Writing and the state in early China in comparative perspective

This dissertation is a comparative study of the uses of writing in the early state. To obtain a fresh perspective on the evidence for early writing from China, it looks at how the ideological and administrative needs of the early state were met in five other regions of the world---Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Maya lowlands, Central Mexico, and the Andes. What role did writing play in royal legitimation? in the state administration? in the rise and development of the state as an imagined community? States in Central Mexico and the Andes, which did not employ writing, help us to grasp the power of writing by showing what was involved in doing without it. Although the cross-cultural comparisons made here discover differences, on balance it is the similarities that seem most striking. Differences of culture do not seem to entail major differences in the state's uses for writing. Text types and practices that specialists think of as typically Chinese prove to be local forms of widespread phenomena, not peculiarities of early China but characteristics of early state societies.; Key words. Ancient China, early writing, early state, early state administration, royal display, word lists.