rise to the civilization now called China
• Challenged great deal of cultural variation
  persisted after the Neolithic Age
• E.g. Xingan and Sanxingdui
• Lack of word for China known by dynastic
  titles

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Origins of Chinese Writing

• Ethnically and linguistically diverse
• Sino-Tibetan
• Austroasiatic (Vietnamese and Khmer)
• Indo-European (French, English, Hindi)
• Tocharian Northwest China (600bc)
• Manuscripts and loan words
• Hmong-Mien
• Austronesian (Taiwan)
• Altaic (Turkic, Mongol, Korean and Japanese)
• Xiongnu (siberian steppe)

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Chinese script -- Characters

• Origins difficult to trace
• Script on neolithic pottery frags do not match
  Oracle Bones
• Imported from outside China (?)
• Chinese script invented not long before 1200 BC
  and of indigenous origin

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• Common myth Characters are pictographs and
  ideographs
• Common myth entirely unphonetic
• Two components Radical and Sound
• Classical Chinese complete in Oracle Bones but
  continue to evolve and standardize

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Rise of the Bronze Age

• Late Neolithic or Longshan Cultural Sites (3000
  2000 bc)
• Northwest Henan
• Southwest Shanxi
• Eastern Shaanxi
• Eastern seaboard

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Longshan Culture

• Rammed earth walls
• Implies need to defend themselves
• Concentration of wealth
• Unequal distribution of wealth or class structure
• Increasing use of Bronze

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Bronze Age or the Rise of Civilization

• Use of Bronze and rise of metallurgical techology
• Increased populations (City)
• Division of labor
• Class Structure
• Two Dynasties fall into this category
• Shang (1766 bc 1045 bc)
• Western Zhou (1055 771 bc)

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The Shang

• Emerged from Longshan in North and Northeast
  China
• Earliest Site at Erlitou (near modern day Luoyang)

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Oracle Bone Inscriptions

• Divinatory records of Shang Kings
• Cattle scapulas and turtle shells
• Independent confirmation of later accounts

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Shang Religion

• Oracle bones used for divination
• Shang kings interceded with Di (Shangdi, Lord on
  High) to ensure good harvests and victory in
  military
• Ancestral worship pervaded Shang state religion
  and political culture
• Special Treatment of Dead
• Large tombs and grave goods
• Human sacrifice

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Shang Material Culture

• Large scale use of costly bronze by Shang elite
  well controlled labor source and
  professionalization
• Use of bronze for banquets and rituals

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Shang Bronze

• All available space used for decoration
• Taotie most common motif, mythological being
• Covetous man banished by Shang to guard against
  monsters
• Monster with only a head

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Taotie
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Non-Shang Civilizations

• Xingan (modern day Jiangxi Province)
• Bronze civilization reveals fusion Middle Shang
• Sanxingdui (Southwest China)
• Distinct, no contact with Shang
• Representation of Humans

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Collapse of Shang

• King Wu invades the Shang from the West around
  1045 bc.
• Zhou historians later justify invasion according
  to Mandate of Heaven (tian)
• Justification of power
• Last kings presented as epitome of evil

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Western Zhou Dynasty

• Disagreement over origins of Zhou, most likely in
  the West in Shaanxi
• Zhou king known as Son of Heaven (tian zi)
• Feudal type rule leads to weak central authority