Is the lion the symbol of China? Or should it be the dragon or the phoenix? This book makes a provocative interpretation of the Chinese ancient totems such as the bear and the owl. Taking a mythological approach, it explores the origin of Chinese civilization using the quadruple evidence method, which integrates ancient and unearthed literature, oral transmission, and archeological objects and graphs. It testifies to the authenticity of unresolved ancient myths and legends from the origins of Chinese Jade Ware (6200BC-5400 BC) to the names of the Yellow Emperor (2698–2598 BC) and the legends from the Xia (2010BC-1600BC), Shang (1600BC-046BC), Zhou (1046BC-771BC), and Qin (221BC-206BC) Dynasties. The book lays the foundation for a reconstruction of Chinese Mythistory. With well over 200 photographs of historic artifacts, the book appeals to both researchers and general readers.

This book is the first monograph of its kind in the academic world which comprehensively expounds the new methodology of humanities. The quadruple-evidence method is one which integrates quadruple-evidences to open up new horizon for interpretation of ancient culture in the three-dimensional manner. The first layer of evidence refers to documents passed down from the past; the second layer of evidence refers to local written materials; the third layer of evidence includes oral legends of anthropology and folklore and etiquette in the living folk customs; the fourth layer of evidence refers to those ancient objects and images either unearthed in archaeological excavations or handed down from the past. The book consists of theoretical explorations and their applications in individual cases. While the first part studies the academic evolution, theory and methodological value of the quadruple-evidence method, the second part, in using the method in different cases, explores different historical and cultural phenomena in the history of China, attempting to extend the frontier of the origin of civilization from the approach of mythological study.

This handbook provides an extensive overview of traditional and emerging research areas within the field of intermediality studies, understood broadly as the study of interrelations among all forms of communicative media types, including transmedial phenomena. Section I offers accounts of the development of the field of intermediality - its histories, theories and methods. Section II and III then explore intermedial facets of communication from ancient times until the 21st century, with discussion on a wide range of cultural and geographical settings, media types, and topics, by contributors from a diverse set of disciplines. It concludes in Section IV with an emphasis on urgent societal issues that an intermedial perspective might help understand.

This book places Li Ji (the Book of Rites) back in the overall context of “books,” “rites” and its research history, drawing on the interrelations between myth, ritual and “materialized” symbols to do so. Further, it employs the double perspectives of “books” and “rites” to explore the sources and symbols of the capping ceremony (rites of passage), decode the prototypes of Miao and Ming Tang, and restore the discourse patterns of “people of five directions.” The book subsequently investigates the formation and function of the Yue Ling calendar and disaster ritual, so as to reveal the human cognitive encoding and metalanguage of ritual behavior involved. In the process, it demonstrates that Li Ji, its textual memories, archaeological remains and “traditional ceremony” narratives are all subject to the latent myth coding mechanism in China’s cultural system, while the “compilation” and “materialized” remains are merely forms of ritual refactoring, interpretation and exhibition, used when authority seeks the aid of ritual civilization to strengthen its legitimacy and maintain the social order.

Drawing on the sun, moon, dragon, phoenix, Nuwa, Yandi, Huangdi and other widely circulated cultural elements as examples, this book addresses the development and evolution of the most representative Chinese creation myths regarding nature, totems, ancestors and saints. The book not only interprets key creation myths, but also elaborates on the connection between the myths and some of the core values and concepts in Chinese civilization. For example, the long and jade culture is rooted in the Yellow Emperor’s revered jade weapon. Further, the book reveals the kernels of truth in the myths by presenting new research findings and research methods.

This book focuses on reinterpreting mythical China from the perspective of the cultural theory of big tradition. It is divided into two parts: the first explains the theoretical development and features of the Chinese version of big tradition, identifying the differences between the Eastern and Western cultural traditions (big tradition and great tradition). The second part then reinterprets the core values and mythical ideas of Chinese civilization and traditional culture from the perspective of big tradition. Moving beyond the small tradition of text centrism and using new methods and materials, the book reveals the original meaning and the cultural coding function of big tradition during the preliterate period. Drawing on integrated evidence from literature handed down from ancient times, oral and intangible cultural heritage, tangible culture, cross-cultures, image culture and unearthed documents, the book interprets Chinese cultural traditions and spiritual values from local, archaeological, experiential and survival perspectives, to help readers better understand the mythical codes and genes of early Chinese culture.

This book involves collection of papers primarily focused on the origin and development of Chinese civilization in the concept of archaeological context from the 6000 BCE to 1300 BCE through archaeological cultural perspectives. It systematically illustrates the prehistoric cultural history of China at the period from Neolithic to the early Bronze Age during 20000-1300 BCE, composing not only the proper region around the Central Plain but also the margin areas mainly in the west, and examines the cultural relationship and exchanges nationally and internationally through thousand years of advancing social complexity in geographical and temporal genealogies. It introduces three prehistoric stages for the course of Chinese Civilization Development; the three major Civilization Development Models during the Chalcolithic period; how environmental changes and warfare functioned as the part of mechanism to make civilization evolve; the Bronze Age Revolution from the West; and the critical evaluation of the characteristics belonging to Chinese Civilization and the review of ancient legendary histories and legends through the archaeological perspectives. This book is essential reading for all those wanting more information about the foundations of Chinese history and civilization through archaeological studies. Jianye Han is Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Museology, School of History, Renmin University of China.

This book provides a conceptual history of the emergence of civilizational consciousness in early China. Focusing on how words are used in pre-Qín (before 221 BCE) texts to construct identities and negotiate relationships between a 'civilised self' and 'uncivilised others', it provides a re-examination of the origins and development of these ideas. By adopting a novel approach to determining when civilizational consciousness emerged in pre-Qín China, this book analyzes this question in ways that establish a fresh hermeneutical dialogue between Chinese and modern European understandings of 'civilization.' Whereas previous studies have used archaeological data to place its origin somewhere between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE, this book explores changes in word meanings in texts from the pre-Qín period to reject this view. Instead, this book dates the emergence of civilizational consciousness in China to around 2,500 years ago. In the process, new chronologies of the coining of Old Chinese terms such as ‘customs,’ ‘barbarians,’ and ‘the Great ones,’ are proposed, which challenge anachronistic assumptions about these terms in earlier studies. Examining important Chinese classics, such as the Analects, the Mencius and the Mòzi, as well as key historical periods and figures in the context of the concept of ‘civilization,’ this book will useful to students and scholars of Chinese and Asian history.

Mythology offers a set of cultural codes that have played an essential role in the construction of culture, social life, and identity for the entirety of human history. The transfer of mythological elements to humanity has been achieved through both oral and written narratives in literature. This volume compares the themes of mythological elements used in contemporary narratives with the motifs of classical narratives, and investigates the functions of those elements pursuant to semiotics and narratology.

Within Asia, the period from 1840s to 1960s had witnessed the rise and decline of Pax Britannica, the growth of multiple and often competing anti-colonial movements, and the entrenchment of the nation-state system. Beyond Pan-Asianism seeks to demonstrate the complex interactions between China, India, and their neighbouring societies against this background of imperialism and nationalist resistance. The contributors to this volume, from India, the West, and the Chinese-speaking world, cover a tremendous breadth of figures, including novelists, soldiers, intelligence officers, archivists, among others, by deploying published and archival materials in multiple Asian and Western languages. This volume also attempts to answer the question of how China-India connectedness in the modern period should be narrated. Instead of providing one definite answer, it engages with prevailing and past frameworks—notably 'Pan-Asianism' and 'China/India as Method'—with an aim to provoke further discussions on how histories of China-India and, by extension the non-Western world, can be conceptualized.