The Liezi is regarded the third of the Daoist classics following the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. Dating from the pre-Han period (c. fourth–fifth century b.c.e.) to the Six Dynasties (229–589 c.e.), the Liezi constitutes a rich collection of more than one hundred and forty parables, mystical accounts, and philosophical treatises. This dissertation explores the Liezi's idea of nature in four aspects: (1) cosmology; (2) view of life; (3) the way to attain harmony and union with nature; and (4) social and political view of human–nature relations.

Chapter One explores the Liezi's cosmology, which presents a holistic and organic worldview based on the theory of qi. This chapter first explores the meaning and concept of qi, which is the common medium of all beings in nature. Life begins from the gathering of qi and ends in the dispersal of qi. As the dispersed qi gathers again, new life is born. Accordingly, different forms of lives, based on their common endowment of qi, are interrelated in a chain of metamorphoses. The Liezi thus presents a holistic and organic worldview in which the boundaries and categorizations of human, animals, plants, and matters dissolve.

Chapter Two analyzes the Liezi's view of life, which supports an anti-anthropocentric and egalitarian view of all beings in nature. Since all lives are formed by the common medium of qi, they have no difference in nature and are equally noble and vile. Accordingly, humans are not superior to other species, but all beings have equal value. Be it humans, animals, plants, or matter substances, all are indispensable in their participation in the metamorphoses of qi, and thereby are equally meaningful in their existences.

Chapter Three discusses the Daoist ethics of life, i.e. nature friendly and sustainable. Regarding a practical way of life, the Liezi not only inherits Laozi and Zhuangzi's ideas of simplicity, frugality, and humility, but also shows an intriguing connection to certain mystic beliefs and practices. The notions of faith and belief in the correspondence between human and nature reflect the Liezi's mystical and religious approach to the ultimate goal of union with the Way.

Chapter Four explores the Liezi's political thought and its implication for environmental policy. The Liezi's political thought synthesizes various theories of Confucianism, Legalism, and the Huang-Lao school with the Daoist ideal of non-action as its most basic principle and ultimate goal. It is noteworthy, however, that “non-action” does not literally mean doing nothing. In fact, the Daoist idea of non-action, or non-interference when applied to environmental policy, requires humans to attentively observe, understand, and follow the way nature works. Only when people act according to what is opportune and expedient can they live and prosper together with all beings in nature.

The concluding chapter summarizes the key points and central ideas of the Liezi in comparison with major principles of environmental philosophy to evaluate the Liezi's potential contributions to contemporary ecological thought.

My dissertation examines the hybrid imagery on burial objects from the tomb of the Zhao Minister of the Jin State and in the Zhao King Tomb No. 2, for example gilded plaques decorated with paired dragon motifs and bronze daggers [decorated] with a combat scene of tiger and bird [two figures omitted]. These objects were considered to be modeled on Sino-Siberian motifs in past scholarship. Instead of using the term ‘hybridity’ merely as a stylistic label to describe these bronze artifacts as in previous scholarship, I redefine my use of this term and analyze how hybridity is practiced in different aspects. Hybridity is seen as a hybrid design on burial objects. It is also reflected in the purposeful selection of different practice for elite tombs and in the coexistence of both Zhou and local population in commoner burials in this frontier region.

My research explores multiple meanings of these hybrid artifacts of the Jin and Zhao and consists of manifold approaches. I analyzed the broad social and political context of Jin and Zhao based on textual documents, which accounts for the need for empowering themselves. A more confined perspective from which to examine these hybrid artifacts in the burial setting aims to analyze how the Jin and Zhao elites used these artifacts to create a unique identity displayed at the time of their death. The third approach focuses on trade networks and bronze production in the region, in order to show the development in the design of these hybrid-style bronzes and to suggest a reciprocal relationship between the Chinese states and the frontier groups.

In conclusion, the creation and placement of the hybrid bronze artifacts in the tombs of the Jin and Zhao elite revealed a unique cultural identity for them that goes along with the unstable political tide around 500 b.c.e. The practice of hybridity manifested itself in burial artifacts and programs, and so it was in accord with their all-inclusive diplomatic strategies that these practices became the sanctioned and collective means by which to negotiate their cultural identity and assert their power in the region.

In this dissertation I set out to question the status of the Analects (Lunyu, or The Selected Sayings) as the most authoritative source of Confucius's teachings and, in the process, to rethink Confucius's place in early Chinese intellectual history.

Part One is a roadmap to the thousands of Confucius sayings preserved in the early corpus. It includes an in-depth discussion of Confucius quotation markers as well as a comprehensive list of texts that quote Confucius. In the course of the chapter, I argue that Confucius quotation before the advent of the Analects was a dynamic, creative practice in which authors treated Confucius sayings as venues for the re-performance of inherited wisdom.

Part Two presents the main argument for revising the dating of the Analects based on a reverse chronological survey of Confucius quotation practice in the early period. I conclude the chapter with the argument that the Analects was compiled between 150s and 130s b.c.e., roughly three centuries later than the traditional account would have it.

Part Three brings the focus back to the Analects itself to read the text as a product of a Western Han political, intellectual, and textual milieu. The chapter develops as a series of nine case studies, each of which identifies a different compilation strategy employed by the Analects compilers.

In a concluding chapter, I synthesize the arguments of the first three parts and discuss the implications of my findings for the study of early Chinese thought. In an epilogue, I also develop one concrete scenario for the creation of a Western Han Analects.

Prior to this study, knowledge of Gobi Desert prehistory was mostly limited to early- and mid-twentieth-century descriptions of undated stone tool assemblages from unanalyzed museum collections. This research focuses on the use of extensive existing museum collections to establish a baseline chronology of technology, economy, and land-use for prehistoric Gobi Desert groups. Radiocarbon and luminescence dating are used to establish an artifact-based chronology and provide a relative age for ninety-six archaeological site assemblages. Interpretations of land-use derived from lithic analysis are compared to detailed regional and local palaeoenvironmental records in order to contextualize residential mobility and subsistence. Results indicate that a dramatic shift in land-use about eight thousand years ago was related to a combination of widespread forestation and the increased productivity of lowland habitats during a period of high effective moisture. Hunter-gatherers organized their movements around dune-field/wetland environments, but utilized a range of both high- and low-ranked foods such as large ungulates from adjoining plains and uplands, and seeds and/or tubers from dune-fields and wetlands. New radiocarbon dates indicate that the use of dune-fields and wetlands persisted into the early Bronze Age, overlapping with the rise of nomadic pastoralism across Northeast Asia. These findings illuminate the period just prior to the rise of nomadic pastoralism in Northeast Asia and add considerable depth to our understanding of hunter-gatherer adaptations within arid environments following the Last Glacial Maximum.

This dissertation examines the sixteen extant Wei-Jin sacrificial ballet hymns of Wang Can, Fu Xuan, Xun Xu, and Zhang Hua to discover the impetus for and significance of the changes in sacrificial hymns during the Wei-Jin period. Chapter One examines the cosmological beliefs, sacrificial sites, sacrificial liturgies, and sacrificial hymns of the Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Xin, and Eastern Han dynasties. Chapter Two examines the same for the Wei dynasty, provides translation and commentary for one extant series of sacrificial ballet hymns and for what little is known of another no longer extant series, and then analyzes their titles, use, authorship, dating, content, formal structure, and place in literary history. Chapter Three examines the same for the Jin dynasty, provides translation and commentary for four extant series of sacrificial ballet hymns, and then analyzes the same.

This dissertation contends that the sacrificial ballet hymns and the changes evident therein reflect trends in sacrificial hymns as a whole. The change from having two out of six dynastic ballets purported to be extant in the Zhou system to having six out of six purported to be extant in the Qin system represents more likely an idealized recreation rather than an authentic recovery of lost hymns. The reduction to four or five dynastic ballets or indirect derivatives thereof in the Han dynasty, in conjunction with the disappearance of one series of four tribal ballets and the appearance of another series of four tribal ballets, represents a more believable change in style, as well as a loss due to internecine war. The abandonment of all direct derivatives of dynastic ballets and their replacement with indirect derivatives in seeming imitation of the original six dynastic ballets in the Wei dynasty brings the process full circle to an idealized recreation, which continued into the Jin dynasty and reached its apex with the rewriting of all sacrificial ballets in the terse tetrameter style of the “Song” section of Mao shi, there to remain throughout the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Thus, we find changes in belief and style stemming from imperial preference and contemporary demands.

The emphasis on architectural direction conception in daily construction practices in ancient China was one of the most critical features of Chinese traditional architecture. It had almost penetrated into all aspects of the space construction such as the construction of architectural forms, the functional spaces, and the using of the spaces. It gradually became transformed into architectural principles followed by craftsmen. Generally speaking, the application of such architectural direction conception into construction led to a prevalent space pattern by emphasizing particular direction and position in different periods and regions, and the changing of such architectural direction conception also led to the transition of the space pattern. Particularly, in the early periods of Western Han dynasty there was a drastic process of change which blurred the understanding of space patterns. Such space patterns caused by the architectural direction conception transition were even classified as “special cases out of thousands years' tradition” (Liu Dunzhen, 1982, p. 146). Therefore, this study attempts to explore the transition of space patterns by examining the transition of the architectural direction conception and further discuss the mechanism by which architectural direction conception impacted on spatial constructions.

This thesis selects the royal constructions in the capital city of both empire and kingdoms as the breakpoint, and divides the examination of the architectural direction conception into two parts: the underground world and the living world. The underground world is further divided into two chapters: the emperors' mausoleums and the kings' mausoleums. With the help of the signals of an architectural direction conception by the marking of functional units and the path from the court to residential area, the comparison of these different scales of the spaces shows a phenomenon of a synchronized and relatively transitional process of architectural direction conception.

In conclusion, this research further discusses the factors and motivations that impacted on the transition of the architectural direction conceptions and the methods adopted in this research as both analytical and design tool to understanding, constructing and using Chinese architectural space. This method responses to the theory of the image of a city through five elements by Kenvin Lynch and the interpretation of the meanings of western architecture by Norberg-Schulz in Chinese context.

This dissertation attempts to explain the organization of pottery production on the ancient Chengdu Plain during the early and middle Bronze Age (c. 1800–800 b.c.e.) and its relationship with social complexity. It investigates the formation of production controls and traditions in different dimensions and at various manufacturing stages of pottery production, and compares and classifies ceramics mainly from three site clusters, Sanxingdui, Shi'erqiao, and Jinsha, using a series of analyses. First, metric measurement and coefficients of variation are used to assess the degree of standardization in vessels and whether the metric dimensions form specific model values. The results suggest that different production loci, while producing the same type of pottery vessels, had varying degrees of production control over these metric dimensions and distinctive concerns about production details. Second, mineralogical and chemical analyses show that, under the same cultural influence, potters in different locations processed and fabricated their generally available raw materials in distinctive fashions and according to unique formulae. If we broaden our point of comparison to the Sichuan Basin and beyond, the cultural idiosyncrasy of these social groups is even clearer, which forces us to consider the circumstances of individual production traditions.

The spatial arrangements and use contexts of multiple categories of craft production in these settlements reveal that the production activities of the Chengdu Plain were loosely organized at co-residential households or at the community level in response to local subsistence and social needs. Despite such loose organization and the lack of managing supervision, working groups in different loci interacted to some degree and shared manufacturing ideas. Production norms and traditions, on such occasions, were thus most likely shaped by repetitive practices of routine production procedures, rather than by institutionalized power. The accumulation of local communications allowed these domestic economies to produce intensively and distribute products across a large geographic area, signaling mutual influence across the Chengdu Plain and its neighboring regions. Through this intensive communication, social relations were created, altered, and integrated into complex networks.

This dissertation is a series of textual case studies on nontraditional sources for li [special characters omitted] “calendro-astronomy” circa 250 b.c.e.–250 c.e.: (1) the silk manuscript guide to military planetary astronomy/astrology Wuxing zhan [special characters omitted] (168 b.c.e.); (2) excavated calendars and state li manuals; and (3) the Jin shu's [special characters omitted] record of the debate surrounding a failed attempt at li reform in 226 c.e. This selection affords us a number of unique cross sections through the astral sciences. Balancing transmitted with excavated sources, I emphasize realia and their perspective on era technical knowledge, the formats in which it was produced and consumed, and its transmission and practice beyond an elite court-centered context. In addition to the three elements of li—calendrics, eclipses, and planetary astronomy—my selection draws together the broad array of astral sciences, exploring distinctions in genre, sociology, and epistemology between, for example, mathematical astronomy, hemerology, and omenology, and the (tortuous) processes by which knowledge moved between them. Each chapter also juxtaposes the normative descriptions of manual literature with products of practice—tables, calendars, and test results—to reflect upon the distance between them and, thus, the limitations of the former as historical testimony. Across these cross sections, my study focuses on the question of empiricism and progress. I foreground these topics not because they define twentieth-century notions of science but because, as I argue, they define early imperial notions of li—a point that our twenty-first-century aversion to positivism and Whig history tends to obscure. To this end, I catalog the conceptual vocabulary of observation and testing, submit empirical practices to mathematical and sociological analysis, and, most importantly, explore the formation and function of legend—the histories of science that early imperial actors wrote and recounted in their own day.

As it stands, the dissertation has four body chapters. Chapter One provides a history and sociology of the astral sciences in the Han, covering the sources, legend, and conceptual vocabulary of li, the history of Han li from the perspective of both ideas and institutional reforms, and a survey of participants' backgrounds, motivations, education, and epistemological contentions. Chapter Two examines how the Wuxing zhan manuscript segregates and conflates distinct genres of planetary models, then sketches the subsequent history of these genres, showing how, despite seemingly opposite orientations to reality, actors gradually rewrote and reassessed (crude) hemerology-based omenological (tianwen [special characters omitted]) models through the lens of progress made in mathematical (li) ones. Chapter Three explores a similar gulf that opened between astronomy and calendrics in this period, as well as the gulf between imperial ideology—within which the calendar was the premier symbol of cosmo-ritual dominion—and the actualities of the production, distribution, and use of calendars in a manuscript culture. Lastly, Chapter Four analyzes the two epistemic strategies at the center of (the Jin shu's take on) the circa 226 c.e. court debate on li: the quantitative determination of “tightness” (accuracy) of lunisolar and planetary models through competitive testing, and the contestation of claims through the deployment of precedence from the history of the field.

This thesis examines the emphasis Eastern Han (24–220 c.e.) men placed on mourning their mothers and peers within the context of ritual theory and practice. The ritual texts, used as the basis for an imperial ritual reform in 31 b.c.e., provided instructions on how to properly perform the mourning rites, as well as whom to mourn. Full mourning was to be worn for fathers and superiors, yet in the Eastern Han, many did not heed these prescriptions, choosing in addition to mourn their mothers, equals, or inferiors, thereby subverting the traditional patriarchal model. By examining theories of ritual current in the Han, the mourning prescriptions themselves, and introducing the concept of sincerity in ritual, I argue that the changes in mourning patterns during the Eastern Han are indicative of the beginnings of a fundamental change in beliefs toward ritual and the ancestors.

This dissertation explores the prehistory of Mongolia during a time when nomadic tribes created the world's first steppe empire in Inner Asia. These aggregated tribes, known to Chinese historians as Xiongnu, ruled from the third century b.c.e. to the second century c.e. They came to define steppe polity construction later used by the Mongol Empire under the reign of Chinggis Khan. These nomads moved extensively over the eastern steppe and interacted, both in trade and intermarriage, with peoples from southern Siberia to Xinjiang. However, the Xiongnu as a people are relatively unknown to scholars since they did not possess a written language of their own.

Although analysis on ancient skeletal remains of the Xiongnu have opened new avenues of research into their origins, scholars still do not have a comprehensive understanding of these ancient nomads. This study makes an attempt to elucidate questions of the Xiongnu's history and biological structure by examining craniofacial diversity using a methodology known as geometric morphometrics. Using a suite of multivariate statistical analyses to explain group relationships within and among the Xiongnu to groups in the region, this study explains the origins of the Xiongnu in a biological context and makes inferences about genetic exchanges. A quantitative genetic model is used to test group relationships and infer levels of gene flow between groups.

Results indicate the Xiongnu were composed of at least two biologically distinct groups. One sample from an elite cemetery in northern Mongolia shares their ancestry with a Bronze Age population from Mongolia, and possibly, to a later migration of Turks, who came to dominate the eastern steppe between the sixth and eighth centuries c.e. The Xiongnu also evidence biological similarity with nomads who composed the Mongol Empire, modern-day Mongolians, and some Siberian groups. These results are similar to genetic studies suggesting a mix of Eastern and Western Eurasian haplogroups while also achieving consensus with models of steppe polity formation proposed by archaeologists, who suggest local ties to extra-local groups through interactive exchange networks. Overall, the Xiongnu nomads are very much a part of Mongolia's past with links to its modern peoples.

This dissertation takes as its central focus the newest discovery of writing from the commencement of China's historical period. The Huayunazhuang East oracle bone inscriptions, discovered in 1991 and published in six folio volumes in 2003, are a synchronically compact and unified corpus of 2,452 individual divination accounts inscribed on 529 (345 completely intact) turtle shells and bovine scapulae that were produced during the late Shang period (c. 1250–1045 b.c.e.) under the patronage of a prince of the royal family. The records stand as one of the most important epigraphic finds in the history of Chinese archaeology. Due to the limited corpus of non-royal oracle bones dating to the earliest phase of the Chinese written language, our understanding of Shang civilization remains partial and incomplete. What the field of Shang studies has needed for quite some time is more discoveries of complete oracle bone inscriptions that reveal information about a broader dimension of Shang civilization.

Chapter One presents the core information of the discovery: the pit and its contents, codicology, the nature and importance of the inscriptions, working with synchronies, and periodization. I conclude with a review of the major studies and summarize objectives of the dissertation.

Chapter Two introduces and discusses the people. I make two critical determinations. The first is that the protagonist, a person who as a rule was referred to by his diviners and scribes only as “our lord” was the son of the king, Wu Ding, and one of his main consorts, Lady Hao. I identify him with a person seen in concurrent royal inscriptions called “Rong.” The second is a new explanation that the name “Ding,” the most powerful figure in the inscriptions and the prince's father, is a non-royal appellation for the living king and means “our Highness.” I conclude with an overview of the rest of the prince's family and key members of his entourage.

Chapter Three argues in favor of seeing oracle scribes as China's first collective group of writers. I dispel the notion that they are mere copyists or simple engravers by illustrating their creative application of graphic design layouts. I construct a tiered methodology to extract identity by focusing on the features of the script, orientation, and other scribal habits.

Appendix 1 is a complete, annotated translation of the inscriptions. Each divination account is presented in an easy-to-read three line format: the first line is in oracle bone font transcription, the second line is in modern Chinese transcription, and the third line is the English translation. Annotations at the bottom of each page abound with copious notes, references, and a plethora of new readings. This is the first attempt anywhere to translate the entire corpus.

The Jian'an period (196–220 c.e.), which is best known through the fictionalized account in the Romance of the Three States, is also an important literary period. It is celebrated for its major writers such as Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, and Wang Can. Previous scholars have mainly been concerned with the life and poetry of an individual writer. In this dissertation, I attempt to take an approach that crosses the boundary between individual writers. I read Jian'an poems—including shi, fu, and yuefu—as the authors' poetic dialogues with their contemporaries. This approach is based on the fact that the writers gathered at the court of Cao Cao and shared the language of poetry. Whether drinking together or living apart, they often engaged in a dialogue on a common topic through the medium of writing. Their topics range from travel, careers, expeditions, to merriment. Like the Athenian speechmakers in Plato's “Symposium,” Jian'an writers also tried to impress, persuade, entertain, and challenge one another in their poems. Having this context in mind and drawing inspiration from Western literature, I explore how Jian'an poems can be better understood and how the individual writers together established a literary tradition of their own.

This dissertation presents a detailed explanation of Hanshan Deqing's commentary on the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi. I argue that the notion of the Sage is the overarching theme of Hanshan's commentary on the Inner Chapters. I trace this theme through each of the seven Inner Chapters and explain the significant role it plays in understanding the message of the Zhuangzi as well as in revealing the unity and coherency of the Inner Chapters. I argue that a dissertation on Hanshan's commentary is of value for two primary reasons. First, it offers a thematically unified and coherent reading of the Inner Chapters. Secondly, by focusing on the theme of the Sage, Hanshan's commentary highlights the importance of social and political concerns in the Zhuangzi and thereby demonstrates that the issues of skepticism, relativism, and mysticism, which are so important in many Western readings, were not foremost in the minds of many Chinese commentators.

In Chapter One, I examine Hanshan's commentary on chapter one of the Zhuangzi, which provides a general overview of the entire Inner Chapters. I introduce the theme of the Sage and explain that in order to perfect the substance of the Sage, one must find nourishment in the body of the Dao and via a process of cultivation learn to forget the self, forget merit, and forget name. Highlighting the primary characteristics of the Sage, namely no self, no merit, and no name, I demonstrate how one or more of these characteristics are emphasized in each of the six remaining chapters. For example, in Chapter Two, I analyze Hanshan's commentary on chapter two of the text and illustrate how the attachment to the self, which Hanshan characterizes in terms of an attachment to the body and a failure to awaken to the Dao, gives rise to the many verbal disputes over right and wrong. In Chapter Three, I begin with Hanshan's commentary on chapter three and emphasize the theme of forgetting the self by noting that the skill of nourishing life requires one to cultivate the Dao and avoid pursuing merit and fame in an attempt to embellish the body. In the latter half of Chapter Three, I explore Hanshan's commentary on chapter four of the text and emphasize the social and political aspect of the text by explaining the manner in which the Sage carries out his responsibilities to a ruler. Chapter Four examines Hanshan's commentary on chapter five of the text. I discuss several stories about disfigured and deformed individuals, who, according to Hanshan, embody the primary characteristics of the Sage, for they have succeeded in forgetting the physical form and awakening to the Dao, dispelling any interest in merit and fame, and have acquired the ability to transform others in a noncoercive, nondeliberate manner. In Chapter Five, I discuss Hanshan's commentary on chapter six of the text and further explore the characteristics of the Sage. I argue that this chapter not only reiterates the need for personal cultivation, highlighting once again the significance of attaining the Dao as well as the burden of having a body, but it also illustrates the personal fruits of this cultivation, namely enabling one to deal with death and illness with equanimity and calm. Finally in Chapter Six, I explore Hanshan's commentary on chapter seven and illustrate the social and political implications of perfecting the substance of the Sage, for if the timing is right and the situation is fitting, the Sage will accede to his great function of serving as the Enlightened Sovereign. The Sage rectifies himself via a process of personal cultivation whereby he positions himself in the unfathomable homeland of the Dao and in turn spontaneously transforms others via nondeliberate action.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine the practices of local officials serving in the Chu and Qin centralized governments during the late Warring States period, with particular interest in relevant excavated texts. The recent discoveries of Warring States slips have provided scholars with new information about how local offices operated and functioned as a crucial organ of the centralized state. Among the many excavated texts, I mainly focus on those found in Baoshan, Shuihudi, Fangmatan, Liye, and the one held by the Yuelu Academy.

Much attention is given to the function of districts and their officials in the Chu and Qin governments as they supervised and operated as a base unit: deciding judicial matters, managing governmental materials and products, and controlling the population, who were the source of military and labor service. Administrative law was the main device for managing officials, but Qin daybooks suggest that mantic texts were used as a political device to support governmental daily activities. Additionally, I argue that the Qin government systematically required its officials to internalize certain values that restricted and guided their mindset and activities on behalf of the government.

By focusing on excavated materials, I demonstrate that local offices, especially the district, served as a core organ in sustaining the entire local government and channeling the central authority. I conclude that only in understanding the role of local government are we are able to draw the entire picture of the ruler-centered state that emerged and developed during the Warring States period.

The recent emergence of Ritual Studies as an interdisciplinary academic field has engendered a renewed interest in ritual practices. In Chinese Studies, this has led to a surge in research devoted to the reconstruction of ancient rituals through textual resources. It has also resulted in the examination of contemporary practices through anthropological field work. Painting a clear picture of the rich history of ritual in China entails more than studying ritual practices using modern methodologies, however; it also involves understanding the ritual theories that helped shape them. My dissertation surveys a variety of texts from the Warring States to the Early Medieval periods that can all be read as attempts to theorize ritual. I examine three theories, written by the Confucian philosopher Xunzi, a group of Western Han literati, and the Daoist liturgist Lu Xiujing, against the backdrop of contemporaneous individual self-cultivation practices. I demonstrate that ritual was often depicted as a technology of the body, a technique of self-cultivation that allows man, through the medium of his own body, to assert his influence on the world or even transcend it. By tracing the similarities and transformations in ritual theory over a period of a thousand years, I demonstrate that, despite the evident differences in their sociopolitical and religious agendas, all three ritual theorists shared a common belief in the ultimate efficacy of ritual over the individual self-cultivation techniques advocated by their rivals. I conclude by situating Chinese ritual theory in the broader context of Ritual Studies and demonstrate how the insights I have obtained open up new ways of thinking about ritual, the body, and the relationship between them. I argue that the distinctive philosophical and cosmological assumptions that surfaced in Early and Medieval China have produced ritual theories that are fundamentally different from their Western counterparts. Distilling a Chinese approach to the theorization of ritual can thus offer alternative solutions to the challenges faced by contemporary scholars, such as the role and meaning of ritual in the modern world.

This dissertation investigates the role of the domestic horse in pre-imperial China motivated by the rise of studies on the horse as an interdisciplinary field. Among archaeological finds of the pre-imperial era, horse corpses and horse harnesses have been an essential part of cultural relics. Documentary sources on the horse can be traced back to the earliest Chinese writings. In this dissertation it is suggested that the domestication was a long, staged process, and the transmission route of the horse from the Urals to China via Central Asia will be proposed.

A comprehensive survey of the archaeological remains related to the horse in the pre-imperial era constitutes the second main aspect of this dissertation, with documentary sources focusing on the use of the horse in civil and military affairs and the interaction of the horse and human beings. After comparing the role of the horse in China with that in other ancient civilizations, such as Greece, India, and Persia, the discussion will end up with a summary of the contributions of the domesticated horse to pre-imperial China. Thousands of miles of roads were constructed for equestrian transport, and politically the horse accelerated the pace of militaristic expansion and consolidation of territory. The use of the horse also facilitated agriculture and trade, and thus propelled the society forward into the imperial era.

This dissertation studies the practices and ideologies that shaped motherhood in China in the period spanning the Shang through the Han dynasties. By demonstrating that much cultural attention was dedicated to articulating, negotiating, and establishing the meanings and the limits of the maternal role, this dissertation counters prevailing scholarly opinions about motherhood in early China and participates in a growing effort to write the history of women and gender relations. It exposes aspects of the lived experience of early Chinese women and contributes to a better understanding of how early Chinese gender identities were historically constructed. Current scholarly opinions about motherhood in early China range widely, with some scholars holding that it was ignored, and others presenting it as similar to fatherhood, or likewise as a position of great power. Drawing on oracle bones and bronze inscriptions, historical documents, ritual manuals, didactic essays, as well as philosophical writings, legal materials, poetic expressions, and medical manuscripts, this dissertation charts a different course. It shows that motherhood was neither ignored, nor perceived as undifferentiated from fatherhood, nor highly elevated, but rather that it was always described—and prescribed—in relation to a larger, stronger, and more important patriarchal, patrilineal, social order.

The Introduction discusses why motherhood has only recently become a topic for study in the West and the reasons for the limited scope of studies of early Chinese motherhood. It surveys previous Western and Chinese studies of motherhood in early China, as well as general studies of women in early China that contain material about early Chinese mothers.

Chapter One surveys late Shang- and Western Zhou-inscribed bronze vessels made for, or by, mothers. It shows that mothers received more sacrifice than women occupying other roles in the family, but nevertheless that considerable gaps existed between the amount—and the significance—of sacrifice offered to female and male ancestors. The chapter also identifies three genealogies alongside the sanctioned genealogy between fathers and sons: genealogies between mothers and daughters, including transmission of wealth; between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law; and between mothers and sons.

Chapter Two examines rites and rituals of mourning, marriage, and birth included in the Yi li and the Li ji. It shows that ritual practices defined motherhood as inferior, conditioned, mediated, or even created, by fathers. Ritual regulations also weakened motherhood by dividing it between many care-takers and by establishing the bond between father and son as the main affective bond in the family.

Chapter Three analyzes historical accounts of mothers and motherhood in the Zuo zhuan and the Lie nü zhuan. It shows mothers as agents of transformation, early educators, and remonstrators to their sons, but also as possible threats. All these roles were structured to acknowledge but limit the power of mothers. In delineating various constructions of motherhood, this dissertation deepens our knowledge not only of early Chinese women but also of the structure, organization, ideals, and realities of broader society in early China.

The Shandong region has been of considerable interest to the study of ancient China due to its location in the eastern periphery of the central culture. For the Western Zhou state, Shandong was the “Far East” and it was a vast region of diverse landscape and complex cultural traditions during the Late Bronze Age (1000–500 b.c.e.).

In this research, the developmental trajectories of three different types of secondary states are examined. The first type is the regional states established by the Zhou court; the second type is the indigenous Non-Zhou states with Dong Yi origins; the third type is the states that may have been formerly Shang polities and accepted Zhou rule after the Zhou conquest of Shang. On the one hand, this dissertation examines the dynamic social and cultural process in the eastern periphery in relation to the expansion and colonization of the Western Zhou state; on the other hand, it emphasizes the agency of the periphery during the formation of secondary states by examining how the polities in the periphery responded to the advances of the Western Zhou state and how local traditions impacted the composition of the local material assemblage which lay the foundation for the future prosperity of the regional culture.

By utilizing the rich archaeological data, epigraphic evidence, and textual sources, the dissertation focuses on two research questions: First, how did cultural interactions play out in the region through possible processes of cultural adaption, assimilation, persistence, and resistance, and what are their material manifestations in the archaeological record? Second, how did the political relationship between the peripheral states and the dynastic center change in variable degrees of dependency or autonomy? This study provides important insight into the issue of cultural interaction and secondary state formation and, by extension, into the social evolution of the Shandong area.

This dissertation is focused on communities of people in the Han dynasty (205 b.c.e.–c.e. 220) who possessed the knowledge of a corpus of texts: the Five Classics. Previously scholars have understood the popularity of this corpus in the Han society as a result of stiff ideology and imperial propaganda. However, this approach fails to explain why the imperial government considered them effective to convey propaganda in the first place. It does not capture the diverse range of ideas in classicism. This dissertation concentrates on Han classicists and treats them as scholars who constantly competed for attention in intellectual communities and solved problems with innovative solutions that were plausible to their contemporaries. This approach explains the nature of the apocryphal texts, which scholars have previously referred to as shallow and pseudo-scientific. It also reveals the root of the Scripture of the Great Peace in Han classicism and apocryphal texts. This dissertation explores how the study of the classics increasingly came to shape the literati culture and communities of the Han Empire and Early Medieval China. It shows that classicism led to innovations in solving crises of the empire as well as envisioning an ideal empire. The popularity of classicism gave birth to a peripatetic and epistolary scholarly culture marked by the use of calligraphy and poetry in the social life of newly mobile teachers and disciples throughout imperial China. These men strove to be erudite advisors to the destined emperor who would work to achieve the Great Peace, the utopian goal of a human society fully in accordance with Heaven.

From Chunqiu and Zuozhuan to Shiji, women have experienced a downgrade of their formal status in historical records. In Shiji, women, the wives of dukes, lost their formal equality with their duke husbands in terms of being written into state history, as we see in Chunqiu. Their activities, including marriage, returning home, visits, and death, disappeared from Sima Qian's history for the Spring and Autumn period, which focuses on the activities of male members of ruling lineages. A positive representation of women's wisdom, eloquence, and authority is no longer in the interest of nor taken as a ritual part of history writing in Shiji.

In terms of the representation of women, especially those from the Spring and Autumn period, in Zuozhuan and Shiji, Zuozhuan gave fuller representation of women than Shiji and its attitude toward women was more positive in comparison to the latter. First, Zuozhuan in many examples presented women as having authority, agency, and initiative; in the Shiji versions of these stories, the roles of women were reduced in order to strengthen the agency of and focalization through the male members of a ruling lineage toward a goal of a linear logic of succession. Second, Shiji stressed the disruptive role of women in state affairs by intensively preserving the stories in Zuozhuan that associated women with political disasters and emergencies. Third, Zuozhuan had a non-gendered approach to the effect of women's wisdom, knowledge, and eloquence; it left space for complexity of characterization for women. In contrast, Shiji and Lienü Zhuan, where these stories in Zuozhuan were transmitted, emphasized a patterned understanding of women and produced gender role types.

With the representation of women in Shiji, the effect of the agency of women in history is patterned. In Shiji, women's agency is more closely connected to political disasters and negative political situations. In the limited representation of positive heroines, their good roles came from their virtue in being self-restrictive and submissive. It implies as a historical teaching in Shiji that the limitation of the political autonomy of women is a way to promise the success of lineage and tradition.