Where There Is Unity, Order Results: Manufacturers’ Labels and the Creation of Standards in the Late Warring States Period

Abstract This article explores how and why standardization practices emerged and evolved in a particular domain of state administration in China in the late Warring States period, namely, the inscription of manufacturers’ labels on bronze weapons produced in state-run workshops. By analyzing bronze weapons produced in the state of Hán in the third century BCE, the study highlights the evolution of standards via gradual refinement rather than abrupt innovation, the interplay of central and regional governments and workshops in the reformulation of standards, and trailblazing micro-management in the major production center in the Hán capital of Zheng. The standardization efforts in Hán help us better understand the developments in administration at the very end of the Warring States period and provide a new context for the famous standardizations introduced after the Qin unification of China in 221 BCE.