From the Neolithic to the Kingdoms of the Bronze Age - An Overview Part of the "An Introduction to Chinese History" series, originally written for http://www.asian-center.net and http://asian-center.blogspot.com/, x-posted at 日本会館 - House of Japan, Heijo District, Nara For a long time, it was believed in Western countries that the Chinese civilization wasn't indigenous but really daughter of the Near and Middle East, with technologies trickling eastwards through Central Asia over the centuries. As the many archaeological discoveries in the 20th century have revealed, however, China as we know it today is the heir to a civilization born in the valleys of the Yellow and Yangzi rivers as well as in the North. That is not to say that exchanges did not take place during the Neolithic and then later in historical times, but that these would not have played the role in the onset of the development of China they were once believed to have. As that northeast civilization would spread towards the rest of the territory that was to become united under one ruler in 221 BC, it destroyed local cultures and their kingdoms, like that of the Chu, which had absorbed elements of greatly different cultures [1]. Evidence of this diversity, however, still survives in modern China So, where does the Chinese Civilization come from? The outlines of the beginnings of Chinese Neolithic remain, to this day, quite fuzzy, although one thing of which we're sure is that it did not develop uniformely, but was the result of development in several centres probably heirs to the Paleolithic times. It seems that, around 8,000 BC, a Neolithic way of life, that is based on agriculture, started to replace which that, until then, had mainly relied on hunting, fishing and gathering. Our knowledge of the following millenia, from 6,500 BC onwards, beneficiates from a much more substential amount of material finds. In particular, the middle reaches of the Yellow river in the Shanxi province (Northwest China) revealed a rich stone and bone toolkit and a well-developped agriculture centering on millet as well as the domestication of the dog, pork and probably also chicken. The pottery is still fairly crude throughout China, although regional variations are already strongly present; surprisingly, recent finds have shown that the oldest examples, which were often cord-patterned, could be found in Southern China - surprising because it is the Yellow/Yangzi river and Northern area that is considered the craddle of Chinese civilization. This indicates that Southern China too was home to a striving Neolithic culture From 5,000 BC to the beginning of the Bronze Age, the following cultures stand out: The Yangshao culture dominated the region of the central Yellow River for two millenia (5,000 to 3,000 BC circa). Hundreds of sites have been discovered in this region. People lived both from agriculture/animal husbandry and hunting-gathering; tools were highly specialized. The Yangshao pottery was usually either cordmarked or painted, sometimes representing stylized fishes or using geometrical patterns. The Yangshao culture may also be the oldest to have used silk [2] The Dawenkou culture centered on the Shangdou (Eastern Coast) of China was contemporary with the Yangshao culture, although it didn't last nearly as long (4,700 - 3,600 BC [3] - it would be prolonged, however, by the Longshan culture until 2,000 BC). It distinguishes itself with a more elaborate pottery, be it in terms of shape or decoration; it also appears that a selection of clay was taking place. Over time, it seems that a process of society stratification took place Four different cultures have emerged from the results of various archaeological excavations which have taken place in the middle and lower Yangzi area; these are roughly contemporary with the Yangshao and Dawenkou cultures. They distinguish themselves primarily from the fact that it was rice, and not millet, which served as the main staple food; tools were also made of wood and bone, instead of the stone and bone which were more familiar in the north Contemporary cultures are also being discovered in the South (Fujian, Gunagdong and Taiwan) but little is known about them so far The 4th and 3rd millenia BC (and in particular the Dawenkou-Longshan cultures) paved the way to the Bronze Age and its first kingdoms. The emphasis on the Dawenkou-Longshan cultural continuous particularly makes sense if we consider the geographic situation of these cultures compared to the Shang capitals: indeed, it is said in historical records that the first dynasties kept moving their capitals westward. As it happens the heart of the Dawenkou-Longshan cultures can be found slightly east of the first known Shang capitals. Moreover, several characteritics developped by these early cultures, such as the use of rammed/stamped earth, the building of fortifications around settlements, the use of oracle-bones for divination and specific pottery shapes (which seem to have passed down from Longshan ceramics to Shang bronze vessels) are present in these early bronze kingdoms as well. Also, as the populations increased, exchanges between them multiplied, leading to a homogenisation of cultures Bronze appears later in China than in the Middle East. While it cannot be said for sure that the technic of bronze wasn't imported from the Western half of the Eurasian continent, it seems more likely that it was developped locally. There is currently dispute over the length of the Bronze Age in China, as iron was introduced fairly early (compared to the beginnings of bronze) while bronze continued to be widely in use even after iron had been introduced Traditionally, the Early Dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou are said to last from 2,207 to 256 BC; however, there is currently great disagreement about the exact dates, which is not helped by the fact that there has been no indisputed material evidence of a Xia Dynasty (trad. 2,207 to 1,766 BC) discovered so far. On the other hand, while our knowledge of the Shang Dynasty was, for a long while, limited to the evidence unearthed near Anyang (the site of a Shang capital, now one of the most important archaeological sites of China), further research in the second half of the 20th century has revealed the sites of two earlier capitals, as well as many other related sites such as necropoles and settlements. Together, data suggested they cover a period going roughly from 1,700 to 1,050 BC which somewhat corresponds to the traditional dates assigned to the Shang period (1,766 to 1,122 BC). The image that emerges from these finds are that of a civilization already well advanced, in particular in terms of writing (the oracle-bones of the Shang Dynasty represent the earliest undisputed example of Chinese writing and contained the earliest Chinese historical records known to us), architecture, divination and pottery/bronze vessels (their diversity and decorations); the chariot is also in use. As far as some of these technics are concerned, we do not have a clear idea of how they have been developped over time to reach the level of mastery displayed during the Shang period. Early on, the only items that are made of cast bronze are limited to weapons, chariots pieces and ceremonial vessels. At the end of the Shang period, bronze vessels' decors had reached a high level of sophistication and complexity, and their forms were greatly varied. In particular, one should note that stylized animal representation becomes one of the trademarks not only of Shang Bronze, but of the Bronze period at large in Eastern Asia Most of the material finds and inscriptions dating back to the Shang period gives us a glimpse of the life of nobility, who lived in city-palaces surrounded by rammed earth walls, and lived a life of ceremonials (the bronze vessels, the apparent importance of divination, in particular compared to the subsequent Zhou period) and wars (the charriot, which seemed to have been more of a symbol of power and prestige than a real asset in battle, at least in the early days), with the king at the top of the social organization. The religious, military and administrative powers were all mingled in his hands. Very little is known of the everyday life of peasants, which may not have changed much compared to that of their neolithic forefathers. At any rate, the high stratification of the society is made evident both by the magnificent tombs used for an elite and the use of mass labor (the only way works such as the walls of the capital at Zhengzhou may have been raised) Recent research has showed that the Shang civilization reached beyond the Yellow river and as far as the Yangzi valley and the Liaoning in the northeast. However, it was coexisting on that very territory with several other ethnies, considered by the Shangs as "barbarians" and with whom they were in turn allied to and fighting against. Furthermore, excavations in 1986 in Sichuan, as well as in Jianxi in 1970 to 1989, have revealed two civilizations of the bronze age clearly independant from the Shang civilization: we must therefore speak of bronze civilizations as far as China is concerned Main sources Gernet, Jacques, "Le Monde Chinois: De l'Age du Bronze au Moyen Age (Tome 1)", Pocket Agora, Paris, 2006 Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle, "China, A New History, Second Enlarged Edition", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006 Notes [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Chu [2] http://chinesehistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_of_silk [3] Dates given in Gernet. Other sources tend to date this period from circa 4,300 to 2,500 BC