China in the early Bronze Age: Shang civilization

Abstract

China in Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization. Robert L. Thorp. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 320 pp, 125 figs, 9 tables, 7 maps. ISBN: 978-08122-3910-2. Hardcover: $69.95. In his English-language overview of Shang civilization incorporating up-to-date archaeological, art-historical, and transmitted textual and epigraphic information, Thorp attempts Herculean task. This is much needed contribution to field that has not had synthetic treatment of subject in English since K. C. Chang's work in eighties (1980, 1983). As jacket cover states, China in Early Bronze aims to be both an introduction to Shang civilization for those who can't read Chinese and a handbook and research guide for those who can. Given pace of archaeological work in China, its rapidly multiplying and frequently scattered publications, and difficulty of accessing, let alone synthesizing, results of such diverse and esoteric sources of information as oracle-bone and bronze vessel epigraphy, transmitted texts with their millennia-deep commentarial traditions, and current art-historical and archaeological approaches to material culture and its interpretation, Thorp's relative success or failure to achieve his stated goals must be seen in context of enormity of his task. Thorp's preface is Western scholars thirty-some-year backward glance at context and development of archaeological practice in PRC during what has been termed the Golden of Chinese Archaeology. Here, as throughout work, writing style is straightforward, language simple, and text amazingly jargon-free. Thorp's informative use of subject boxes aimed at an introductory audience supplement text and introduce such concepts and institutions as mythic narratives, relic (wenwu), and Institute of Archaeology (Zhongquo shehui kexuevuan ka). The introductory chapter provides geographical setting and cultural background to Chinese Bronze Age. Thorp tackles important but tricky issue of de-linking geographical China from modern Chinese nation-state and Han ethnicity in manner that is both concise and easy to understand. The idea of providing regional geographical context for ancient societies in China is good one, but Thorp's use of Skinner's (1985) map of Qing dynasty macroregions (which are not, contra Thorp, entirely natural in sense of being independent of human economic, cultural, and technological developments) is perhaps not ideal. A topographical map would have been more useful, and one or series of maps that took into account paleo-environment and distribution of archaeological cultures within it would have been even better. The 12 pages on Late begins with 6-page discussion of terms such as Neolithic and Age of Jade and brief overview, followed by history of changing meaning of Longshan and some sites associated with this historical narrative. This history-of-the-discipline approach provides common thread among most of topics in book and is valuable contextual addition when it does not get in way of an overview of what is currently known on particular subject. For purpose of introducing students unfamiliar with Chinese archaeology to topic, I would have preferred to have more systematically presented information on what is presently known than history of particular sites or concepts, especially in short treatment of huge topic (or rather, huge of topics). In six pages left to an overview of Late Neolithic, Thorp covers concept of Chinese interaction sphere, lists walled sites and briefly discusses some of them, and defines early states. He then ties these threads together to argue for presence of complex societies, some possibly incipient states in Terminal (20). …

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