This is the first English-language book fully devoted to the Erligang Civilization. In the words of Steinke's preface, it aims “to bring the Erligang civilization to the attention of a wide audience”, highlighting its distinctive elite material culture as well as its unique position in archaeological research of Bronze Age China.
The book consists of nine chapters, organized into four sections: Introduction; Defining the Erligang civilization; Erligang and the south; and Parting thoughts. In chapter 1, Robert Bagley presents a detailed review of the history of Erligang bronzes and the discovery of Erligang culture. The tone he sets for this book is to “make a case for Erligang bronzes as deserving of attention in their own right”. In chapter 2, Zhang Changping offers a concise introduction to archaeological finds at Panlongcheng, and also discusses their significance in understanding Erligang culture.
There are four chapters under the section “Defining the Erligang civilization”. The two chapters by Wang Haicheng and John Baine respectively present studies of “cross-cultural comparison”, using cases from ancient Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and Egypt in order to throw light on the expansion of the Erligang state. In the other two chapters, Roderick Campbell tries to understand the appearance of Erligang as a civilization by examining a number of the most significant characteristics of the Erligang site, such as site size, production specialization and scale, the extent of material culture distribution, the scale of labour organization, and mortuary hierarchy; while Yung-ti Li highlights a set of hidden assumptions stemming from traditional Chinese historiography, which, he believes, have misled research on Bronze Age archaeology in China.
The focus of chapters 7 and 8 is “Erligang and the south”, which is crucial for understanding the so-called Erligang expansion. Kyle Steinke's chapter draws a general picture of the relationship between Erligang and the rise of bronze industries in the south, with a focus on the bronzes found at Xingan Dayangzhou in Jiangxi province. Robin McNeal discusses early bronze finds in Hunan and their possible links with the Erligang expansion. In chapter 9, Maggie Bickford offers some thoughts on the contribution of the study of early Chinese bronzes to art history in general, especially from a methodological point of view.
In my opinion, this book will stand as a milestone in the study of early Chinese bronzes. One of its major arguments is the necessity of defining or interpreting Erligang on its own terms rather than jumping to conclusions about an affiliation with the Shang dynasty. As Steinke puts it, “Insisting on a connection with the Shang dynasty attested later at Anyang shifts attention to the more thoroughly explored Anyang site and obscures the role of Erligang in the rise of civilization in East Asia”. Such a strong attitude of suspicion regarding the transmitted texts as well as traditional Chinese historiography is also echoed in Yungti Li's criticism of the so-called dynastic model. This argument clearly challenges current practices in archaeological research in China, in which the Erligang culture is widely seen as remains of the early Shang dynasty.
This book offers some interesting examples of approaching the Erligang material record without the aid of Shang Oracle Bones and later texts. In his discussion of “regional perspective”, Campbell proposes viewing Zhengzhou and other Central Plains Bronze Age centres as nodes in far-reaching and constantly changing networks of warfare, alliance, ritual, trade, tribute, marriage and other things. Similarly, based on his art historical readings of bronzes found at Xingan, Dayangzhou, Steinke points out Xingan's connection with Erligang, and sees this connection as evidence for Erligang expansion. Yet he also emphasizes the contribution of southern cultures, as he states that “the Erligang expansion brought northern ideas into contact with southern cultures that were fully prepared to exploit them”.
What is highlighted repeatedly in this book is the so-called Erligang expansion. From a perspective of cross-cultural comparison, Wang Haicheng notes that the large-scale dissemination of a distinctive material culture is fairly common in the initial stages of civilizations, with resource procurement and trade being its major motives. In interpreting the Erligang expansion, however, Wang proposes that ideological motives could have played a major role too. However, it remains to be explored how such ideological motives may have been integrated with other economic or military motives, and why ritual bronze vessels should have played such a symbolic or representative role in this expansion process.
In the eyes of many of the authors of this volume, the Erligang civilization deserves much more credit for its immense contribution to characteristics of early Chinese civilization, such as the bronze industry as well as the Chinese writing system. While the earliest appearance of the writing system in China is still an issue of debate, to credit Erligang foundries as “the starting point for the development of factory organization in China” could be somewhat misleading, as archaeological discoveries from the even earlier Erlitou site give clear evidence for the emergence of a bronze industry based on piece-mould casting technology. While the unique significance of the Erligang civilization receives full recognition here, the continuity or connection in the development of bronze technology from Erlitou to Erligang should not be overlooked.
Yung-ti Li's chapter “The politics of maps, pottery, and archaeology” is worthy of special attention, as it specifically questions many practices in current archaeological research in China, such as drawing the cultural and political boundaries of the late Shang dynasty based on the distribution of archaeological remains. While Li's acute and stimulating discussions of hidden assumptions in Chinese Bronze Age archaeology are fully appreciated, I wonder whether the heavily criticized dynastic model might better be seen as one alternative interpretation of archaeological discoveries in China, rather than being regarded as a totally distorted one which should be abandoned completely.
