Bone, Bronze, and Bamboo

Constance A. Cook is Professor of Chinese at Lehigh University, Christopher J. Foster is an independent scholar, and Susan Blader is Associate Professor Emerita of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College. Together they are also the coeditors of Myth and the Making of History: Narrating Early China with Sarah Allan and Metaphor and Meaning: Thinking through Early China with Sarah Allan, both published by SUNY Press.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments1. The Owl in Oracle-Bone Inscriptions and on Early Ritual BronzesWang Tao2. A Study of the Décor on a Shang Dynasty Architectural Object from the Site of Xiaoshuangqiao in ZhengzhouHan Ding3. Respecting Heaven and Sacrificing to the Ancestors: Social Order and Ritual Reflected in Early Western Zhou Bronze Drinking Vessel SetsLu Liancheng4. The Cheng Wang FangdingColin Mackenzie5. The Western Zhou Court and Hedong Salt Lake: Revelations from the Newly Excavated Ba Bo (Elder Ba) Bronze VesselsHan Wei6. Changing Ideas about De, the Lineage, and the Individual in Fifth- and Fourth-Century BCE China as Reflected in the Wenxian Covenant TextsCrispin Williams7. The Editing and Publication of Ancient Books Written on Bamboo and SilkLi Ling8. The Philological Value of the Tsinghua Bamboo-Slip ManuscriptsZhao Pingan and Wang Tingbin9. A Brief Look at the Shanghai Museum Manuscript "The State of Lu Suffered a Great Drought"Scott Cool10. An Introduction and Preliminary Translation of the Jiaonü (Instructions for Daughters), a Qin Bamboo TextAnne Behnke Kinney11. The Shape of the Text: Gu Prisms and Han PrimersChristopher J. Foster12. Sanjiaowei M1: Hand Tools from the Grave of a Hobbyist Woodworker?Charles SanftAfterword. Wandering Mt. Song, Chatting in Friendship: Exploring Mt. Song in Oracle-Bone InscriptionsQi WenxinList of ContributorsIndex

"Throughout the book, the reader is exposed to the richness of early Chinese artifacts, in a digestible and clear format … Besides writings on bones, bronzes, and bamboo strips, it discusses covenants and silk manuscripts, as well as artifacts that bear no writing but are equally informative of the people and environments in which they were produced." — H-Net Reviews (H-Asia)"This volume is a tribute to Sarah Allan's enduring influence and a substantive contribution to early China studies. Grounded in newly excavated materials and diverse disciplinary approaches, its essays illuminate key developments in ancient Chinese religion, ritual, textuality, and intellectual history." — Religious Studies Review"…offer[s] much valuable information and may be warmly recommended to readers with a serious interest in Early China." — Journal of Chinese History"For someone with an appetite for information about early China, this volume is a delectable repast. True to its title, it offers an immense number of insights into Chinese written materials found on oracle bones, bronze inscriptions, and books composed of wooden and bamboo slats. There is no work I know of that is its equivalent." —Keith Knapp, The Citadel