Ancient China

03 Oct 1994 12:00

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Through, let us say, the Tang dynasty, though perhaps that should be counted as medieval rather than ancient.

Bronzes are a particular obsession of mine.

See also: Chinese History generally; Chinese Philosophy of the Warring States Period

Recommended:
• Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology
• Derk Bodde, Chinese Thought, Society, and Science: The Intellectual and Social Background of Science and Technology in Pre-modern China
• Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past
• A. C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao
• Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China
• G. E. R. Lloyd
  • Cognitive Variations: Reflections on the Unity and Diversity of the Human Mind
  • Demystifying Mentalities
• Edward H. Schafer, The Vermillion Bird: T'ang Images of the South [Beautifully written study of what the Chinese took from the countries to the south of them, and vice versa.]

Not altogether recommended:
• Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China

To read:
• Marc S. Abramson, Ethnic Identity in Tang China
• Bannett, Wandering Knights
• Anne Birrell
  • The Classic of Mountains and Seas
  • Popular Songs of the Han Dynasty
• The Confucian Invention of Heaven
• The Classic of Mountains and Seas [Trans. Birrell]
• Han Fei Tzu.
• Hsün Tzu
• Victoria Tin-Bor Hui, War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe
• Mark Edward Lewis
  • The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
  • China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynaty
• Li Feng, Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045--771 BC
• Cecilia Lindqvist, China: Empire of Living Symbols ["Uses the archaeological discoveries of the past few decades to trace the origins of basic characters of Chinese written language, considers the `oracle bones', Shang dynasty bronzes and the natural features of langscape to show how characters evolved as symbols"]
• G. E. R. Lloyd
  • Adversaries and Authorities
  • The Ambitions of Curiosity: Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China
  • The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece
• Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China
• Scott Pearce, Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey, Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm, 200--600
• Mu-Chou Poo, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion
• Michael J. Puett, To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China
• Ross, Oracle Bones
• Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics
• Steven Shankman
  • Early China/Ancient Greece: Thinking Through Comparisons
  • The Siren and the Sage: Knowledge and Wisdom in Ancient Greece and China
• Swann, Food and Money in Ancient China