HIST 270: History of China

Chapter 1, Lecture 3

Beyond the Yellow River:
Regional Diversity in Bronze Age China

ca. 1500-771 BCE

โŒจ๏ธ Keyboard Shortcuts

Why Have You Never Heard of These?

These were made at the SAME TIME as Shang oracle bones, just 500 miles away in Sichuan.

Sanxingdui Culture (ไธ‰ๆ˜Ÿๅ †)

Located in Sichuan basin

  • Site known earlier; famous sacrificial pits excavated in 1986
  • Deliberately buried ritual objects
  • Distinctive artistic style โ€” NO direct Shang influence
  • Different religious iconography

Sanxingdui's Strange Treasures

What They Made

  • Large bronze masks
  • Bronze "sacred trees"
  • Gold masks and scepters
  • Elephant tusks
  • Jade objects

What's Missing

  • No writing system
  • No oracle bones
  • Different ritual emphasis than Shang

The Mystery: What Happened?

Sanxingdui culture disappears around 1200 BCE

Theories (all speculative):

  • Migration
  • Environmental crisis
  • Conquest
  • Ritual transformation

The deliberate burial of treasures suggests intentional ritual closure.

Why Sanxingdui Matters

Sanxingdui exemplifies "Developments Outside the Shang Core":
  • Independent political form
  • Separate ritual system
  • Different material culture
  • Sophisticated society on its own terms

Bronze Age "China" was NOT one unified civilization!

โธ Pause & Process

Visual Analysis & Comprehension

Quick Write (90 seconds):

Look at the two bronze objects we've seen: Sanxingdui mask vs. Shang ritual vessel

Write down two specific differences you notice.

The Yangtze River Valley

While Shang dominated the Yellow River, different cultures flourished in the south:

Earlier Foundations: Liangzhu Culture

3300-2300 BCE โ€” Predates the Shang!

  • Jade working traditions โ€” exquisite jade cong and bi
  • Hydraulic engineering: Dams, irrigation systems
  • Social stratification WITHOUT bronze technology
  • Evidence of complex ritual system centered on jade

Different Ritual Priorities

Liangzhu (South)

Jade Ritual Objects

  • Cong (tubes) and bi (discs)
  • Cosmological symbolism
  • Earth-heaven connection

Shang (North)

Bronze Ritual Vessels

  • Ding, jue, gu, zun
  • Ancestor worship focus
  • Food/wine offerings

Connection: Different economic base and material culture priorities

Rice Agriculture: A Different Economy

Wet rice paddies vs. northern millet farming:

Rice agriculture requires intensive communal labor

  • Water management (irrigation)
  • Transplanting seedlings
  • Creates denser settlements
  • Different social organization (cooperation)

Connection to "Outside the Core"

Yangtze valley cultures exemplify regional diversity:

  • Different economic base
  • Different settlement patterns
  • Different material culture priorities
  • Gradual incorporation into cultural sphere

Major turning point: Han Dynasty colonization of the south

Northern Steppe: A Different World

On Zhou's northern borders: pastoral nomadic peoples

Technology Transfer: The Chariot

Chariot technology probably came from Central Asia/steppe

IMPORTANT: This is a plausible scholarly hypothesis, not a proven direct pipeline

What else did Zhou adopt from steppe cultures?

  • Horse gear (bits, bridles)
  • Possibly burial practices (horse sacrifice)
  • Military tactics

Zhou Texts: "Barbarians"

Zhou texts call non-Zhou peoples yi, di, rong, man

CRITICAL: "Barbarians" is a Zhou textual category

A political/ritual boundary marker, NOT objective ethnographic label

These terms marked who was "inside" vs. "outside" the ritual order

Zhou Anxieties About the North

How do Zhou texts describe northern peoples?

  • Often as threats (raids, invasions)
  • Occasionally as allies (when convenient)
  • Always as "outside" the ritual order

771 BCE proves these fears well-founded!

Connection to "Outside the Core"

Northern steppe peoples exemplify regional diversity:

  • Different subsistence
  • Different political forms
  • Different material culture
  • Constant tension shapes Chinese thinking

Pattern: Steppe peoples as recurring military threat AND exchange partners

โธ Pause & Process

Map Synthesis & Active Thinking

Map Activity (2 minutes):

On your handout: Draw arrows showing connections between these regions:

  • Yellow River (Shang/Zhou core)
  • Sichuan basin (Sanxingdui)
  • Yangtze valley
  • Northern steppe

How Do These Zones Interact?

Sanxingdui

Largely separate from Shang/Zhou

Yangtze Valley

Gradual cultural exchange

Northern Steppe

Constant military/cultural interaction

Looking Forward

Later dynasties will try to absorb these regions:

  • Qin Dynasty โ€” First empire pushes south/west
  • Han Dynasty โ€” Major expansion
  • Even after political unification, cultural differences persist

"Chinese unity" is always CONSTRUCTED and NEGOTIATED

Standardizing Diversity

"We'll watch later states try to standardize this diversityโ€”sometimes successfully, sometimes not."

Examples of standardization attempts:

  • Qin: Standardized writing, weights, currency
  • Han: Confucianism as state ideology
  • Later: Examination system, official histories

Summary: Regional Diversity

Key Takeaways

  • Sanxingdui: Independent culture, unique bronzes
  • Yangtze: Rice agriculture, jade focus
  • Steppe: Pastoral nomads, military threat
  • "China" emerges from diverse populations

Big Questions

  • Who counts as "Chinese"?
  • How do we challenge sinocentric narratives?
  • What makes cultures "civilized"?

End of Chapter 1: Bronze Age China (ca. 1500-771 BCE)