The Construction Of Space In Early China

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The Construction of Space in Early China

Mark Edward Lewis
The Construction of Space in Early China Book PDF

Author : Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 514 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791482490

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The Construction of Space in Early China by Mark Edward Lewis Pdf

This book examines the formation of the Chinese empire through its reorganization and reinterpretation of its basic spatial units: the human body, the household, the city, the region, and the world. The central theme of the book is the way all these forms of ordered space were reshaped by the project of unification and how, at the same time, that unification was constrained and limited by the necessary survival of the units on which it was based. Consequently, as Mark Edward Lewis shows, each level of spatial organization could achieve order and meaning only within an encompassing, superior whole: the body within the household, the household within the lineage and state, the city within the region, and the region within the world empire, while each level still contained within itself the smaller units from which it was formed. The unity that was the empire's highest goal avoided collapse back into the original chaos of nondistinction only by preserving within itself the very divisions on the basis of family or region that it claimed to transcend.

The Flood Myths of Early China

Mark Edward Lewis
The Flood Myths of Early China Book PDF

Author : Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791482223

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The Flood Myths of Early China by Mark Edward Lewis Pdf

Early Chinese ideas about the construction of an ordered human space received narrative form in a set of stories dealing with the rescue of the world and its inhabitants from a universal flood. This book demonstrates how early Chinese stories of the re-creation of the world from a watery chaos provided principles underlying such fundamental units as the state, lineage, the married couple, and even the human body. These myths also supplied a charter for the major political and social institutions of Warring States (481–221 BC) and early imperial (220 BC–AD 220) China. In some versions of the tales, the flood was triggered by rebellion, while other versions linked the taming of the flood with the creation of the institution of a lineage, and still others linked the taming to the process in which the divided principles of the masculine and the feminine were joined in the married couple to produce an ordered household. While availing themselves of earlier stories and of central religious rituals of the period, these myths transformed earlier divinities or animal spirits into rulers or ministers and provided both etiologies and legitimation for the emerging political and social institutions that culminated in the creation of a unitary empire.

Early Chinese Religion, Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC-220 AD) (2 vols.)

John Lagerwey,Marc Kalinowski
Early Chinese Religion Part One Shang through Han 1250 BC 220 AD 2 vols Book PDF

Author : John Lagerwey,Marc Kalinowski
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 1280 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2008-10-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789047442424

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Early Chinese Religion, Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC-220 AD) (2 vols.) by John Lagerwey,Marc Kalinowski Pdf

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).

Designing Boundaries in Early China

Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
Designing Boundaries in Early China Book PDF

Author : Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2021-11-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781316513699

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Designing Boundaries in Early China by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding Pdf

Explores how sovereign space in early China was imagined and negotiated in the ancient world.

Individualism in Early China

Erica Fox Brindley
Individualism in Early China Book PDF

Author : Erica Fox Brindley
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2010-06-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780824833862

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Individualism in Early China by Erica Fox Brindley Pdf

Conventional wisdom has it that the concept of individualism was absent in early China. In this uncommon study of the self and human agency in ancient China, Erica Fox Brindley provides an important corrective to this view and persuasively argues that an idea of individualism can be applied to the study of early Chinese thought and politics with intriguing results. She introduces the development of ideological and religious beliefs that link universal, cosmic authority to the individual in ways that may be referred to as individualistic and illustrates how these evolved alongside and potentially helped contribute to larger sociopolitical changes of the time, such as the centralization of political authority and the growth in the social mobility of the educated elite class. Starting with the writings of the early Mohists (fourth century BCE), Brindley analyzes many of the major works through the early second century BCE by Laozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi, as well as anonymous authors of both received and excavated texts. Changing notions of human agency affected prevailing attitudes toward the self as individual—in particular, the onset of ideals that stressed the power and authority of the individual, either as a conformist agent in relation to a larger whole or as an individualistic agent endowed with inalienable cosmic powers and authorities. She goes on to show how distinctly internal (individualistic), external (institutionalized), or mixed (syncretic) approaches to self-cultivation and state control emerged in response to such ideals. In her exploration of the nature of early Chinese individualism and the various theories for and against it, she reveals the ways in which authors innovatively adapted new theories on individual power to the needs of the burgeoning imperial state. With clarity and force, Individualism in Early China illuminates the importance of the individual in Chinese culture. By focusing on what is unique about early Chinese thinking on this topic, it gives readers a means of understanding particular "Chinese" discussions of and respect for the self.

The Oxford Handbook of Early China

Elizabeth Childs-Johnson
The Oxford Handbook of Early China Book PDF

Author : Elizabeth Childs-Johnson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 768 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-10-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199328376

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The Oxford Handbook of Early China by Elizabeth Childs-Johnson Pdf

The Oxford Handbook on Early China brings 30 scholars together to cover early China from the Neolithic through Warring States periods (ca 5000-500BCE). The study is chronological and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, covering topics from archaeology, anthropology, art history, architecture, music, and metallurgy, to literature, religion, paleography, cosmology, religion, prehistory, and history.

Forming the Early Chinese Court

Luke Habberstad
Forming the Early Chinese Court Book PDF

Author : Luke Habberstad
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2018-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780295742403

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Forming the Early Chinese Court by Luke Habberstad Pdf

Forming the Early Chinese Court builds on new directions in comparative studies of royal courts in the ancient world to present a pioneering study of early Chinese court culture. Rejecting divides between literary, political, and administrative texts, Luke Habberstad examines sources from the Qin, Western Han, and Xin periods (221 BCE–23 CE) for insights into court society and ritual, rank, the development of the bureaucracy, and the role of the emperor. These diverse sources show that a large, but not necessarily cohesive, body of courtiers drove the consolidation, distribution, and representation of power in court institutions. Forming the Early Chinese Court encourages us to see China’s imperial unification as a surprisingly idiosyncratic process that allowed different actors to stake claims in a world of increasing population, wealth, and power.

The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China

Michelle H. Wang
The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China Book PDF

Author : Michelle H. Wang
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Cartography
ISBN : 9780226827469

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The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China by Michelle H. Wang Pdf

"This is the first English-language monograph on the early history of cartography in China. Its chief players are three maps found in tombs that date from the fourth to the second century BCE and together constitute the entire known corpus of ancient Chinese maps (ditu). A millennium separates them from the next available map from 1136 CE. Most scholars study them through the lens of modern, empirical definitions of maps and their use. This book offers an alternative view by drawing on methods not just from cartography but from art history, archaeology, and religion. It argues that, as tomb objects, the maps were designed to be simultaneously functional for the living and the dead-that each map was drawn to serve navigational purposes of guiding the living from one town to another as well as to diagram ritual order, thereby taming the unknown territory of the dead. In contrast with traditional scholarship, The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China proposes that ditu can "speak" through their forms. Departing from dominant theories of representation that forge a narrow path from form to meaning, the book braids together two main strands of argumentation to explore the multifaceted and multifunctional diagrammatic tradition of rendering space in early China"--

Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History

Paul R. Goldin
Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History Book PDF

Author : Paul R. Goldin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 726 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2018-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317681915

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Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History by Paul R. Goldin Pdf

The study of early China has been radically transformed over the past fifty years by archaeological discoveries, including both textual and non-textual artefacts. Excavations of settlements and tombs have demonstrated that most people did not lead their lives in accordance with ritual canons, while previously unknown documents have shown that most received histories were written retrospectively by victors and present a correspondingly anachronistic perspective. This handbook provides an authoritative survey of the major periods of Chinese history from the Neolithic era to the fall of the Latter Han Empire and the end of antiquity (AD 220). It is the first volume to include not only a comprehensive review of political history but also detailed treatments of topics that transcend particular historical periods, such as: Warfare and political thought Cities and agriculture Language and art Medicine and mathematics Providing a detailed analysis of the most up-to-date research by leading scholars in the field of early Chinese history, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese history, Asian archaeology, and Chinese studies in general.

State Power in Ancient China and Rome

Walter Scheidel
State Power in Ancient China and Rome Book PDF

Author : Walter Scheidel
Publisher : Oxford Studies in Early Empire
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : History
ISBN : 9780190202248

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State Power in Ancient China and Rome by Walter Scheidel Pdf

The Chinese and the Romans created the largest empires of the ancient world. Separated by thousands of miles of steppe, mountains and sea, these powerful states developed independently and with very limited awareness of each other's existence. This parallel process of state formation served as a massive natural experiment in social evolution that provides unique insight into the complexities of historical causation. Comparisons between the two empires shed new light on the factors that led to particular outcomes and help us understand similarities and differences in ancient state formation. The explicitly comparative perspective adopted in this volume opens up a dialogue between scholars from different areas of specialization, encouraging them to address big questions about the nature of imperial rule. In a series of interlocking case studies, leading experts of early China and the ancient Mediterranean explore the relationship between rulers and elite groups, the organization and funding of government, and the ways in which urban development reflected the interplay between state power and communal civic institutions.0Bureaucratization, famously associated with Qin and Han China but long less prominent in the Roman world, receives special attention as an index of the ambitions and capabilities of kings and emperors. The volume concludes with a look at the preconditions for the emergence of divine rulership. Taken together, these pioneering contributions lay the foundations for a systematic comparative history of early empires.

The Huainanzi and Textual Production in Early China

Anonim
The Huainanzi and Textual Production in Early China Book PDF

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2014-04-03
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789004265325

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The Huainanzi and Textual Production in Early China by Anonim Pdf

The Han dynasty Huainanzi is a compendium of knowledge covering every subject from self-cultivation, astronomy, and calendrics, to the arts of government. This edited volume follows a multi-disciplinary approach to explore how and why the Huainanzi was produced and how we should interpret the work. The volume should be of interest to scholars of early China, as well as scholars of textual production in other periods of Chinese history and in other cultures. With contributions by Anne Behnke Kinney, Martin Kern, John S. Major, Andrew Meyer, Judson B. Murray, Michael Nylan, David W. Pankenier, Michael Puett, Sarah A. Queen, Harold D. Roth, and Griet Vankeerberghen.

Ancient China and the Yue

Erica Brindley
Ancient China and the Yue Book PDF

Author : Erica Brindley
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2015-09-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107084780

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Ancient China and the Yue by Erica Brindley Pdf

A richly empirical discussion of ethnic identity formation in the ancient world, presenting the peoples of China's southern frontier.

The Early Chinese Empires

Mark Edward Lewis
The Early Chinese Empires Book PDF

Author : Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2010-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674265424

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The Early Chinese Empires by Mark Edward Lewis Pdf

In 221 BC, the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for its political survival on a fundamental reshaping of Chinese culture. With this informative book, we are present at the creation of an ancient imperial order whose major features would endure for two millennia. The Qin and Han constitute the “classical period” of Chinese history—a role played by the Greeks and Romans in the West. Mark Edward Lewis highlights the key challenges faced by the court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity of peoples. He traces the drastic measures taken to transcend, without eliminating, these regional differences: the invention of the emperor as the divine embodiment of the state; the establishment of a common script for communication and a state-sponsored canon for the propagation of Confucian ideals; the flourishing of the great families, whose domination of local society rested on wealth, landholding, and elaborate kinship structures; the demilitarization of the interior; and the impact of non-Chinese warrior-nomads in setting the boundaries of an emerging Chinese identity. The first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, The Early Chinese Empires illuminates many formative events in China’s long history of imperialism—events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.

Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China

Roel Sterckx
Food Sacrifice and Sagehood in Early China Book PDF

Author : Roel Sterckx
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 247 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2011-03-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781139495448

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Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China by Roel Sterckx Pdf

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.

Exemplary Women of Early China

Anne Behnke Kinney
Exemplary Women of Early China Book PDF

Author : Anne Behnke Kinney
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9780231163095

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Exemplary Women of Early China by Anne Behnke Kinney Pdf

When should a woman disobey her father, contradict her husband, or shape the policy of a ruler? According to the Lienü zhuan, or Categorized Biographies of Women, it is not only appropriate but necessary for women to offer counsel when fathers, husbands, sons, and rulers stray from virtue. The earliest Chinese text devoted to the moral education of women, the Lienü zhuan was compiled by Liu Xiang (79–8 B.C.E.) at the end of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.–9 C.E.) and recounts the deeds of both virtuous and wicked women. Informed by early legends, fictionalized historical accounts, and formal speeches on statecraft, the text taught generations of Chinese women to cultivate filial piety and maternal kindness and undertake such practices as suicide and self-mutilation to preserve chastity and reform wayward men. The Lienü zhuan’s stories inspired artists for a millennium and found their way into local and dynastic histories. An innovative work for its time, the text remains a critical tool for mapping women’s social, political, and domestic roles at a formative time in China’s development.