Bronze inscriptions are not only the most important category of historical sources for the Chinese Bronze Age, but also records of crucial rituals in ancient Chinese religious life. Addressed both to unborn descendants and to the spirits of deceased ancestors, bronze inscriptions, and the ceremonies they memorialized, connected the human world to the spirit world, and linked the generations of a lineage for all time.

This source book is a collaborative effort involving ten scholars, including Constance A. Cook, Wolfgang Behr, Robert Eno, Paul R. Goldin, Martin Kern, Maria Khayutina,...