scholarly journals THE XINIAN: AN ANCIENT HISTORICAL TEXT FROM THE QINGHUA UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF BAMBOO BOOKS

Early China ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 53-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Milburn
Keyword(s):  
Autumn Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
Entire Text

AbstractThe Xinian or Annalistic History is one of an important collection of ancient bamboo texts donated anonymously to Qinghua University in 2008. The Xinian covers events from the history of the Western Zhou dynasty (1045–771 b.c.e.), through the Spring and Autumn Period (771–475 b.c.e.) and into the Warring States era (475–221 b.c.e.). Since the first publication of this manuscript in 2011, it has been the subject of much research, though this has usually been focused on the sections which have important parallels within the transmitted tradition. This article proposes a new way of understanding the Xinian, as a compilation produced from at least five source texts, and provides a complete translation of the entire text. Furthermore, although the contents of the Xinian are frequently at variance with the transmitted tradition, in particular the account of events given in the Zuozhuan, in some instances it may prove the more reliable source. The Xinian also provides some information concerning the history of the early Warring States era that helps to explain events in this generally badly documented era.

On the origin and formation of the early Qin Culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Liang
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Shang Dynasty ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Zhou Dynasty ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Western Zhou Dynasty

Abstract The early Qin Culture refers to the Qin Culture from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring-and-Autumn Period. Considering its cultural composition, we will realize that it has three main sources, namely the Shang, Zhou, and Western Rong (Western Barbarian) Cultures. The elements derived from the Shang Culture comprised the furniture of waist pits and the custom of dog burial in graves, the use of human sacrifice, the interment of chariots and horses, the Shang-style pottery wares and the tradition of constructing huge-scale mausoleums. These elements reflect that the Qin people initially came from the east and had strong ties with the Shang Dynasty and were deeply influenced by the Shang Culture, and belonged to the Yin people (after the fall of the Shang Dynasty) in the broader sense. The elements absorbed from the Zhou Culture comprised the architectural types of ancestral temples and palaces, the adoption of the ritual vessels, the suspended musical instruments, the Zhou style pottery wares and the writing system. These elements indicate that the Qin people adopted the ritual and musical culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which had a great political significance at the early stage of Qin’s history. The factors derived from the cultures of the Western Rong ethnic group or the northern steppes included the flexed burial position, the golden body ornaments and chariots and horses, iron wares, animal motifs on utensils, recesses on the walls of the burial pits and the ditches around the graves, the use of bronze cauldrons and swords (daggers). Such elements reflect that during the development process in the Longyou region, the Qin people absorbed the cultures of the adjacent Western Rong ethnic group, the Eurasian steppes and farther beyond. The first kind of elements continued to predominate the Qin Culture down to the middle Western Zhou, then the second and the third ones arose from the late Western Zhou to the early Spring-and-Autumn Period, and simultaneously, the first were only present in the aristocratic burial activities. Based on the remnants of the Shang Culture, the early Qin Culture came into being by widely absorbing elements of the Zhou and Western Rong Cultures.

Project Report on the "Investigation of the Present Situation and Development of Ethnic Minorities in China"

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-9
Author(s):  
Hao Shiyuan
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Shi Ji

When viewed from the perspective of history, China has not had a flourishing anthropology and ethnology. However, China's traditions of ethnographic-like perspectives have flourished for a long time. Since the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and Warring States Period (475-221 BC), multiethnic structure and social relations have been recorded in China's history. Ever since Sima Qian's Shi Ji (the Historical Records), the first general history of China compiled around 100 BC, the social history and cultural customs of ethnic minorities had been covered in each dynasty's history. Moreover, some special chapters had been dedicated to keeping the records of ethnic minorities. Of course such records were not completely unbiased.

The Mudu Archaic City Site of the Spring-and-Autumn Period in Suzhou City, Jiangsu

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joint Archaeological Team Of Instit ◽  
Suzhou Municipal Institute Of Archa
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The South ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Water Gate ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eastern Zhou

AbstractIn 2009 and 2010, a series of archaeological investigations were conducted in and around the Mudu archaic city site located in the southwestern highland of Greater Suzhou, Jiangsu. The excavations revealed sections of the north circumference wall at Wufeng and the water gate of the south circumference wall at Xinfeng. The surveys identified the possible locations of the east and the west circumference walls. Diagnostic proto-porcelain and stamped potsherds were recovered. It is tentatively argued that both the north and the south walls were built and in use during the late Spring-and-Autumn Period. The Mudu Site, therefore, was a large-scale walled settlement functioned as a regional center of its time. These findings are instrumental in the search for the lost capital of Wu State of the Spring-and-Autumn Period, the understanding of the relationship among the various contemporary settlement sites, cairns, earthen mounds, and caches distributed in the region, and the reconstruction of the local cultural history of Eastern Zhou.

Concerning string cutting, tuo (emery wheel) cutting and tuo carving – and discussion of the date the tuo began to be used

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kin-Fong Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Thread Cutting ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Metal Wheel

AbstractThis paper discussed the jade-carving techniques, summarized the characteristics of blade saw cutting, thread cutting and wheel cutting, and then pointed out that there should not be any wheel tool or wheel cutting technique in the prehistoric period and the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties. The metal wheel tool first appeared in the Spring-and-Autumn Period. Since then, the jade art was improved more and more because of the development of private craftsmanship, the commerce and the destruction of the rigid ritual system.

Changes in the Concept of “Jian” in the Pre-Qin Period: From Political Norm to Means of Acquiring Wealth

Cultura ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Xiao TAN
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conceptual Changes ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
Territorial States

The conceptual changes of Jian in the pre-Qin period were the results of changes in the social and political structure. It originally referred to Jian virtue, which was a kind of political norm of clan states. This required the aristocrats to be moderate in accordance with the patriarchal hierarchy and generously share their wealth with their own clansmen. The opposite of Jian virtue is Tan ( greed) and Chi ( extravagance). In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, many states formed their politics based on ministerial families. The aristocrats glorified greed and extravagance as Fu ( riches), and stigmatized Jian virtue as Pin ( poverty). After the collapse of the clan-based state order, the states in the Warring States Period gradually developed into territorial states, and the institutional political norm became a new, abstract concept, indicated by the compound Jian Yue ( economy) and was used to describe the consumption attitudes of individuals and families. Meanwhile, with the increase of social mobility, the pursuit of riches was highly popular in the ideological world. The new expression of “means-ends” advocated by Legalists, which stipulated that individuals and families acquire wealth through Jian Yue (economy), took shape and endures to this day.

Spring and Autumn Period

1995 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-152
Author(s):  
Constance A. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Tribal Group ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Religions ◽  
Local Courts ◽  
The Right

In the history of chinese religions the Ch'un-ch'iu or Spring and Autumn period (eighth to fifth centuries B.C.E.) was a time of transition between the court rituals of the Western Chou gift-giving society and the private or local cult practices evident in the later Eastern Chou market economy (Cook 1993a). This was the time when the local lords usurped the Chou king's ritual “power” (te) to “charge” (ming) and the Chou lineage lost its authority. The transition is most evident in the speeches (yueh) of the kings and local rulers inscribed on the eating or striking surfaces of the late Western Chou and early Ch'un-ch'iu-period ritual bronze vessels and bells. These speeches or “spoken” liturgies of legitimation initially focused on the spiritually sanctioned right of the ruler to “charge” a gift recipient, but later simply focused on the right of the vessel-maker to charge himself. This shift is most evident after 771 B.C.E. when a western tribal group forced the Chou to flee their ancestral lands and altars. Local lords, originally on the periphery of Chou authority, called themselves kings and manipulated the Chou ideology to legitimate their own independent identities (see Cook on Chu in Cook and Major forthcoming). They relied on the guidance of ritualists (possibly descendants of the Western Chou shih and yin)whose knowledge of Chou liturgy and rites was a valued commodity at local courts (Cook 1993b).

Zhou History and Historiography: Introducing the Bamboo manuscript Xinian

T oung Pao ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 100 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 287-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Tsinghua University ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Zuo Zhuan

Xinian is a recently published bamboo manuscript from the collection of Qinghua (Tsinghua) University. It is the lengthiest, most detailed historical text unearthed in recent decades. The text narrates major events from the history of the state of Chu, its rivals, and its allies from the beginning of the Western Zhou period to the early fourth century bce. In this introductory article I argue the following: first, both the language and the content of Xinian indicate that this text was based on earlier historical sources from the states of Chu and Jin, in addition to sources from within the Zhou royal domain; second, the authors’ utilization of their primary sources differs markedly from those observable in Zuo zhuan (with which Xinian has many overlapping parts) and in later collections of anecdotes; and third, Xinian may represent a heretofore unknown genre of “informative history.” In addition, I explore the new perspectives that Xinian sheds on early Qin and Chu history.
Le Xinian est un manuscrit sur bambou récemment publié, appartenant à la collection de l’Université Qinghua (Tsinghua). Il s’agit du texte historique le plus long et le plus détaillé exhumé au cours des dernières décennies, relatant les événements importants de l’histoire de l’État de Chu, de ses rivaux et de ses alliés depuis le début des Zhou Occidentaux jusqu’au début du ive siècle avant notre ère. Cet article introductif propose les conclusions suivantes: d’abord, la langue comme le contenu du Xinian indiquent que le texte est basé sur des sources historiques plus anciennes provenant des États de Chu et de Jin, auxquelles s’ajoutent des sources du domaine royal des Zhou ; ensuite, l’usage que font ses auteurs de leurs sources diffère notablement de ce qui peut être observé dans le Zuo zhuan (avec lequel le Xinian se recoupe en de nombreux endroits) et dans les collections d’anecdotes postérieures ; enfin, le Xinian pourrait être représentatif d’un genre jusqu’ici inconnu d’“histoire informative”. L’article explore par ailleurs certaines perspectives nouvelles suggérées par le texte sur l’histoire du début du Qin et celle du Chu.


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