The book’s epigraph is “Zai shan,” ode 290. This has traditionally been considered a hymn of the Zhou royal family, but dozens of aristocratic families in North China traced their descent from ancient Zhou kings and could have sung this at their own ancestral temples. I have translated bangjia as “dynasty” because patrilineal descent was central to early Chinese political rituals; it could refer to the ruling family of any Zhou polity along with its associated households. The song is full of repeated words and phrases that would have rhymed when sung, but my translation attempts to convey the meaning rather than the sonority. My translation draws on Legge’s, and I also consulted the versions of Waley and Karlgren. Cheng and Jiang, Shijing zhuxi, 980; Legge, The Book of Poetry, 600; Waley, The Book of Songs, 162; Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 250; Karlgren, Glosses on the Book of Odes, 163; Kern, “Bronze Inscriptions”; Lewis, The Construction of Space, 80.
1. The Mencius quote is my translation; see Legge, Mencius 6A.407; Lau, Mencius, 250–51. Much later I discovered Yi-fu Tuan’s 1969 book China, which does in fact discuss the human impact on China’s environments, though one would not know it from the title.
2. Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness.” For a thoughtful overview of the field of environmental history, see Radkau, Nature and Power.
3. The phrase “reorganization of nature” comes from Worster, The Wealth of Nature, 57.
4. Qin was the closest Chinese-speaking state to Inner Asia for five centuries, and Shaanxi people were referred to as “Qin people” long after the fall of the Qin state, so it came to be the word used for China in Inner Asian languages, from which it spread across Eurasia. Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, sec. 12.2; Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, 1:268–78. The other regional Neolithic cultures I am thinking of are Shimao, Hongshan, Shijiahe, and Liangzhu, though there were others.
5. Peterson and Shelach, “Jiangzhai.”
6. On this comparison, see Nylan and Vankeerberghen, Chang’an 26 BCE; Scheidel, Rome and China. Just as Qin was already effectively an empire decades before it declared itself one, Rome’s pan-Mediterranean empire was already in place by the mid-second century BCE.
7. Wittfogel’s early work on the material basis of Chinese society deeply influenced a generation of scholars in Europe and Asia, but after he denounced Owen Lattimore and others to anticommunist hawks and published his paranoid Oriental Despotism (1957), sinologists shunned him and downplayed his influence on their ideas. For Wittfogel’s early work, see Wittfogel, “The Foundations and Stages of Chinese Economic History”; Vogel, “K. A. Wittfogel’s Marxist Studies on China (1926–1939)”; Brook and Blue, China and Historical Capitalism, 104, 143–147; Smith, “Rehabilitating a Renegade?” In East Asian languages there is a substantial body of work on early China’s environmental history, including Shi, He shan ji (9 vols.); Hara, Kodai Chūgoku no kaihatsu to kankyō, “Nōhon” shugi to “ōdo” no hassei; Wang, Qin Han shiqi shengtai huanjing yanjiu; Muramatsu, Chūgoku kodai kankyōshi no kenkyū. Two great surveys also cover this period, namely Anderson’s Food and Environment in Early and Medieval China and Marks’s China: An Environmental History. For my earlier work, see “Environmental Change and the Rise of the Qin Empire.” Ruth Mostern’s book The Yellow River analyzes the kinds of issues I had originally hoped to study, though it is considerably more ambitious. Great books on ancient Mediterranean environments include Horden and Purcell, The Corrupting Sea; Grove and Rackham, The Nature of Mediterranean Europe; and Harper, The Fate of Rome.
8. For an idea of how much new information has been unearthed in the past five decades, compare this book with Ho, The Cradle of the East. On the archaeology of the historical period in China, the following article is still relevant: Falkenhausen, “On the Historiographical Orientation of Chinese Archaeology.”
9. On Chinese ideas of nature, see Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants; Vogel and Dux, Concepts of Nature.
10. On scholarship that blames China for global environmental problems, see Lord, “The New Peril.” On European imperialism, see Richards, The Unending Frontier; Belich, Replenishing the Earth; and Ross, Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire.
The epigraph is the opening passage of “On Herding the People,” one of the most famous essays of the Warring States period and the first work in the Guanzi collection. Like most early essays, it had an author who is unknown. The first word, Mu 牧, implies both nurturing and disciplining livestock, but I translate it as “herd” rather than “tend” because the graph depicts a hand hitting a bull with a stick. “Heed the four seasons” means that a ruler should make his subjects perform corvée or military labor only during the agricultural off-season lest it reduce their harvests and his tax income. Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 1.2; Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 52.
1. The total dry biomass of all living humans is estimated at 0.06 gigatons (sixty million metric tons) of carbon (Gt C) and that of livestock at 0.1 Gt C. The total biomass of all wild mammals has been reduced to a mere 0.007 Gt C. Bar-On, Phillips, and Milo, “The Biomass Distribution on Earth”; Smil, Harvesting the Biosphere, 226–29; Ceballos, Ehrlich, and Dirzo, “Biological Annihilation.”
2. The quote is from Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” 256. The term “Anthropocene” is powerful because it succinctly encapsulates the idea that the human transformation of the earth is a scientific fact and a global phenomenon that affects everyone. But it also seems to assign environmental blame equally across our species when some people deserve far more of it than others: Haraway, “Anthropocene”; Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life, 169–73. I will employ the word “natural” according to its most common usage and will consider environments natural insofar as they are not created by or dependent on humans, a spectrum of “naturalness” ranging from ecosystems without any human influence to totally anthropogenic ones. Those who would argue that everything is equally natural—or reject the use of the term altogether—are stuck in the paradigm of the Anthropocene, and should remember that humans have only become a dominant force in the earth’s ecosystems in very recent geological time. More practically, “natural” is as good a concept as any for discussing degrees of human influence on ecosystems. Williams, “Ideas of Nature”; Worster, The Wealth of Nature, 171–83.
3. On human energetics, see Smil, Energy in Nature and Society, 119–202. As discussed in chapter 5, the Qin and early Han Empires issued one qing (45,700 square meters; 11.3 acres) of land to families without rank. Families averaged around five people in this period, so this is about nine thousand square meters per person. On the distribution of the population in the Han period, see Bielenstein, “Chinese Historical Demography A.D. 2–1982,” 12, 193.
4. Increasing populations can be inferred from the density of archaeological sites: Hosner et al., “Spatiotemporal Distribution Patterns of Archaeological Sites,” 1583; Wolfe, Dunavan, and Diamond, “Origins of Major Human Infectious Diseases.”
5. Political: “Of, belonging to, or concerned with the form, organization, and administration of a state.” OED Online (Oxford University Press), accessed February 5, 2015. The definition of “ecology” is from Begon, Townsend, and Harper, Ecology, xi. The established field of political ecology is not as focused on states as this book is but is similarly concerned with the intersections between environmental questions and relations of power. Robbins, Political Ecology.
6. My translation. Jiang, Shang jun shu zhuizhi, 6.42; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 158.
7. Algaze, Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization, 129. On shepherding as a political metaphor, see Wiseman, “Interpreting Ancient Social Organization”; and Foucault, Security, Territory, Population.
8. Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime”; Scott, Against the Grain; Trigger, Sociocultural Evolution, 208–22; Scheidel, “Studying the State”; D’Altroy, “Empires Reconsidered”; Mann, The Sources of Social Power, 146–54. My definition of a state is based on that in Trigger, Understanding Early Civilizations, 195.
9. Halstead and O’Shea, Bad Year Economics; Trigger, Sociocultural Evolution, 208–22; Mann, The Sources of Social Power, 146–54.
10. The classic overestimation of the power of premodern states is Karl Wittfogel’s Oriental Despotism, which projected his own suffering under Nazi totalitarianism in his native Germany onto premodern states in an imagined “orient.” On the comparative weakness of premodern states, see Scheidel, “Studying the State,” 16–18; on taxation, see Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael; and on illegal agricultural colonization, see Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy, Reardon-Anderson, Reluctant Pioneers, and Perdue, Exhausting the Earth.
11. On India’s elephants, see Trautmann, Elephants and Kings.
12. Yoffee, Myths of the Archaic State.
13. Underhill, Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China; Sterckx, Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China.
14. Like the French/English word “levée/levy” and the Chinese fu 賦 discussed in chapter 3, the Mesopotamian term ilku first referred to labor service and was later used for taxes, evidence of how easily labor service obligations could be converted to tax payments. Liverani, Uruk, 20–25; Jursa and Moreno García, “The Ancient Near East and Egypt.”
15. Marx, Capital, vol. 1, chap. 26; Wood, “The Separation of the ‘Economic’ and the ‘Political.’”
16. Trigger, Understanding Early Civilizations, 375–94; D’Altroy, “The Inka Empire”; Smith, “The Aztec Empire”; D’Altroy and Earle, “Staple Finance, Wealth Finance and Storage”; Ardant, “Financial Policy and Economic Infrastructure,” 166; Korolkov, “Empire-Building.”
17. Monson and Scheidel, “Studying Fiscal Regimes,” 19; Eisenstadt, The Political Systems of Empires.
18. Earle, Bronze Age Economics. For a useful explanation of life as a warlord, see de Waal, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa.
19. Streusand, Islamic Gunpowder Empires, 20–21; Hall, “The Muromachi Bakufu,” 193–202; Richards, The Mughal Empire, 77–93; Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, 104–8. A more recent example of such a decentralized system is Britain and its settler colonies in the first half of the twentieth century.
20. The Roman Empire developed a bureaucracy only in response to a revenue shortage after the crisis of the third century CE. See Finer, The History of Government, 532–604. For the Bible references, see Matthew 9:10, 11:19, 21:31; Mark 2:15; Luke 5:30, 7:34, 15:1.
21. Weber, Economy and Society, 956–75; Kamenka, Bureaucracy; Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, 107–17.
22. Morehart and De Lucia, Surplus; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang. Quote from Trigger, Understanding Early Civilizations, 388, citing Max Weber’s The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations.
23. On the fact of male dominance, see Trigger, Understanding Early Civilizations, 71; Millett, Sexual Politics, 25. Of course humans cannot be simply divided into two sexes; there is something of a biological continuum between the two, but the ability to inseminate and the ability to become pregnant have always been mutually exclusive, a duality generally recognized in human societies. For evidence that patriarchy is not a characteristic of all human societies, see Whyte, The Status of Women; Leacock, “Women’s Status in Egalitarian Society”; Schlegel, Sexual Stratification. Understanding patriarchy requires a global approach, not a focus on European traditions like those in Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, and Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature.
24. Betzig, Despotism and Differential Reproduction; Scheidel, “Sex and Empire”; Lippold, “Human Paternal and Maternal Demographic Histories”; Blackburn, Lust, chap. 13; Reich, Who We Are and How We Got Here, 137–40, 231–46; Clutton-Brock, Mammal Societies; Wilkinson, Chinese History, sec. 38.15.3. Quote from Fabre-Serris and Keith, Women and War in Antiquity, 3.
25. For example, virtually every story in Liu and Kinney, Exemplary Women of Early China, begins by connecting the woman in question with a man.
26. Kim and Kissel, Emergent Warfare; Clastres, Society against the State; Trigger, “Maintaining Economic Equality”; Lewis, Sanctioned Violence; Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome; Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants, chap. 5.
27. Haas, Evolution of the Prehistoric State; Carneiro, “The Role of Warfare in Political Evolution”; Finer, “State- and Nation-Building in Europe”; Bensel, Yankee Leviathan; Wong and Rosenthal, Before and Beyond Divergence; Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, 139; Perdue, China Marches West.
28. Smythe, “Forms of Political Authority.”
29. This description of Rome is based on Monson and Scheidel, Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, 208–81.
30. The quote is from Tilly and Ardant, The Formation of National States in Western Europe, 42; Monson, “Hellenistic Empires”; Hui, War and State Formation; Chang, The Rise of the Chinese Empire.
31. Quote from Scott, Seeing Like a State, 2; Schwartz, “The Primacy of the Political Order.” On the relationship between the state and taxpayers in later periods of Chinese history, see Twitchett, Financial Administration; Huang, Taxation and Governmental Finance; Hsiao, Rural China. On the bureaucratization of the afterlife, see Harper, “Resurrection in Warring States Popular Religion.”
The epigraph comes from chapter 10 of the Xunzi. I have translated it rather loosely for readability, simplifying the list of aquatic animals since some of them are impossible to identify, and leaving out gu (“drum”), which is not found in many editions of the text. “The five grains” is a standard phrase referring to foxtail and broomcorn millet, wheat, beans, and rice (in the south) or hemp seeds (in the north). The six kinds of livestock were pigs, dogs, chickens, horses, cattle, and sheep/goats. Wang, Xunzi jijie, 10.184–85; Knoblock, Xunzi, vol. 2, 127–28; Hutton, Xunzi, 88–89; Zhang and Fan, Zhongguo nongye tongshi, 20.
1. Bar-On, Phillips, and Milo, “The Biomass Distribution on Earth.” In gigatons of carbon biomass, cattle weigh in at 0.061, swine at 0.021, and the two of them constitute 48 percent of the whole world’s mammalian biomass of 0.167.
2. The following section summarizes Lander, “Birds and Beasts Were Many,” which was originally written as a chapter of this book; see also Lander and Brunson, “Wild Mammals of Ancient North China,” and Shi, “Gudai de Guanzhong.”
3. Kidder and Zhuang, “Anthropocene Archaeology of the Yellow River”; Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3; Mostern, The Yellow River. In China the Guanzhong Basin is generally considered a part of the Loess Plateau, but I consider it separate because of its low elevation.
4. Li, Zhang, and Xue, “The Composition of Three Mammal Faunas”; Qi, “Zhongguo beifang disiji buru dongwuqun,” 333–34; Tong, “Occurrences of Warm-Adapted Mammals in North China”; Fu et al., “DNA Analysis of an Early Modern Human.”
5. In 2013, Chun Chang Huang told me that he and his colleagues estimate that the mid-Holocene was 1.5 degrees warmer, with 200 mm more precipitation, but that these figures are difficult to prove because they are based on several lines of evidence. In addition to Huang’s work, see Lu et al., “Phytoliths as Quantitative Indicators,” and Feng et al., “Stratigraphic Evidence of a Megahumid Climate between 10,000 and 4000 Years B.P.” On ancient climates and faunas, see Peters et al., “Holocene Cultural History of Red Jungle Fowl”; Lander and Brunson, “Wild Mammals of Ancient North China”; Turvey and Fritz, “The Ghosts of Mammals Past.”
6. Willis and McElwain, The Evolution of Plants, 225–64; Lander, “Birds and Beasts Were Many”; Shen et al., “Forest Cover and Composition on the Loess Plateau.”
7. The most common trees in the Guanzhong Plain now are poplars (Populus cathayana, P. nigra, P. simonii, and P. tomentosa); paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa); catalpa (Catalpa bungee); pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum); white elm (Ulmus pumila); tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima); willows (Salix sp.); Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis); juniper (Juniperus chinensis); and red pine (Pinus tabuliformis). See Shaanxi sheng, Shaanxi sheng zhibei zhi, 538.
8. For more details on these topics, see Lander, “Birds and Beasts Were Many”; Lander and Brunson, “Wild Mammals of Ancient North China”; and Turvey et al., “Long-Term Archives Reveal Shifting Extinction Selectivity.” On salamanders, see Wang et al., “The Decline of the Chinese Giant Salamander.” The scientific name of the snails is Cipangopaludina chinensis, and that of the mussels is Unio (or Nodularia) douglasiae. Li et al., “Mid-Neolithic Exploitation of Mollusks in the Guanzhong.” On the fish of the Yellow River system, see Huanghe shuixi yuye ziyuan diaochaban zuozu, Huanghe shuixi yuye ziyuan; Watts, “30% of Yellow River Fish Species Extinct.”
9. Smith, “Low-Level Food Production”; Crawford, “Early Rice Exploitation in the Lower Yangzi Valley”; Sahlins, Stone Age Economics; Sagart et al., “Dated Language Phylogenies”; Bellwood, “Asian Farming Diasporas?”
10. Liu et al., “The Earliest Unequivocally Modern Humans in Southern China”; Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 42–74; Zhongguo and Shaanxi, “Shaanxi Yichuanxian Longwangdi”; Liu et al., “Plant Exploitation of the Last Foragers at Shizitan.”
11. This paragraph is based on Smith, “A Cultural Niche Construction Theory,” and on advice from Gary Crawford.
12. Zeder, “The Domestication of Animals.”
13. I would like to thank Sasha and Otis for providing me with many insights into dog behavior. Frantz et al., “Genomic and Archaeological Evidence”; Thalmann et al., “Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Ancient Canids”; Zeder, “Pathways to Animal Domestication”; Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 96–98; Larson et al., “Rethinking Dog Domestication.”
14. Bestel et al., “The Evolution of Millet Domestication”; Yang et al., “Early Millet Use in Northern China”; Spengler, “Anthropogenic Seed Dispersal”; Smith, The Emergence of Agriculture, 20.
15. Chen et al., Flora of China, vol. 22: Poaceae, 22:508, 535–36; Kajuna, Millet, 40; Lu et al., “Earliest Domestication of Common Millet”; Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 83–84; Zhao, “New Archaeobotanic Data”; Liu, Hunt, and Jones, “River Valleys and Foothills”; Anderson, Food and Environment, 37.
16. Halstead and O’Shea, Bad Year Economics; Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, chap. 7; McGovern, Uncorking the Past; Liu et al., “The Origins of Specialized Pottery”; Hayden, “Were Luxury Foods the First Domesticates?”; Zhang et al., “Phytolith Evidence for Rice Cultivation”; Zong et al., “Selection for Oil Content during Soybean Domestication”; Scott, Against the Grain. Bestel et al., in “Wild Plant Use and Multi-Cropping,” reveal that people were gathering brassicas, cannabis, and wild jujube.
17. The latest pre-Laoguantai site in the Guanzhong is probably the one published in Liu, “Shaanxi Hancheng Yumenkou jiushiqi shidai dongxue yizhi.” On charcoal evidence, see Huang et al., “High-Resolution Studies of the Oldest Cultivated Soils,” 38–39; Tan et al., “Holocene Wildfires”; Huang et al., “Charcoal Records of Fire History,” 34; Huang et al., “Holocene Colluviation,” 844; Li et al., “Holocene Agriculture in the Guanzhong Basin.” On fire more generally, see Pyne, Fire: A Brief History, 48–84, and Roberts, “Prehistoric Landscape Management.” On erosion caused by Neolithic people, see Rosen, “The Impact of Environmental Change,” and Rosen et al., “The Anthropocene and the Landscape of Confucius.”
18. On Dadiwan, see Barton et al., “Agricultural Origins,” and Gansu sheng, Qin’an Dadiwan, 21–76. On tools from sites in the Guanzhong, see Beijing Daxue, “Huaxian, Weinan gudai yizhi diaocha yu shijue”; Xi’an Banpo bowuguan, “Weinan Beiliu xinshiqi shidai zaoqi yizhi”; Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, Lintong Baijiacun, 21–26. On diets, see Atahan et al., “Early Neolithic Diets at Baijia,” 2815; Pechenkina et al., “Reconstructing Northern Chinese Neolithic Subsistence Practices”; Wang, “Fishing, Farming, and Animal Husbandry,” 157–63.
19. The Guantaoyuan report dates phase 2 to before 5350 and the culturally similar phase 3 to 5350–4950 BCE. In this period that site had a much wider variety of fauna than contemporary sites in the plain, such as Baijia. Shaanxi and Baoji, Baoji Guantaoyuan, 282–325, 358–63.
20. Gansu sheng, Qin’an Dadiwan, 895; Barton et al., “Agricultural Origins”; Zeder, “The Domestication of Animals.”
21. Liu, Yang, and Chen, “Zhongguo jiayang shuiniu qiyuan chutan”; Yang et al., “Wild or Domesticated”; Lefeuvre, “Rhinoceros and Wild Buffaloes North of the Yellow River”; Lander and Brunson, “The Sumatran Rhinoceros.” On the remains of wild sheep and goats, see Beijing Daxue, “Huaxian, Weinan gudai yizhi diaocha yu shijue,” 304. On the other animals, see Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, Lintong Baijiacun, 123–27; Shaanxi sheng, Lintong Lingkoucun, 525–33.
22. Although its results are preliminary, this paper convincingly argues that the Neolithic was the first period of sustained population growth in China: Wang et al., “Prehistoric Demographic Fluctuations in China.” On the human impact, see Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 210–19, and Wagner et al., “Mapping of the Spatial and Temporal Distribution.”
23. Li, Bower, and He, Chinese Ceramics, 47–58.
24. Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 133–34.
25. On the maps of archaeological sites, see Jaffe et al., “Mismatches of Scale.” On fallow times, see Boserup, The Conditions of Agricultural Growth.
26. Other villages with similar layouts were excavated at Beishouling and Dadiwan, and the Shijia site had similar material remains. Chang, The Archaeology of Ancient China, 112–28; Zhou, Zhongguo nongju fazhan shi, 64–71; Xi’an Banpo bowuguan, “Shaanxi Weinan Shijia xinshiqi shidai yizhi”; Zhongguo and Xi’an, Xi’an Banpo, 75–80, 166–68, plate 75.
27. Peterson and Shelach, “Jiangzhai”; Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 82.
28. Shaanxi sheng, Lintong Lingkoucun, 445–50; Xi’an, Shaanxi, and Lintong, Jiangzhai, 539–42.
29. Pechenkina et al., “Reconstructing Northern Chinese Neolithic Subsistence Practices”; Pechenkina, Benfer, and Wang, “Diet and Health Changes at the End of the Chinese Neolithic”; Xi’an Banpo bowuguan, Xi’an Banpo, 30. The wild walnuts are Juglans mandshurica; the domesticated form (J. regia) arrived from western Asia in the Han era or later. See Hebei and Handan, “Hebei Wuan Cishan yizhi,” 336; and Beer et al., “Vegetation History of the Walnut Forests in Kyrgyzstan”; Liu, Li, and Hou, “Making Beer.”
30. Wang et al., “Pig Domestication and Husbandry Practices”; Wang et al., “Morphometric Analysis of Sus Remains”; Pechenkina et al., “Reconstructing Northern Chinese Neolithic Subsistence Practices,” 1186; Larson et al., “Patterns of East Asian Pig Domestication”; Lander, Schneider, and Brunson, “A History of Pigs in China”; Wu et al., “Zhongguo xinshiqi shidai”; Coppinger and Coppinger, What Is a Dog?
31. Zhongguo and Xi’an, Xi’an Banpo, 255–69; Xi’an, Shaanxi, and Lintong, Jiangzhai, 504–38; Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, Baoji Beishouling, 146; Flad, Yuan, and Li, “Zooarchaeological Evidence,” 182–84; Gansu sheng, Qin’an Dadiwan, 861–910. Beishouling was occupied from the late Laoguantai well into the Yangshao period, but the zooarchaeology report does not distinguish between strata. The freshwater snail is the Chinese apple snail Cipangopaludina cathayensis.
32. Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 85–89; Ma, Emergent Social Complexity, 45–50; Underhill and Habu, “Early Communities in East Asia,” 131–32; Xibei Daxue, Fufeng Anban yizhi fajue baogao; Gansu sheng, Qin’an Dadiwan, 131–32.
33. Beijing Daxue and Zhongguo, Huaxian Quanhucun, 31–47; Xi’an, Shaanxi, and Lintong, Jiangzhai, 285–98, 350; Shaanxi, Xi’an Mijiaya, 159, 170; Shaanxi and Xibei Daxue, Gaoling Dongying, 58.
34. Sheng et al., “North-South Patterning of Millet Agriculture,” 1558; Li et al., “Early Cultivated Wheat”; Jia et al., “The Development of Agriculture”; Zhou et al., “Early Agricultural Development”; He et al., “Prehistoric Evolution of the Dualistic Structure”; Song, Wang, and Fuller, “A Regional Case in the Development of Agriculture”; Lee et al., “Archaeological Soybean in East Asia”; Zhang et al., “Phytolith Evidence for Rice Cultivation”; Zong et al., “Selection for Oil Content during Soybean Domestication”; Ma, “The Prehistoric Flora of Yangguangzhai.” The latter, an unpublished study, lists the following numbers of grains of each species: foxtail grass type, 1563; foxtail millet, 1184; bean family, 806; grass family, 470; broomcorn millet, 179; purslane, 117; chenopod, 19; salsola, 13; perilla, 10; polygonum, 3; foxnut (Euryale ferox), 2.
35. Pechenkina, Benfer, and Ma, “Diet and Health in the Neolithic”; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Sorghum and Millets.
36. The poems in the Book of Odes mention tao 桃, li 李, changdi 常棣, and mei 梅, which are usually identified with peaches (Prunus persica), plums (P. salicina), cherries (P. pseudocerasus), and “Japanese apricot” (P. mume), respectively, though we cannot be sure about these identifications. Plants like yu 鬱 and tangdi 唐棣 probably also refer to varieties of Prunus. Gantang 甘棠, du 杜, and sui 檖 are usually identified as varieties of pears (Pyrus sp.) or possibly crab apples (Malus sp.), not necessarily domesticated. Jujubes were called zao 棗 and ji 棘. Mugua 木瓜 probably referred to Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis). Bretschneider, “Botanicon Sinicum”; Spengler, Fruit from the Sands; Zhang et al., “Genetic Diversity and Domestication Footprints of Chinese Cherry”; Zheng, Crawford, and Chen, “Archaeological Evidence for Peach”; Zhang, “Pinpoguo kao”; Lu and Zhao, Mao shi caomu niaoshou (unpaginated; 59th page after the index).
37. Over 80 percent of faunal remains (both in numbers of specimens and by weight) identified at Xipo belonged to domesticated pigs, most of which were killed before two years of age. Deer constituted less than a tenth of the total faunal remains. There were also remains of bears, pheasants/chickens, porcupines, gazelles, wild horses, aurochs, macaques, hares, mussels, clams, and frogs. Ma, Emergent Social Complexity, 64–81; Shaanxi and Xibei Daxue, Gaoling Dongying, 199; Baoji and Zhongguo, Baoji Fulinbao, 221–24; Xibei Daxue, Fufeng Anban yizhi fajue baogao; Dodson et al., “Oldest Directly Dated Remains of Sheep in China.” The latter study uses isotope data to argue that bones excavated from Yangshao-era sites belonged to domesticated sheep, but this argument is based on the dubious assumption that wild sheep ate few C4 plants.
38. The mammals that have adapted best to agricultural landscapes include brown and Oriental house rats (Rattus norvegicus and R. tanezumi), white-bellied rats (Niniventer confucianus), striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius), greater long-tailed hamsters (Tscherskia triton), Amur hedgehogs (Erinaceus amurensis), Tolai hares (Lepus tolai), and at least three species of bats: common serotines (Eptesicus serotinus), gray long-eared bats (Plecotus austriacus), and Japanese pipistrelles (Pipistrellus abramus). The birds in question are pigeons (Columba livia), Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus), barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), red-rumped swallows (Hirundo daurica), and Asian house martins (Delichon dasypus). Smith and Xie, Guide to the Mammals of China; Vigne et al., “Earliest ‘Domestic’ Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat.” On weeds, see Beijing Daxue and Henan, Dengfeng Wangchenggang kaogu faxian, 916–58, and An, Kirleis, and Jin, “Changing of Crop Species and Agricultural Practices.”
39. On site abandonment, see Ma, Emergent Social Complexity, 19, 25; Xu, “Naturally and Anthropogenically Accelerated Sedimentation.” On the evidence for additions to soil, see Zhuang, “Geoarchaeological Investigation,” 190.
40. Zhongguo, “Shaanxi Lantian Xiehu yizhi,” 435–37; Zhongguo, Wugong fajue baogao, 14, 98; Liang and Li, “Shaanxi Wugong Zhaojialai yuanluo juzhi chubu fuyuan”; Li, Bower, and He, Chinese Ceramics, 72–102; Flad, “Divination and Power,” 408; Mei, “Early Metallurgy and Socio-cultural Complexity.”
41. Remains of the Erlitou culture were found at only one site in the Guanzhong, namely, the eastern site of Nanshacun. Ceramics across the eastern Guanzhong had some similarities to those of the Erlitou culture, which, after all, was also a regional outgrowth of Longshan culture. Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 215–16; Beijing Daxue, “Huaxian, Weinan gudai yizhi diaocha yu shijue,” 315–20; Liu and Chen, State Formation in Early China, 74; Zhang, Guanzhong Shangdai wenhua yanjiu; Sebillaud, “La distribution spatiale de l’habitat,” vol. 1, 307, vol. 2, 223–31.
42. Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 47, 60–63, 101, 209–10; Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 215, 257; Dong et al., “Response of Geochemical Records in Lacustrine Sediments.” Archaeological surveys have revealed some sites that may be quite large, such as Shijia 史家 in Wugong, but they have yet to be excavated. Zhongguo wenwuju, Zhongguo wenwu dituji Shaanxi fence, 476.
43. Sites with tools include Zhongguo, Wugong fajue baogao, 61–69, 98; Xi’an Banpo bowuguan, “Shaanxi Qishan Shuang’an”; Shaanxi and Xibei Daxue, Gaoling Dongying, 125–33; Shaanxi, Xi’an Mijiaya; Zhongguo, Fengxi fajue baogao, 49–69; Xi’an, Shaanxi, and Lintong, Jiangzhai, 322; Zhongguo, “Shaanxi Huayin Hengchen yizhi fajue baogao,” 20–32; Shaanxi, “Shaanxi Lintong Kangjia yizhi fajue jianbao”; Shaanxi, “Shaanxi sheng Lintong xian Kangjia yizhi.” On sizeable sites in Henan, see Sebillaud, “La distribution spatiale de l’habitat,” 309–11.
44. Wang et al., “Temporal Changes of Mixed Millet and Rice Agriculture,” 747 (on the increasing popularity of foxtail millet); Lee et al., “Plants and People,” 1089; Lee and Bestel, “Contextual Analysis of Plant Remains”; Zhao and Xu, “Zhouyuan yizhi (Wangjiazui di dian)”; Jia et al., “The Development of Agriculture” (which mentions 1,200 chenopod seeds excavated from the Buziping site, Gansu, suggesting that people ate the seeds); Zhou et al., “Early Agricultural Development”; Lee et al., “Archaeological Soybean in East Asia”; Flad et al., “Early Wheat in China”; Li et al., “Ancient DNA Analysis of Desiccated Wheat Grains”; Li et al., “Early Cultivated Wheat”; Wang et al., “Shaanxi Baishuihe.” On the advantages of millets over wheat, see Zhang, The River, the Plain, and the State, 224–28; on East Asian fruit arriving in Central Asia, see Stevens et al., “Between China and South Asia,” and Spengler, Fruit from the Sands; on yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) and mountain apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris), see Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 55; on peach and apricot charcoal, see Shen et al., “Forest Cover and Composition on the Loess Plateau”; on fire and erosion, see Huang et al., “Charcoal Records of Fire History”; Huang et al., “Holocene Colluviation”; and Li et al., “Holocene Agriculture in the Guanzhong Basin.”
45. On excavated impressions of fabric, see Zhongguo, “Gansu Yongjing Dahezhuang yizhi,” plate 6, tomb 75:1; Kuhn, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.9, 23, 272–79; Yang, Xi Zhou shi, 307. For hemp seeds dated around 2000 BCE, see Jia et al., “The Development of Agriculture.” Information on the Shuanghuaishu site has yet to be formally published.
46. Shaanxi and Xibei Daxue, Gaoling Dongying, 199; Pechenkina, Benfer, and Wang, “Diet and Health Changes at the End of the Chinese Neolithic.” On Kangjia, see Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 261. According to Pechenkina, Benfer, and Ma (“Diet and Health in the Neolithic,” 260), anemia “can develop in response to a prolonged energy deficiency in combination with inadequate mineral composition of food or chronic parasitic loads.”
47. Roberts, “What Did Agriculture Do for Us?”; Wolfe, Dunavan, and Diamond, “Origins of Major Human Infectious Diseases”; Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 195–214; Yeh, Zhan, and Qi, “A Comparison of Ancient Parasites”; Comas et al., “Out-of-Africa Migration” (on tuberculosis); Leung, “Diseases of the Premodern Period in China.”
48. Fitzgerald-Huber, “The Qijia Culture”; Flad, Yuan, and Li, “Zooarchaeological Evidence”; Kuzmina, The Prehistory of the Silk Road; Jeong et al., “Bronze Age Population Dynamics”; Yuan, Han, and Blench, “Livestock in Ancient China,” 86; Cai et al., “The Origins of Chinese Domestic Cattle”; Cai et al., “Early History of Chinese Domestic Sheep”; Lu et al., “Zooarchaeological and Genetic Evidence”; Eda et al., “Reevaluation of Early Holocene Chicken Domestication”; Peters et al., “Holocene Cultural History of Red Jungle Fowl.”
49. Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 138–66; You, Zhongguo nongye tongshi: Yuanshi shehui juan, 279; Lin et al., “Pathological Evidence Reveals Cattle Traction”; Postgate, Early Mesopotamia, 163–64; Lu et al., “Zooarchaeological and Genetic Evidence,” 108.
50. Stol, “Milk, Butter and Cheese”; Jeong et al., “Bronze Age Population Dynamics”; Wilkin et al., “Dairy Pastoralism”; Curry, “The Milk Revolution”; Huang, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.5, 248–57; Yang et al., “Proteomics Evidence for Kefir Dairy.”
51. Wang et al., “The Holocene Asian Monsoon”; Cai et al., “The Variation of Summer Monsoon”; An, Cheng, and Barton, “Dry or Humid?”; Wu et al., “A High Resolution Record of Vegetation”; Feng et al., “Holocene Vegetation Variations”; Huang et al., “Holocene Palaeoflood Events”; Huang et al., “Extraordinary Floods of 4100–4000 a BP”; Huang et al., “Extraordinary Floods Related to the Climatic Event”; Clift and Plumb, The Asian Monsoon, 203–10; Roberts, The Holocene, 220–21; Wu and Liu, “Possible Role of the ‘Holocene Event 3’”; Liu et al., “The Impacts of Climate Change on the Neolithic Cultures”; Rascovan et al., “Emergence and Spread of Basal Lineages of Yersinia pestis.”
52. Cai et al., “The Variation of Summer Monsoon” (the cave south of Xi’an); Huang et al., “Sedimentary Records of Extraordinary Floods”; Huang et al., “Holocene Palaeoflood Events”; Li and Huang, “Holocene Palaeoflood Events”; Huang et al., “Abruptly Increased Climatic Aridity”; Huang et al., “Climatic Aridity”; Huang et al., “Extraordinary Floods of 4100–4000 a BP,” 6; Huang et al., “Charcoal Records of Fire History,” 31; Huang et al., “Holocene Dust Accumulation”; Long et al., “Holocene Climate Variations from Zhuyeze.”
53. Liu, Xi’an Laoniupo. Pre-Zhou sites in the Guanzhong include those described in Beijing Daxue and Shaanxi sheng, “Shaanxi Huixian Beicun yizhi”; Beijing Daxue, “Shaanxi Fufengxian Yijiabao yizhi”; and Baoji, “Shaanxi Wugong Zhengjiapo xian Zhou yizhi faju jianbao.” For bronze images of fish and turtles, see Shaanxi et al., Shaanxi chutu Shang Zhou qingtongqi, vol. 1, 66–72; Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, Nan Binzhou, 490–92. Of 11,484 identified specimens from over two hundred waste pits at Nianzipo, half were cattle, a third were pigs, 7 percent were dogs, and there were also some sheep/goats and horses.
54. Huang et al., “Holocene Colluviation.”
55. The most common terms for millets in the Odes are ji 稷 and shu 黍; less common are liang 梁 and su 粟. Shu 菽 was the common term for beans. It was probably usually used to refer to soybeans but could also refer to adzuki and mung beans (Vigna angularis and V. radiata), on which see Crawford, “East Asian Plant Domestication,” and Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 223 (note that peas and broad beans arrived in China only in the Han). Zhang and Fan, in Zhongguo nongye tongshi, argue plausibly, but with little evidence, that soy became popular as fallow times decreased. On soy in the Guanzhong, see Hsu, Han Agriculture, 102; on food preservation and the history of soy, see Huang, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.5. On increased wheat consumption, see Zhou et al., “Human Diets during the Social Transition,” and Li et al., “Dietary Shift and Social Hierarchy.”
56. Genetic research suggests that cherries were first domesticated around the Sichuan Basin no later than 1000 BCE. Zhang et al., “Genetic Diversity and Domestication Footprints of Chinese Cherry”; Shaanxi, Zhouyuan 2000 niandu Qijia zhijue zuofang, 717–23 (the Prunus seeds were P. armeniaca or P. mandshurica); Luo and Wang, “Persimmon in China.”
57. Chestnuts are li 栗 (Castanea mollissima), and hazelnuts are zhen 榛 (Corylus sp.). These wild walnuts are Juglans mandshurica. Gourds were referred to in the Odes as gua 瓜, die 瓞, pao 瓟, and hu 瓠/壺. On walnuts, see Laufer, Sino-Iranica, 254–75; Pollegioni et al., “Ancient Humans Influenced the Current Spatial Genetic Structure.” On bottle gourds, see Kistler et al., “Transoceanic Drift and the Domestication of African Bottle Gourds.” On muskmelons, see Shaanxi, Zhouyuan 2000 niandu Qijia zhijue zuofang, 717–23; Sebastian et al., “Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and Melon (C. melo)”; Akashi et al., “Genetic Variation and Phylogenetic Relationships in East and South Asian Melons.”
58. Feng 葑 probably refers to one or more varieties of Brassica rapa. Chinese cabbage is Brassica chinensis, canola is B. campestris, and mallow is Malva verticillata (kui 葵). The term Jiu 韭 referred to species such as Allium chinense or A. tuberosum. The jiao 椒 referred to in the Odes was probably Sichuan pepper. Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 345–46, 521; Bretschneider, “Botanicon Sinicum,” 169–73, 195–203.
59. Odes that mention the gathering of plants that are not clearly agricultural include odes 1, 3, 8, 13, 15, 35, 54, 72, 108, 125, 155, 167, 169, 188, 205, 226, and 299. Keng, “Economic Plants of Ancient North China,” 401–2. On the medical uses of plants, see Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, and Métailié, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.4.
60. Hemp fabric is called ma yi 麻衣 in ode 150 and he 褐 in ode 154. Soaking hemp is mentioned in ode 139. Kudzu vine is ge 葛 (Pueraria sp.) in ode 2, and ramie is zhu 紵/苧 (Boehmeria nivea) in ode 139. On hemp textiles, see Kuhn, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.9, 15–44. For excavated fabric, see Ge, “Jingyang Gaojiabao zao Zhou muzang fajue ji,” 7; Sun, “Dama zaipei qiyuan yu liyong fangshi”; and Zhongguo, Zhangjiapo Xi Zhou mudi, plate 200.
61. The word for a straw hat in ode 291 was written with both bamboo (笠) and grass (苙) radicals: Hanyu da zidian, 2959. On houses, see Zhongguo, Fengxi fajue baogao, 75.
62. At the Fengxi site west of Xi’an, one of the Zhou capitals, pigs comprised 40 percent of the animal remains, followed by cattle and sheep (both 15 percent). At a stone earring workshop in the Zhouyuan, cattle remains comprised 17 percent of the remains, while pigs comprised 23 percent, sheep 21 percent, dogs 14 percent, goats 5 percent, and sheep/goats 3 percent. All of these figures are minimum number of individuals. Yuan and Xu, “Fengxi chutu dongwu guge”; Shaanxi, Zhouyuan 2000 niandu Qijia zhijue zuofang, 724–51; Lam, Zhong, and Lei, “Zhougongmiao Shang-Zhou shiqi juluo”; Peters et al., “Holocene Cultural History of Red Jungle Fowl.”
63. Terms for nets included wang 網, gu 罛, and gu 罟. Terms for fish traps included zhao 罩, gou 笱, and liu 罶, and some of these were probably installed in weirs, liang 梁. Odes 170 and 281 are about fish, while ode 35 mentions weirs with fish traps. Zhongguo, Zhangjiapo Xi Zhou mudi, 282–99, 450–55, and plates 159–60, 182–91. Lam, Zhong, and Lei, “Zhougongmiao Shang-Zhou shiqi juluo.” Reeves’ turtles were excavated at the Zhougongmiao, and both Chinese pond turtles and Chinese stripe-necked turtles were excavated from Zhangjiapo.
64. These are the Qi 漆 and Ju 沮 Rivers. Ode 180, Ji ri 吉日. Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 124; Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 429. I have modified Karlgren’s translation. For si 兕 as “buffalo,” see Lefeuvre, “Rhinoceros and Wild Buffaloes North of the Yellow River.”
65. For some representations of deer, see Lu and Hu, Baoji Yu guo mudi, 338–48; Gao, “Long xing cheng cang”; Zhongguo, Zhangjiapo Xi Zhou mudi, 161–64, color plates 15–23. Plate 24 shows an entire (sika?) deer buried as a sacrifice in a tomb; Sterckx, “Attitudes towards Wildlife and the Hunt.”
66. Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 105, 162; Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 656; For the argument about increasing yields, see Zhang and Fan, Zhongguo nongye tongshi, 177–89.
67. The inscription of the Yihou Ze gui records a grant of chuan 川, which is presumed to mean zhen 甽, referring to ditches between fields. Ma, Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwen xuan, vol. 3, 34–35. On the moats, see Zhongguo, “Xi’an shi Chang’an qu Fengjing yizhi shuixi yicun,” and Epanggong yu Shanglinyuan kaogudui, “Xi’an shi Han Tang Kunmingchi.”
68. The ode is number 291, Shisanjing zhushu, 602, and Legge, The Book of Poetry, 604. The quote from the Monthly Ordinances is from Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 153. The Xunzi quote is from Wang, Xunzi jijie, 10.183 and Knoblock, Xunzi, vol. 2, 127. I have modified the translations of Legge and Knoblock.
69. This paragraph is based on Halstead, “Plough and Power” and Bogaard, Fochesato, and Bowles, “The Farming-Inequality Nexus.”
70. One of the earlier passages is Xu, Guo yu ji jie, 453 (Jinyu 9). On early writing, see Qiu, “Jiaguwen suojian de Shangdai nongye,” 164. The word geng 耕 is often translated “to plow” but often meant simply “to farm” or “to till.” Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 116–17; Yuan and Xu, “Fengxi chutu dongwu guge”; Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 166–67; Needham and Wang, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.2, 303–33; Smil, Energy in Nature and Society, 155–61.
71. The quote is from Liu, Zhanguo ce, 618–19 (Zhao 1), translated in Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 336. On Qin lending oxen, see Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 25.126–27; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 74. On miniature vehicles, see Falkenhausen, “Mortuary Behaviour,” 132.
The epigraph from The Art of War, traditionally attributed to Sunzi, is my translation. Yang, Shiyijia zhu Sunzi jiaoli, 2.29; Ames, Sun-Tzu, 107. The costs are related to materials and provisions. The soldiers were not paid. On gold currency, see Thierry, Monnaies chinoises, 146.
1. This paragraph summarizes chapter 1.
2. Trigger, Sociocultural Evolution, 208; Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed.
3. Trautmann, Elephants and Kings.
4. Trigger, Sociocultural Evolution. This section draws on Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, and Shelach-Lavi, The Archaeology of Early China.
5. Liu, The Chinese Neolithic, 85–89, 101, 117–58; Underhill and Habu, “Early Communities in East Asia”; Underhill, “Warfare and the Development of States”; Xibei Daxue, Fufeng Anban yizhi fajue baogao; Ma, Emergent Social Complexity, 45–50; Gansu sheng, Qin’an Dadiwan, 401–28; Wang, “Shaanxi Xianyang Yinjiacun”; Yang, “Urban Revolution in Late Prehistoric China.”
6. The Liangzhu site flourished before the middle of the third millennium BCE. Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 222–46; Sun et al., “The First Neolithic Urban Center”; Zhang et al., “China’s Major Late Neolithic Centres”; Liu et al., “Earliest Hydraulic Enterprise in China”; Keightley, “At the Beginning,” 26–27.
7. Allan, “Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Civilization.”
8. Kuzmina, The Prehistory of the Silk Road, 46–49; Linduff, Rubin, and Shuyun, The Beginnings of Metallurgy in China, 8–22; Mei, “Early Metallurgy”; Bao, “Xi’an Laoniupo chutu Shang dai zaoqi wenwu”; Xibei Daxue, “Xi’an Laoniupo Shang dai mudi de fajue”; Xibei Daxue, “Shaanxi Chunhua xian Zaoshugounao yizhi,” 30–33. Cylindrical implements excavated at Laoniupo and elsewhere have one hollow end for inserting a wooden handle, while the other end is sharpened like an axe. These could have been used for hoeing but would also have made good weapons, and since all the other bronze implements excavated at these sites were weapons, these were probably also weapons.
9. The official periodization holds that the Erligang period lasted roughly from 1600 to 1400 BCE, but both dates should probably be pushed a bit later. Carbon 14 dates from Lower Erligang sites date between c. 1600 and 1450, and some “Upper Erligang” period 2 remains have been dated to c. 1300 if not later. See Xia-Shang-Zhou duandai gongcheng, Xia-Shang-Zhou duandai gongcheng 1996–2000 nian, 51–52, 62–65; Campbell, Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, 68–105; Thorp, China in the Early Bronze Age, 62–116.
10. Lewis, Sanctioned Violence; Underhill, Craft Production and Social Change; Cook, “Moonshine and Millet”; Chang, “The Animal in Shang and Chou Bronze Art”; Allan, “The Taotie Motif on Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes.” There is more scholarship in English on the meaning of animal motifs in Shang and Zhou art than on living animals in the lives of Shang and Zhou people.
11. Campbell, Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, 77–87; Campbell, Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State; Liu and Chen, State Formation in Early China, 99–130.
12. These paragraphs are based on Campbell, Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State; Keightley, “The Shang”; Keightley, Working for His Majesty; Bagley, “Shang Archaeology”; Thorp, China in the Early Bronze Age; Underhill, A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, 323–86. See also Zhang, Shang dai dili huanjing yanjiu. Many scholars refer to the entire Erligang-Anyang period as “Shang,” and the 1200–1046 period as “late Shang.” I avoid this because we have no evidence that Erligang and Anyang were ruled by the same dynasty.
13. Campbell, Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State, 190; Keightley, “The Late Shang State,” 551–54; Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 363–67; Dong et al., “Shifting Diets and the Rise of Male-Biased Inequality.”
14. Keightley, Working for His Majesty; Campbell, Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State, 125–26, 262; Campbell, “Toward a Networks and Boundaries Approach”; Smith, “Territories, Corridors, and Networks.” For the “Tribute of Yu,” see Karlgren, The Book of Documents, 16–18.
15. Campbell, Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State, 258–61. Most turtles were probably Chinese stripe-necked turtles (Ocadia sinensis) and Chinese pond turtles (Mauremys [previously Chinemys] reevesii), though there may have been others. Li, “Yinxu dongwu yicun yanjiu,” 12, 42; Keightley, Sources of Shang History, 157–70.
16. Campbell et al., “Consumption, Exchange and Production at the Great Settlement Shang”; Keightley, The Shang, 278.
17. Liu and Chen, The Archaeology of China, 359–72; Kakinuma, “The Emergence and Spread of Coins in China,” 84; Pollard et al., “Bronze Age Metal Circulation in China.”
18. Linduff, “A Walk on the Wild Side”; Honeychurch, Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire, 191–94, 201–11.
19. Fiskesjö, “Rising from Blood-Stained Fields,” quote from p. 102 (Jiaguwen heji 10197); see also 106–28, 142. Keightley, Working for His Majesty, 161–68; Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, 150–57; Legge, Mencius, 3B.280; Zhang, “Buci poutian.” Ode 78 also mentions hunting with fire.
20. Schafer, “Hunting Parks and Animal Enclosures”; Allsen, The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History; Lander and Brunson, “Wild Mammals of Ancient North China”; Lander and Brunson, “The Sumatran Rhinoceros.”
21. The only bronze horses I know of are one from the Spring and Autumn period excavated at Tanggongxi Road in Luoyang in 2001, seen in the Luoyang Municipal Museum in 2013, and the Western Zhou horse found at Lijiacun in 1955, seen in Shaanxi sheng, Ji jin zhu hua zhang, 240–43; Vogt, “Between Kin and King,” 214–26; Li, “Yinxu dongwu yicun yanjiu.”
22. Elvin, “Three Thousand Years of Unsustainable Growth.”
23. Chen, Yinxu buci zongshu, 291; Rawson, “Western Zhou Archaeology,” 377–82.
24. On population density in the Guanzhong, see Sebillaud, “La distribution spatiale de l’habitat,” 307–8, 232. Assuming that there was one inhabitant for each 40 square meters of an archaeological site, Sebillaud estimates that there were 800,000 people in the Guanzhong during the 1100-year Longshan period and 315,000 people during the 550-year Erligang-Shang period (1600–1050). This would mean that there were 27 percent more people in the region in any given year of the Longshan period. However, the Longshan culture may have endured for a few centuries after 2000 BCE in the Guanzhong, in which case there would have been less difference between the two periods. On early Erligang sites in the Guanzhong, see Liu, Xi’an Laoniupo, 35–56, and Zhang, Guanzhong Shangdai wenhua yanjiu, 2. The ceramics from this stratum of the Laoniupo site in Xi’an are part of the general Longshan Keshengzhuang tradition; rather than being in the Erligang style, they are similar to contemporary ceramics found farther west in the Tianshui region. On the spread of Erligang influence across the Guanzhong, see Liu, “Shang wenhua zai Xifang de xingshuai”; on Anyang’s influence in the Guanzhong, see Campbell, Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, 85, 116–18, 153–55; Zhang, Guanzhong Shangdai wenhua yanjiu; Bagley, “Shang Archaeology,” 227–29.
25. Liu and Chen, State Formation in Early China, 111, 71–73; Xi’an Banpo bowuguan, “Shaanxi Lantian Huaizhenfang”; Huo, “Shitan Luonan Hongyashan.”
26. The Bronze Age remains at Laoniupo are divided into five periods, whose dates are based on similarities with Henan pottery sequences: period 1 dates to Lower Erligang (1600–1450 BCE), period 2 dates to Upper Erligang (1450–1300), period 3 dates to Yinxu periods 1 and 2 (1350–1220), period 4 dates to Yinxu 4 (1080–40), and the poorly preserved fifth period dates to slightly later. These dates are very approximate. Shaanxi sheng, “2010 nian Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiuyuan kaogu diaocha”; Yuan and Xu, “Fengxi chutu dongwu guge”; Liu, Xi’an Laoniupo, 26–273; Beijing Daxue and Shaanxi sheng, “Shaanxi Huixian Beicun yizhi”; Beijing Daxue, “Shaanxi Fufengxian Yijiabao yizhi”; Baoji, “Shaanxi Wugong Zhengjiapo xian Zhou yizhi faju jianbao.”
27. Dobson, “Linguistic Evidence”; Kern, “Bronze Inscriptions,” 182.
28. “Huang yi,” ode 241; Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 519. Regarding tree names, li 栵 is defined by the Erya as er 栭, which the Institut Ricci’s Le Grand Ricci (Pleco edition) identifies as a type of chestnut (Castanea seguinii). Later uses of Ju 椐 associate it with elm or Zelkova trees. The Shuowen defines zhe 檿 as mountain mulberry (shan sang 山桑) and zhe 柘 as simply “mulberry” (sang 桑). There are several species of mulberry in the region.
29. “Mian,” ode 237. I have modified Waley’s translation in a few places using Karlgren’s. The meanings of these plant names are unknown; they are poetic choices. “Malt sugar” is also something of a guess. See Waley, The Book of Songs, 247; Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 189–90; Huang, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.5, 457. On the earth mound, see Kominami, “Rituals for the Earth.”
30. Li, Early China, 112–20; Campbell, Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, 168–71.
31. Karlgren, The Book of Documents, 28–29; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 60–61; Sima, Shi ji, 120–23; Rawson, “Western Zhou Archaeology,” 382.
32. Falkenhausen, Chinese Society; Jaffe, “The Continued Creation of Communities”; Chao, “Culture Change and Imperial Incorporation”; DeLancey, “The Origins of Sinitic.”
33. Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 97–103, 247, 267, 293–99; Vandermeersch, Wangdao, 1977; Vogt, “Between Kin and King”; Zhou, Festivals, Feasts, and Gender Relations.
34. On Zhou lineages, see Sena, “Reproducing Society”; Shaughnessy, “Toward a Social Geography” and “Western Zhou Hoards.” On the awards given by the Zhou king, see Li, Landscape and Power, 124, and Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 173–80; Chao, Chunqiu zhanguo de shehui bianqian, 31–34. On wartime contributions, see the Xi Jia pan in Cook and Goldin, A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions, 184–86.
35. Zhongguo wenwuju, Zhongguo wenwu dituji Shaanxi fence, 44–45; Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo, Zhongguo kaoguxue: Liang Zhou juan, 56–62; Zhongguo, “Xi’an shi Chang’an qu Fengjing yizhi shuixi yicun”; Epanggong yu Shanglinyuan kaogudui, “Xi’an shi Han Tang Kunmingchi.”
36. Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou”; von Glahn, The Economic History of China, 11–43; Qiu, “Shi.”
37. Honeychurch, Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire, 202–11; Sterckx, “Attitudes towards Wildlife and the Hunt,” 22.
38. Zhongguo, “Xi’an shi Chang’an qu Fengcunbei Xi Zhou shiqi zhigu zuofang”; Sun, Craft Production in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
39. These are 141 pick-ends, 113 knives, 38 adzes, 30 axes, 15 shovels, and 4 hoes. Only the four hoes are unambiguously agricultural tools; the rest could be used for working wood, digging, mining, and so on. Chen, Xian Qin qingtong shengchan gongju, 50–62. For two examples of excavated farm tools in context, see Zhongguo, Fengxi fajue baogao, 20–23, and Shaanxi Zhouyuan kaogu dui, “Fufeng yuntang Xi Zhou guqi zaozuofang yizhi,” 30.
40. This is “Qi yue,” ode 154. Hsu, Ancient China in Transition, 8–11; Xu, “‘Bin feng’ shuo.”
41. Keightley, “Public Work in Ancient China,” 296–300.
42. Classical descriptions of the jing field system come from the Mencius, the Offices of Zhou, and the Han shu. Legge, Mencius, 3A.244–45; Jia, Zhouli zhushu, 711 (地官•小司徒); Ban, Han shu, 24.1119–20; Swann, Food & Money in Ancient China, 116–20; Levenson, “Ill Wind in the Well-Field.”
43. Regarding field overseers, tian jun 田畯 is used in odes 154, 211, and 212. The jun 畯 graph in bronze inscriptions (and the related 俊 and 駿) means something like “great,” which probably relates to the meaning of “superior.” The Erya and Shuowen define jun as nongfu 農夫, which both Zheng Xuan and Sun Yan consider an official title: Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 591, 2582; Fang, Jiagu jinwen zidian, 1064. On land exchanges, see Li, “Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing,” 284; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 156–58; Skosey, “The Legal System,” 323–26, 340–45. The term che 徹 is mentioned in the Analects of Confucius as a type of taxation, and some scholars believe it existed in the Western Zhou. But it seems to have referred to laying out fields and perhaps to calculating the grain they could produce, not to taxation or labor service. It also appears in odes 250 and 259. In the inscription of the Shi Qiang pan it seems to mean “to regulate, put in order.” Karlgren, Glosses on the Book of Odes, 79; Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 543, 566, 2503; He, Zhan guo guwen zidian, 932; Fang, Jiagu jinwen zidian, 251.
44. The people granted by the hundred to lords and officials were called li 鬲 and shu ren 庶人, but we do not really know what these terms meant. Keightley, “Public Work in Ancient China,” 155–78; Vandermeersch, Wangdao, 1980, 33–45, 115; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 154. On the workshop, see Sun, Craft Production in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and Shaanxi, Zhouyuan 2000 niandu Qijia zhijue zuofang.
45. Zhu, Shang Zhou jiazu xingtai yanjiu; Pulleyblank, “Ji and Jiang.”
46. Cook, “Wealth and the Western Zhou,” 284–86; Cooper, “The Potlatch in Ancient China”; Sahlins, “Poor Man,” 296. In 1857, 45 percent of the serfs in the core regions of the Russian empire were owned by the crown itself. Lieven, Empire, 265.
47. Yan is composed of 土 and 妟 and is presumably the same character as 堰. Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 42–43, 72, 202–12; Li, “Succession and Promotion”; Li, “Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing.” On the political geography of the Guanzhong in the period, see Li, Landscape and Power, 40–49. According to the inscription on the Yang gui 養簋 (JC4243), a ritual bronze vessel, the Zhou court appointed people to manage a yan near the five main towns in the Guanzhong. Yan has been interpreted as a dike (Zhang and Liu, Xi Zhou jinwen guanzhi yanjiu, 22), but that meaning is not attested before the Eastern Han, so in this case it is probably the same as yan 偃. Zheng Xuan’s commentary on the Zhouli glosses liang 梁 as “shuiyan 水偃” and defines it as a space in a dam or a weir where a basket or net is placed to catch fish (Sun, Zhouli zhengyi, 300–301; 天官·䱷人), while in the Zuo zhuan it seems to refer to reservoirs. Yang, Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 1107 (Xiang 25). On yan 匽 as toilets, see Zhouli zhushu (in Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 676, 天官.宮人). As for the “nine reservoirs,” the graph bei 陂 (and 波) has so many related meanings—including dike, slope, dam, and wetland—that it is impossible to say exactly what it means here. On the wetlands and forests, see the inscriptions on the Lai pan, Nangong Liu ding (JC2805), Tong gui (JC4271), Mian gui (JC4240), and Mian fu (JC4626) in Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 206–12.
48. Li, Bureaucracy and the State, especially 305–14. The bronze inscription form of the si graph combines 𤔔 and 司.
49. Based on works like the Book of Rites (Li ji), Max Weber called the system of awarding officials the income from specific subjects “prebendal feudalism.” Weber, The Religion of China, 36; Legge, The Li Ki, 16, 27–28, 115; Vandermeersch, Wangdao, 1980, 195–210; Keightley, “Public Work in Ancient China,” 154, 208. For examples of the Zhou king’s transferring land from one person to another, see Li, Landscape and Power, 133; Li, “Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing,” 280; and Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 176. On gifts given to appointees, see Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, 81–83, and Li, “On the Function of Cowries.” On the early United States, see Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, 287–93.
50. For examples of the Zhou king’s transferring land from one person to another, see Li, Landscape and Power, 133; Li, “Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing,” 280; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 176. In the latter case, the previous owner of the land had the same lineage name as the recipient, and it is possible that this was a transfer of land from one family member who had finished serving the court to another who was beginning service.
51. Von Glahn, The Economic History of China, 24. On Shang-era tribute, see Wang and Yang, Jiaguxue yibai nian, 516–21; Chou, “Fu-X Ladies of the Shang Dynasty,” 361–65. On Eastern Zhou ideas about earlier tribute systems, see McNeal, “Spatial Models of the State”; Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1509 (Zhao 13); Karlgren, The Book of Documents, 12–18; Huang, Zhang, and Tian, “Wang Hui,” in Yi Zhou shu huijiao jizhu, chap. 59.
52. Wan, “The Horse in Pre-Imperial China,” 41–67; Creel, The Origins of Statecraft, 266–73. There are more than a hundred references to horse-related officials in Li, Bureaucracy and the State.
53. Ode 242 in Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 197; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 207 (the Jian gui, JC 2485); Legge, Mencius, 1B.153–54; Liang and Liu, Yunmeng Longgang Qin jian, slips 278, 279, 258, and 254.
54. Thatcher, “Marriages of the Ruling Elite”; Granet, Festivals and Songs of Ancient China; Dong et al., “Shifting Diets and the Rise of Male-Biased Inequality.”
55. Lewis, “The City-State in Spring and Autumn China”; Tan, Zhongguo lishi dituji, vol. 1, 21; Chen, Chunqiu dashibiao lieguo juexing. For evidence that lineages taxed their people independent of the royal courts, see Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1348–49, 1668–71 (Zhao 3, 26). On the cultural homogenization of the population, see Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 204–88, and Chao, “Culture Change and Imperial Incorporation.” Lieven, in Empire, 240–241, reveals a clear similarity with Russia when he describes how Russian kings, beginning in the 15th century, appropriated the land of aristocrats and either took ownership of it themselves or granted it to loyal subordinates. This gave the Russian crown control over vast resources, and was the economic base upon which the Russian empire was founded.
56. Lewis, Sanctioned Violence; Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual; Weld, “Covenant in Jin ’s Walled Cities,” 41–84; Sterckx, Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China, 122–66.
57. Hsu, Ancient China in Transition, 38–51; Creel, Shen Pu-Hai, 1, 21; Meyer, “The Baseness of Knights Truly Runs Deep.”
58. On Western Zhou rules on trying and punishing miscreants, see the “Kang gao” in the Book of Documents, the inscription on the Xiao Yu ding, and scholarly discussions of si kou 司寇. The phrase “bu dian” 不典 in the “Kang gao” is sometimes cited as evidence of a legal code, but it is not seen in Western Zhou inscriptions. See Gu and Liu, Shangshu jiaoshi yilun, 1320; Kern, “Bronze Inscriptions”; Skosey, “The Legal System,” 159, 176–78, 309–16; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 74–75. Eastern Zhou texts on punishments included penal regulations cast in metal and the “Punishments of Lü” (Lü xing). Creel, The Origins of Statecraft, 463; Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1402–5, 1702–3 (Zhao 6 and 29); Caldwell, “Social Change and Written Law in Early Chinese Legal Thought.”
59. Smith, “Territories, Corridors, and Networks.”
60. Many accounts of Eastern Zhou reforms begin with those of the state of Qi described in the Discourses of the States (Guoyu), discussed in more depth in my dissertation, Lander, “Environmental Change and the Rise of the Qin Empire,” 193–94), but that passage is a work of political theory written centuries later, not a description of reality. Yang, Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 783–84 (Cheng 1); Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 704–5; Hsu, “The Spring and Autumn Period,” 573; Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, 56–59. In Prussia the registration of the entire population for military service similarly played an important role in increasing the power of the central state and curtailing the feudal aristocracy. Clark, Iron Kingdom, 97–100.
61. Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 974, 1268–71, and 1376; Yang, Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 980–81 (Xiang 10), 1180–81 (Xiang 30), 1254 (Zhao 4). Yang Bojun (Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 1181) argued that lujing 廬井 was a term meaning “village,” in which case these reforms organized rural people for military service or taxation. In his commentary on the Zhou li (Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 712; 地官•小司徒), Zheng Xuan stated that “gong (‘tribute’) refers to the nine grains and the resources of the mountains and wetlands; fu refers to sending out soldiers and corvée service” (see also Wang, Han shu buzhu 24.1567). I translate fu as “levy,” which similarly can refer to both military service and tax. All uses of the word “levy” in subsequent translations refer to fu.
62. Yang, Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 1106–8 (Xiang 25); Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1154–55; Sun, Zhouli zhengyi, 300–301. The jiawu day was one of the days in the sixty-day cycle.
63. The first administrative positions established by Zhou regional states to administer outlying areas seem to have been zai 宰 and feng ren 封人, but we know little about their duties. Sima, Shi ji, 67.2193, 2201, 2207, 2212; Chao, Chunqiu zhanguo de shehui bianqian, 550; Yang, Chunqiu Zuo zhuan zhu, 14, 814. Quote from Hsu, “The Spring and Autumn Period,” 574. See also Xu, Zhoudai nantu lishi dili, 275–91; Yang, “Chunqiu shidai Chu guo xianzhi”; Creel, “Beginnings of Bureaucracy”; Li, Bureaucracy and the State, 171.
64. See chapter 4 for details. Classicists (ru 儒) are often called “Confucians,” but this is inappropriate for this period because Confucius and his school were just one group of classicists. Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China, 57–60.
65. Because the ideology of classicists like Confucius centered on venerating the Zhou system, they knew more about it than most of their contemporaries, but they also idealized it. Their understanding of the Western Zhou system was probably an amalgam of the traditions of their homeland in Shandong with information from texts like the Odes and the Documents. The Gongyang commentary claims that the Annals recorded a famine directly following the record of the new tax in order to criticize the tax. See Legge, Ch’un Ts’ew, 329. See also Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 1887 (He Xiu’s 何休 commentary on the Zuozhuan), 2286–87 (Chunqiu Gongyangzhuan zhushu); Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 674–75 (Xuan 15), and Pi, Jingxue tonglun, part 4, p. 16.
66. Xu, Guo yu jijie, 206–7 (Lu yu xia); Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1904–5 (Ai 11).
67. Mengzi zhushu in Ruan, Shisanjing zhushu, 2702; Legge, Mencius, 3A.240–42. Mencius distinguishes among three types of surplus extraction, gong 貢, zhu 助, and che 徹, but unfortunately their meanings are unclear.
68. The first quote is from Ku, A Chinese Mirror for Magistrates, 110. See Wang, Xin yu jiaozhu, 8.124. The second quote is from Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 1584–85 (Zhao 20), Shisanjing zhushu, 2388 (Chunqiu Guliangzhuan zhushu). See Legge, Mencius, 1B.153–54, 162.
69. Schafer, “Hunting Parks and Animal Enclosures”; Allsen, The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History; Mattos, Stone Drums, 105–7; Sanft, “Environment and Law”; Miller, “Forestry and the Politics of Sustainability.”
70. Hui, War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe; Wong and Rosenthal, Before and Beyond Divergence; Chiang, “The Scale of War in the Warring States Period”; Lewis, “Warring States Political History,” 620–32; Hsu, Ancient China in Transition, 53–77; Yates, “Early China.”
71. Von Glahn, The Economic History of China, chap. 2; Hsu, Ancient China in Transition, 107–39; Hung, “The Art and Architecture of the Warring States Period,” 654, 679–81; Emura, Shunjū Sengoku jidai seidō kahei; Kakinuma, “The Emergence and Spread of Coins in China”; Peng, “Coinage and Commercial Development”; Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 3–9; Kerr and Wood, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.12, 302; Kuhn, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.9, 3–4, 159–60; Sima, Shi ji, 129.3253–84; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 9, 261–301.
72. Honeychurch, Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire, 128–29, 160–63, 210–15, 246–49.
73. For more details, see Lewis, “Warring States Political History”; Creel, Shen Pu-Hai.
74. Kamenka, Bureaucracy; Weber, Economy and Society, 973.
75. Lewis, “Warring States Political History”; Li and Branner, Writing and Literacy in Early China; Wang, Writing and the Ancient State, chapter 4.
76. Cao, Gudai xiyin, 2–10; Lewis, “Warring States Political History,” 608.
77. Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu”; Zhu and Chen, Yuelu Shuyuan cang Qin jian 2; Lander, “State Management of River Dikes”; Yang, “Beida cang Qin jian ‘tianshu’ chushi”; Ames, Sun-Tzu, 174–76; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 208–9; Sanft, Communication and Cooperation.
78. Harper, “Resurrection in Warring States Popular Religion,” 17.
The epigraph is from Sima, Shi ji, 6.277; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 164 (translation modified). The first sentence of the epigraph is found in other texts and was probably a common saying in the Warring States period. Liu, Zhanguo ce, 504 (Chu 2); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 244.
1. Brewer, The Sinews of Power, 3–7.
2. Huang et al., “Charcoal Records of Fire History,” 34–37; Tan et al., “Holocene Wildfires,” 171.
3. Sanft, “Edict of Monthy Ordinances”; Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 35–43, 59–276, 683–92 (my “hawks become doves” sentence paraphrases page 38). Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 97–99; Zheng, “Lun ‘Shi Qi yue’ de yong li”; Soothill, Hall of Light, 237–51. I have used Knoblock and Riegel’s translations below, sometimes slightly modified.
4. On the new year festival, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, 45–52; on ice, fishing, and repairs, see Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 241, 259; on hunting and fishing, see Mattos, Stone Drums, 165–66, 195–96, 220–21, 240–41.
5. The quotes in this paragraph are from Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 61, 77–78, 95–97, 98, 115. The reference to chives comes from Wang, Da dai li ji, 26.
6. Wang, Da Dai li ji, 36–37; Soothill, Hall of Light, 239–40; Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 135 (cicadas), 155 (“the soil is steaming”). On insects attacking crops, see Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 14, 88, 214–17, 314, 476–79, 508, 614, 666, 674, 684, 932, 1906–13.
7. The quotes are from Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 189, 191. On malnutrition, see Wei et al., “Dental Wear and Oral Health as Indicators of Diet,” and Pechenkina, Benfer, and Ma, “Diet and Health in the Neolithic of the Wei and Yellow River Basins.” On millet cooking, see Jaffe, “The Continued Creation of Communities.”
8. Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 208.
9. “Water begins to freeze” is from Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 223–25. The crickets passage is from ode 154, while “big rat” is from ode 113. See Waley, The Book of Songs, 164, 309. On meat sauces, see Huang, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.5.
10. Dong et al., “Shifting Diets and the Rise of Male-Biased Inequality”; Miller et al., “Raising Girls and Boys in Early China”; Gururani, “Forests of Pleasure and Pain.”
11. Von Glahn, The Economic History of China, chap. 2; Hsu, Ancient China in Transition, 107–39; Hung, “The Art and Architecture of the Warring States Period,” 654, 679–81; Emura, Shunjū Sengoku jidai seidō kahei; Kakinuma, “The Emergence and Spread of Coins in China”; Peng, “Coinage and Commercial Development”; Kerr and Wood, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.12, 302; Kuhn, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.9, 3–4, 159–60; Sima, Shi ji, 129.3253–84; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 9, 261–301; Liu, Xian Qin liang Han nongye.
12. Sima Qian does not specify whether the “Qin record(s),” Qin ji 秦記, was one document or several; his statement that it “does not include months or days” matches the year-by-year annals of the “Qin Basic Annals” and also those unearthed at Shuihudi. If one ignores the longer stories in the “Basic Annals,” which are taken from texts like the Zuo zhuan and Intrigues of the Warring States, one is left with the rather bare annals taken from the “Qin records.” Sima, Shi ji, 15.685–87; Shaughnessy, “The Qin Biannianji”; Fujita, “Shi ji” Zhanguo shiliao yanjiu, 221–69; Gao, Yunmeng Qin jian chu tan, 12–17, 122–47.
13. Zhao, “New Explorations of Early Qin Culture”; Li, “A Study of the Bronze Vessels and Sacrificial Remains”; Liu, “Gansu Tianshui Maojiaping yizhi dongwu yicun”; Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 233–39; Jaffe, “The Continued Creation of Communities.”
14. Sima, Shi ji, 5.179; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 91; Falkenhausen, “Mortuary Behaviour”; Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 215. Qin’s capital in Baoji was called Pingyang 平陽.
15. Wang, Shang, and Hu, Qin wuzhi wenhua shi, 208; Sima, Shi ji, 129.3261; Watson, Records, 441.
16. This review of Qin archaeology largely follows Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 111, 213–43, 326–38; Falkenhausen, “Mortuary Behaviour”; Falkenhausen, “The Waning of the Bronze Age” (quote from p. 487). Shelach, in “Collapse or Transformation,” p. 129, argues that it is the largest tomb complex ever built for a single person.
17. Mattos, “Eastern Zhou Bronze Inscriptions,” 111–23 (on the celestial mandate); Falkenhausen, “The Waning of the Bronze Age,” 459–62; Shaanxi, “2014 nian Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiuyuan kaogu diaocha,” 10–11; Zhongguo, “Xi’an shi Chang’an qu Fengjing yizhi shuixi yicun.”
18. Mattos, Stone Drums, 105–7, 220–21, 237–41.
19. Thatcher, “Central Government of the State of Ch’in,” 33; Sima, Shi ji, 5.179; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 91.
20. In 713 Qin eliminated Bo 亳/Dang She 蕩社 (possibly near Xi’an); in 697 it attacked Peng Xi 彭戲 in the eastern Guanzhong; in 688 it attacked the Rong of Gui 邽 and Ji 冀 near Tianshui; in 687 it took Du 杜 (near Xi’an) and Zheng 鄭 (in the Zhouyuan); and in 640 Qin destroyed the polities of Liang 梁 and Rui 芮 in the eastern Guanzhong. The four settlements made into xian were Gui, Ji, Du, and Zheng. Sima, Shi ji, 1.182–89; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 92–98; Qian, Shi ji diming kao, 271, 275, 368; Li, Landscape and Power, 245–62; Shaanxi sheng, Liangdaicun Ruiguo mudi.
21. Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World.
22. Li, Landscape and Power, 175–87; Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies, esp. 68–90; Yang, Chunqiu Zhanguo shiqi Zhongguo beifang wenhua dai, 36–43; So and Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier.
23. Wei et al., “Dental Wear and Oral Health as Indicators of Diet”; Liu, “Gansu Tianshui Maojiaping yizhi dongwu yicun.”
24. Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China, 328–463; Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies, 93–126.
25. The Rong town near Sanmenxia was Maojin 茅津, probably near modern Pinglu 平陸 County. Qian, Shi ji diming kao, 512; Lin, Qin shi gao, 117. Sima Qian’s account of Qin’s conquest of the Rong seems to have been taken from a Warring States work of political argumentation, parts of which also appear in the Han Feizi. See Sima, Shi ji, 5.192–94; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 100–101; Wang, Han Feizi jijie, 10.71–72; On the Qin tombs in the Jing River valley, see Falkenhausen, “The Waning of the Bronze Age,” 488.
26. Yates, “The Horse in Early Chinese Military History,” 36–57; Creel, The Origins of Statecraft, 262–88; Gaunitz et al., “Ancient Genomes Revisit the Ancestry of Domestic and Przewalski’s Horses.”
27. Linduff, “Production of Signature Artifacts for the Nomad Market”; Linduff, Hanks, and Bunker, “First Millennium BCE Beifang Artifacts,” 282–87; Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China.
28. The details of these wars are scattered through the Zuo zhuan (especially the periods of Lords Xi and Wen) and chapters 5, 39, and 44 of the Shi ji. Lin, Qin shi gao, 117–45; Sima, Shi ji, 5.186–93; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 95–100.
29. Sima, Shi ji, 5.202; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 108; Chavannes, Les Mémoires Historiques de Se-ma Ts’ien, 2:253 n. 314; Pines, “The Question of Interpretation”; Pines, “Biases and Their Sources”; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” chap. 2; Chen, “Two Ordinances Issued during the Reign.”
30. Qin offered a diplomatic gift to Shu in 475 BCE, which reveals that Qin was in contact with polities far to the south at that time (Sima, Shi ji, 5.199, 15.688–89; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 106–7). The town in the Hanzhong Basin was called Nan Zheng. The “Basic Annals of Qin” records that Qin took Nan Zheng from Shu, but the “Chronological Table of the Six Kingdoms” records that Shu took it from Qin (Sima, Shi ji, 5.199–200, 15.679, 700, 713). Note that the area named Hanzhong that Qin and Chu fought over for several decades was not the modern region of that name but an area farther east, perhaps around modern Ankang (Qian, Shi ji diming kao, 213). Sage, Ancient Sichuan and the Unification of China; Bagley, Ancient Sichuan.
31. Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” chap. 2; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 211–15.
32. Barbieri-Low, “Coerced Migration and Resettlement.” For other examples of how imperialism affects the central regions of empires, see Hosking, Russia, and McCoy and Scarano, Colonial Crucible.
33. Quote from Loewe, “Review of ‘Shang Yang’s Reforms and State Control in China.’” Hara, in “Nōhon” shugi to “ōdo” no hassei, and Muramatsu, in Chūgoku kodai kankyōshi no kenkyū, also discuss the environmental history of Shang Yang’s reforms. More general works on Shang Yang include Pines, The Book of Lord Shang; Vandermeersch, La formation du légisme; Li and Yang, Shang Yang’s Reforms and State Control in China; Dean and Massumi, First and Last Emperors.
34. The main Qin rulers after Lord Xiao were Lord—and then King—Huiwen 惠文 (r. 337–311 BCE), King Zhaoxiang 昭襄 (r. 306–251 BCE), and King Zheng 政/the First Emperor 始皇帝 (246–210 BCE). Sima, Shi ji, 5.199–202; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 106–9; Ma, Qin ji shi, 147, 856–70; Li, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations, 235.
35. Shang Yang had worked under Gongshu Cuo 公叔痤, who had learned from Wu Qi 吳起, who had served under Li Kui 李悝. Gongshu Cuo credited Wu Qi with emphasizing the balance of rewards and punishments in encouraging soldiers to follow the king’s law. Although later texts treat Li Kui as an important reformer, he is rarely mentioned in early texts, and Wu Qi seems to have been more highly regarded. Li Kui is credited in the Shi ji with “the teaching of maximizing the power of the land” (74.2349), which could also describe the ideas of Shang Yang. Vandermeersch, La formation du légisme, 24–25; Swann, Food & Money in Ancient China, 136–44; Liu, Zhanguo ce, 5.212–16 (Qin 3), 22.781–84 (Wei 1); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 132–35. For an example of the Wei influence on Qin, see Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 208–10; Lewis, “Warring States Political History,” 603–6; Liao, The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzῠ, vol. 2, 212; Wang, Han Feizi jijie, 43.397; Creel, Shen Pu-Hai.
36. On evidence from tombs, see Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 319.
37. For Sima Qian’s biography (Shi ji, chapter 68), see Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 87–96. On the Book of Lord Shang, Yuri Pines dates chapters 2–4 and 12 to before 350 BCE and chapters 6–8 to 350–330. Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 25–58; Gao, Shang Jun shu zhu yi, 6–11; Duyvendak, Book of Lord Shang; Pines, “Alienating Rhetoric.” For artifacts with inscriptions that mention Shang Yang, see Qiu, Zhongguo gudai du liang heng tuji, 44, and Portal, The First Emperor, 34. On Shang Yang’s fame, see Li and Yang, Shang Yang’s Reforms and State Control in China, xvi–xliii; Wang, Han Feizi jijie, 13.97, 14.101, 43.397; Sun, “Shi Ji ‘Shang jun liezhuan’ shiliao jueyuan.”
38. The quoted passage is my translation from Jiang, Shang jun shu zhuizhi, 2.12; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 127. On the use of “one” to mean “unified under the control of the state,” see Kern, The Stele Inscriptions of Ch’in Shih-Huang, 13, 18, 42, 44, 47; Sanft, Communication and Cooperation, 41–42. As shown in Graham, “The ‘Nung-Chia,’ ” some agro-centric ideologies tended more toward anarchism than despotism. Shang Yang’s new levies were fu 賦. See Sima, Shi ji, 5.203; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 109; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 106–13.
39. It is unclear how the “clarified the positions” passage from Sima Qian should be punctuated and interpreted, though the general meaning is clear. Sima, Shi ji, 68.2230; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 89–90 (translation modified); Takigawa, Shiki kanchū kōshō, 68.3405. On the Wei statute, see Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 208–9; Lewis, The Construction of Space, chap. 2.
40. The translation draws on both Pines and Duyvendak. Jiang, Shang jun shu zhuizhi, 4.32–34; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 153–54; Duyvendak, Book of Lord Shang, 204.
41. Hsing, “Qin-Han Census and Tax and Corvée Administration.”
42. Incidentally, it is sometimes stated that Shang Yang arranged families in groups of both ten and five, but really it was only five. It would seem that later commentators interpreted the shi in shiwu (variously written 仕伍 or 士伍) to mean “ten” (仕), when in fact it was a variant of shi 士, which had become a general term for an adult male (unranked commoners were called shiwu 士伍). Sima, Shi ji, 68.2230; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 89; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 13, 145–46; Xu, Han shi waizhuan jishi, 143; Yates, “Social Status in the Ch’in,” 201–3; Kiser and Cai, “War and Bureaucratization in Qin China.”
43. Scott, Seeing Like a State; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 91; Sima, Shi ji, 68.2232; Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, 273; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 200. I have modified the translation to reflect my understanding of this ambiguous passage.
44. Excavated measures from the final two centuries BCE reveal that a chi 尺 averaged 23.1 centimeters. Based on that, we can calculate the following: 6 chi = 1 bu 步 (1.39 meters); 30 bu = 1 ze 則; 1 square bu 步 = 1.9 square meters; 240 square bu = 1 mu 畝 (457.1 square meters); and 100 mu = 1 qing 頃. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 699–711; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 211–15; Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 551–58; Sima, Shi ji, 6.238.
45. Peng, Zhangjiashan Han jian “Suan shu shu,” 113–28; Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 152, 161–67.
46. Leeming, “Official Landscapes in Traditional China.”
47. Guo, “Zhanguo Qin feng zongyi washu,” 182.
48. Liu, Zhanguo ce, 504 (Chu 2); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 244. These words are attributed to Zhang Yi, a Qin minister, who gives a much longer discourse on the power of Qin in Liu, Zhanguo ce, 95–114 (Qin 1); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 125–30.
49. On tomb distribution, see Teng, “From Vassal State to Empire,” and Falkenhausen, “Mortuary Behaviour,” 115. The site distribution information on map 9 is taken from Zhongguo wenwuju, Zhongguo wenwu dituji Shaanxi fence [Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics], 52–63. Note that the top map ends before the Eastern Zhou period and the bottom one supposedly begins after it, so Eastern Zhou–era archaeological sites are supposedly not depicted in either map. However, the map of the Eastern Zhou era on page 61 of the Atlas includes very few sites, which suggests that the Qin-Han map, depicted here on the bottom, also includes some Qin sites of the late Eastern Zhou period.
50. On the location of early iron deposits, see Wagner, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.11, 83–114, and Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 224–33. An example of a strong emphasis on the importance of metal tools is Yang, Zhanguo shi, 42–57. On the environmental effects of metal tools, see Storozum et al., “Anthrosols and Ancient Agriculture.” On wells, see Gao, Ming-Qing shiqi Guanzhong diqu shui ziyuan, 47–55.
51. The eastward move of Qin’s capital may have begun when Qin Lord Suling 肅靈 (r. 424–415 BCE) lived in Jingyang 涇陽, somewhere near the modern county of the same name. Sima, Shi ji, 5.202, 6.287, 68.2232; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 172; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 2006, 107; Wang, “Qin Xian gong du Yueyang”; Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, “Qin Han Yueyang cheng yizhi”; Wang, “Qin dingdu Xianyang de shengtai dilixue.”
52. The walls are 843 × 902 × 426 × 576 meters. Shaanxi sheng, Qin du Xianyang kaogu baogao, 10–12.
53. Ibid., 13, 34–43, 212–17; Wang, Qin Han shiqi shengtai huanjing yanjiu, 93–94. On Xi’an’s water supply, see Shi, “Han-Tang Chang’an yu shengtai huanjing.”
54. Loewe, Early Chinese Texts, 25–29; Elman and Kern, Statecraft and Classical Learning, 33–93, 129–54; Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China, 42–51; Huang, “The Ming Fiscal Administration,” 116.
55. The Offices of Zhou is arranged by offices, so the relevant sections can be found under their titles: butchers (pao ren 庖人), cooks (yong 饔 and peng ren 亨人), hunters (shou ren 獸人), fishers (yu ren 漁人), turtle catchers (bi ren 鱉人), tailors (feng ren 縫人), cobblers (ju ren 屨人), specialists in furs (si qiu 司裘), skins (zhang pi 掌皮), silk (dian si 典絲), hemp (dian xi 典枲), and dying cloth (ran ren 染人), as well as people in charge of meat preserves (hai ren 醢人), vinegar preserves (xi ren 醯人), alcohol (jiu zheng 酒正 and jiu ren 酒人), other ingestible liquids (jiang ren 漿人), salt (yan ren 鹽人), rice (chong ren 舂人), cured meat (xi ren 臘人), ice (bing ren 凌人), and orchards (chang ren 場人). See also Sterckx, Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China, 134–43; Poo, “Religion and Religious Life of the Qin.”
56. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 923–37, 1254; Barbieri-Low, Artisans in Early Imperial China; Guan and Herrmann, Kao Gong Ji; Shaanxi sheng, Qin du Xianyang kaogu baogao.
57. I estimate that around 2,300,000 of the 2,436,360 people recorded as living in the region’s three administrative units in the mid-Han population records inhabited the 15,000-square-kilometer area of the Guanzhong and surrounding foothills. Ge, Xi Han renkou dili, 96; Tan, Zhongguo lishi dituji, 2.5–6; Yang, Chutu jiandu yu Qin Han shehui, 12–15. We know of three districts in Xianyang: Yin 陰, Chang’an 長安, and Jianzhang 建章, all located south of the Wei River. Xu, Qin Han lishi dili yanjiu, 52–58. On the cemeteries, see Shaanxi sheng, Xi’an Youjiazhuang Qin mu. On the bridge, see Shaanxi sheng, “Xi’an shi Han Chang’an chengbei Wei qiao”; Ban, Han shu, 63.2747; Li, Shuijingzhu jiaojian tushi, 354, 536.
58. Quote from Wang, Han Feizi jijie, 35.337. These two paragraphs draw on Xu, Qin Han ducheng yu ziran huanjing, 161–66; Schafer, “Hunting Parks and Animal Enclosures”; Sanft, “The Construction and Deconstruction of Epanggong.” On Han farms, see Zhou, “Guanzhong Qin-Han taolu.” For the commoner in Shanglin, see Sima, Shi ji, 85.2562.
59. Tang Huaqinggong kaogudui, “Tang Huaqinggong tangchi yizhi.”
60. Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3, 228–31, 285–96; Watson, Records, 53–60; Liu et al., “Earliest Hydraulic Enterprise in China.” On Zheng, see Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, 974 (Xiang 10); on Wei, see Sima, Shi ji, 29.1408. On Wu’s canals, which are the origins of the Grand Canal, see Shi, “Lun Jishui he Honggou.”
61. Wang, Xunzi jijie, 9.168; Lander, “State Management of River Dikes,” 347–53; Knoblock, Xunzi, 106. The passage from the Annals of Lü Buwei reads: “When one lacks the strength, do not irrigate land and plough it” (my translation), from Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 653.
62. Sima, Shi ji, 29.1408; Watson, Records, 54–55; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 29.2867–68. On this genre of political stories, see Loewe, Early Chinese Texts, 1–11, and Mawangdui, Zhanguo zonghengjia shu. These stories contain much accurate history, but it is often impossible to separate fact from fiction.
63. This was the 240-pace mu, which equals 461 square meters, so 40,000 qing would make 184,000 hectares. And 300 li is 126 kilometers. Sima, Shi ji, 29.1408. Watson, Records, 54–55. On the area of land, see Will, “Clear Waters versus Muddy Waters,” 288.
64. Fei et al., “Evolution of Saline Lakes”; Li, Guanzhong shuili kaifa, 19–20.
65. Sima, Shi ji, 29.1408; Watson, Records, 54–55; Will, “Clear Waters versus Muddy Waters.” The sixth-century Commentary on the Classic of Rivers (Shuijing zhu 水經注) lays out the path in some detail, though the system had been significantly modified since the Qin and many of the landmarks it mentions are unknown. Yang and Xiong, Shuijing zhushu, 16.1455–61.
66. Eliassen and Todd, “The Wei Pei Irrigation Project in Shensi Province,” 172; Wuhan shuili dianli xueyuan, Zhongguo shuili shi gao, 124–25. For a modern map, see Liu, Zhongguo ziran dili tuji, 134. On silt, see Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3, 227. On Sima Qian’s implausibly high numbers, see Bodde, “The State and Empire of Ch’in,” 98–102.
67. Eliassen and Todd, “The Wei Pei Irrigation Project in Shensi Province,” 176; Huang et al., “Extraordinary Floods of 4100–4000 a BP”; Huang et al., “Holocene Palaeoflood Events.” I would like to thank graduate students at Shaanxi Normal University for providing me with the flow records for the Jing River.
68. Qin, Yang, and Zhao, “Shaanxi Jingyang xian Qin Zheng Guo Qu”; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 29.2880; Ban, Han shu, 29.1685.
69. Li, Guanzhong shuili kaifa, 20, 32–33; Will, “Clear Waters versus Muddy Waters”; Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past, 298–315.
70. Wang, Dong Zhou Qin Han Guanzhong nongye; Zhang and Fan, Zhongguo nongye tongshi Zhanguo Qin Han, 164; Sabban, “De la main à la pâte”; Hsu, Han Agriculture, 84–85.
71. The phrase is zhen yu tu 甽浴土. Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 26.655.
72. Gao, Wen xuan Li zhu yishu, 67–70; Knechtges, Wen Xuan, vol. 1, 111–13. Translation modified. It literally says “50,000 dikes and mounds,” but this is apparently a stock phrase for area. Ban does not say 50,000 of what unit of area.
The epigraph is my translation. Jiang, Shang jun shu zhuizhi, 4.34; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 154. “Hay and straw” are apparently counted as one item. The Book of Lord Shang frequently criticizes sophists and includes them in this list only in order to contrast them with “useful people.”
1. The term shi huangdi would more literally be translated “first majestic deity,” but I will follow the custom of using the terms “empire” and “imperial,” which derive not from the religious language preferred by Qin’s king but from a Latin military title, imperator.
2. Yates, “The Rise of Qin”; Scott, Seeing Like a State.
3. For the argument that China’s early empires were among the most administratively intensive in the ancient world, see Finer, The History of Government. On Qin and early Han excavated legal texts, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 39–46, 221–33; Staack and Lau, Legal Practice in the Formative Stages of the Chinese Empire; Yates, “Evidence for Qin Law in the Qianling County Archive.”
4. Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” chap. 2; Ardant, “Financial Policy and Economic Infrastructure”; D’Altroy and Earle, “Staple Finance, Wealth Finance and Storage.”
5. Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 183–88; Smith, “Territories, Corridors, and Networks.”
6. On the enfeoffment argument, see Sima, Shi ji, 6.238–39, 254–55; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 137, 146–47.
7. On the history of administrative organization in China, see Skinner, The City in Late Imperial China; Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael.
8. On Qin religion, see Poo, “Religion and Religious Life of the Qin,” and Sanft, “Paleographic Evidence of Qin Religious Practice.” On the ideology of rulership in China and elsewhere, see Finer, The History of Government, 26; Vandermeersch, “An Enquiry into the Chinese Conception of the Law”; Lieven, Empire, 10–11.
9. Habberstad, Forming the Early Chinese Court.
10. Many works on the Han government are arranged in the same order as the officials listed in chapter 19 of the Han History. I use Loewe’s versions of official titles but change his “Superintendent” to “Minister” and “Ministry” since the Chinese terms refer to both officer and office. Loewe, The Government of the Qin and Han Empires; Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times; Bu, Qin Han guanliao zhidu; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 19.859–915; Loewe, A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods, 757–65. On the seal impressions, see Zhou and Lu, Qin fengni ji; Zhongguo, “Xi’an Xiangjiagang yizhi Qin fengni”; and Shaanxi sheng, Qin du Xianyang kaogu baogao.
11. The higher of the two Chancellors was called xiangbang 相邦, a position often given to foreigners (keqing 客卿), while the lower was called chengxiang 丞相. The Imperial Counselors were called yushi dafu 御史大夫, and the Supreme Commander was tai wei 太尉. In the Han, the Chancellor, Imperial Counselor, and Supreme Commander were known as the “three lords” (san gong 三公), and the ministers were known as the “nine ministers” (jiu qing 九卿), but there is no evidence that these terms were used in Qin. Nie and Liu, “Qin zhi xiangbang”; Sima, Shi ji, 6.236, 260, 267, 71.2311; Bodde, China’s First Unifier; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 28.866; Fu, Qin fengni huikao, 3.
12. The Chinese titles of these ministries are (1) fengchang 奉常 or taichang 太常; (2) langzhong ling 郎中令; (3) weiwei 衛尉; (4) taipu 太僕; (5) tingwei 廷尉; (6) dianke 典客; (7) zongzheng 宗正; (8) zhisu neishi 治粟內史; (9) shaofu 少府; and (10) zhongwei 中尉. The ministries of Ceremonies, the Palace, Guards, State Visits, and the Capital were concerned mostly with the capital region. Seal impressions of Qin’s fengchang, langzhong cheng 郎中丞, tingwei, zongzheng, shaofu, zhongwei, and neishi have been found. Early Han statutes also list offices of Border Fortifications, beisai duwei 備塞都尉; Cavalry and Chariots, cheqiwei 車騎尉; and Counselors of the Palace, zhong dafuling 中大夫令, at the same rank as ministers, which may have been the case in Qin. Loewe, The Government of the Qin and Han Empires, 24–33; Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, 17–69; Fu, Qin fengni huikao; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 983–87, 1179.
13. On the prayer to Mount Hua, see Pines, “The Question of Interpretation”; Sima, Shi ji, 6.266, 28.1371–77; Watson, Records, 16–18; Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 328–36; Hung, “The Art and Architecture of the Warring States Period,” 716–17; Nylan and Vankeerberghen, Chang’an 26 BCE, 24, 33, 211–12; Xu, Qin Han ducheng yu ziran huanjing, 182–99. On the god of agriculture, see Sanft, “Paleographic Evidence of Qin Religious Practices.”
14. Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 55–56; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 19.883–85; Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty, vol. 1, 281–83, 242; Fan, Hou Han shu 26.3590. Qin’s Great Granary was called tai cang 太倉, and its Main Treasury was danei 大内. Tai, which means “great,” is variously written 泰, 大, and 太. The Han History also says that the Ministry of Finance was in charge of the Sacred Field (ji tian 籍田), the office of ceremonial plowing, but we do not know if that existed in Qin. Wang, Han shu buzhu, 19.883–85, 21.1164; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 54; Fu, Qin fengni huikao, 58; Yang, Chutu jiandu yu Qin Han shehui, 3–30. On the Main Treasury, see Hulsewé, “Ch’in Documents,” 195–200; Sima, Shi ji, 11.446. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 1013; Fu, Qin fengni huikao, 63.
15. Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 78, 121; Gale, Discourses on Salt and Iron, 34; Wang, Yantielun jiaozhu, 6.78. The figures on the income of the Han Lesser Treasury versus the central government come from the Xin lun, a text from the mid-Han. Wang, Han shu buzhu, 19.884.
16. On Qin’s communication system, see Wang, Qin Han jiaotong shi gao, 28–32; Sanft, Communication and Cooperation, chap. 6; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 211–15; Lien, “Reconstructing the Postal Relay System of the Han Period.”
17. On the order to make maps, see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 118 (nos. 8-224, 8-412, 8-1415); Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 479. Quoted passage from Jia, Zhouli zhushu, 333–34 (地官•大司徒).
18. Sima, Shi ji, 53.2014.
19. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 111–20; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 72. The Qin term for county Magistrate was da sefu 大嗇夫 or xian sefu 縣嗇夫. Because sefu was a general term for a person in charge of something, I follow Hulsewé in translating it “overseer” in all cases except that of the magistrate. Han documents also refer to overseers of towns (yi 邑), markets (shi 市), travelers’ lodges (chuan she 傳舍), kitchens (chu 廚), and storehouses (ku 庫), all offices that may have existed in Qin. Financial offices were called shao nei 少内. On Magistrates, see Qiu, “Sefu chutan,” and Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 36, 87. On overseers, see Hulsewé, “Ch’in Documents,” 201–4; Ye, “Jiedu Liye Qin jian”; Yinqueshan Han mu zhujian zhengli xiaozu, Yinqueshan Han mu zhujian, 1:81.843–46, 85.88–97, 90.948; Hubei Sheng and Suizhou Shi kaogu dui, Suizhou Kongjiapo Han mu jiandu, 123, 197.
20. On the groups of five, see Yates, “Social Status in the Ch’in,” 219–28; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 788–89.
21. Wang, Han shu buzhu, 1.10; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 111–19; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 104.
22. Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 63–64, 93–95, 135 (nos. 36, 37, 86–93, and 187); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 29, 38–41, 53–55, 78–82, 90–101; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 823–32.
23. For a statute on the information produced by local officials, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 798–99. On the registers of the Bureau of Households, see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 167 (no. 8-488); on the registers of the Bureaus of Works and Granaries, see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 164 (nos. 8-480 and 8-481); and on the registers of the Qianling Bureau of Finance, see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 152–53 (no. 8-454).
24. Hsing, “Qin-Han Census and Tax and Corvée Administration”; Chen, “Liye ‘huji jian’ yu Zhanguo moqi de jiceng shehui”; Sanft, “Population Records from Liye.” Ye, in “Jiedu Liye Qin jian,” provides an example of a nonwidowed woman listed as a head of household (Liye no. 8-19).
25. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 697–706; Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 15.1–3; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 21.
26. For a brief comparison of European and Qing taxation, see Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael, 5–9.
27. On grain storage in Chinese history, see Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 378–423; Will and Wong, Nourish the People. On the hemp tax, see Zhu and Chen, Yuelu Shuyuan cang Qin jian, vol. 2, 6.28.
28. The Chinese names of these five registers are zhai yuan hu ji 宅園戶籍, nian xi ji 年細籍, tian bi di ji 田比地籍, tian he ji 田合籍, and tian zu ji 田租籍. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 798–99 (slips 331–32).
29. Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 686–702; Yamada, Shin Kan zaisei shūnyū, 33.
30. The quote is from Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 15 (nos. 1–3). I have modified the translation in Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 21; see also Yates, “Some Notes on Ch’in Law,” 247. On collecting fixed amounts from a specific area of land, see Peng, Zhangjiashan Han jian “Suan shu shu,” 77.85, and Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 135.
31. Korolkov, “Empire-Building.” An example of these conversion rates is this: “[The tax on] 3 square bu of millet is 1 dou; on 4 square bu of wheat is 1 dou; on 5 square bu of small beans is 1 dou.” Peng, Zhangjiashan Han jian “Suan shu shu,” 58.43; Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 119; Chemla and Ma, “How Do the Earliest Known Mathematical Writings Highlight the State’s Management of Grains?”; Chemla and Guo, Les neuf chapitres, 201–61.
32. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 23; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 81–110; Hunan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo, Liye Qin jian, 1:1:150 (this is no. 8-1165 in this publication, but no. 8-559 in Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 179). On the uses of hay, see Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 126–27 (nos. 52–54). On feather and cocoon taxes, see Hunan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo, Liye Qin jian, vol 1, 76, 222 (nos. 8-518, 8-1735).
33. Peng, Zhangjiashan Han jian “Suan shu shu,” 73.72; Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 132.
34. Jiang, Shang jun shu zhuizhi, 6.42; Duyvendak, Book of Lord Shang, 111; Pines, The Book of Lord Shang, 158–59; Legge, Mencius, 1A.129; Johnston, The Mozi, 20.200–1; Sima, Shi ji, 79.2423.
35. Sima, Shi ji, 6.251; Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, xii, 346 (no. 8-1519). On the “grassy fields,” see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 2, 21, 49 (nos. 9-15, 9-40); see also 377 and 477 (nos. 9-1865, 9-2344); Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 796 (nos. 323 and 324); Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 233, 558–62.
36. On the use of convicts for farming, see Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 122–23, and Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 141 (no. 8-383). For the quote on Qin, see Liu, Zhanguo ce, 18.618 (Zhao 2); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 336. On the ranks, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, xxii, 873–75, 1328; on the presence of similar systems in Tang law, see Twitchett, Financial Administration under the T’ang Dynasty.
37. One bu equaled six chi 尺, and one chi was around 23.1 centimeters. So bu were 1.39 meters in length and 1.9 square meters in area; 240 square bu equaled one mu 畂; and 100 mu equaled 1 qing 頃. A mu was around 457 square meters, so a qing was 45,700 square meters. An acre, by comparison, is 4,047 square meters, and a hectare is 10,000. For the laws on land redistribution and on high-ranked people’s taxes, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 790–93 (slips 310–17), and Yang, “Er nian lü ling’ yu Qin-Han ming tian zhai zhi.” On measures, see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 552–58. For the idea that these laws were intended to limit the landholdings of the powerful, see Yang, “Notes on the Economic History of the Chin Dynasty,” and Takigawa, Shiki kanchū kōshō, 68.3405. On the statuses without rank, see Yates, “Social Status in the Ch’in,” 201–3.
38. Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 790–91 (nos. 312–13).
39. Confusingly, the shi was a unit of both weight, equal to 120 jin 斤 (250 grams each, for a total of 30 kilograms), and volume, equal to 100 sheng 升 (200 milliliters each for a total of 20 liters). Swann calculates that one Han shi was equivalent to 1.29 US bushels of unhusked millet. Ban, Han shu, 24.1125; Swann, Food & Money in Ancient China, 140–42, 365; Wilkinson, Chinese History, 555–56. For modern land figures, see Brandt and Sands, “Land Concentration,” 182.
40. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, 2–3; Shih, A Preliminary Study of the Book Ch’i Min Yao Shu.
41. On later periods, see Twitchett, Financial Administration under the T’ang Dynasty, 1–11; Balazs, “Le traité économique du ‘Souei-chou,’” 144–53; Yang, “Notes on the Economic History of the Chin Dynasty,” 119–26, 167–68.
42. On the Zheng Guo Canal in later periods, see Will, “Clear Waters versus Muddy Waters,” 325. The quote from the British officer comes from Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity, 87; Barbieri-Low, “Coerced Migration and Resettlement in the Qin Imperial Expansion.”
43. Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 65 (no. 40); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 41–42; Selbitschka, “Quotidian Afterlife”; Yates, “War, Food Shortages, and Relief Measures in Early China.”
44. Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 56–57 (nos. 21–27); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 34–35.
45. Cai, Qin guo liangshi jingji yanjiu (the Ao 敖 granary was at Xingyang 滎陽); Sima, Shi ji, 97.2694; Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 19 (nos. 49–50); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 31.
46. This section draws on Korolkov, “Empire-Building” and Hulsewé, “Some Remarks on Statute Labour.” For fascinating lists of labor duties from the Liye documents, see Chen, Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi, vol. 1, 84–85, 196 (nos. 8-145, 8-663).
47. Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 26 (no. 136); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 67.
48. See Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 105 (nos. 115–24); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 63–64; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 902–10. The translation is mine, based on Chen, Sun, and Yan, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 4, 225–37; Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 211–15; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 693–711.
49. Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3, 299–306; Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 497–509; Shi, “Lun Jishui he Honggou.”
50. On the Han statutes, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 902–3. On water administration, see Lander, “State Management of River Dikes.” The description of the duties of the Office of Waters is based on Ru Chun’s commentary on the Han History and on the Sanfu huangtu. Wang, Han shu buzhu, 19.870, 884–85, 894–96; Fu, Qin fengni huikao, 18; He, Sanfu huangtu jiaoshi, 353–55.
51. The quote is from Shelach, “Collapse or Transformation?,” 129; Sima, Shi ji, 6.244–59; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 139–51. Loewe, in “On the Terms Bao Zi, Yin Gong, Yin Guan, Huan, and Shou,” argues that the 700,000 laboring families mentioned by Sima Qian were probably yin guan 隐官, prisoners who had suffered mutilating punishments but were then manumitted to some degree. On monarchy and environment, see Warnke, Political Landscape.
52. Tucker et al., “Moving in the Anthropocene.”
53. Sima, Shi ji, 88.2570; Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 7, 367. Translation of qing 輕 modified to reflect its meaning “to treat lightly, consider of scant importance.” For examples of scholarship that questions the traditional view of Qin, see Bodde, “The State and Empire of Ch’in”; Sanft, Communication and Cooperation. The unnecessarily large size of the Straight Road was emphasized in Huang, “A Study of Qin Straight Road.”
54. Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 20 (no. 63); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 45; Lander, Schneider, and Brunson, “A History of Pigs in China.” On livestock theft, see Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 46, 51–53, 70 (nos. 5–6, 29, 41–50, 21); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 122–33, 189.
55. Sima, Shi ji, 128.3254, 3262; Watson, Records, 434, 441; Wu, “Cultural Hybridity and Social Status.”
56. On the idea that Qin had plenty of oxen, see Liu, Zhanguo ce, 18.618 (Zhao 2); Crump, Chan-Kuo Ts‘e, 336. Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 18–25 (slips 47, 72–74, 117–24); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 30, 47, 63; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 920–33 (nos. 421–25); Peng, Zhangjiashan Han jian “Suan shu shu,” 52 (nos. 53–54); Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 126–27.
57. Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 16–25 (nos. 13–20, 31, 126–27); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 26–28, 74, 115.
58. Zhou and Lu, Qin fengni ji, 183–98; Fu, Qin fengni huikao; Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 983–84, 1014, 1061, 1079–80, 1118–62, 1256; Wan, “The Horse in Pre-Imperial China.”
59. Chen, Peng, and Liu, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 1, 161, 170 (nos. 9–10, 29–30); Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 107, 114.
60. Sanft, “Environment and Law”; Miller, “Forestry and the Politics of Sustainability in Early China”; Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 107; Knoblock, Xunzi, 9.241.
61. Miller, “Forestry and the Politics of Sustainability in Early China”; Swann, Food & Money in Ancient China, 121. The officials in the Offices of Zhou are called shan yu 山虞, lin heng 林衡, chuan heng 川衡, and ze yu 澤虞. Jia, Zhouli zhushu, 590–95 (地官); Biot, Le Tcheou-li, 105–6; Knoblock and Riegel, Annals, 6.155 (see also p. 653); Wang, Xunzi jijie, 9.168; Knoblock, Xunzi, 106.
62. Quoted passage from Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, 2 (nos. 3–6); Hulsewé, Remnants of C’h’in Law, 22 (I have modified Hulsewé’s translation). Yates, “Some Notes on Ch’in Law,” 248; Liang and Liu, Yunmeng Longgang Qin jian, slips 278, 279, 258, and 254 include fragments of Qin statutes in the Yunmeng Park in Hubei and state that poachers caught hunting boars, dogs, and three kinds of deer in the park were to be sentenced to hard labor, while anyone caught with dholes, wolves, raccoon-dogs, porcupines, foxes, pheasants, and rabbits were not to be punished. On charcoal, see Dauben, “Suan Shu Shu,” 146.
63. The “Moneymakers” chapter of the Historical Records shows that the Warring States period was a time of large-scale private commerce, though it may reflect Sima Qian’s own time more than the conditions a century or two earlier. Sima, Shi ji, 129.3253–84; Watson, Records, 433–54. On mining and metals, see Golas, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.13, 72–109; Wagner, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.11, 140–44. On the convict miners, see Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” 215 (citing Liye Qin jian bowuguan, 57–58 (nos. 12-3, 12-447).
64. Wagner, Iron and Steel in Ancient China, 258; Wagner, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.11, 83–170; Liu, Xian Qin liang Han nongye, 33–39. On excavated texts, see Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State, and Society, 1251–54; He, “Xinjian Liye Qin jiandu ziliao xuanjiao (yi),” (no. 10-673).
65. Chen, “Two Ordinances Issued during the Reign of the Second Emperor.”
66. On the Fangmatan maps, see Yan, “Tianshui Fangmatan muban ditu xintan”; Chen, Sun, and Yan, Qin jiandu heji, vol. 4; Wang and Li, “Fangmatan Qin ditu linye jiaotong shiliao”; Harper and Kalinowski, Books of Fate and Popular Culture, 21–25. The Han History states that the mountainous valleys of the upper Wei River and neighboring Tao River had so many forests that people built their homes with wood, something remarkable to people from the Guanzhong, whose buildings were made of rammed earth and bricks. Shi, Huangtu Gaoyuan lishi dili yanjiu, 125, 149–50; Wang, Han shu buzhu, 28.2824; Wang, Yantielun jiaozhu, 3.41. On floating timber down rivers, see Wang, Xin yu jiaozhu, 7.101; Major et al., Huainanzi, 18.733.
67. On maps, see Rickett, Guanzi, 387–91; Hsing, “Lun Mawangdui Han mu ‘zhujun tu’”; Jia, Zhouli zhushu, 597 (地官•卝人); Chen, Sun, and Yan, Qin jiandu heji shiwen zhushi xiudingben, vol. 4, 197.
68. Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. 1, 168; Sima, Shi ji, 6.283; Scheidel, “The Early Roman Monarchy,” 233–34.
69. Trigger, Understanding Early Civilizations, 388 (citing Weber).
The epigraph is part of a poem by Mao Zedong, “Du Fengjian lun cheng Guo lao 讀《封建論》呈郭老,” in Jianguo yilai Mao Zedong wengao, vol. 13, 361. Mao considered the Qin First Emperor (the “ancestral dragon”) a kindred spirit, a fellow founder of a new political system. “Giving up the ghost” refers to the hun 魂, the ethereal soul that disperses after a person’s death. Some editions have ye 業 instead of Qin in the first line, as in “the emperor’s achievements are still with us.” Michael Loewe makes a similar point in his “Review of ‘Shang Yang’s Reforms and State Control in China.’”
1. This paragraph is based on Korolkov, “Empire-Building,” chap. 7.
2. On illegal colonization, see Perdue, Exhausting the Earth; Reardon-Anderson, Reluctant Pioneers; Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy. On state-organized resource extraction, see Schlesinger, A World Trimmed with Fur.
3. Will and Wong, Nourish the People.
4. “Smithian growth” refers to economic growth resulting from the division of labor and the expansion of markets, in contrast to the much faster growth that became possible with fossil-fueled industrialization. Von Glahn, The Economic History of China, 9–10; Korolkov, “Empire-Building.”
5. On the general expansion of Chinese speakers and their ecosystems, see Marks, China; Pulleyblank, “The Chinese and Their Neighbours”; Wilkinson, Chinese History, sections 25.1, “Internal Migration,” and 25.2, “Becoming Chinese.” On the Pearl River Delta, see Crossley, Siu, and Sutton, Empire at the Margins, 171–89. On writing indigenous ancestors out of genealogies, see Szonyi, Practicing Kinship.
6. On the colonization of what is now South China, see Brindley, Ancient China and the Yue; de Crespigny, Generals of the South; Marks, Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt; Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks; Churchman, The People between the Rivers. On Sichuan, see von Glahn, The Country of Streams and Grottoes. On Korea, see Byington, The Han Commanderies in Early Korean History; Lee, “Protect the Pines, Punish the People.” On the southwest, see Yao, The Ancient Highlands of Southwest China; Herman, Amid the Clouds and Mist; Wu et al., “Resettlement Strategies and Han Imperial Expansion into Southwest China”; Giersch, Asian Borderlands; Crossley, Siu, and Sutton, Empire at the Margins; Li, “Towards an Environmental History of the Eastern Red River Delta.” On the adoption of Chinese-style governance in Japan, see Totman, Japan, 74–92.
7. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed; Miller, Fir and Empire.
8. Chang, The Rise of the Chinese Empire; Perdue, China Marches West; Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China; Bello, Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain; Schlesinger, A World Trimmed with Fur.
9. For an overview based on traditional sources, see Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3. On the Yellow River, see Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants; Zhang, The River, the Plain, and the State; Pietz, The Yellow River. On the south and the “hydraulic cycle,” see Will, “State Intervention.” See also Zheng, Shui dao qu cheng.
10. Lander, “State Management of River Dikes”; Ling, Zoumalou Wu jian caiji bushu zhengli, 424–54.
11. On water control literature, see Needham, Wang, and Lu, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4.3, 323–29; Zheng, Shui dao qu cheng. On agricultural manuals, see Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6.2, 55–80; Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia, 121–26.
12. On the People’s Republic, see Marks, China, 307–91.
1. On the Euro-American “phobia of the state,” see Foucault, Security, Territory, Population and especially The Birth of Biopolitics.
2. Elvin, “War and the Logic of Short-Term Advantage”; Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, chap. 3.
3. On the impossibility of economic growth without increased resource use, see Smil, Growth.
4. Elvin, “Three Thousand Years of Unsustainable Growth.”