title: Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangzi River (Case Studies in Early Societies)
author:  Rowan K. Flad 
description: "Provocatively using the term 'Central China' for eastern Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, and Hunan, the authors bring to the fore the crucial role of the Three Gorges, a periphery that has been overlooked in most historical and archaeological studies. Their multifaceted approach completely reshapes our understanding of early southwest Chinese cultures." <br />Alain Thote, Directeur d'tudes, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris<br /><br />"This splendid book offers new theoretical insights and substantive evidence that transforms our understanding of the emergence of China's antiquity in the heartlands of its earliest cultural complexity. With expertise and style, the authors implicate environmental conditions, political developments, economic processes, and the role of religious rituals in the cultural landscape in the emergence of China's ancient civilization." <br />C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Harvard University<br /><br />"Ancient Central China provides the first ever comprehensive survey of the region in question by integrating multiple, overlapping topographies of natural environment, research history, political narrative, archaeological culture, economic activity, and ritual performance. It presents a cogent case of dynamic relationship between center and periphery. A must-read for anyone interested in ancient China, and a very valuable contribution to world archaeology." <br />Jay Xu, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco<br /><br />"In Ancient Central China, Flad and Chen create a data-rich and theoretically significant volume that presents a compelling contemporary synthesis for this fascinating region. A case study replete with plentiful and well-elucidated local knowledge, couched within a broad comparative perspective, the volume offers significant new insight into the development of political complexity, social and ritual identity, and the nature of interregional entanglements." <br />Tina Thurston, University at Buffalo, State University of New York<br /><br />"Ancient Central China is replete with up-to-date information (especially on Sichuan and the Three Gorges) and the authors' work at Zhongba and on the Chengdu Plain is a shining example of what is possible in Chinese archaeology. The history of scholarship in the region is especially rich and the authors' synthesis of palaeo-climate and geography is the best I know of in Chinese archaeology ... Ancient Central China contains simultaneously some of the most stimulating theoretical proposals in Chinese archaeology and a much needed synthesis of an understudied region presented in provocative fashion.' <br />Antiquity
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # The Awakening of China
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### W.A.P. Martin
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  PREFACE.
  
  
  INTRODUCTION.
  
  
  
  
  
  PART I. THE EMPIRE IN OUTLINE
  
  
    
  CHAPTER I. CHINA PROPER
  
  
    
  CHAPTER II. A JOURNEY THROUGH THE
  
  
  PROVINCES—KWANGTUNG AND KWANGSI
  
  
    
  CHAPTER III. PROVINCE OF FUKIEN
  
  
    
  CHAPTER IV. PROVINCE OF CHEHKIANG
  
  
    
  CHAPTER V. PROVINCE OF KIANGSU
  
  
    
  CHAPTER VI. PROVINCE OF SHANTUNG
  
  
    
  CHAPTER VII. PROVINCE OF CHIHLI
  
  
    
  CHAPTER VIII. PROVINCE OF HONAN
  
  
    
  CHAPTER IX. THE RIVER PROVINCES
  
  
    
  CHAPTER X. PROVINCES OF THE UPPER YANG-TSE
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XI. NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XII. OUTLYING TERRITORIES
  
  
  PART II. HISTORY IN OUTLINE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
  
  
  TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XIII. ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XIV. THE MYTHICAL PERIOD
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XV. THE THREE DYNASTIES
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XVI. HOUSE OF CHOU
  
  
    
  CHAPTER XVII. THE SAGES OF CHINA
  
  
    
  CHAPTER