<p>This book explores the roles of agricultural development and advancing social complexity in the processes of state formation in China. Over a period of about 10,000 years, it follows evolutionary trajectories of society from the last Paleolithic hunting-gathering groups, through Neolithic farming villages, and on to the Bronze Age Shang dynasty in the latter half of the second millennium BC. Li Liu and Xingcan Chen demonstrate that sociopolitical evolution was multicentric and shaped by inter-polity factionalism and competition, as well as by the many material technologies introduced from other parts of the world. The book illustrates how ancient Chinese societies were transformed during this period from simple to complex, tribal to urban, and preliterate to literate.</p>

The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age (Cambridge World Archaeology)

History

Chen, Xingcan

劉俐

Ancient Civilizations

Cambridge University Press

<p>A study that makes use of an interdisciplinary approach to challenge traditional theories of state formation in China and promote debate on early Chinese history. Analyzing data from archaeology, geology, cultural geography, ethnohistory and ancient texts, the authors show how the procurement of key external resources - especially metal and salt - drove the dynamics of state formation in early China in the period of 1800-1400BC.</p>

State Formation in Early China (Debates in Archaeology)

Bristol Classical Press

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Books by Chen, Xingcan