Sources of Shang History

Sources of Shang History
Author: David N. Keightley
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 1985
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520054554

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These Bones Shall Rise Again

These Bones Shall Rise Again
Author: David N. Keightley
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2014-08-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438447477

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David N. Keightley’s seminal essays on the origins of Chinese society are brought together in one volume. These Bones Shall Rise Again brings together in one volume many of David N. Keightley’s seminal essays on the origins of early Chinese civilization. Written over a period of three decades and accessible to the non-specialist, these essays provide a wealth of information and insights on the Shang dynasty, traditionally dated 1766–1122 or 1056 BCE. Of all the eras of Chinese history, the Shang has been a particularly elusive one, long considered more myth than reality. A historian with a keen appreciation for anthropology and archaeology, Keightley has given us many descriptions of Shang life. Best known for his analysis of oracle bones, he has looked beyond the bones themselves and expanded his historical vision to ponder the lives of those who used them. What did the Shang diviner think he was doing? The temerity to ask such questions and the insights they have provided have been provocative and, at times, controversial. Equally intriguing have been Keightley’s assertions that many of the distinctive features of Chinese civilization were already in evidence during the Shang, 3000 years ago. In this collection, readers will find not only an essential reference but also the best kind of thought-provoking scholarship.

The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East

The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East
Author: Adam C. Schwartz
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 487
Release: 2019-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501505297

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Since 1899 more than 73,000 pieces of inscribed divination shell and bone have been found inside the moated enclosure of the Anyang-core at the former capital of the late Shang state. Nearly all of these divinations were done on behalf of the Shang kingsand has led to the apt characterization that oracle bone inscriptions describe their motivations, experiences, and priorities. There are, however, much smaller sets of divination accounts that were done on behalf of members of the Shang elite other than the king.First noticed in the early 1930's, grouped and periodized shortly thereafter, oracle bone inscriptions produced explicitly by or on behalf of "royal familygroups" reveal information about key aspects of daily life in Shang societythat are barely even mentioned in Western scholarship. The newly published Huayuanzhuang East Oracle Bone inscriptions are a spectacular addition to the corpus of texts from Anyang: hundreds of intact or largely intact turtle shells and bovine scapulae densely inscribed with records of the divinations in which they were used. They were produced on the behalf of a mature prince of the royal family whose parents, both alive and still very much active, almost certainly were the twenty-first Shang king Wu Ding (r. c. 1200 B.C.) and his consort Lady Hao (fu Hao). The Huayuanzhuang East corpus is an unusually homogeneous set of more than two thousand five hundred divination records, produced over a short period of time on behalf of a prince of the royal family. There are typically multiple records of divinations regarding the same or similar topics that can be synchronized together, which not only allows for remarkable access into the esoteric world of divination practice, but also produce micro-reconstructions of what is essentially East Asia's earliest and most complete "day and month planner." Because these texts are unusually linguistically transparent and well preserved, homogeneous in orthography and content, and published to an unprecedentedly high standard, they are also ideal material for learning to read and interpret early epigraphic texts. The Huayuanzhuang East oracle bone inscriptions are a tremendously important Shang archive of "material documents" that were produced by a previously unknown divination and scribal organization. They expose us to an entirely fresh set of perspectives and preoccupationscentering ona member of the royal family at the commencement of China's historical period. The completely annotated English translation of the inscriptions is the first of its kind, and is a vibrant new source of Shang history that can be accessedto rewrite and supplement what we know about early Chinese civilization and life in the ancient world. Before the discerning reader are the motives, preoccupations, and experiences of a late Shang prince working simultaneously in service both for his Majesty, his parents, and hisown family.

New Sources of Early Chinese History

New Sources of Early Chinese History
Author: Edward L. Shaughnessy
Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies University of California - B
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN:

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California's Salmon and Steelhead

California's Salmon and Steelhead
Author: Alan Lufkin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2022-08-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0520337840

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Millions upon millions of salmon and steelhead once filled California streams, providing a plentiful and sustainable food resource for the original peoples of the region. But over the years, dams and irrigation diversions have reduced natural spawning habitat from an estimated 6,000 miles to fewer than 300. River pollution has also hit hard at fish populations, which within recent decades have diminished by 80 percent. One species, the San Joaquin River spring chinook, became extinct soon after World War II. Other species are nearly extinct. This volume documents the reasons for the decline; it also offers practical suggestions about how the decline might be reversed. The California salmon story is presented here in human perspective: its broad historical, economic, cultural, and political facets, as well as the biological, are all treated. No comparable work has ever been published, although some of the material has been available for half a century. In the richly varied contributions in this volume, the reader meets Indians whose history is tied to the history of the salmon and steelhead upon which they depend; commercial trollers who see their livelihood and unique lifestyle vanishing; biologists and fishery managers alarmed at the loss of river water habitable by fish and at the effects of hatcheries on native gene pools. Women who fish, conservation-minded citizens, foresters, economists, outdoor writers, engineers, politicians, city youth restoring streambeds—all are represented. Their lives—and the lives of all Californians—are affected in myriad ways by the fate of California's salmon and steelhead. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.

The Ancestral Landscape

The Ancestral Landscape
Author: David N. Keightley
Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies University of California - B
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN:

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An ETHS graduate of 1949 brings ancient China to life with careful scholarship, producing a brilliant synthesis of Shang civilization.

The Book of Lord Shang

The Book of Lord Shang
Author: Yang Shang
Publisher:
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1928
Genre: Philosophy, Chinese
ISBN:

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The Mandate of Heaven

The Mandate of Heaven
Author: S J Marshall
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2015-12-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317849280

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The Mandate of Heaven was originally given to King Wen in the 11th century BC. King Wen is credited with founding the Zhou dynasty after he received the Mandate from Heaven to attack and overthrow the Shang dynasty. King Wen is also credited with creating the ancient oracle known as the Yijing or Book of Changes. This book validates King Wen's association with the Changes. It uncovers in the Changes a record of a total solar eclipse that was witnessed at King Wen's capital of Feng by his son King Wu, shortly after King Wen had died (before he had a chance to launch the full invasion). The sense of this eclipse as an actual event has been overlooked for three millennia. It provides an account of the events surrounding the conquest of the Shang and founding of the Zhou dynasty that has never been told. It shows how the earliest layer of the Book of Changes (the Zhouyi) has preserved a hidden history of the Conquest.

Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State

Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State
Author: Roderick Campbell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2018-05-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107197619

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The violence of war and sacrifice were not the antithesis of civilization at Shang Anyang, but rather its foundation.

Kingly Crafts

Kingly Crafts
Author: Yung-ti Li
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2022-12-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231549636

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The site of Anyang, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, dated to around 1200 to 1000 BCE, is one of the most important sources of knowledge about craft production in Bronze Age China. Excavations and research of the settlement over the past ninety years demonstrate both the advanced level of Shang craft workers and the scale and capacity of the craft industries of the time. However, materials unearthed in Anyang by different expeditions have since been stored separately in China and Taiwan, making a thorough study of this important aspect of life in Shang China challenging. Despite efforts to integrate the data based on published material, the physical evidence rarely has been considered as a single group. Through a systematic analysis of the archaeological materials available in both China and Taiwan, Yung-ti Li provides a detailed picture of craft production in Anyang and paves the way for a new understanding of how the Shang capital functioned as a metropolis. Focusing on craft-producing activities, including bronze casting, bone working, shell and marble inlay working, lithic working, and pottery production, Kingly Crafts examines the material remains, the technology, and the production organization of the craft industries. Although the level of Shang craftsmanship can be seen in the finished products, Li demonstrates that it is necessary to study workshop remains and their archaeological context to reconstruct the social and political contexts of craft production. Offering a comprehensive investigation of these remains, Kingly Crafts sheds new light on the relationships between craft industries and political authority in the late Shang period.