Exploring Ancient Chinese Cultural System - Using artefacts as a research method

This book is a masterpiece in the field of archaeology and ancient Chinese culture studies. It develops a deep understanding of agriculture, economic, religious, and military lives in ancient China. This book introduces an integrated methodology to the domain of Chinese archaeology, and the adopted "double evidence method" and "multiple evidence method" are of great value for the exploration of ancient Chinese social structures and literacy development. The data and evidence used in the book include historical documents, ancient antiques, rare inscriptions, and ancient scripts. It can serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers in the field of ancient Chinese culture and civilization.

List of contents

Study on plows and hoes.- The Yin people used elephants as slaves and the elephants migrated south.- Study on ancient hunting images.- The origin of archery and crossbows and the study of these names and objects.- Study on the origin of ancient irrigation projects.- A study of Zunyi.- The identification of ancient bronzes.- The art of bronzes.- Shu brocade - satin was originally produced in Shu and imported from Shu to the south of the Yangtze River during the Six Dynasties.- Study on the custom of knotting ropes.- Study on ancient jade.- Study on the custom of cave dwelling in the Yellow River Basin - and the origin of ground buildings.- Exploring the origin of ox-drawn plowing in East Asia.- Preliminary discussion on Bashu culture.- Miscellaneous talks on ancient wells.- Zinc and bronze drums.- Exploration of the situation of ancient Dujiangyan.- The contribution of the northern barbarians to the pre-Yin culture - on the origin of Yinxu bronzes and two-wheeled carts.- Academic chronology of Mr. Xu Zhongshu.- From "books" to "outside books": Mr. Xu Zhongshu's research method.

About the author

Zhongshu Xu (1898-1991) was an influential Chinese historian and philologist. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University in 1926 and was supervised by renowned scholars including Guowei Wang and Qichao Liang. He held professorship at Fudan University, Jinan University, Peking University and also the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica. In 1937, he became the head of the Department of History at Sichuan Univeristy and held visiting professorships at Wuhan University, West China Union University, Yenching University, and Central University. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Professor Xu was a member of the Advisory Board (Division of Philosophy and Social Sciences) at Chinese Academic of Sciences and served on the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.
Zhengrui Han is a professor of English linguistics at Jinan University's College of Foreign Studies. His research interests are applied linguistics, pragmatics, genre analysis, critical discourse studies, and language and professional communication. He publishes in Journal of Pragmatics, Pragmatics, Pragmatics and Society, Discourse & Society, Discourse and Communication, Critical Discourse Studies and other peer-reviewed journals.
Wen Zhao acquires her PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a full professor (PhD supervisor, the former Dean) at the College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University. Professor Zhao is a Honorary Professor at The Education University of Hong Kong and serves as a Vice-Chair of the Ministry of Education Advisory Board for College English Teaching. She has led more than 30 projects funded by the National Social Science Fund and other prestigious state-level research institutions. Her research areas include corpus linguistics, translation, language assessment and second language writing. She has published more than 70 research articles in established linguistic journals including Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, Modern Foreign Languages, Foreign Languages and Literature, Foreign Language World, Foreign Languages in China and International Journal of TESOL Studies.
Lihuan Wu is a Professor and Senior Translator at Guangzhou Huali College. She obtained a Master's degree in British Literature from East China University of Science and Technology in 2007. She has a rich experience of teaching English (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation) to Chinese college students and has been involved in a number of large-scale Chinese-English translation projects funded by the National Social Science Fund. Professor Wu’s research has been published in Critical Discourse Studies, Shanghai Translation, Language Sciences, and Language and Cognition. From the end of 2015 to October 2017, she worked as a contracted translator and editor in the collaborated with the Dutch publisher Brill in Boston, USA, to jointly publish a series of Chinese classic philosophical works. 

Summary

This book is a masterpiece in the field of archaeology and ancient Chinese culture studies. It develops a deep understanding of agriculture, economic, religious, and military lives in ancient China. This book introduces an integrated methodology to the domain of Chinese archaeology, and the adopted "double evidence method" and "multiple evidence method" are of great value for the exploration of ancient Chinese social structures and literacy development. The data and evidence used in the book include historical documents, ancient antiques, rare inscriptions, and ancient scripts. It can serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers in the field of ancient Chinese culture and civilization.

Product details

• Authors: Zhongshu Xu
• Assisted by: Zhengrui Han (Translation), Lihuan Wu (Translation), Wen Zhao (Translation)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 17.12.2025
• EAN: 9789819539321
• ISBN: 978-981-9539-32-1
• Illustrations: Approx. 160 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; China, Kulturwissenschaften, Asiatische Geschichte, Museums- und Denkmalkunde, Cultural Heritage, History of China, Chinese history, Archaeology and Heritage, Chinese antiques, Chinese cultural symbols, Ancient Chinese culture, Archaeological research method