Writing Early China by Edward L. Shaughnessy - 9781438495224

Writing Early ChinaAuthor(s): Edward L. Shaughnessy\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: State University of New York Press, United States\nImprint: State University of New York Press\nISBN-13: 9781438495224, 978-1438495224\nSynopsis\nConsiders what unearthed documents reveal about the creation and transmission of knowledge in ancient China.\n\nArchaeological discoveries over the past one hundred years have resulted in repeated calls to \""rewrite ancient Chinese history.\"" This is especially true of documents written on oracle bones, bronze vessels, and bamboo strips. In Writing Early China, Edward L. Shaughnessy surveys all of these types of documents and considers what they reveal about the creation and transmission of knowledge in ancient China. Opposed to the common view that most knowledge was transmitted orally in ancient China, Shaughnessy demonstrates that by no later than the tenth century BCE scribes were writing lengthy texts like portions of the Chinese classics, and that by the.