This edited volume introduces the “life history of objects” (p. 2) methodology to Chinese material culture. This approach maintains that artefacts have lives, which consist not only of their creation, predetermined use and ultimate disposal, but also of the ways humans modified their appearance or function and invested them with different social meanings. The volume consists of chapters which argue that objects had agency in that they could affect the thoughts or feelings of humans. The first six chapters concern Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts. In Chapter 1, Gideon Shelach-Lavi challenges the “continuity paradigm” (p. 29), which assumes that the symbols and beliefs of later Chinese civilisation are already found in regional Neolithic cultures. He contends that the social memories of artefacts were not necessarily transmitted in a linear fashion; rediscovered objects could be given new meanings. For example, circular, dragon-like jade objects that first appeared 6000 years ago were only rediscovered during the Shang Dynasty (1700–1049 BC). Shang motifs were inscribed on the jade objects, and they were then interred in elite tombs as heirlooms. The loss of an object's original meaning was important because it allowed later societies to invest the artefact with new and more relevant significance. In contrast to Shelach-Lavi, Francis Allard (Chapter 2) contends that once artefacts left their core distribution area, their possible meanings could be limited by new socio-cultural environments. Guangxi Province has many Neolithic sites with multiple symbolic stone shovels found in ash pits. Small-scale egalitarian societies probably used them for performing agrarian fertility rites. In the first millennium BC, bronze vessels, rather than stone shovels, appear in tombs of the wealthy in neighbouring Guangdong Province. For the richer and more stratified societies of Guangdong, the stone shovels had no meaning, whereas bronze vessels conferred prestige.

Sascha Priewe (Chapter 3) discusses Late Neolithic jade objects in the Middle Yangzi River area. Here, grave goods in some tombs included small jade ornaments and intentionally fractured jades, which cannot be completely reassembled. Priewe argues that the missing pieces were kept by the living to symbolically “enchain” them to the dead (p. 87). In Chapter 4, the late Pochan Chen considers the life-history of a prestigious commodity: salt. In the Neolithic and Bronze Age, salt was offered to the ancestors and meritorious nobles; by the time of the Warring States period (481–221 BC), however, its value had shifted, salt was by now a commodity bought at market and its producers were taxed by the government. Yan Sun (Chapter 5) looks at the spread of short, willow-leaf-bronze swords during the Western Zhou (1050–770 BC). When included in elite tombs of the Yu state, the swords are found inside the coffin at the waist of deceased males. Their individualised nature and close placement to the body indicates that the swords were not only personal weapons but also emblems of personal identity. As the swords spread to other locations, they began to appear only in the tombs of the highest ranked males, rather than all elite males. Moreover, the swords were buried in the tomb chamber, not the coffin. Their meaning had changed from objects reflecting personal identity, to prestige goods symbolic of social status.

Xiaolong Wu (Chapter 6) examines a Warring States period composite pottery vessel that comprised two pieces: a basin with a middle pillar topped by a bird, and a cylindrical vessel that fit into the basin's bottom. Wu finds that the farther away from their core area (Houma, Shanxi) the artefacts are found, the more changes have been made to their appearance and decoration. Funerary assemblages from the tombs of Zhongshan kings included both bronze and clay versions of the two-part vessels, although the bronze examples are larger and more ornate. The Zhongshan kings changed the vessels’ appearance and fabric to enhance their own prestige.

The last five chapters are concerned with the imperial and post-imperial periods. In Chapter 7, Sheri Lullo charts the trajectory of toilet boxes from the Warring States period to the end of the Han (206 BC–AD 220). She argues that these personal, individualised containers were material extensions of the deceased. During funerals their display was meant to evoke an image of the dead. Taking a different approach, Leslie Wallace (Chapter 8) traces the history of a pictorial motif. During the early Western Han (206 BC–AD 9), the motif of a mounted archer appeared in the capital area. By 100 BC, it can be seen on many different types of media across the empire. By the Eastern Han (AD 25–220), however, it is found in only one area, northern Shanxi Province. Wallace argues that the motif was associated with both the pastoral nomadic Xiongnu who threatened the Han, and the Chinese cavalry who ultimately defeated them. With the exception of the militarised elite along the frontier, most people lost interest in the motif when the Eastern Xiongnu surrendered in AD 50.

In Chapter 9, Eileen Hau-ling Lam discusses the history of circular bi discs from Neolithic times through the Han. Bi were usually placed in tombs on or adjacent to the body. Although typically jade, Lam notes that even in Neolithic times, bi were also made from other materials, such as pottery, glass or wood. During Han times, non-jade bi proliferated. While these non-jade bi were symbols of wealth and power, bi placed on or near the body were still those made from jade because of its protective properties.

Hui Du (Chapter 10) analyses how East Asian museums displayed indigenous Taiwanese objects from 1895–1980. In colonial Taiwan, museum exhibits used indigenous artefacts to argue that indigenous Taiwanese culture was connected with Japanese pre-history, thereby legitimising Japan's occupation of the island. Exhibits in both Republican and Communist China used the artefacts to contend that indigenous Taiwanese were one of China's many ethnic minorities. Under Nationalist rule, exhibits in Taiwan emphasised that Taiwan had always been part of China, but that it was a multi-ethnic regional culture.

In the final chapter, Katheryn M. Linduff discusses the long-term trend of the re-decorating and repurposing of ancient artefacts in pre-modern China. Ignoring their prior ritual uses, Song (AD 960–1279) and Ming (AD 1368–1644) literati treasured these, now collectible, artefacts because they connected them with a glorious Chinese past and reflected their own refinement.

This excellent work presents scholars with a new and informative way to examine Chinese material culture.