http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~hsa13/ and http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~histe1825 username is hsa13 password is china September 19, 2007 Historical Study A-13 Origin Stories The meaning of “China” and the use of history to create meaning “China: an artwork whose medium is history” Locating origins in space the north China plain, the Yellow River, the “loess” region A. The story according to the Confucian texts of c. 500 BC: the “Former Kings” The culture heroes The sage-kings and their big ideas Yao Shun Yu/Yü * The “Three Dynasties” of Antiquity Xia/Hsia (2200?-1700? BC) Shang (c. 1700-1046 BC) Zhou/Chou (1045-256 BC) The meaning of “China” according to the texts: universal kingship, linear continuity, and a single origin B. The story according to late 20th century archaeologists Traditions of archaeology in China Homo erectus (Peking Man) 1 million-200,000 years ago Homo sapiens and the Holocene age (beginning 11,000 years ago) China’s origins and the “Near East Diffusion” theory Neolithic cultures Early Neolithic the Yangshao/Yang-shao and contemporary cultures (5000 BC) Map 1 the Longshan/Lung-shan cultural period (3000-2000 BC) and government Map 2 The meaning of “China” according to the artifacts: multiple origins and competing centers * When the romanization of Chinese terms in the pinyin and Wade-Giles systems differs both spellings are given: first pinyin/then Wade-Giles. (However "Peking" 北京 comes from neither WadeGiles, which romanizes the city name as "Pei-ching," nor pinyin, which spells it as “Beijing.”)
