The Formation And Development Of Regional Society

The Guanzhong area had long been occupied by the Zhou people as their core territory before the Western Zhou dynasty was formally established. It is in this sense that Chinese Bronze Age archaeological studies have always been focusing on the cultural, economic and societal changes in this area during its pre-dynasty period and the roles these changes might have played in the rise of the Zhou.This dissertation first reviews the successes and defects of the related studies in the previous several decades. It then puts forward the idea that an acceptable explanation of the Zhou's rise should be based on the right understanding of the total history of the local society; furthermore, a complete scenario should also encompass the contribution of the immigrants from outside the Guanzhong area and the continuous interactions between the Guanzhong society. The core discussion of this dissertation includes two parts. The first part is focused on the tempro-spatial sequence of the archaeological remains. As discussed in the second chapter, typological analysis suggests that the pottery remains should be divided into six periods. Mortuary practices analysis in the third chapter classifies the burial goods excavated in the Guanzhong area into 16 types. The second part examines the cultural, economic, societal and military formation and development of the Guanzhong society in the perspective of'area history'. The major points are further elaborated in the Chapters 4, 5 and 6. Chapter 4 includes pottery analysis, mortuary practices analysis, studies on bronzes and divination practices. The first part of Chapter 5 is focused on subsistence patterns, including agriculture, livestock husbandry, hunting and gathering, bone artifacts and textile production; whilst the second part is primarily about prestige goods industries which are commonly believed to indicate social complexity, such as bronzes production, chariot making, jade carving, lacquered wooden vessels, and the production of gold goods and shells maybe as currency. Chapter 6 discusses settlement patterns, burials and weaponry issues in a wider context encompassing the peripheral areas.In the conclusion section, a regional society formation pattern is built; the formation process of the Guanzhong local society is reconstructed; and the contribution from the peripheral areas to the core Guanzhong society is discussed. The author also tries to answer the question: why, among many other ethnic/social groups which exited to the west of the Shang kingdom, could Guanzhong group give an end to the Shang's rule? Settlement patter analysis gives the detail of the differences between the Guanzhong and other societies distributed in the west. The final Chapter makes a comparison of the societies in the lower reaches of the Jing River and those in the Wei River valleys. It is also mentioned in this dissertation, long-term coexistence with other peoples, especially the Shang as observed in archaeological evidence, might have made the Guanzhong society very experienced in managing the relationships with their neighbors. This experience began to develop after the Shang's defeat and helped in the Zhou's barbarian-styled management of the relations with other peoples ruled by the Zhou kingdom.