Text and Ritual in Early China

Text and Ritual in Early China

Author: Martin Kern

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0295800313

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In Text and Ritual in Early China, leading scholars of ancient Chinese history, literature, religion, and archaeology consider the presence and use of texts in religious and political ritual. Through balanced attention to both the received literary tradition and the wide range of recently excavated artifacts, manuscripts, and inscriptions, their combined efforts reveal the rich and multilayered interplay of textual composition and ritual performance. Drawn across disciplinary boundaries, the resulting picture illuminates two of the defining features of early Chinese culture and advances new insights into their sumptuous complexity. Beginning with a substantial introduction to the conceptual and thematic issues explored in succeeding chapters, Text and Ritual in Early China is anchored by essays on early Chinese cultural history and ritual display (Michael Nylan) and the nature of its textuality (William G. Boltz). This twofold approach sets the stage for studies of the E Jun Qi metal tallies (Lothar von Falkenhausen), the Gongyang commentary to The Spring and Autumn Annals (Joachim Gentz), the early history of The Book of Odes (Martin Kern), moral remonstration in historiography (David Schaberg), the “Liming” manuscript text unearthed at Mawangdui (Mark Csikszentmihalyi), and Eastern Han commemorative stele inscriptions (K. E. Brashier). The scholarly originality of these essays rests firmly on their authors’ control over ancient sources, newly excavated materials, and modern scholarship across all major Sinological languages. The extensive bibliography is in itself a valuable and reliable reference resource. This important work will be required reading for scholars of Chinese history, language, literature, philosophy, religion, art history, and archaeology.


Time and Ritual in Early China

Time and Ritual in Early China

Author: Thomas O. Höllmann

Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9783447061063

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This is the publication of proceedings from the conference "Writing, Ritual and Cultural Memory in Early States" which took place in Munich in November 2007. It is dedicated to the German Sinologist Herbert Franke on the occasion of his 95th birthday on September 27th of 2009. The papers contained in this book examine ways in which time and ritual mutually stimulated each other in Early China. Attention is also paid to the role played by writing in encoding the calendar system and in the notation of time, and how time and history were linked. Most authors make use of archaeologically excavated inscriptions and try to coordinate them with received texts of Confucian classics. Their philological and historical examinations lead to in-depth views of the cultural complexity of early Chinese civilization as well as its non-linear development. Questions raised provide new perspectives and stimuli for future studies.


ART MYTH AND RITUAL P

ART MYTH AND RITUAL P

Author: Kwang-chih CHANG

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 0674029402

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A leading scholar in the United States on Chinese archaeology challenges long-standing conceptions of the rise of political authority in ancient China. Questioning Marx's concept of an "Asiatic" mode of production, Wittfogel's "hydraulic hypothesis," and cultural-materialist theories on the importance of technology, K. C. Chang builds an impressive counterargument, one which ranges widely from recent archaeological discoveries to studies of mythology, ancient Chinese poetry, and the iconography of Shang food vessels.


Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China

Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China

Author: Roel Sterckx

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-28

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1139495445

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In ancient China, the preparation of food and the offering up of food as a religious sacrifice were intimately connected with models of sagehood and ideas of self-cultivation and morality. Drawing on received and newly excavated written sources, Roel Sterckx's book explores how this vibrant culture influenced the ways in which the early Chinese explained the workings of the human senses, and the role of sensory experience in communicating with the spirit world. The book, which begins with a survey of dietary culture from the Zhou to the Han, offers intriguing insights into the ritual preparation of food - some butchers and cooks were highly regarded and would rise to positions of influence as a result of their culinary skills - and the sacrificial ceremony itself. As a major contribution to the study of early China and to the development of philosophical thought, the book will be essential reading for students of the period, and for anyone interested in ritual and religion in the ancient world.


Traditional Chinese Rites and Rituals

Traditional Chinese Rites and Rituals

Author: Zhengming Du

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-01-14

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1443887838

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Traditional Chinese Rites and Rituals provides a comprehensive overview of the social practices of Chinese people on various occasions of cultural importance. While explaining how these rites and rituals are performed, it also introduces the reasons why certain norms are followed by individuals, families and the state as a whole. As such, the book offers a kaleidoscopic perspective on the plurality evident in all facets of Chinese culture.


Early Chinese Religion: Part One: Shang Through Han (1250 BC-220 AD) (2 Vols)

Early Chinese Religion: Part One: Shang Through Han (1250 BC-220 AD) (2 Vols)

Author: John Lagerwey

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2008-12-24

Total Pages: 1281

ISBN-13: 9004168354

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Together, and for the first time in any language, the 24 essays gathered in these volumes provide a composite picture of the history of religion in ancient China from the emergence of writing ca. 1250 BC to the collapse of the first major imperial dynasty in 220 AD. It is a multi-faceted tale of changing gods and rituals that includes the emergence of a form of “secular humanism” that doubts the existence of the gods and the efficacy of ritual and of an imperial orthodoxy that founds its legitimacy on a distinction between licit and illicit sacrifices. Written by specialists in a variety of disciplines, the essays cover such subjects as divination and cosmology, exorcism and medicine, ethics and self-cultivation, mythology, taboos, sacrifice, shamanism, burial practices, iconography, and political philosophy. Produced under the aegis of the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations chinoise, japonaise et tibétaine (UMR 8155) and the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris).


Animals Through Chinese History

Animals Through Chinese History

Author: Roel Sterckx

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1108428150

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This innovative collection opens a door into the rich history of animals in China. This title is also available as Open Access.


Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC)

Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC)

Author: Lothar von Falkenhausen

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Published: 2006-12-31

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 1938770455

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Winner of the 2009 Society for American Archaeology Book Award Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius is based on the most up-to-date archaeological discoveries. It introduces new data, as well as new ways to think about them - modes of analysis that, while familiar to archaeological practitioners in the West and in Japan, are herein applied to evidence from the Chinese Bronze Age for the first time. The treatment of social stratification, clan and lineage organisation, as well as gender and ethnic differences will be of interest to those involved in the general or comparative analysis of grand themes in the Social Sciences.


Mourning Rituals in Archaic & Classical Greece and Pre-Qin China

Mourning Rituals in Archaic & Classical Greece and Pre-Qin China

Author: Xiaoqun Wu

Publisher: Palgrave Pivot

Published: 2019-07-26

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9789811344664

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This pivot compares mourning rituals in Archaic & Classical Greece and Pre-Qin China to illustrate some of the principles and methods used in comparative studies. It focuses on three main aspects of mourning of the dead before burial -- lamentation, mourners' gestures and behaviors, and mourning apparel -- to demonstrate the cultural function, purpose, and social influence of mourning. A key comparative study of rituals at the heart of both Western and Chinese culture, this text highlights the cultural function and social influence of rituals of two ancient peoples and will be of interest to all scholars of comparative religion, sociology and anthropology.