Lothar Von Falkenhausen
Biographic Data
| ID | 174061 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lothar Von Falkenhausen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lothar |
| FAMILY NAME | Von Falkenhausen |
| SIGNATURE | VON FALKENHAUSEN L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-2037-5140 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 56 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 148 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Lawrence Scott Davis (1951–2024)
The Salt-Making Festival at Shiogama
This is a brief report on a yearly festival at a Shintō shrine in northern Japan, during which salt is produced by a traditional technique: sea water is filtered through layers of salt-saturated kelp in order to increase its salinity. The procedure, which lasts three days, is being kept alive as communal memory and for educational purposes. The successive steps are described as witnessed by the author in 2003
An Epic of Technical Supremacy
An Epic of Technical Supremacy: Works and Words of Medieval Chinese Textile Technology. By Dieter Kuhn. Riggisberg (Switzerland): Abegg-Stiftung, 2022. Pp. 488. CHF 120
Metal Agricultural Implements in Early China
Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State
Violence, Kinship and the Early Chinese State: The Shang and Their World. By Roderick Campbell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xxx + 331. $99
The Politics of the Past in Early China by Vincent S. Leung
Reviewed by: The Politics of the Past in Early China by Vincent S. Leung Lothar von Falkenhausen The Politics of the Past in Early China. Vincent S. Leung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. xii + 202 pp. Hardcover US $100, ISBN 9781108425728; Paperback US $30, ISBN 9781108443241; E-book US $80, ISBN 9781108619196. In his introductory chapter, Leung forcefully dismantles the essentializing notion, pervasive in older Sinological writings…
The Chu Silk Manuscripts from Zidanku, Changsha (Hunan Province)
Remembrances of Li Xueqin (1933–2019)
I first met Li Xueqin in 1981, when he was a visiting fellow at Cambridge, and I was teaching at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Paul Thompson and I took a train to Cambridge to invite him to London for a few weeks-Paul said we should pay a scholar of his caliber the courtesy of going in person rather than writing to him. In London, Li spent an hour or so every morning happily working his way through all of the galleries of …
Hyung Il Pai 裵炯逸 (14 June 1958 - 28 May 2018)
Hyung Il Pai 裵炯逸 (14 June 1958 – 28 May 2018) Lothar Von Falkenhausen Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Hyung Il Pai (Photograph courtesy of Alex José) [End Page 209] Hyung Il ("Lee") Pai 裵炯逸 and I became friends from the moment we met for the first time at Harvard in September 1981. As beginning graduate students and fellow advisees of the late Kwang-chih Chang 張光直 (1931–2001), we spent a large part of the following three years i…
Politique et rituel dans la Chine ancienne
Do not start this book by reading the conclusion. You will find there some well-expressed, unobjectionable, but utterly conventional ideas about the nature of ritual and politics, and about the ind
The economic role of cities in Eastern Zhou China
Magdalene Von Dewall (1927–2014)
Magdalene von Dewall was the only anthropologically oriented specialist in East and Southeast Asian archaeology in Germany in her generation. Her scholarly work on chariots, Dian bronzes, funerary archaeology, and other topics, was often far ahead of its time when published, and it remains worth reading. This article attempts to recount Magdalene von Dewall's biography and intellectual lineage and to characterize her scholarly contributions. It a…
Birth of an empire
In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soil, starting a millennium-long imperial age in Chinese history. Hailed by some and maligned by many, Qin has long been an enigma. In this pathbreaking study, the authors integrate textual sources with newly available archeological and paleographic materials, providing a boldly novel picture of Qinâ s cultural and political trajectory, its evolving inst…
The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors
Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors
Radiocarbon Dates and Technological Change in Salt Production at the Site of Zhongba in the Three Gorges, China
The prehistoric chronology of the Three Gorges region along the Yangzi River in China has only become the focus of significant archaeological research in the last decade. The site of Zhongba is one of the most significant sites among those recently studied. Thirty-two radiocarbon dates produced by the C-14 laboratory at Peking University, and five additional dates from the Beta Analytic laboratory in the United States show a clear chronological p…
Action and Image in Early Chinese Art
On peut distinguer trois modes de représentations figuratives (figures humaines ou animalières) dans l'art de la Chine pré-impériale : hiératiques, ornementales et actives. Les découvertes de l'archéologie moderne montrent que ces trois modes existaient dès l'époque néolithique, mais on ne peut manquer d'observer, pendant certaines périodes et dans certaines régions, la prédominance de l'un ou de l'autre. Dans l'art exclusivement religieux de la …
The Emperor and His Councillor
During her lifetime, Anna Seidel (1938-1991) was much appreciated by her anglophone colleagues, and her ideas continue to exert a profound influence on Taoist studies in the English-speaking world today. In this light, it is surprising that her most important book-length publication, La divinisation de Lao-tseu dans le taoïsme des Han, published in 1969, has never been made available in English. This is not for want of an intention to do so, at l…
The Inscribed Bronzes from Yangjiacun: New Evidence on Social Structure and Historical Consciousness in Late Western Zhou China (c.800 bc)
This chapter discusses the twenty-seven inscribed ritual bronze vessels, which were uncovered in Yangjiacun, Mei Xian. The place where these vessels were discovered may have been near the seat of the powerful Shan lineage — several names of Shan family members are inscribed on the vessels. The chapter reveals that the inscriptions on the bronze vessels provide new insights into the structure and internal organisation of lineages in the Late Weste…
Rewriting Early Chinese Texts
Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC)
Author(s): Falkenhausen, Lothar von | Abstract: The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1000-250 BC) was a crucial period during which the Chinese Classics came into being and famous thinkers such as Confucius (ca. 551-479 BC) laid the intellectual foundations of traditional Chinese civilization. Complementing and often challenging the surviving writings, Lothar von Falkenhausen develops a self-consciously archaeological perspective on the social conditions in …
The Salt of Ba
Des fouilles récentes dans le bassin du cours supérieur du fleuve Bleu (Yanzijiang) ont révélé l'existence de vestiges de production du sel à une échelle industrielle couvrant la période 2000-200 avant notre ère. D'après les sources historiques traditionnelles, cette région était habitée par les Ba - des «barbares» non assimilés auxquels manquait probablement une organisation politique de niveau étatique. Néanmoins, il est maintenant clair que ce…
Obituary
Obituary
Written on Bamboo and Silk
Reviewed by: Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions Lothar von Falkenhausen (bio) Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions. By Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien. 2nd ed.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Pp. xxiv+323. $75. This book presents a straightforward account of the media and tools of record keeping in ancient and early medieval China, from Late Shang (circa 1300-1046 B.C.…
Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology
Archaeology has often been put to political use, particularly by nationalists. The case studies in this timely collection range from the propaganda purposes served by archaeology in the Nazi state, through the complex interplay of official dogma and academic prehistory in the former Soviet Union, to lesser-known instances of ideological archaeology in other European countries, in China, Japan, Korea and the Near East. The introductory and conclud…
On the historiographical orientation of Chinese archaeology
This year, as it seems every year, news comes from China of another spectacular archaeological discovery. What is the framework of ideas and research that studies these treasures? And how does the special character of Chinese history, with its long, near-continuous record of dynasties, written sources and encyclopaedic texts, give archaeology a different place, whether higher or lower, among the other historical and social sciences
Suspended Music
The Chinese made the world's first bronze chime-bells, which they used to perform ritual music, particularly during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (ca. 1700-221 B.C.). Lothar von Falkenhausen's rich and detailed study reconstructs how the music of these bells - the only Bronze Age instruments that can still be played - may have sounded and how it was conceptualized in theoretical terms. His analysis and discussion of the ritual, political, and tech…
The External Connections of Sanxingdui
An idiosyncratic Bronze Age culture, thought to be roughly contemporaneous with the Late Shang (ca. 1300–1050 BC) in the Yellow River Basin, has recently been discovered in the Chengdu Plain. The large walled settlement at the type site of Sanxingdui, Guanghan (Sichuan) and its highly developed bronze and jade manufacturing traditions indicate the presence of state-level civilization. This article attempts to clarify some of the relationships to …
The economic role of cities in Eastern Zhou China
Radiocarbon Dates and Technological Change in Salt Production at the Site of Zhongba in the Three Gorges, China
The prehistoric chronology of the Three Gorges region along the Yangzi River in China has only become the focus of significant archaeological research in the last decade. The site of Zhongba is one of the most significant sites among those recently studied. Thirty-two radiocarbon dates produced by the C-14 laboratory at Peking University, and five additional dates from the Beta Analytic laboratory in the United States show a clear chronological p…
To Become a God
Evidence from Shang oracle bones to memorials submitted to Western Han emperors attests to a long-lasting debate in early China over the proper relationship between humans and gods. One pole of the debate saw the human and divine realms as separate and agonistic and encouraged divination to determine the will of the gods and sacrifices to appease and influence them. The opposite pole saw the two realms as related and claimed that humans could ach…
The Moutuo Bronzes
Une centaine de bronzes de styles très divers ont été découverts dans une tombe à cistes et dans trois dépôts funéraires situés à Moutuo, dans le district de Mao (Maoxian) au Sichuan. D'un caractère hétérogène sans précédent, cet assemblage comprend 1) des vases et des cloches provenant des États de la Chine des Zhou — l'un d'eux, un tripode ding dans le style de Chu, porte une inscription — ; 2) des objets provenant d'ateliers situés dans le bas…
On the Early Development of Chinese Musical Theory
Recent archaeological excavations in China have brought to light inscriptional materials allowing for a new understanding of ancient Chinese musical terminology. These new discoveries alert us to the diachronic aspects of Chinese musical history during the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-221 B.C.). We now realize that the theoretical concepts that were transmitted through the classical texts since about the third century B.C. did not come into being all a…
Shangma
Brill profit levels and organic growth in line with expectations, integration V&R according to plan and continuation of eBusiness growth Update on year-to-date performance During the third quarter Brill's eBusiness continued its strong growth, driven by eBooks and digital primary sources.This growth compensated for the ongoing decline in print books.YTD Journal sales declined mainly due to delayed invoicing, which is expected to be recovered in Q…
Inconsequential Incomprehensions
Koshi Shunjū
The Fuyang bamboo-strip “Annals” was compiled prior to 165 B.C., at least sixty or seventy years earlier than Sima Qian edited the various chronological tables in the Shiji. The “Annals,” which begins about the time of the Gong He interregnum of the Western Zhou and continues through the time of Qin Shi huangdi, seems to be incompatible with the “Qin Records” and was perhaps compiled using the “Historical Records” of some state other than Qin. It…
Niuzhong Chime-Bells of Eastern Zhou China
Les niuzhong (" cloches à anse ") sont dérivées des cloches à battant ling qui comptent parmi les objets en bronze les plus anciens de la Chine. N'étant en effet que des ling élargies sans battant, les niuzhong furent dès l'origine fabriquées en carillons. A l'époque Zhou, leur fonction était complémentaire par rapport à d'autres types de cloches musicales, principalement lesyongzhong et les bo. La forme particulière de ces cloches (section en fo…
Archeology
Ancilla to Hsu and Linduff, Western Chou Civilization - American Anthropologist (91.4 [121989], 1068–69), of Cho-yun Hsu and Kathryn M. Linduff's Western Chou Civilization (New Haven
Ancilla to Hsu and Linduff, Western Chou Civilization - American Anthropologist (91.4 [121989], 1068–69), of Cho-yun Hsu and Kathryn M. Linduff's Western Chou Civilization (New Haven: Yale U. Press 1988) - Volume 15
Serials on Chinese Archaeology Published in the People's Republic of China
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On the Early Development of Chinese Musical Theory
Recent archaeological excavations in China have brought to light inscriptional materials allowing for a new understanding of ancient Chinese musical terminology. These new discoveries alert us to the diachronic aspects of Chinese musical history during the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-221 B.C.). We now realize that the theoretical concepts that were transmitted through the classical texts since about the third century B.C. did not come into being all a…
Anna Katharina Seidel (1938-1991)
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Issues in Western Zhou Studies
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
On the historiographical orientation of Chinese archaeology
This year, as it seems every year, news comes from China of another spectacular archaeological discovery. What is the framework of ideas and research that studies these treasures? And how does the special character of Chinese history, with its long, near-continuous record of dynasties, written sources and encyclopaedic texts, give archaeology a different place, whether higher or lower, among the other historical and social sciences
Reflections on the Political Role of Spirit Mediums in Early China
Through close analysis of the traditional hermeneutics of the Zhou li sections on the Si 丽(Manager of the Spirit Mediums), Nanwu (Male Spirit Mediums), and Nüzou (Female Spirit Mediums), this article attempts to reconstruct the classical image of spirit mediums during the Zhou dynasty. It shows that spirit mediums, though grouped under the “bureaucratic” hierarchy of the Zhou li , have traditionally been assumed to be distinct in function and act…
Art and Political Expression in Early China
Suspended Music
The Chinese made the world's first bronze chime-bells, which they used to perform ritual music, particularly during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (ca. 1700-221 B.C.). Lothar von Falkenhausen's rich and detailed study reconstructs how the music of these bells - the only Bronze Age instruments that can still be played - may have sounded and how it was conceptualized in theoretical terms. His analysis and discussion of the ritual, political, and tech…
The Concept of Wen in the Ancient Chinese Ancestral Cult
The regionalist paradigm in Chinese archaeology
A nationalist interpretive framework, emphasizing the antiquity, uniqueness, purity, and importance of Chinese civilization, is so basic to the pursuit of history and archaeology in China that it would seem a moot exercise to expound on it. If our objective is to lie in sounding out the intellectual atmosphere of present-day Chinese archaeological practice, it may be more relevant, as well as more interesting, to explore how subtle inter-regional…
Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology
Archaeology has often been put to political use, particularly by nationalists. The case studies in this timely collection range from the propaganda purposes served by archaeology in the Nazi state, through the complex interplay of official dogma and academic prehistory in the former Soviet Union, to lesser-known instances of ideological archaeology in other European countries, in China, Japan, Korea and the Near East. The introductory and conclud…
The Moutuo Bronzes
Une centaine de bronzes de styles très divers ont été découverts dans une tombe à cistes et dans trois dépôts funéraires situés à Moutuo, dans le district de Mao (Maoxian) au Sichuan. D'un caractère hétérogène sans précédent, cet assemblage comprend 1) des vases et des cloches provenant des États de la Chine des Zhou — l'un d'eux, un tripode ding dans le style de Chu, porte une inscription — ; 2) des objets provenant d'ateliers situés dans le bas…
Das Alte China
Suspended Music
Archaeology and the study of Chinese local religion
Avec comme base de sa réflexion quelques articles du présent volume des Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie et du volume conjoint en chinois, l'auteur examine quelques orientations grâce auxquelles la recherche archéologique pourrait aider à une vision plus globale des religions locales. Il aborde ainsi les questions suivantes : (1) Comment intégrer textes et documents matériels; (2) quelle est la relation entre l'inscription et son support — une dimension sé…
Late Western Zhou Taste
Lothar von Falkenhauser : Late Western Zhou Taste. Major changes in the archaeological record bear witness to a comprehensive ritual reform during the Late Western Zhou period (ca . 850-770 BC). This article explores some of the aesthetic attitudes underlying the visual appearance of ritual paraphernalia (above all, bronzes) from that period. Topics include the renunciation of locationally-fixed monuments ; the genesis of a new, abstract ornament…
In Search of Personal Welfare
Inconsequential Incomprehensions
Ten Thousand Things
Shangma
Brill profit levels and organic growth in line with expectations, integration V&R according to plan and continuation of eBusiness growth Update on year-to-date performance During the third quarter Brill's eBusiness continued its strong growth, driven by eBooks and digital primary sources.This growth compensated for the ongoing decline in print books.YTD Journal sales declined mainly due to delayed invoicing, which is expected to be recovered in Q…
The Use and Significance of Ritual Bronzes in the Lingnan Region During the Eastern Zhou Period
The paper examines bronze vessels and bells excavated from late Bronze Age elite tombs in Guangdong and Guangxi. Categorized stylistically, such objects represent diverse traditions of manufacture, including 1) that of the Zhou states in the Yellow and Yangzi river systems (especially of Chu), 2) those of the Zhou-related, but basically independent bronze manufacturing cultures along the Middle and Lower Yangzi (known to Chinese archaeology as th…
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