February 27, 2026

Early China Seminar Lecture Series

Title: “Divergent Paths: Ritual, Power, and Collective Action in Liangzhu and Shijiahe”
Speaker: Liye Xie, University of Toronto
Time: February 27, 2026 (4:30-6:30 PM EST)
Venue: Faculty House
*Please check the announcement board in the first floor lobby for room information.
**Please use the ‘Request Pre-circulated Paper’ link to RSVP by February 23. All visitors without a CUID are required to receive pre-authorization to gain access to Morningside campus as per guidelines of Columbia Morningside campus access. Attendees must present a government-issued ID with their name matching exactly the name registered for the event, along with an one-time QR code (via email), for entry.

This talk explores how collective action shaped social complexity in two of early China’s prominent late Neolithic centers: Liangzhu and Shijiahe. Both sites, dating to around 5500 BP, achieved large-scale urbanism and undertook extensive public works, yet they diverged significantly in political organization, ritual practice, and elite infrastructure. Drawing on recent archaeological findings, I argue that while Liangzhu reflects a model in which elite control and symbolic monopolies were central to power, Shijiahe presents a more decentralized structure characterized by inclusive ritual practices and minimal elite materialization. By analyzing construction methods, labor organization, and ritual distribution, I suggest that collective action could generate contrasting trajectories of governance and social cohesion. These two cases demonstrate the multilinear nature of social development and highlight how ritual and labor mobilization functioned both as instruments of elite authority and as expressions of communal agency.