A leading scholar in the United States on Chinese archaeology challenges long-standing conceptions of the rise of political authority in ancient China. Questioning Marx's concept of an "Asiatic" mode of production, Wittfogel's "hydraulic hypothesis," and cultural-materialist theories on the importance of technology, K. C. Chang builds an impressive counterargument, one which ranges widely from recent archaeological discoveries to studies of mythology, ancient Chinese poetry, and the iconography of Shang food vessels.

'This volume comprises nine articles that fall into three categories: general survey of Chinese archaeology as well as the author's visit to Tom Harrison's field work in Sarawak in 1966; field reports on archaeological sites in Fujian and Sichuan; and archaeological investigations in Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Fujian.

For more than forty years William Watson has occupied a unique place in the study and teaching of Chinese art in Great Britain. Professor Watson's publications cover a wide field, his command of Chinese, Japanese, Russian and western languages giving access to the fullest literature on his subjects. The colloquies he organized at the Percival David Foundation achieved international repute, with results that remain on record. At the Royal Academy of Arts he took a leading part in the Chinese archaeological exhibition of 1972 which reinstated cultural relations between Britain and China. Also at the Royal Academy he was the instigator and chief organizer of the Japanese exhibition of 1982, in which for the first time the art of the Tokugawa period was comprehensively presented outside of Japan as enshrining the national genius. The present two volumes collect Professor Watson's main smaller publications made in the course of museum and university careers. Many are specific studies of works in terms of cultural context, dating and historical significance. They contain mainly writing on Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects, in particular the bronze art, ceramics and sculpture of the T'ang and earlier periods. Painting is treated in some closely defined topics. Vol II Contents: Preface Styles of Mahayanist Iconography in China On Some Categories of Archaism in Chinese Bronze Realistic Style in the Art of Han and T'ang China Divisions of T'ang Decorative Style Nara-e-hon The Chinese Chariot: an Insider's View Kak Charoen and the Early Metal Age of Central Thailand Tao-chi and the Dialectic of Landscape The City in Ancient China Landscape Elements in the Early Buddhist Art of China The Progress of Archaeology in China The Individuality of the Honan Tradition in the Shang Period Categories of Post-Yuan Decorative Bronzes Iran and China The Interpenetration of Opposites? Pre-Han Bronze metallurgy in West China Textile Decoration in the Edo Period and its Further Implication The Sources and Development of Style in pre-Han and Han Lacquer Ornament Precious Metal - its Influence on T'ang Earthenware Chinese Style in the Paintings of the Istanbul Albums

"This pioneering study examines art objects and texts excavated from tombs in what was once the state of Chu, in south China, dating from the Warring States period (ca. 480-221 BCE) to the beginning of the imperial era (3rd century BCE to 1st century CE) to explore critical changes in religious beliefs and practices concerning the dead and the afterlife."

Erligang bronzes and the discovery of the Erligang culture / Robert Bagley -- Erligang : a perspective from Panlongcheng / Zhang Changping -- China's first empire? : interpreting the material record of the Erligang expansion / Wang Haicheng -- Civilizations and empires : a perspective on Erligang from early Egypt / John Baines -- Erligang : a tale of two "civilizations" / Roderick Campbell -- The politics of maps, pottery, and archaeology : hidden assumptions in Chinese Bronze Age archaeology / Yung-ti Li -- Erligang and the southern bronze industries / Kyle Steinke -- Erligang contacts south of the Yangzi River : the expansion of interaction networks in early Bronze Age Hunan / Robin McNeal -- Bronzes and the history of Chinese art / Maggie Bickford.

This book is the first in a major three-volume series that will survey China's immense wealth of art, architecture, and artifacts from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. The Arts of China to A.D. 900 investigates the beginnings of the traditions on which much of the art rests, moving from Neolithic and Bronze Age China to the era of the Tang Dynasty around A.D. 900. William Watson discusses in lively detail a wide range of art forms and techniques: porcelain and pottery, lacquer, religious and secular painting and sculpture, mural painting, monumental sculpture and architecture. He explains the materials and techniques of bronze casting, jade carving, pottery manufacture, and other arts, and he describes the most important sites, the artifacts that were produced at each one, and the historical interactions between different areas. He discusses the iconography, the technique and the function of every art form. Written by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Chinese art and archaeology, this lavishly illustrated book will be a valuable resource for both experts and beginners in the field.