Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:09:40.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Academic freedom, political correctness, and early civilisation in Chinese archaeology: the debate on Xia-Erlitou relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Li Liu
Li Liu*
Affiliation:
*Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia (Email: l.liu@latrobe.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The interpretation of archaeology is inevitably affected by the social, cultural and intellectual background of researchers. This is certainly the situation in the study of early Chinese civilisations and their material remains, particularly in regard to the Erlitou culture in the middle Yellow River region in China (c. 1900-1500 BC). The spatial and temporal definitions of the Erlitou culture are partially coincident with those of the Xia dynasty as recorded in ancient texts. The type-site of Erlitou, in Yanshi, Henan province, has revealed much evidence indicating the development of a large and complex political centre there. But the historical or dynastic affiliation of the Erlitou site/culture has generated much debate among archaeologists and historians in recent years. A general tendency in the debate, as seen in publications, is that most Chinese archaeologists and historians believe that the Erlitou site represents the material culture of an early dynasty, Xia or Shang, while most scholars in the West have reservations regarding such interpretations (Liu & Chen 2003: 26-35; Liu 2004: 223-38; Liu & Xu 2007).

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 321 , September 2009 , pp. 831 - 843
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allan, S. 1984. The myth of the Xia Dynasty. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 242–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allan, S. 1991. The shape of the turtle: myth, art and cosmos in early China (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture). Albany (NY): State University of New York.Google Scholar
Allan, S. 2007. Erlitou and the formation of Chinese civilisation: toward a new paradigm. The Journal of Asian Studies 66: 461–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagley, R. 1999. Shang archaeology, in Loewe, M. & Shaughnessy, E. (ed.) The Cambridge history of ancient China: 124–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, K.-C. 1999. China on the eve of the historical period, in Loewe, M. & Shaughnessy, E. (ed.) The Cambridge history of ancient China: from the origins of civilisation to 221 BC: 37–73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs-Johnson, E. 1995. Symbolic jades of the Erlitou period: a Xia royal tradition. Archives of Asian Art 48: 64–90.Google Scholar
Du, J. & Xu, H. (ed.) 2005. Yanshi Erlitou Yizhi Yanjiu (Research on the Erlitou site in Yanshi). Beijing: Kexue Press.Google Scholar
Du, J. & Xu, H. (ed.) 2006. Erlitou Yizhi yu Erlitou Wenhua Yanjiu (Research on the Erlitou site and Erlitou culture). Beijing: Kexue Press.Google Scholar
Du, Z. 1991. Xiadai kaogu jiqi guojia fazhan de tansuo (Archaeology of the Xia dynasty and the development of state). Kaogu 1: 43–56.Google Scholar
Falkenhausen, L. V. 2007. The Chinese Neolithic: trajectories to early states by Li Liu. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 67 (1): 178–93.Google Scholar
Gao, W., Yang, X., Wang, W. & Du, J.. 1998. Yanshi Shangcheng yu Xia Shang wenhua fenjie (The Yanshi Shang city and the demarcation between the Xia and Shang cultures). Kaogu 10: 66–79.Google Scholar
Institute of Archaeology, China. 1994. Yinxu de Faxian yu Yanjiu (Discovery and research of Yinxu). Beijing: Kexue Press.Google Scholar
Gao, W., Yang, X., Wang, W. & Du, J.. 2000. Anyang Xiaotun. Beijing: Shejie Tushu Press.Google Scholar
Gao, W., Yang, X., Wang, W. & Du, J.. 2003. Zhongguo Kaoguxue: Xia Shang Juan (Chinese Archaeology: the Xia and Shang volume). Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Press.Google Scholar
Jiang, Z. 1999, Nuli kaichuang shehuizhuyi jingshen wenming jianshe de xinjumian (Strive to create a new situation in building socialist spiritual civilisation), in Shisida Yilai Zhongyao Wenjian Xuanbian (Selected important documents since the Fourteenth Congress). Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Keightley, D. 1978. The bamboo annals and Shang-Chou chronology. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 38 (2): 423–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, C. 1977. Anyang. Seattle (WA): University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Li, X. (ed.) 1997. Zhongguo Gudai Wenming yu Guojia Xingcheng Yanjiu. Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Press.Google Scholar
Linduff, K. M. 1998. The emergence and demise of bronze-producing cultures outside the Central Plain of China, in Mair, V. H. (ed.) The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age peoples of Eastern Central Asia: 619–646. Washington (D. C.): Institute for the Study of Man.Google Scholar
Liu, L. 2004. The Chinese Neolithic: trajectories to early states. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, L. & Chen, X.. 2003. State formation in early China. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Liu, L. & Xu, H.. 2007. Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 81: 886–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, R. 1992. A short history of the term politically correct, in Aufderheide, P. (ed.) Beyond PC: toward a politics of understanding: 71–96. Saint Paul (MN): Graywolf Press.Google Scholar
Railey, J. 1999. Neolithic to Early Bronze Age sociopolitical evolution in the Yuanqu Basin, North-Central China. PhD dissertation, Washington University, Saint Louis.Google Scholar
Song, X. 1991. Yin Shang Wenhua Quyu Yanjiu. Xi'an: Shaanxi Renmin Press.Google Scholar
Thorp, R. L. 1991. Erlitou and the search for the Xia. Early China 16: 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorp, R. L. 2006. China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang civilisation. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, G. 1959. Yin buci zhong suojian xiangong xianwang kao (On the kinglist occurring in the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions), in Wang, G. (ed.) Guantang Jilin Vol 9. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Wang, G. 1994. Gushi Xinzheng (New proofs of ancient texts). Beijing: Qinghua Daxue Press.Google Scholar
Wang, L. 1998. Zao Shang Wenhua Yanjiu (On the early Shang culture). Beijing: Gaodeng Jiaoyu Press.Google Scholar
Xu, H. & Liu, L.. 2008. Guanyu Erlitou yizhi de shengsi (Rethinking the Erlitou site). Wenwu 1: 43–52.Google Scholar
Xu, X. 1959. 1959 nian xia Yuxi diaocha ‘Xiaxu’ de chubu baogao (Preliminary report of the surveys in the Ruins of Xia in 1959). Kaogu 11: 592–600.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 1987. Lun Erlitou yizhi wei Xiadai wanqi duyi (On the Erlitou site as a capital of the late Xia dynasty). Huaxia Kaogu 2: 196-204, 217.Google Scholar
Zou, H. 1980. Xia Shang Zhou Kaogu Lunwenji (Essays on the archaeology of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties). Beijing: Wenwu Press.Google Scholar