This book is the result of discoveries made by Nivison beginning in 1979, It uses critically (without superseding) his monographs from 1983 through 2002, combined with his discoveries through 2008. Its main thrust is to show that the methods and results of the PRC “Three Dynasties Project” are invalid, and that recovering chronology before 841 BCE can be solved only by using the supposedly spurious Jinben Zhushu Jinian (“Modern Text” Bamboo Annals), combined with hypothesis that reign lengths of record were normally the years after completion of mourning for the preceding king. Part One presents resulting exact dates form the beginning of Xia, confirmed by discoveries in astronomy by D. W. Pankenier and Kevin Pang. Part Two criticizes the Three-years Dynasties Project and argues for the post-mourning hypothesis and the high antiquity of the three-years mourning institution. In Part Three, applying a discovery by E. L. Shaughnessy, the author reconstructs the first 303 bamboo strips of
