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Shang civilization
The Shang Dynasty 1523-1027 BC The Shang is the earliest Chinese dynasty for which we have written evidence.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 21, 2014
I recently finished K.C. Chang's book Shang Civilization written in 1978 it seems a little out of date now, being over 25 years old but it was still an admirable work. Chang tried to take all the scholarship done so far in all areas of Shang studies and combine them in one easily accessible format. Being an archaeologist the large part of the book was on archaeological work, but he combined this with, oracle bone studies, bronze inscriptions, and a little literary history. He used more Chinese sources than anything else and therefore was exceedingly useful to look at the state of Chinese scholarship as well as Japanese and western works written on the Shang.
The book spent a great deal of time looking at the archaeological works on An yang. Having read several books about the Shang I was surprised by the huge amount of human sacrifice and skeletons they had found. Usually human sacrifice in the Shang gets pleasantly referred to as "accompanier's in death". The idea of a nobles household going with them to the grave. However there were many many descriptions of sacrifices to go under buildings, sacrifices for rituals, as well as in burials. The other most interesting thing was the seemingly much greater role of the consort in Shang society. A woman married to the ruler was in charge of her own area of land/township, she was also a military leader, leading troops into battle, and was a ritual specialist, leading rituals and participating in them! How seemingly egalitarian all three areas usually confined to men, ritual/religion, military, and governing/property were held by the Fu-consorts. That's so interesting I hope it's not been disproved in the past 25 years! Still there were some pretty direct translations from the oracle bones that would make it seem hard to dispute. Another interesting aspect he touched on was the difference in written language formation between China and Mesopotamia. He mentioned how there it was a case of economic need bringing written notation however in China written language started as a social need. It was used early on in pottery that was showing the owners position in society. And was later used to delineate familial ties, and lineages, clans etc and religious purposes. Very little on early economic uses survives.
The book spent a great deal of time on issues which I found not so enthralling however. But the detail was probably good information to have. Chang spent a lot of time trying to figure out exact time lines for different periods and kings. He also spent time on the natural and economic resources which were not so interesting to me. What surprised me the most was he spent very little time on the culture or religion of the Shang. Almost a year ago now I read his book Art, Myth and Religion in Ancient China this book dealt almost exclusively with religion and life in bronze age china, the so called three dynasties period. That book seemed to have been written from a more historical point of view and contained interesting and controversial theories, but gave much more a sense of the life of the people.My review of that work can be found here http://www.livejournal.com/users/robo.... The Shang book gave a very good sense of the death, and burial of the people. Something interesting in itself, just not as interesting to me. Though I do love descriptions of burials and sacrifice I always want to know the why behind them.
I did enjoy this book, though probably not as much as the first book on the three dynasties I read. It's fun to take a break and look at very early Chinese history for a change. Though reading this book I'm glad I decided not to include it as part of my masters as it just seems to have too many boring parts! I fear I'm just too much of a social historian. Politics and economics just don't really do it for me. But still this was a great look into the state of the field at the time, especially due to the rich footnotes for the Chinese language studies that had been done.
The book spent a great deal of time looking at the archaeological works on An yang. Having read several books about the Shang I was surprised by the huge amount of human sacrifice and skeletons they had found. Usually human sacrifice in the Shang gets pleasantly referred to as "accompanier's in death". The idea of a nobles household going with them to the grave. However there were many many descriptions of sacrifices to go under buildings, sacrifices for rituals, as well as in burials. The other most interesting thing was the seemingly much greater role of the consort in Shang society. A woman married to the ruler was in charge of her own area of land/township, she was also a military leader, leading troops into battle, and was a ritual specialist, leading rituals and participating in them! How seemingly egalitarian all three areas usually confined to men, ritual/religion, military, and governing/property were held by the Fu-consorts. That's so interesting I hope it's not been disproved in the past 25 years! Still there were some pretty direct translations from the oracle bones that would make it seem hard to dispute. Another interesting aspect he touched on was the difference in written language formation between China and Mesopotamia. He mentioned how there it was a case of economic need bringing written notation however in China written language started as a social need. It was used early on in pottery that was showing the owners position in society. And was later used to delineate familial ties, and lineages, clans etc and religious purposes. Very little on early economic uses survives.
The book spent a great deal of time on issues which I found not so enthralling however. But the detail was probably good information to have. Chang spent a lot of time trying to figure out exact time lines for different periods and kings. He also spent time on the natural and economic resources which were not so interesting to me. What surprised me the most was he spent very little time on the culture or religion of the Shang. Almost a year ago now I read his book Art, Myth and Religion in Ancient China this book dealt almost exclusively with religion and life in bronze age china, the so called three dynasties period. That book seemed to have been written from a more historical point of view and contained interesting and controversial theories, but gave much more a sense of the life of the people.My review of that work can be found here http://www.livejournal.com/users/robo.... The Shang book gave a very good sense of the death, and burial of the people. Something interesting in itself, just not as interesting to me. Though I do love descriptions of burials and sacrifice I always want to know the why behind them.
I did enjoy this book, though probably not as much as the first book on the three dynasties I read. It's fun to take a break and look at very early Chinese history for a change. Though reading this book I'm glad I decided not to include it as part of my masters as it just seems to have too many boring parts! I fear I'm just too much of a social historian. Politics and economics just don't really do it for me. But still this was a great look into the state of the field at the time, especially due to the rich footnotes for the Chinese language studies that had been done.
June 18, 2020
The ranking of this book is more a reflection of my knowledge or the lack there of than a critique of the book. I simply do not at this time have a strong enough foundation in Chinese history to be able to read this book.
July 2, 2019
Archaeology is difficult and the Shang period is difficult to unravel.
November 27, 2022
非常严谨的学术作品，有一份证据说一分话，可信可靠。
March 17, 2021
Not very interesting.
First of all, not much about culture but mostly archeological data with superficial interpretation, maybe the book aims to be objective and stay with facts, but that makes it boring.
Secondly, the translation is bad. The readable parts are those originally in Chinese, either historical records or other contemporary correspondence. The main part was translated from English to Chinese in a rather awkward way. The structure of sentences is not converted into the Chinese way, so there are lots of writings that just look like Chinese. Difficult to read and no fluency.
Disappointing.
3 stars mainly for the photos and other illustrations in the book.
First of all, not much about culture but mostly archeological data with superficial interpretation, maybe the book aims to be objective and stay with facts, but that makes it boring.
Secondly, the translation is bad. The readable parts are those originally in Chinese, either historical records or other contemporary correspondence. The main part was translated from English to Chinese in a rather awkward way. The structure of sentences is not converted into the Chinese way, so there are lots of writings that just look like Chinese. Difficult to read and no fluency.
Disappointing.
3 stars mainly for the photos and other illustrations in the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews