Description
Book SynopsisInquires into modes of manuscript production, the purposes for which texts were produced, and the ways in which they were actually used
Trade Review". . . 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 ContentsAcknowledgments
Early China Chronology
Map of Important Archaeological Sites
Introduction: Writing as a Phenomenon of Literacy / Li Feng and David Prager Branner
Part One | Origins and the Linguistic Dimension
1. Getting “Right” with Heaven and the Origins of Writing in China / David W. Pankenier
2. Literacy and the Emergence of Writing in China / William G. Boltz
3. Phonology in the Chinese Script and Its Relationship to Early Chinese Literacy / David Prager Branner
Part Two | Scribal Training and Practice
4. Literacy to the South and the East of Anyang in Shang China: Zhengzhou and Daxinzhuang / Ken-ichi Takashima
5. The Evidence for Scribal Training at Anyang / Adam Smith
6. Textual Identity and the Role of Literacy in the Transmission of Early Chinese Literature / Matthias L. Richter
Part Three | Literacy and Social Contexts
7. The Royal Audience and Its Reflections in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions / Lothar von Falkenhausen
8. Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing in the
Western Zhou / Li Feng
9. Education and the Way of the Former Kings / Constance A. Cook
Part Four | The Extent of Literacy in the Early Empire
10. Soldiers, Scribes, and Women: Literacy among the Lower Orders in Early China / Robin D. S. Yates
11. Craftsman’s Literacy: Uses of Writing by Male and Female Artisans in Qin and Han China / Anthony J. Barbieri-Low
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
