Chapter 5 explores state formation in the Luoyang Basin during the early second millennium BCE, which presented evidence for the first production of bronze ritual vessels in the Central Plains and the first Luoyang-centered configuration of political landscape. The rise of Erlitou display traits of regeneration, reconfiguration, and transformation after the collapse of Longshan society, where both resilience of Longshan cultural traits and innovation of new traditions can be observed. Innovation in new forms, new décor, and new production technology at Erlitou attests to the creation of some of the primary symbols for political representation of the Sandai tradition, including the first bronze ding vessel. I argue that this critical change in political order defined the framework for Sandai political tradition, upon which later societies modeled themselves. The emphasis on the production of bronze vessels at Erlitou, and the expansion toward metal producing regions, attest to the rise of a metal-centric ideology of political landscape characteristic of the Sandai civilization.