Biography
My research interest lies in the archaeology of the Bronze Age in China, especially craft production in complex society. I want to do research on both products and production remains, aiming at restoring the production organization pattern and investigating the role that elites (and rulers of the early states) played in the production, and the strategies that early states used to manage their labors. Besides, I am intrigued by the idea of discussing social boundaries and identities through daily practices of ancient people in a long process based on both material evidence and documentary records, especially archaeology of food.
In my master’s thesis “Quantitative Study of Pottery Li (Tripod) in Erligang Period: State Management in Labors and Pottery Production,” I tried to use multiple evidences, such as archaeological remains, bamboo slips and ancient documents to investigate states' management on pottery production. This paper conducts a statistical analysis of of pottery li during the Erligang period and makes a comparison with pottery li of late Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty. It is proposed that the highly-standardized pottery li are used by Erligang state to control the food given to the labors, and craftsmen at that time are required to produce two sizes of pottery li, which are highly standardized and similar in appearance.
In the future, I hope to expand my research range and use interdisciplinary methods to study ancient societies in Bronze Age China.