Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
2 - Early China
Prelude to the Silk Roads
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Chapter Two traces the history of early China from the emergence of the earliest agrarian communities through to the appearance of the first complex cultures of the Yangshao and Longshan. The second part of the chapter outlines the history of the first dynasties of China, from the semi-legendary Xia, through the Shang and Zhou to the first Chinese imperial states of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The chapter also considers the emergence of many of the foundational philosophies of ancient China, including Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism and the Mandate of Heaven, and the way these ideas were used to legitimize government and organize society, through to the so-called triumph of Confucianism in the Early Han Dynasty.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empires of Ancient EurasiaThe First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE, pp. 42 - 67Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Selected Further Reading
Beckwith, C., Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Asia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Chang, K. C. and Pingfang, X., eds., The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Ebrey, P. B., Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, reprint 2000.Google Scholar
Feng, L., Early China: A Social and Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Feng, Y.-l., A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, trans. Derk Bodde, New York: The Free Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. E., The Early Chinese Empire: Qin and Han. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Liu, L., The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Loewe, M., The Government of the Qin and Han Empires 221 BCE – 220 CE. Indianapolis, IN, and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2006.Google Scholar
Mallory, J. P. and Mair, V. H., The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.Google Scholar
Thorp, R., China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.Google Scholar