Author:
Brian Lander
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Publication date:
November 30, 2021
Abstract:
This book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the formation of lowland North China’s agricultural systems and the transformation of its plains from diverse forestland and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China, and elsewhere, was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin, Lander amalgamates abundant new scientific, archaeological, and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the central Yellow River region, and the rest of the planet, was made possible by the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. The Nature of Political Power
2. Seeds of Life: How People Came to Build Their Own Ecosystems
3. Herding People: The Rise of Political Organizations in China
4. The Power in the West: A History of the State of Qin
5. Watching Over the Granaries: The Ecology of the Qin Empire
6. A Hundred Generations: How China's Empires Shaped Their Environments
Epilogue: States of the Anthropocene
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