Chapter 3 focuses on the emergence of the coastal paramount center at Liangzhu and its associated lowland network of mound centers during the early third millennium BCE. As the pinnacle of Neolithic political development, this coastal development ushered in some of the core symbols for political representation in early China, which eventually worked their way into the Sandai political tradition after its collapse in the late third millennium BCE. This presents a dramatically different pattern from the defining attributes of the classical tradition, thus serving as a baseline for investigating the political changes leading up to the rise of the Sandai Bronze Age civilization in the region later known as the Central Plains--the contrast offers critical insight on the nature and structure of change in the centuries to come.