Writing and Literacy in Early China: Studies from the Columbia Early China Seminar - Writing and Literacy in Early China

Marc Notes: Recently discovered ancient texts dating to the third century BCE and earlier inform the groundbreaking interpretations presented here on the emergence and spread of literacy in Chinese society. Review Quotes:... elucidate[s] the origins, early development and structure of the Chinese script, but also discuss[es] material aspects, practical uses, and social contexts of writing up to the second century CE.... fascinating and carefully edited...--Oliver Weingarten "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies "Table of Contents: AcknowledgmentsEarly China ChronologyMap of Important Archaeological SitesIntroduction: Writing as a Phenomenon of Literacy / Li Feng and David Prager BrannerPART I: ORIGINS AND THE LINGUISTIC DIMENSION1. Getting "Right" with Heaven and the Origins of Writing in China / David W. Pankenier2. Literacy and the Emergence of Writing in China / William G. Boltz3. Phonology in the Chinese Script and Its Relationship to Early Chinese Literacy / David Prager BrannerPART II: SCRIBAL TRAINING AND PRACTICE4. Literacy to the South and the East of Anyang in Shang China: Zhengzhou and Daxinzhuang / Ken-ichi Takashima5. The Evidence for Scribal Training at Anyang / Adam Smith6. Textual Identity and the Role of Literacy in the Transmission of Early Chinese Literature / Matthias L. RichterPART III: LITERACY AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS7. The Royal Audience and Its Reflections in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions / Lothar von Falkenhausen8. Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing in theWestern Zhou / Li Feng9. Education and the Way of the Former Kings / Constance A. CookPART IV: THE EXTENT OF LITERACY IN THE EARLY EMPIRE10. Soldiers, Scribes, and Women: Literacy among the Lower Orders in Early China / Robin D. S. Yates11. Craftsman's Literacy: Uses of Writing by Male and Female Artisans in Qin and Han China / Anthony J. Barbieri-LowAbbreviationsBibliographyContributorsIndexBiographical Note: Li Feng is associate professor of early Chinese history and archaeology at Columbia University. David Prager Branner is a lexicographer of Chinese, retired as a professor of Chinese at the University of Maryland. The other contributors are Anthony Barbieri-Low, William Boltz, Constance Cook, Lothar von Falkenhausen, David Pankenier, Matthias Richter, Adam Smith, Ken-ichi Takashima, and Robin Yates.

Contributor Bio:  Feng, Li Li Feng is Professor of Early Chinese History and Archaeology at Columbia University. Both a historian and an archaeologist, his research interests extend from bronze inscriptions and Western Zhou history to broader issues such as the nature of early states, bureaucracy, comparative literacy, cross-region cultural relations and theories of social development. He is also an active archaeologist with extensive fieldwork experience in China and Japan. Li's published English books include Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045 771 BC (2006), Bureaucracy and the State in Early China: Governing the Western Zhou (2008) and Writing and Literacy in Early China: Studies from the Columbia Early China Seminar (co-editor, 2011).