This book is part of a new wave of revisionist scholarship made possible by recent, important archaeological findings in China, Mongolia, and Central Asia that can now be compared against the historical record. This comprehensive history of the northern frontier of China from 900 to 1000 B.C. is the first study investigating the antagonism between early China and its neighbors that combines both Chinese historical texts and archaeological data. Di Cosmo reconciles new, archaeological evidence - of early non-Chinese to the north and west of China who lived in stable communities, had developed bronze technology, and used written language - with the common notion of undifferentiated tribes living beyond the pale of Chinese civilization. He analyzes the patterns of interaction along China's northern frontiers (from trading, often on an equal basis, to Eastern Hun-Chinese warfare during the Ch'in dynasty) and then explores how these relations were recorded (and why) in early Chinese historiography. Di Cosmo scrutinizes the way in which the great Chinese historian, Ssu-ma Chi' en portrayed the Hsiung-nu empire in his "Records of the Grand Historian" (99 B.C.), the first written narrative of the northern nomads in Chinese history. Chinese cultural definitions are explained here as the expression of political goals (for example, the need to cast enemies in a negative light) and the result of historical processes.
Part 1
1. The Steppe Highway: The Rise of Pastoryal Nomadism as a
Eurasian Phenomenon
2. Bronze, Iron, and Gold: The Evolution of Nomadic Cultures on
the Northern Frontier of China
Part 2
3. Beasts and Birds: The Historical Context of Early Chinese
Perceptions of the Northern People
4. Walls and Horses: The Beginning of Historical Contacts
between Horse-Riding Nomads and Chinese States
Part 3
5. Those Who Draw the Bow: The Rise of the Hsiung-nu
Nomadic Empire and the Political Unification of the Nomads
6. From Peace to War: China’s Shift from Appeasement to
Military Engagement
Part 4
7. In Search of Grass and Water: Ethnography and History of
the North in the Historian's Records
8. Taming the North: The Rationalization of the Nomads in Ssu-
ma Ch'ien Historical Thought