This chapter explores the debate among historians about the origins of Chinese civilization and writing, including the questionable link to the Babylonians. It also discusses the archival approach in historical writing and hints at the topic for the next week's episode.
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.