Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China

by Xiaolong Wu

Overview

In this book, Xiaolong Wu offers a comprehensive and in-depth study of the Zhongshan state during China's Warring States Period (476–221 BCE). Analyzing artefacts, inscriptions, and grandiose funerary structures within a broad archaeological context, he illuminates the connections between power and identity, and the role of material culture in asserting and communicating both. The author brings an interdisciplinary approach to this study. He combines and cross-examines all available categories of evidence, including archaeological, textual, art historical, and epigraphical, enabling innovative interpretations and conclusions that challenge conventional views regarding Zhongshan and ethnicity in ancient China. Wu reveals the complex relationship between material culture, cultural identity, and statecraft intended by the royal patrons. He demonstrates that the Zhongshan king Cuo constructed a hybrid cultural identity, consolidated his power, and aimed to maintain political order at court after his death through the buildings, sculpture, and inscriptions that he commissioned.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107134027
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/09/2017
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	7.28(w) x 10.24(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Xiaolong Wu is Associate Professor of Art History at Hanover College, Indiana. He received his BA in Chinese archaeology from Beijing University and his PhD in Art History from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interest focuses on the material culture of late Bronze Age China and its interactions with the Eurasian Steppe, and issues related to ethnicity, hybridity, agency, and political power.

Table of Contents

List of figures; List of maps; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Historical setting and approaches to the study of an ancient state in Warring States China; 2. Life, death, and identity in Zhongshan: sorting out the archaeological evidence; 3. Royal mortuary practice and artifacts: hybridity, identity, and power; 4. Inter-state politics and artistic innovation during the reign of King Cuo; 5. Statecraft and Zhongshan bronze inscriptions; 6. Funerary architecture, kingly power, and court politics; Conclusion; Appendixes; Bibliography; Index.