Feng L. Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC

New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. — 425 p.The ascendancy of the Western Zhou in Bronze Age China, 1045–771 bc, was a critical period in the development of Chinese civilization and culture. This book addresses the complex relationship between geography and political power in the context of the crisis and fall of the Western Zhou state. Drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries, the book shows how inscribed bronze vessels can be used to reveal changes in the political space of the period, and explores literary and geographical evidence to produce a coherent understanding of the Bronze Age past. By taking an interdisciplinary approach which embraces archaeology, history, and geography, the book thoroughly reinterprets late Western Zhou history and probes the causes of its gradual decline and eventual fall. Supported throughout by maps created from the most current GIS datasets and by numerous on-site photographs, Landscape and Power in Early China gives significant new insights into this important Bronze Age society.Li Feng is Assistant Professor of Early Chinese Cultural History at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University.He has undertaken extensive fieldwork on Bronze Age sites and is the author of numerous research articles on the Western Zhou Period.