Week 2

Welcome to Week 2! This week we dive in with some of the earliest history of China, using archaeological sources and the earliest writing we know from China. Can we talk yet about a “complex state”?

Monday
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  • □ Look ahead at the readings and tasks for this week, and plan in when you will do them.
  • – This prevents last minute panic, and means you can make the most of our time together in class.
Tuesday
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  • □ Feedback on your fellow students’ posts:
  • – Read through and use Hypothes.is (Group HST269)  to comment on your fellow students’ First Post and Week 1 post: everybody likes some encouragement! Here is a random selection of three posts. If two or more posts are the same, or one is your own, just refresh the page for a different set. It’s all random, it’s all good!
  • * Post 1:
  • * Post 2:
  • * Post 3:
Wednesday
  • □ Prepare before class:
  • – PDF with all the readings
  • – Questions for text 1&2: Can we talk about a complex society as we saw in Patricia Crone’s definition (Friday)? What evidence do you use to answer that question? Is the Xia (founded by Yu the Great in Friday’s video) myth or history?
  • – Questions for texts 3 &4: What do you learn about the organization of Shang society?
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  • 1) Liu, Li and Xingcan Chen. The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139015301.
    • – pp. 222-227 about the Taosi site.
  • 2) Li, Feng. Early China: A Social and Cultural History. New Approaches to Asian History 12. Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press, 2013. http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1310/2013008431-t.html.
    • – pp. 41-53 about the Erlitou and Erligang cultures
  • 3) Keightley, David N. Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
    • – “Preamble” pp. 1-2, gives you an idea of how the earliest “Chinese” writing still extant was created.
  • 4) Keightley, David. “Chapter 1: The Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty.” In Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second ed. Edited by Wm Th. De Bary, Irene Bloom, et al. Introduction to Asian Civilization, 3-23 New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
    • – Translations of some oracle bones.
  • Slides (Google drive)
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  • If you like a textbook for BACKGROUND (on reserve in Trexler Library)
  • – pp. 19-44: Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
  • – pp. 10-30: Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Kwang-Ching Liu. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Second ed. Cambridge Illustrated History. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  • □ Meeting in Ett. 213, 9.30AM
Thursday
  • □ Catch up if you’re behind! And prepare for Friday 😀 
Friday
  • □ Prepare before class:
  • – From Tuesday’s PDF packet: Text 4) Keightley, David. “Chapter 1: The Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty.” In Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second ed. Edited by Wm Th. De Bary, Irene Bloom, et al. Introduction to Asian Civilization, 3-23 New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
    • – Translations of some oracle bones.
  • – Shaughnessy, Edward L. Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. (PDF)
    • – Selection of bronze inscriptions from the early Western Zhou period 
    • – Questions: What does the writer of the inscriptions say; what is this text about? Who wrote this? When? Are there recurring patterns? How does the language feel? When was this text read? By whom? Would the writer be ok with us (in the 21st Century) reading this text?
    • We will make sense of all of this in class, so bring your questions and puzzlement: this is what archaeologists, philologists, historians and palaeographers do.
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  • – OPTIONAL EXTRA: Primary source If you can’t get enough of bronze inscriptions, you can find more in this PDF.
  • – HANDY REFERENCE: Falkenhausen, Lothar Von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 Bc) : The Archaeological Evidence. Ideas, Debates, and Perspectives, V. 2. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 2006.
    • – Brief PDF extract discussing the use of bronze inscriptions as a historical document: caveats to be observed. (PDF)
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  • □ Meeting in Ett. 213, 9.30AM
  • – Slides
Saturday
  • □ Rest day
Sunday