Bureaucracy and the State in Early China

'A significant study of systematic government in pre-imperial China that adds greatly to our understanding not only of Western Zhou but also of the early imperial period. The book fills what has been a serious gap in our knowledge in an impressive way.' Michael Loewe

'Li Feng has written a path-breaking book on Western Zhou government that is based on meticulous analysis and translation of primary sources, bronze inscriptions, most of which he introduces to a Western audience for the first time. I am especially impressed with his new and highly original theory on the evolving nature of the state in Western Zhou times, a theory which will surely excite the interest of historians and anthropologists studying the development of state formation in a comparative framework. It is a brilliant achievement.' Robin D. S. Yates, McGill University

'... Bureaucracy and the State in Early China will become a standard reference book for Western Zhou studies in the West for years to come.' The Journal of Asian Studies

'The core of Li's project is the description of early government in China based predominantly on archaeologically recovered source materials, avoiding the problems of a historiography based on questionable received texts, above all Zhouli. This is an ambitious, important and difficult undertaking, and its success deserves great respect ... Li also gathers and translates much primary material not previously available in English, and in an Appendix he provides a useful list of Zhou offices, including translated titles and brief description of each post. His work will thus be of interest for students and scholars of early Chinese history both for its arguments and as resource.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Feng Li is Associate Professor of Early Chinese Cultural History in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork on Bronze-Age sites in China and is the author of Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC (Cambridge, 2006).

Introduction; 1. The historical context; 2. Structural development of the Zhou central government; 3. The administrative process of the Zhou central government; 4. Managing the core: local society and local administration in the royal domain; 5. Official service and career development during the Western Zhou; 6. The regional states and their governments; 7. Reconceptualizing the Western Zhou state: reflections on previous theories and models; Conclusion.