History of China's Remote Antiquity

王玉哲Shanghai People's Publishing House · ChinaDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
427K words
Chapters
81
ISBN
9787208155985

Tags

History Books Institutional EvolutionHistorical ReappraisalClan OriginsArchaeological EvidenceRise and FallHumanistic CareAcademic StudyPre-Qin CivilizationEclectic ReadingFolk Customs

Summary

A History of Ancient China opens with the prologue of Chinese history and continues to the end of the Western Zhou, offering a detailed account of the evolution and development of ancient Chinese history from prehistoric civilization through primitive society and slave society to feudal society, with particularly original views on the origins, geographical locations, lineages, patriarchal systems, inheritance systems, forms of government, social economy, and social character of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou. It remains a classic in this field to this day.

Editor's review

A History of Ancient China is the magnum opus of Wang Yuzhe's lifelong study of pre-Qin history and the opening volume of Shanghai People's Publishing House's "Chinese Dynastic History Series." Mutually corroborating rigorous archaeological materials with transmitted texts, the book systematically traces the historical thread from the origins of ancient humans in China to the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou. As a master historian, Wang Yuzhe displays not only a solid command of documentary textual criticism but also a comprehensive command of results from archaeology, paleography, ethnology, and other disciplines. The book's greatest value for readers lies in its pursuit of "credible history": the author treats every historical source and archaeological discovery with care, neither blindly doubting antiquity nor credulously accepting legend, striving to restore the true picture of the early development of Chinese civilization on the basis of scientific evidence. On key questions such as the historical framework, social structure, and institutional culture of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou, the book offers deep yet plain analysis, making it a rare authoritative reader for systematically understanding the origins of Chinese civilization. Reading it is like following a rigorous guide through the fog of myth and legend to touch the first solid foundations of Chinese civilization.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Begin with the introduction to grasp the author's research methods and the book's framework, then proceed chapter by chapter.
  2. Read alongside illustrated materials from important archaeological reports (such as Erlitou and Yinxu) to enhance intuitive understanding.
  3. For sections dense with institutional, place, and personal names, take notes to clarify the threads.

About the publisher

Shanghai People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Shanghai People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher whose list focuses on academic monographs and general-interest titles in philosophy, social sciences, politics and law, economics and management, and history. Among its books are Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties History in the Chinese Dynastic History series; The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy in foreign literature; the Wenjing Classical Translation Illustrated Edition of The Complete Greek Tragedies of Euripides; and works of social theory such as Max Weber's Economy and Society and Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Its authors include Wang Zhongluo, J.R.R. Tolkien, Luo Niansheng, and Zhou Zuoren.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 作者简介
  3. 自序
  4. 第一章 原始群居的社会生活
  5. 第一节 绪说
  6. 第二节 中国历史的序幕——中国猿人
  7. 第三节 “古人”时期的文化发展
  8. 第四节 “新人”时期的文化与氏族的产生
  9. 第五节 我国古代传说中的原始经济生活
  10. 第二章 妇女为中心的母系氏族公社
  11. 第一节 母系氏族公社的出现
  12. 第二节 母系氏族社会的婚姻关系和墓葬制度
  13. 第三节 母系氏族公社的经济生活
  14. 第四节 我国古文献上有关母系氏族社会的史影
  15. 第五节 母系氏族社会时期原始的科学、艺术和宗教
  16. 第三章 父系氏族公社
  17. 第一节 从母系氏族公社到父系氏族公社的转变
  18. 第二节 父系氏族社会经济的重大发展
  19. 第三节 私有制、阶级的出现与氏族公社制的瓦解
  20. 第四节 父系氏族社会时期的文字和艺术
  21. 第五节 古史传说中的部落战争及氏族社会进一步解体
  22. 第四章 唐、虞、夏与先商——从原始社会到奴隶社会的过渡时期（上）
  23. 第一节 唐、虞、夏的禅让制与军事民主选举制
  24. 第二节 传说中的夏王朝
  25. 第三节 考古发掘与夏文化
  26. 第四节 商族的兴起和先商的社会阶段
  27. 第五章 商王朝前期的历史——从原始社会到奴隶社会的过渡时期（下）
  28. 第一节 商汤的灭夏
  29. 第二节 商代前期的政治
  30. 第三节 从田野考古上看商代前期的文化（一）
  31. 第四节 从田野考古上看商代前期的文化（二）
  32. 第五节 商代前期的阶级对立与第一个阶级社会的逐渐形成
  33. 第六章 商代阶级国家的形成
  34. 第一节 盘庚迁殷及其社会意义
  35. 第二节 商代后期阶级斗争的尖锐和国家的出现
  36. 第七章 商代后期奴隶的数量、“众”或“众人”的身份及商的社会属性
  37. 第一节 商代后期有多少奴隶
  38. 第二节 众或众人的身份
  39. 第三节 “古代东方”的理论与商代后期的社会性质
  40. 第八章 商代后期的经济发展
  41. 第一节 商代后期农业的发展
  42. 第二节 畜牧、田猎与渔业
  43. 第三节 商代后期手工业的辉煌成就
  44. 第四节 交换、货币、交通
  45. 第九章 商代后期的社会组织与政治机构
  46. 第一节 商王朝的政治疆域
  47. 第二节 商族的氏族组织
  48. 第三节 商代后期的政治机构
  49. 第四节 商与各方国
  50. 第十章 商代的文化、科学与艺术
  51. 第一节 商代的文字
  52. 第二节 商代的宗教信仰
  53. 第三节 商代的科学成就
  54. 第四节 商代的艺术
  55. 第十一章 先周族的来源及其社会发展
  56. 第一节 周为夏族的分支
  57. 第二节 周族最初的地望
  58. 第三节 先周的文化及其社会阶段
  59. 第十二章 周王朝的建立
  60. 第一节 周武王的灭商
  61. 第二节 周公旦及其东征
  62. 第三节 周王朝政权的巩固
  63. 第十三章 西周的政治及其发展
  64. 第一节 西周的政体形式与“成康之治”
  65. 第二节 西周的政治制度
  66. 第三节 西周的官制
  67. 第四节 西周的兵制与刑法
  68. 第五节 西周“国家”的历史作用
  69. 第十四章 西周的社会经济
  70. 第一节 西周的农业经济
  71. 第二节 西周的土地制度
  72. 第三节 西周的手工业、商业
  73. 第四节 西周的社会性质
  74. 第十五章 西周的衰微、灭亡
  75. 第一节 西周衰微始于何时
  76. 第二节 周厉王专利与国人暴动及国人暴动的伟大意义
  77. 第三节 何谓“共和行政”
  78. 第四节 所谓“宣王中兴”
  79. 第五节 幽王昏乱、灭亡与平王东迁
  80. 附录一 大事年表
  81. 附录二 本书引用甲骨著录书目简称表

FAQ

How is this book different from ordinary popular history books? This is a professional academic work focused on textual criticism and the argumentation of scholarly views, tightly reasoned and richly cited, aiming to present historical understanding at the level of academic research rather than literary storytelling.
Can I understand this book without a history background? The author's style is plain and the exposition clear. Anyone with a basic interest in ancient Chinese history, patience, and a high-school-level education can use this book to build a systematic understanding of ancient history. Technical terms and contested issues are explained where necessary.
Are this book's views outdated now? The book was written in the last century and represents one of the highest levels of Chinese ancient-history research of its time. Its core framework, research methods, and many conclusions remain valuable today. Some details have naturally been updated with the rapid development of archaeology in recent years, but this only highlights the book's status as a classic foundational work—an important cornerstone for understanding subsequent discoveries and discussions.

Related on WeRead

中华远古史 王玉哲 成语里的万年中华史：远古五帝卷 郭志坤 陈雪良 话说中华五千年（从远古神话到民国北伐战争的中国大历史） 蔡东藩等 孩子必读的中华历史文化故事·远古夏商周卷 楼宇烈 史记研究集成·十二本纪 殷本纪 商国君 图腾分析路径下中国五帝文明研究 付希亮 汉民族史记（1-9卷） 徐杰舜主编 殷代史（第二版） 殷作斌 殷昌盛 甘肃通史·先秦卷 刘光华

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

王玉哲 Author

Wang Yuzhe: publicly available information is limited, with no clear record of his life, nationality, or dates of birth and death. Judging from the works held in the collection, his writings focus on pre-Qin history and the ancient history of China, totaling three titles: the five-volume Pre-Qin History in the Chinese Dynastic History series, the Chinese Dynastic History boxed set (from remote Chinese antiquity to the Qing dynasty), and Ancient History of China. These are history books that follow a dynastic-history format to trace the political, social, and cultural development of early China, emphasizing the organization of historical sources and the analysis of historical facts; the style is scholarly rather than popular narrative. Their inclusion in a general dynastic-history set indicates that they carry some weight in the compilation of the relevant period histories and can serve readers seeking a systematic understanding of pre-Qin and ancient Chinese history.