The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC [Hardcover]

The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the institutional and cultural history of pre-imperial China.The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the cultural history of pre-imperial China. Fourteen of the leading Western specialists, both historians and archeologists, cover the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Neolithic background, language, intellectual history, relations with Central Asia, and debts of both the Qin and Han empires to these earlier time-periods. There are chapters on institutional history, based on both traditional and palaeographic literature, and on material culture, based on the archaeological record.The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the cultural history of pre-imperial China. Fourteen of the leading Western specialists, both historians and archeologists, cover the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Neolithic background, language, intellectual history, relations with Central Asia, and debts of both the Qin and Han empires to these earlier time-periods. There are chapters on institutional history, based on both traditional and palaeographic literature, and on material culture, based on the archaeological record.The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the cultural, intellectual, political, and institutional developments of the pre-imperial period. The four subperiods of Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn and Warring States, are described on the basis of literary and material sources and the evidence of recently found manuscripts. Chapters on the prehistoric background, the growth of language, and relations with the peoples of Central Asia provide the major context of China's achievements in the 1,500 years under review. The teachings of China's early masters are set alongside what is known of the methods of astonomers, physicians and diviners. A final chapter leads the reader forward to imperial times, as described inl³'