Childs-Johnson Elizabeth (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Early China

Oxford University Press, 2020. — 824 p.The Oxford Handbook on Early China celebrates the research of multidisciplines ranging from history and archaeology, paleography and textual analysis to art historical and technological material. The coverage in 35 chapters is treated chronologically, beginning with the Neolithic and ending with the Springs and Autumns Period (ca 5000 BCE-500 BCE). Each chapter innovates in providing the most up-to-date content whether due to new archaeological discoveries or to new methodological approaches. Material is up-to-date and meticulously documented, in dealing with issues such as the origins of new military technical views of Warring States date, the historiography and political thought of the Springs and Autumns Period, new inscriptional data for Western Zhou ritual, the identity of a Shang woman warrior, Middle Shang periodization, the development of iron technology, the Jade Age issue, and the southern Neolithic revolution.The study is chronological and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, covering topics from archaeology, anthropology, art history, architecture, music, and metallurgy, to literature, religion, paleography, cosmology, religion, prehistory, and history.Elizabeth Childs-Johnson works on early Chinese art, archaeology, and paleography. Her major research interests include mapping a Jade Age and Shang Bronze Age in early China.