Music in Ancient China: An Archaeological and Art Historical Study of Strings, Winds, and Drums during the Eastern Zhou and Han Periods (770 BCE-220 CE)

Author:
Ingrid Furniss

Publisher:
Cambria Press

Publication Date:
September 28, 2011

Abstract:
Many tombs dating to the Eastern Zhou (770-221 BCE) and Han (206 BCE-220 AD) periods contain musical instruments or their visual representations in the form of wood, stone, and ceramic figures, tomb tiles, and engravings. These finds suggest that music was viewed as an important part of the afterlife. While bells have survived more frequently than wooden instruments, and therefore have received the most scholarly attention, strings, winds, and drums are the focus of discussion in this book.

The book examines the use of these three instrument types in both solo and ensemble music, as well as the social, ritual, and entertainment functions of each. When combined with bells (and chime stones), strings, drums, and winds appear to have been associated with formal ritual ceremonies. However, when appearing alone or in assemblages with other wooden instruments during Zhou, they appear to be connected with warfare and entertainment. By Han times, strings, winds, and drums seem to be associated almost exclusively with entertainment, pointing to a shift in the social life of the times.

Another topic explored in this book is the association of musical instruments with wealth. When combined with bells and chime stones, they are only found in the wealthiest tombs. However, when found by themselves, strings, winds, and drums appear in small to large, modest to wealthy tombs, suggesting that they were available to a broad range of peoples in early Chinese elite society. This book analyzes an often disregarded aspect of early Chinese music, the role of strings, winds, and drums.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: Introduction and Methodology

Chapter Two: Musical Instruments from Neolithic to Western Zhou

Chapter Three: Drums in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Four: Strings in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Five: Winds in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Six: Wooden Instrument Ensembles in Eastern Zhou

Chapter Seven: Wooden Instrument Ensembles in Han

Chapter Eight: Ensembles with Wooden Instruments, Bells, and Chime Stones

Chapter Nine: Han Tombs with Bells and Chime Stones

Chapter Ten: Conclusions

Wooden Instruments After Han

Appendix One: Eastern Zhou Tombs by Category

Appendix Two: Selected List of Southeastern Han Tombs by Category

Appendix Three: Selected Southeastern Han Tombs and Shrines by Province and Site

Appendix Four: Northeastern Han Tombs by Category

Appendix Five: Selected Northeastern Han Tombs

[Dissertation] Viewing the Han Empire from the Edge

Author:
Hsieh, Mei-Yu

Year:
2011

School:
Stanford University

Advisor:
Lewis, Mark E.

Abstract:

This dissertation examines in the continental context the building and maintenance of the Han state, which existed in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers regions roughly from the second century B.C.E. to the second century C.E. It surveys the trajectory that transformed the Han state from a regional polity confined to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers regions to a trans-regional superpower, exerting its influence across East Eurasia. I focus specifically on the interstate interaction between the Yellow River region (the Han), on the steppe (the Xiongnu), and in the Tarim Basin (multiple oasis-states) from the beginning of the second century B.C.E. to the early first century C.E. as my case study. 

Making use of both transmitted and excavated Han texts, I demonstrate that two major mechanisms facilitated the transformative process of the Han state in the political landscape of East Eurasia. One was horizontal kin ties between the Han emperor and peer rulers. The other was the vertically-structured imperial bureaucracy that organized communities in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers regions for imperial power-building. 

In particular, the imperial bureaucracy evolved into the nodal mechanism to sustain imperial initiatives. On the one hand, it vertically incorporated into its writing-based system individuals of diverse social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers regions as the support base of the Han emperor. On the other hand, it horizontally facilitated the emperor's kinship-based alliance network across East Eurasia. This bureaucratic mechanism became the backbone that continued to weave together complex communities in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers regions regardless of the rise and fall of ruling houses.

The Collection for the Propagation and Clarification of Buddhism, Vol. II (Hongming ji 弘明集)

Author and Compiler:
Shi Sengyou 釋僧祐 (445–518)

Translator:
Harumi Hirano Ziegler

Publish Year: 
2017

Publisher: 
BDK America

Abstract:

The Collection for the Propagation and Clarification of Buddhism (Hongming ji 弘明集) is widely known as an invaluable source to examine the early development of Chinese Buddhism and how this foreign religion was accepted and adopted in Chinese society. A notable aspect of this work is that Buddhist tenets are explained using Confucian and Daoist terminology. While the Collection is a Buddhist work from chiefly the fourth and fifth centuries, it also serves well as a primary source for studies of contemporary Daoism.

Table of Contents:

A Message on the Publication of the English Tripiṭaka  NUMATA Yehan
Foreword   MAYEDA Sengaku
Publisher’s Foreword     A. Charles Muller
Translator’s Introduction   Harumi Hirano Ziegler

Fascicle Eight

Fascicle Nine

Fascicle Ten

Fascicle Eleven

Fascicle Twelve
     
Fascicle Thirteen

Fascicle Fourteen

For more information please see http://www.bdkamerica.org/book/collection-propagation-and-clarification-buddhism-vol-ii

Women in Imperial China

Author:
Bret Hinsch

Publisher:
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield

Publication Year:
2016

Abstract:
This accessible text provides a comprehensive survey of women’s history in China from the Neolithic period through the end of the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century. Rather than providing an exhaustive chronicle of this vast subject, Bret Hinsch pinpoints the themes that characterized distinct periods in Chinese women’s history and delves into the perception of female identity in each era. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the late imperial era, Hinsch explores how gender relations have developed and changed since ancient times. His chronological look at the most important female roles in every major dynasty showcases not only the constraints women faced but also their vast accomplishments throughout the millennia. Hinsch’s extensive use of Chinese-language scholarship lends his book a fresh perspective rare among Western scholars. Professors and students will find this an invaluable textbook for Chinese women’s studies and an excellent supplement for courses in gender studies and Chinese history.

Table of Contents:
Major Chinese Dynasties
Preface
Chapter 1: Ancient Beginnings: Prehistory, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties
Chapter 2: Womanhood under Empire: Qin and Han Dynasties
Chapter 3: Order Out of Chaos: The Early Medieval Era
Chapter 4: An Era of Effervescence: Tang Dynasty
Chapter 5: The Great Transition: Song Dynasty
Chapter 6: Explorations and Restraints: Ming Dynasty
Chapter 7: Pondering Possibilities: Qing Dynasty
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

[Dissertation] Divorce and the Divorced Woman in Early Medieval China (First through Sixth Century)

Author:
Tang Qiaomei

School:
Harvard University

Year:
2016

Abstract:

This dissertation consists of two parts: a cultural study of divorce in early medieval China and a literary study of the divorced woman as represented in various early medieval Chinese writings, including literary and historical writings, legal, ritual and medical texts, and tomb epitaphs. 

A comparison between the rites, norms and regulations prescribed for women in ritual classics, and women’s lived experiences as recounted in historical writings, shows a greater discrepancy between norm and practice in the early medieval period than in later periods. Normative prescriptions were generally not followed by women of this period, and women enjoyed a more relaxed social and familial environment than their late imperial counterparts. The gap between norm and practice was extended into many areas of familial and social life, including marriage and divorce. An examination of actual divorce cases reveals that neither the Seven Conditions (qichu 七出) nor the Three Prohibitions (sanbuqu 三不去) were strictly adhered to when divorce took place. Divorce happened to people from all levels of society, and could be initiated by both men and women for reasons outside of the Seven Conditions and the Three Prohibitions. Divorce was not regarded as a social taboo in early medieval China.

The unstable social and political environment that characterizes the early medieval period gave rise to some ritual deviations and anomalies, among which was the two-principal-wives (liangdi 兩嫡) phenomenon. Debates and discussions on this marital predicament anchored on the issue of divorce, that is, how should the martial status of the two wives be defined? A thorny
case of a sixth-century liangdi dilemma reveals that during the long divide between north and south, the contestation between wives for the principal wife status mirrored the contention for cultural supremacy and political legitimacy between northern and southern elite.

Generally speaking, divorced women were not stigmatized in early medieval China, and remarriage was an acceptable recourse for them. Historians appeared to be indifferent to her plight, and tended to write of the divorced woman only to help tell the story of the man who divorced her. In contrast, in poetic writings, the divorced woman was not viewed only in relation
to her ex-husband. She was instead a disconnected, isolated figure, and her emotions took center stage. This comparison reveals that the image of the divorced woman in early medieval China reflects both the mindset of the men who formulate her in writing, as well as the constraints imposed by each writing genre.

Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China

Author:
Xiaolong Wu

Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:
April 30, 2017

Abstract:

In this book, Xiaolong Wu offers a comprehensive and in-depth study of the Zhongshan state during China's Warring States Period (476–221 BCE). Analyzing artefacts, inscriptions, and grandiose funerary structures within a broad archaeological context, he illuminates the connections between power and identity, and the role of material culture in asserting and communicating both. The author brings an interdisciplinary approach to this study. He combines and cross-examines all available categories of evidence, including archaeological, textual, art historical, and epigraphical, enabling innovative interpretations and conclusions that challenge conventional views regarding Zhongshan and ethnicity in ancient China. Wu reveals the complex relationship between material culture, cultural identity, and statecraft intended by the royal patrons. He demonstrates that the Zhongshan king Cuo 嚳 constructed a hybrid cultural identity, consolidated his power, and aimed to maintain political order at court after his death through the buildings, sculpture, and inscriptions that he commissioned.

Table of Contents:

List of figures
List of maps
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Historical setting and approaches to the study of an ancient state in Warring 
    States China
2. Life, death, and identity in Zhongshan: sorting out the archaeological 
    evidence
3. Royal mortuary practice and artifacts: hybridity, identity, and power
4. Inter-state politics and artistic innovation during the reign of King Cuo 嚳
5. Statecraft and Zhongshan bronze inscriptions
6. Funerary architecture, kingly power, and court politics
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index.

東部ユーラシアのソグド人：ソグド人漢文墓誌の研究

Author: 
福島　恵 (FUKUSHIMA Megumi)

Publisher: 
汲古書院

Publication Date:
February, 2017

Table of Contents:

序　文

　第一部　墓誌から見たソグド人

第一章　ソグド姓墓誌の基礎的考察
　一、ソグド姓　　　　　　　　　　　　
　二、ソグド姓墓誌の分類
　三、ソグド姓とソグド人墓誌　　　　　
　四、世系の虚偽

第二章　ソグド人墓誌の時代層
　一、ソグド姓墓誌の収集と分析　　　　
　二、ソグド人墓誌数の変化
　三、ソグド人墓誌記載内容の変化 　　　
　四、ソグド人墓誌の時代性

　第二部　植民聚落のソグド人

第一章　長安・洛陽のソグド人
　一、ソグド人聚落　　　　　　　　　
　二、北周時代の長安におけるソグド人
　三、唐代の長安と洛陽のソグド人
　四、洛陽景教徒の石刻史料〔「洛陽景教経幢」・「花献墓誌」・「花献妻安氏墓誌」の出現〕
　
第二章　武威安氏「安元寿墓誌」（唐・光宅元年（六八四））
　一、「安元寿墓誌」訳注 　　　　　　　
　二、考　察
　
第三章　唐の中央アジア進出とソグド系武人―「史多墓誌」を中心に―
　一、「史多墓誌」訳注
　二、史多一族の中華王朝への帰属について

第四章　青海シルクロードのソグド人―「康令惲墓誌」に見る鄯州西平の康氏一族―
　一、康令惲墓誌 　　　
　二、康氏一族と吐蕃　　　
　三、康令惲と范陽

　第三部　東西交流中のソグド人
　
第一章　罽賓李氏一族攷―シルクロードのバクトリア商人―
　一、史料の解読　　　　　　　　　　　　
　二、罽賓李氏一族
　三、罽賓について　　　　　　　　　　　
　四、バクトリア人とソグド人との商業活動
　
第二章　唐代における景教徒墓誌―新出「花献墓誌」を中心に―
　一、唐における景教　　　　　　　　　　
　二、景教徒墓誌
　三、「花献墓誌」と「花献妻安氏墓誌」　
　四、洛陽における景教界
　おわりに　花献の出自について
　
第三章　東アジアの海を渡る唐代のソグド人　
　一、東アジア交易圏とソグド人　　　　　
　二、唐代におけるソグド人節度使 　　　
　三、康志睦と天長五年太政官符
　
結　語

初出一覧／史料版本目録／石刻資料目録／参考文献目録／あとがき／英文目次／中文目次／索引

The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy

Author:
Curie Virág

Publication Date:
March 2017

Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract:

In China, the debate over the moral status of emotions began around the fourth century BCE, when early philosophers first began to invoke psychological categories such as the mind (xin 心), human nature (xing 性), and emotions (qing 情) to explain the sources of ethical authority and the foundations of knowledge about the world. Although some thinkers during this period proposed that human emotions and desires were temporary physiological disturbances in the mind caused by the impact of things in the world, this was not the account that would eventually gain currency. The consensus among those thinkers who would come to be recognized as the foundational figures of the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions was that the emotions represented the underlying, dispositional constitution of a person, and that they embodied the patterned workings of the cosmos itself.

Curie Virág sets out to explain why the emotions were such a central preoccupation among early thinkers, situating the entire debate within developments in conceptions of the self, the cosmos, and the political order. She shows that the mainstream account of emotions as patterned reality emerged as part of a major conceptual shift towards the recognition of natural reality as intelligible, orderly, and coherent. The mainstream account of emotions helped to summon the very idea of the human being as a universal category and to establish the cognitive and practical agency of human beings. This book, the first intensive study of the subject, traces the genealogy of these early Chinese philosophical conceptions and examines their crucial role in the formation of ethical, political and cultural values in China.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. Emotions and the Integrated Self in the Analects of Confucius
2. Reasons to Care: Redefining the Human Community in Mozi
3. Cosmic Desire and Human Agency in the Daodejing
4. Human Nature and the Pattern of Moral Life in Mencius
5. The Multiple Valences of Emotions in the Zhuangzi
6. The Composite Self and the Fulfillment of Human Nature in Xunzi
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China

Editor:
Shaughnessy, Edward L.

Publisher:
Chinese University Press

Publication Date:
2017.3

Abstract:

Recent excavations of bronze artifacts from the Western Zhou dynasty (1046u771 B.C.) provide the focus for this collection of essays, which analyze the nature and patterns of lineages emerging from the tombs of ancient lords of states and historically significant individuals located throughout China, including Beijing, Shandong, Shanxi, and Gansu. The editor and his nine contributors provide detailed textual analyses of the inscriptions found on excavated bronze vessels. Their essays offer careful reconstructions of the genealogies, kinship structures, political identities, and relationship networks of leading court figures from Bronze-Age China. This rich scholarship makes important contributions to ancient Chinese archaeology by bringing to light archaeological evidence in support of new discoveries related to the chronology, warfare, and legal structure of the different realms that existed during the Western Zhou period.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Edward L. SHAUGHNESSY

The Language of the Bronze Inscriptions
Wolfgang BEHR

Shang Emblems in Their Archaeological Context
Olivier VENTURE

Inscribed Bronzes, Gift-giving and Social Networks 
in the Early Western Zhou: A Case Study of the Yan Cemetery at Liulihe
Yan SUN

The Tombs of the Rulers of Peng and Relationships between Zhou and Northern Non-Zhou Lineages (Until the Early Ninth Century B.C.)
Maria KHAYUTINA

Newest Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels, 2000–2010
Edward L. SHAUGHNESSY

On the Possibility That the Two Western Zhou States Yu and Rui Were Originally Located in the Jian River Valley
CH’EN Chao-jung

A Study of the Bronze Vessels and Sacrificial Remains of the Early Qin State from Lixian, Gansu
LI Feng

Genealogical Statements on Ritual Bronzes of the Spring and Autumn Period
Guolong LAI

Reflections on Literary and Devotional Aspects of Western Zhou Memorial Inscriptions
Robert ENO

Bibliography 287

Finding List of Bronze Vessels Cited 319

Index 331

[Dissertation] Images, Objects and Imperial Power in the Roman and Qin-Han Empires

Author:
Jack Carlson

School: 
University of Oxford

Year:
2015

Advisors:
Jessica Rawson & Roland Smith

Abstract:

How and why was imperial power made visually and physically manifest in two similar, contemporaneous megastates – the Roman Principate and Qin-Han China? Framing the Chinese and Roman material within such a question breaks it free from the web of expectations and assumptions in which conventional scholarship almost always situates it. It also builds upon the limited but promising work recently undertaken to study these two empires together in a comparative context. The purpose of this thesis is not to discover similarities and differences for their own sake; but, by discovering similarities and differences, to learn about the nature of imperial authority and prestige in each state. The comparative method compels us to appreciate the contingent – and sometimes frankly curious – nature of visual and artefactual phenomena that have traditionally been taken for granted; and both challenges and empowers us to access higher tier explanations and narratives.

Roman expressions of power in visual terms are more public, more historical- biographical, and more political, while Qin-Han images and objects related to imperial authority are generally more private, generic and ritual in their nature. The Roman material emphasizes the notional complicity of large groups of people – the imperial subjects who viewed, crafted and often commissioned these works – in maintaining and defining the emperor’s power. If the Han emperor's power was the product of complicity, it was the complicity of a small group of family members and courtiers – and of Heaven. These contrasting sets of power relationships connect to a concerted thematic focus, in the case of Rome, on the individual of the princeps; that is, the individual personage and particular achievements – especially military achievements – of the emperor. This focus is almost always taken for granted in Roman studies, but contrasts profoundly with the thematic disposition of Han artefacts of power: these reflect a concentrated disinterest in imperial personality altogether, emphasizing instead the imperial position; that is, both the office of emperor and a cosmic centrality.

While this thesis reveals some arresting contrasts, it also harnesses the dichotomous orientations of Roman and Chinese archaeology to reveal that the conventional understanding of much of this material can be misleading or problematic. Many of the differences in the ways such images are usually interpreted have as much to do with the idiosyncrasies and path dependency of two fields – in short as much to do with the modern viewer – as they do with the images themselves and the traditions that produced them.

The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China

Translator and Editor:
Yuri Pines

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Publication Date:
March 2017

Abstract:

Compiled in China in the fourth–third centuries B.C.E., The Book of Lord Shang argues for a new powerful government to penetrate society and turn every man into a diligent tiller and valiant soldier. Creating a "rich state and a strong army" will be the first step toward unification of "All-under-Heaven." These ideas served the state of Qin that eventually created the first imperial polity on Chinese soil. In this new translation, The Book of Lord Shang's intellectual boldness and surprisingly modern-looking ideas shine through, underscoring the text's vibrant contribution to global political thought.

The Book of Lord Shang is attributed to the political theorist Shang Yang 商鞅 and his followers. It epitomizes the ideology of China's so-called Legalist School of thought. In the ninety years since the work's previous translation, major breakthroughs in studies of the book's dating and context have recast our understanding of its messages. This edition applies these advances to a whole new reading of the text's content and function in the sociopolitical life of its times and subsequent centuries. This fully annotated translation is ideal for newcomers to the book while also guiding early Chinese scholars and comparatists in placing the work within a timeline of influence. It highlights the text's practical success and its impact on the political thought and political practice in traditional and modern China.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction
1. Shang Yang and His Times
2. The Text: History, Dating, Style
3. The Ideology of the Total State
4. The Text's Reception and Impact

Part II: The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjun shu 商君書)
Notes on Translation
1. Revising the Laws
2. Orders to Cultivate Wastelands
3. Agriculture and Warfare
4. Eliminating the Strong
    with 20. Weakening the People
    and 5. Explaining the People
6. Calculating the Land
7. Opening the Blocked
8. Speaking of the One
9. Implementing Laws
10. Methods of War
11. Establishing the Roots
12. Military Defense
13. Making Orders Strict
14. Cultivation of Authority
15. Attracting the People
16. Essentials of Punishments
17. Rewards and Punishments
18. Charting the Policies
19. Within the Borders
20. See chapter 4
21. Protecting from Robbers
22. External and Internal
23. Ruler and Ministers
24. Interdicting and Encouraging
25. Attention to Law
26. Fixing Divisions
Fragment of "Six Laws"
Notes
Bibliography
Index