Writing And The Ancient State by Haicheng Wang
Early China in Comparative Perspective
A comparative study of early China that shows how the material practices of writing—on oracle bones, bronze vessels, and stone—forged political authority, structured ritual and memory, and enabled administration from the Shang and Zhou to the Qin-Han empires. It argues that the visual display and performative contexts of script were as critical as information storage, and uses archaeological, epigraphic, and art-historical evidence to trace shifts from ritual inscriptions to standardized imperial texts while setting these developments alongside Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica to reveal both shared patterns and distinctive trajectories in the coevolution of literacy, monumentality, and state power.
- Published
- 2014
- Nationality
- Unknown
- Length
- Moderate
- Pages
- 400-500
- Original Language
- English
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- Alternate Titles
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