A Brief History of Ancient China
By Edward L. Shaughnessy
ISBN: 978-1350170377
Bloomsbury Publishing (2023) - £28.99
While a huge amount of literature exists on ancient China, from studies based on traditional histories to specific texts and archaeological discoveries, very little of it is geared towards a general audience. This book stands out as a broad-based study suitable for readers unfamiliar with Chinese history.
‘Ancient China’ here encompasses the historical period from the Shang kingdom (ca. 1600–1046 BC) to the fall of the Qin (206 BC), a period of diverse polities and cultural traditions evolving across the area now known as China. Prior to the publication of this book, general readers would have had to delve into substantially more academic works to obtain a good overview of this period, or content themselves with cursory summaries in popular histories of China covering the earliest times to the present.
Shaughnessy’s book is broad in scope – he is covering almost fifteen-hundredform the basis of historical knowledge of the period, along with recentlydiscovered manuscripts and other archaeological evidence. This includes extended discussion of the relationship between ancient Chinese myths of founding sage-emperors and other cultural heroes such as Yu the Great, renowned for taming the Yellow River, and historical evidence. The book opens with a short chapter on the mythic figures of Yao and Shun, with whom traditional histories of China begin. The second chapter presents an account of the semi-mythic Xia dynasty, noting corresponding archaeological evidence. This interweaving of perspectives and different sources is a positive thread throughout the book.
