Sources of Early Chinese History

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2014

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the sources for early Chinese history. The first attempts to make a record of historical events in China date from the Shang dynasty of the second millennium BC. The earliest surviving records were inscribed on bones or tortoise shells; in later centuries, chroniclers left detailed accounts on paper or silk. In the last hundred years, archaeologists have discovered a wealth of new materials, including a cache of previously unknown texts which were found in a sealed cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Such sources are are shedding new light on Chinese history, although interpreting ancient sources from the period before the invention of printing presents a number of challenges. With: Roel Sterckx Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge Tim Barrett Professor of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London Hilde de Weerdt Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the in-artime podcast. For more details about in-artime and for our terms of use
0:05.4	Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program
0:12.3	Hello in 1900 a Taoist monk was exploring a cave complex on the edge of the goby desert in northwest China
0:19.1	He discovered a sealed chamber which had laid undisturbed for ever 900 years when it was open
0:24.8	This small room turned out to contain thousands of previously unknown Chinese manuscripts
0:30.1	This treasure trove of material is making historians revise their viewer of early China
0:34.8	Previously on knowledge of the country's early history is based on long established texts some of which are thought to be almost
0:40.9	3,000 years old many of these were official histories written by court officials and based on the administrative records of previous Royal
0:47.6	Dinisters these works amount to one of the most detailed historical records for any ancient civilization
0:53.4	But what do they record what are their shortcomings and how recent discoveries altering our view of China's early history
0:59.9	We're going to discuss the sources of early Chinese history are rural Sturks
1:04.3	Joseph need a professor of Chinese history at the University of Cambridge
1:08.4	Tim Barrett former professor of East Asian history at Sirus University of London and
1:13.3	Hilda Viet professor of Chinese history at Leiden University
1:17.4	Rural Sturks can you tell us about the earliest known examples of the Chinese making record of their significant events?
1:24.6	The earliest written records that have quote-unquote historical value in China would be the so-called
1:31.1	Oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty
1:33.9	The Shanga polity which was there from 1700 onwards
1:36.5	1700 BC onwards, but the written record really sort of 1200
1:41.6	As a starting point these are
1:43.7	inscriptions that are written on shoulder blades of oxen and on turtle shells and they are in essence
1:51.2	divination records in which the Shang king consults the royal ancestors about you know his daily his daily doings
	...

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