Sources of Early Chinese History

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2014

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:39.0	For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy
0:46.5	the program. Hello in 1900 a Taoist monk was exploring a cave complex on the edge of the goby desert in northwest China.
0:55.6	He discovered a sealed chamber which had laid undisturbed for over 900 years.
1:00.2	When it was open, this small room turned out to contain thousands of previously unknown Chinese manuscripts.
1:06.3	This treasure trove of material is making historians revise their view of early China. Previously, our knowledge of the country's early history is based on
1:14.0	long-established texts, some of which are thought to be almost 3,000 years old. Many of these
1:18.8	are official histories written by court officials and based on the administrative
1:22.4	records of previous royal
1:23.8	dynasters. These works amount to one of the most detailed historical records for any ancient
1:28.7	civilization. But what do they record? What are their shortcomings and how a recent
1:33.4	discoveries altering our view of China's early history? With me to discuss the
1:37.1	sources of early Chinese history are Rule Stokes, Joseph Needham Professor of
1:42.1	Chinese History at the University of Cambridge, Tim Barrett,
1:45.9	former Professor of East Asian History at Sowas University of London, and Hildeviet, Professor of Chinese
1:51.6	History at Leiden University.
	...

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