The Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project - (simplified Chinese: 夏商周断代工程; pinyin: Xià Shāng Zhōu Duàndài Gōngchéng)

1.What is the objective of the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project?

The goal of the project was primarily to establish the chronology of the three earliest dynasties – Xia, Shang and Western Zhou scientifically based on the collective efforts of the social sciences, natural sciences and the humanities within a temporal restriction of four years. However, a deeper study reveals the different agendas of the scholars and the Chinese government. We believe unanimously that this government-sponsored project was part of a nationalistic campaign by the government to increase China’s importance and idolisation of the China civilisation as a whole. Furthermore, sentiment of Sinocentric among the Chinese could be the reason behind this chronology project which could lead to China’s importance and superiority in detriment of other nations. On the other hand, scholars may purely view this project as an opportunity for them to consolidate as much evidence on the three dynasties as they can, in hope that their findings will form a solid foundation for future researches.

2. What achievements of progresses have been made in this project, according to scholars of China?

The project is able to establish precise dates of the western Zhou period which falls on 841 B.C before the reign of Gonghe. 841 B.C is recognised as the start of the Chinese civilisation because it is well documented and internationally recognised. Prior to that, the dates are proven to be unreliable and persistent doubts are discerning due to its lack of archaeological and historical textual evidence. Using a multidisciplinary approach, they are able to clearly date the reign of king Li of western Zhou prior to Gonghe epoch, which is established to be on 899 B.C, thus pushing the timeline back even further. The year 899 B.C is chosen because it comply both the archaeological discovery and astronomical occurrence during that time.

In addition, the project determined the critical date of the downfall of the Shang Dynasty using a series of radiocarbon technologies, archaeology and ancient texts. This date could be used to make certain successive kings of the western Zhou. With that, they are able to provide relatively precise time that the rulers of the late Shang period were in power

Into the bargain, they are able to give a basic outline of the early Shang and Xia period in which they assumed that the entire culture of the Erlitou era belonged exclusively to the Xia dynasty. However these issues are utterly debatable because those assumptions are derived from one source, which is archaeology, and it does not create enough confirmation of Erlitou’s cultural standing. A precise postulation should be made with combined efforts from various sources. A single hypothesis could be correct if given enough verification to support its claim.

A further achievement of the project, which was discussed in class, was the intermingle of different researchers and scholars from diverse background ranging from physical sciences to social sciences coming together for this project. This project precedes any other historical projects in China due to the extensive number of academia of the various fields coming together in achieving one goal.
Great archives and database of the time before the Tang dynasty have been set up just to enhance this project. Great excavations have been made and many outstanding artefacts have been found that could be used as evidences of its specified existence, which could be a stepping stone and beneficial value in future ancient Chinese history projects.

3.Why and in what aspects has the Project been criticized?

Varied opinions were discussed at the critique of this project. Our discussions placed more emphasis on the point that this government sponsored project is seen more as a chauvinistic political urge to conceptualize the impression of 5,000 years of civilization rather than a key archaeological project.

In our opinion, the irregularity of the scientific process which consists of just Chinese scholars proved that their research could be modulated towards the expected result. They all knew that possible future government financed chronology projects will be jeopardized if they did not find any prove for China's long-lasting history.
The exclusion of foreign expertise in this project further reduced the reliability and credibility of the data collected and the whole project respectively. However, other groups did not see the governmental influence or rather governmental assertion as a big problem because they figured that since it is their history, no foreigners should be involved so as not to jeopardise its findings. According to them, the main factor of the western criticism is not a political issue but the fear of rising China.

Our members, as well as other teams, also discussed about the introduction of radiocarbon technology. Although it is not a relatively new technology, China has only started using these technologies in the 1980s, which is late as compared to its western counterpart 6. Consequently, their ways of deciphering and the methodology to determine the periods might not mature. In order to use this technology, a significant amount of carbon is needed to get a specific and reliable measurement of its instituted date.

Reading of historical manuscripts is another point of criticism because these ancient textual are not very well preserved and the deterioration of its quality might hinders quality of its translation. Expertise in this field of studying, deciphering and interpretating ancient manuscripts could be a factor that is judgemental in getting correct translation.

4.Conclusion

Responds to Question one and two, are often given based on textual or read up however the third question provided a wider range of possible answer due to different opinions from the various tutorial groups. However, we feel that the question of whether the involvement of the Chinese government did or did not jeopardized the credibility of data and the reliability of the project as a whole would have been a great tutorial discussion topic.

5.References

1.Li Xueqin. “The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project: Methodology and Results.” Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 2003, pp. 321-333.
2.Lee, Yue Kuan. “Differential Resolution in History and archaeology.” Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 2003, pp. 375-86.
3.Session 79: The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project: Defense and Criticism. Annual Conference by Association for Asian Studies, 2002, Washington D. C. http://www.aasianst.org/absts/2002abst/China/sessions.htm#79
4.Erik Eckholm. “In China, Ancient History Kindles Modern Doubts.” New York Times, Nov. 10, 2000, pg. A3.
5.Bruce Gillery. “Digging into the Future.” Far Eastern Economic Review: Jul 20, 2000: pg. 74-77.
6.Development of accelerator mass spectrometry in china, Guo Zhiyu, Ma Hongji, Liu Kexin, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, Peking University, China, Jiang Shan, Jiang Songsheng, China Institute of Atomic Energy, China, Chen Mobai, Liu Yonghao, Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research, CAS, China