Shang Civilization
Kwang-chih Chang
Yale University Press
<span>"Up to now, however, this splendid civilization [the Shang civilization of ancient China] has been known only in fragments. In this century specialists have been preoccupied with research on specific data,while the excavation of new finds continues. In Shang Civilization, Kwang-chih Chang constructs a picture of the culture as a whole from the jigsaw pices of archaeological and textual evidence. Chang treats extensively the following topics: the origins and development of Shang civilization; state government and the capital at An-yang; economic, kingship, clan, and lineage systems; the social context of its art and religion; the question of chronology; and the significance of the Shang in the ancient world and in evolutionary perspective."</span>