DOCSLIB.ORG

I Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
I Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China i Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004299337_001 ii Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar Maghiel van Crevel In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, H.T. Zurndorfer VOLUME 124 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sinl iii Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China Edited by Yuri Pines Paul R. Goldin Martin Kern LEIDEN | BOSTON iv Cover illustration: Tripod cooking vessel with lid (ding), late 6th century bc, (Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period, 770–ca. 470 bc) Bronze, h. 23.0 cm., w. 27.0 cm., d. 21.0 cm. (9 1/16 × 10 5/8 × 8 1/4 in.). Museum purchase from the C.D. Carter Collection, by subscription. y1965-24 a-b. Photo: © Princeton University Art Museum, Image courtesy of Princeton University Art Museum. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ideology of power and power of ideology in early China / edited by Yuri Pines, Paul R. Goldin, Martin Kern. pages cm. -- (Sinica Leidensia, ISSN 0169-9563 ; volume 124) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-29929-0 (hardback : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-29933-7 (e-book) 1. Political science--China--History--To 1500. 2. Power (Social sciences)--China--History-- To 1500. 3. Ideology--Political aspects--China--History--To 1500. 4. Political culture--China-- History--To 1500. 5. China--Politics and government--To 221 B.C. 6. China--Politics and government--221 B.C.-960 A.D. I. Pines, Yuri. II. Goldin, Paul Rakita, 1972- III. Kern, Martin. JQ1510.I34 2015 320.50931--dc23 2015018511 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9563 isbn 978-90-04-29929-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-29933-7 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ContentsContents v Contents Contents v Acknowledgments vii List of Contributors viii Introduction Ideology and Power in Early China 1 Yuri Pines Part One The Foundations: Unity, Heaven, and Ancestral Models 1 Representations of Regional Diversity during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty 31 Paul R. Goldin 2 Omens and Politics: The Zhou Concept of the Mandate of Heaven as Seen in the Chengwu 程寤 Manuscript 49 Luo Xinhui 羅新慧 3 Long Live The King! The Ideology of Power between Ritual and Morality in the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳 69 Joachim Gentz 4 Language and the Ideology of Kingship in the “Canon of Yao” 118 Martin Kern Part Two Textual Battles: Rulers, Ministers, and the People 5 Monarch and Minister: The Problematic Partnership in the Building of Absolute Monarchy in the Han Feizi 韓非子 155 Romain Graziani 6 The Changing Role of the Minister in the Warring States: Evidence from the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 181 Scott Cook 7 Ideologies of the Peasant and Merchant in Warring States China 211 Roel Sterckx 8 Population Records from Liye: Ideology in Practice 249 Charles Sanft vi Contents Epilogue Ideological Authority in China: Past and Present 9 Political and Intellectual Authority: The Concept of the “Sage-Monarch” and Its Modern Fate 273 Liu Zehua 劉澤華 Bibliography 301 Index 337 Contents Contents v Acknowledgments vii List of Contributors viii Introduction: Ideology and Power in Early China 1 Part 1 29 The Foundations: Unity, Heaven, and Ancestral Models 29 Chapter 1 31 Representations of Regional Diversity during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty 31 Chapter 2 49 Omens and Politics: The Zhou Concept of the Mandate of Heaven as Seen in the Chengwu 程寤Manuscript 49 Chapter 3 69 Long Live the King! The Ideology of Power between Ritual and Morality in the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳 69 Chapter 4 118 Language and the Ideology of Kingship in the “Canon of Yao” 118 Part 2 153 Textual Battles: Rulers, Ministers, and the People 153 Chapter 5 155 Monarch and Minister: The Problematic Partnership in the Building of Absolute Monarchy in the Han Feizi 韓非子 155 Chapter 6 181 The Changing Role of the Minister in the Warring States: Evidence from the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 181 Chapter 7 211 Ideologies of the Peasant and Merchant in Warring States China 211 Chapter 8 249 Population Records from Liye: Ideology in Practice 249 Epilogue 271 Ideological Authority in China: Past and Present 271 Chapter 9 273 Political and Intellectual Authority: The Concept of the “Sage-Monarch” and Its Modern Fate 273 Bibliography 301 Index 337 AcknowledgmentsAcknowledgments vii Acknowledgments This volume is the fruit of an international workshop with the same title in May 2012 at the Institute for Advanced Study, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The workshop was supported by Grant 1714/11 from the Israeli Science Founda- tion and the Institute for Advanced Study. We are delighted to acknowledge their generosity. Naturally, not all the papers presented at the workshop could be assembled in this volume; but each of the participants whose paper was not included con- tributed greatly toward the volume’s formation, and we are grateful to all of them: Wolfgang Behr, Carine Defoort, Michael Puett, Matthias Richter, Masa- yuki Sato, Ori Sela, Ben-Ami Shillony, and Alexander Yakobson. We also thank Matthew Mosca from University of Washington, Seattle for helping us with bibliographic information and the Brill reviewers for their helpful comments. For the three editors, coediting the volume was an inspiring and intellectu- ally engaging exercise. Amid intense exchanges both online and off, we learned a lot from one another and from the contributors; and we are grateful for the latter’s patience with our manifold demands. In working on this volume we were supported by the Israel Science Founda- tion (Grant 511/11) and by the Michael William Lipson Chair in Chinese Studies (Yuri Pines). viii Acknowledgments List of Contributors Scott Cook Professor, Yale-NUS College Joachim Gentz Professor, University of Edinburgh Paul R. Goldin Professor, University of Pennsylvania Romain Graziani Professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon; senior lecturer, University of Geneva Martin Kern Greg (‘84) and Joanna (P13) Zeluck, Professor in Asian Studies; Professor and Chair, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University Liu Zehua 劉澤華 Professor (Emeritus), Nankai University, Tianjin Luo Xinhui 羅新慧 Professor, Department of History, Beijing Normal University Yuri Pines Michael W. Lipson Professor of Chinese Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusa- lem Charles Sanft Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Roel Sterckx Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation, Uni- versity of Cambridge, and Fellow of Clare College Introduction: Ideology and Power in Early China 1 Introduction: Ideology and Power in Early China Yuri Pines The three centuries that preceded the establishment of the Chinese empire in 221 bce were an age of exceptional intellectual flourishing. No other period in the history of Chinese thought can rival these centuries in creativity, boldness, ideological diversity, and long-term impact. Values, perceptions, and ideals shaped amid intense intellectual debates before the imperial unification con- tributed decisively to the formation of the political, social, and ethical orienta- tions that we identify today with traditional Chinese culture. More broadly, the ideas of rival thinkers formed an ideological framework within which the Chi- nese empire functioned from its inception until its very last decades. It is not surprising, then, that the lion’s share of studies of early Chinese history focus on the intellectual activities of what is often dubbed—somewhat misleading- ly—the age of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Several other major Eurasian civilizations witnessed similar periods of vi- brant intellectual activity, the impact of which remained perceptible for cen- turies or millennia to come: Jewish prophets, Indian religious teachers, and Greek philosophers come immediately to mind. Some scholars, beginning with Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), have tried to explore commonalities among these intellectual breakthroughs of ca. 800–200 bce, which Jaspers named the Axial Age (Achsenzeit).1 Regardless of whether this comparative perspective is valid, it is worth noting that among the major intellectual traditions that took shape during that age, the Chinese one appears as the most politically orient- ed. Of course, political texts were produced in any major civilization—for ex- ample, pronouncements of Jewish prophets, Plato’s Politeia, Aristotle’s Politika, and the Arthashastra, attributed to Kautilya.2 Conversely, a variety of nonpo- litical texts were produced in China. The overall difference is easily observable, nonetheless. In China, one will have a hard time finding either a “Classic” (jing 經) or a “Masters” (zi 子) text from the pre-imperial or early imperial period that does not discuss such issues as the nature of rulership, ruler-minister rela- tions, an intellectual’s political involvement, ways of controlling “the people” (min 民), and the like. These topoi are repeatedly addressed not just in purely political treatises but also in a variety of texts that focus on ethical, religious, 1 See Jaspers 1965.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The First Emperor: Selections from the Historical Records (Oxford
    oxford world’s classics THE FIRST EMPEROR Sima Qian’s Historical Records (Shiji), from which this selection is taken, is the most famous Chinese historical work, which not only established a pattern for later Chinese historical writing, but was also much admired for its literary qualities, not only in China, but also in Japan, where it became available as early as the eighth cen- tury ad. The work is vast and complex, and to appreciate its nature it is necessary to make a selection of passages concerning a particu- lar period. To this end the short-lived Qin Dynasty, which unified China in the late third century bc, has been chosen for this transla- tion as a key historical period which well illustrates Sima’s method. Sima himself lived from 145 bc to about 86 bc. He inherited the post of Grand Historiographer from his father, and was so deter- mined to complete his work that he suffered the penalty of castra- tion rather than the more honourable alternative of death when he fell foul of the Emperor. Raymond Dawson was an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. He was Editor of The Legacy of China (1964) and his other publications include The Chinese Chameleon: An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization (1967), Imperial China (1972), The Chinese Experience (1978), Confucius (1982), A New Introduction to Classical Chinese (1984), and the Analects (Oxford World’s Classics, 1993). K. E. Brashier is Associate Professor of Religion (Chinese) and Humanities (Chinese) at Reed College. oxford world’s classics For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought readers closer to the world’s great literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Handling of Out-Of-Vocabulary Words in Japanese-English
    International Journal of Asian Language Processing 29(2):61-86 61 The Syntactic Evolvement of the Chinese Word “Wei” Yan Li School of Foreign Languages, Shaanxi Normal University Xi’an, China, 710062 [email protected] Abstract Based on Beijing University CCL corpus, this article investigated the functions and meanings of the word “Wei”(维) in different dynasties. “维” could be a word in ancient times while it functions as verb, noun, pronoun, preposition, auxiliary word, etc.. But from West Jin Dynasty there appeared disyllabic words including “维” and the situation of co-existing of monosyllabic words and disyllabic words lasted till the Republic of China. Now “维” as a word disappeared and only as a morpheme in disyllabic or multisyllabic words. The transformation from a monosyllabic word to a monosyllabic morpheme is a very common phenomenon in Chinese. Keywords “Wei”(维), syntactic evolvement, morphemization 1. Introduction The word “Wei”(维) is a very common morpheme in modern Chinese, but its evolution is of specialty which is worth exploring. In Chinese history, a morpheme has ever been a word which could be used independently, but in modern Chinese, many monosyllabic words lower their status to monosyllabic morphemes (Dong Xiufang, 2004). “维”was a word in ancient times, which is pictophonetic while its character from 糸（mì）and 隹（zhuī）. “糸” means “rope, string”. The combination of “糸”and “隹” means ‘to draw forth more than three ropes from a higher place to the ground and enclose a hollow cone’. The original meaning is “rope” which is used to form a cone.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sacrality of the Mountain the Sacrality of the Mountain
    University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 12-2014 The aS crality of The ounM tain Manuel Rivera Espinoza University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Comparative Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Rivera Espinoza, Manuel, "The aS crality of The ounM tain" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 2072. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2072 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Sacrality of the Mountain The Sacrality of the Mountain A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in History by Manuel Rivera Espinoza Universidad de Chile Bachelor in History, 2008 December 2014 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation of the Graduate Council. _______________________________ Dr. Rembrandt Wolpert Thesis Director _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Liang Cai Dr. Elizabeth Markham Committee Member Committee Member Abstract In this thesis I explore the conception of the mountain as a “sacred space” based on the definition provided by Mircea Eliade
    [Show full text]
  • Mythical Image of “Queen Mother of the West” and Metaphysical Concept of Chinese Jade Worship in Classic of Mountains and Seas
    IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 21, Issue11, Ver. 6 (Nov. 2016) PP 39-46 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org Mythical Image of “Queen Mother of the West” and Metaphysical Concept of Chinese Jade Worship in Classic of Mountains and Seas Juan Wu1 (School of Foreign Language，Beijing Institute of Technology, China) Abstract: This paper focuses on the mythological image, the Queen Mother of the West in Classic of Mountains and Seas, to explore the hiding history and mental reality behind the fantastic literary images, to unveil the origin of jade worship, which plays an significant role in the 8000-year-old history of Eastern Asian jade culture, to elucidate the genetic mechanism of the jade worship budded in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, so that we can have an overview of the tremendous influence it has on Chinese civilization, and illustrate its psychological role in molding the national jade worship and promoting the economic value of jade business. Key words: Mythical Image, Mythological Concept, Jade Worship, Classic of Mountains and Seas I. WHITE JADE RING AND QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST As for the foundation and succession myths of early Chinese dynasties, Allan holds that “Ancient Chinese literature contains few myths in the traditional sense of stories of the supernatural but much history” (Allan, 1981: ix) and “history, as it appears in the major texts from the classical period of early China (fifth-first centuries B.C.)，has come to function like myth” (Allan, 1981: 10). While “the problem of myth for Western philosophers is a problem of interpreting the meaning of myths and the phenomenon of myth-making” as Allan remarks, “the problem of myth for the sinologist is one of finding any myths to interpret and of explaining why there are so few.” (Allen, 1991: 19) To decode why white jade enjoys a prominent position in the Chinese culture, the underlying conceptual structure and unique culture genes should be investigated.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Agricultural Civilization in China: the Disparity Between Archeological Discovery and the Documentary Record and Its Explanation
    SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 175 December, 2006 The Rise of Agricultural Civilization in China: The Disparity between Archeological Discovery and the Documentary Record and Its Explanation by Zhou Jixu Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Chinese Department, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. The only style-sheet we honor is that of consistency. Where possible, we prefer the usages of the Journal of Asian Studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Environmental Performance Reviews
    OECD Environmental Performance Reviews CHINA ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. Also available in French under the title: Examens environnementaux de l’OCDE : CHINE and in Chinese under the title: © OECD 2007 No reproduction, copy, transmission or translation of this publication may be made without written permission.
    [Show full text]
  • The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Wai Kit Wicky Tse University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, and the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Tse, Wai Kit Wicky, "Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Abstract As a frontier region of the Qin-Han (221BCE-220CE) empire, the northwest was a new territory to the Chinese realm. Until the Later Han (25-220CE) times, some portions of the northwestern region had only been part of imperial soil for one hundred years. Its coalescence into the Chinese empire was a product of long-term expansion and conquest, which arguably defined the egionr 's military nature. Furthermore, in the harsh natural environment of the region, only tough people could survive, and unsurprisingly, the region fostered vigorous warriors. Mixed culture and multi-ethnicity featured prominently in this highly militarized frontier society, which contrasted sharply with the imperial center that promoted unified cultural values and stood in the way of a greater degree of transregional integration. As this project shows, it was the northwesterners who went through a process of political peripheralization during the Later Han times played a harbinger role of the disintegration of the empire and eventually led to the breakdown of the early imperial system in Chinese history.
    [Show full text]
  • European Journal of American Studies, 14-2 | 2019, “Summer 2019” [Online], Online Since 06 July 2019, Connection on 08 July 2021
    European journal of American studies 14-2 | 2019 Summer 2019 Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14551 DOI: 10.4000/ejas.14551 ISSN: 1991-9336 Publisher European Association for American Studies Electronic reference European journal of American studies, 14-2 | 2019, “Summer 2019” [Online], Online since 06 July 2019, connection on 08 July 2021. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14551; DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.4000/ejas.14551 This text was automatically generated on 8 July 2021. European Journal of American studies 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS “A More Permanent Familiarity”: Value and the Paternal Image on United States Currency Heinz Tschachler Papa’s Baby, Mama’s Maybe: Reading the Black Paternal Palimpsest and White Maternal Present Absence in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand Yolanda M. Manora “His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy Pascale Antolin Remembering, History, and Identity: The Sculpted Life of Benjamin Franklin Mert Deniz Truth, Truth-telling and Gender in Politics: The ”Hillary” Experience C. Akça Ataç US Conservative and Libertarian Experts and Solar Geoengineering: An Assessment Jean-Daniel Collomb Close to Home, One at a Time, Not in My Backyard: Individualism and the Mantras of Depoliticization in US Reform Discourses Olga Thierbach-McLean The Conspiracist Strategy: Lessons from American Alternative Health Promotions Gad Yair Black Elitism and Cultural Entrepreneurship in 1920’s Boston, Massachusetts: The League of Women for Community Service Craig Doughty American Studies Against Itself Michael Barton European journal of American studies, 14-2 | 2019 2 “A More Permanent Familiarity”: Value and the Paternal Image on United States Currency Heinz Tschachler 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson Plan on the Age of Division: One China Or Many Chinas?
    Teacher: Gintaras Valiulis Grade: 7 Subject: World History Lesson Plan on the Age of Division: One China or Many Chinas? Objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Explain the collapse of the Han into the Age of Division 2. Describe the cultural changes during the Age of Division 3. Identify key personalities in politics and art during the Age of Division 4. Describe the process of transformation from a divided China to a united one once more. 5. Locate the important states of the Age of Division on a Map. 6. Identify the multicultural elements of the Age of Division 7. Argue a case for or against the inevitability of a united China from the perspective of the Age of Division. Opening Comments: This lesson plan is presented in the form of a lecture with Socratic segues in points. Because much of the material is not found in 7th grade history books I could not rely on any particular reading assignments and would then present these sections as reading assignments with lecture and explicative support. As this lesson becomes more refined, some of the academic language may disappear but some would remain and become highlighted to help students build a more effective technical vocabulary for history and the social sciences. Much of my assignments in class build note- taking skills and ask students to create their own graphic organizers, illustrations, and such to help the students build more meaning. Several segues could lead to debates depending upon student interest and instructional time. The following is arranged in a series of questions which are explored in the lecture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of an Alleged Tradition: a Prophecy Flattering Han Emperor Wu and Its Relation to the Sima Clan*
    The Power of an Alleged Tradition: A Prophecy Flattering Han Emperor Wu and its Relation to the Sima Clan* by Dorothee Schaab-Hanke . es muß stets eine lange Übermittlerkette vorhanden sein, damit sich die Hinweise oder Gedanken, die Kommentare, wie immer man es nennt, dehnen. Sie müsen durch zehn Hirne hindurch, um einen Satz zu ergeben.** (Alexander Kluge) Introduction During the early reign of Liu Che ᄸ࿺, posthumously honored as Emperor Wu r. 141–87) of the Han, a severe struggle for infl uence and power seems to) ܹن have arisen among competing groups of experts concerned with the establishment of new imperial rites. This is at least the impression that the Shiji͑৩ (The Scribe’s Record) conveys to the reader in chapter 28, the “Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifi ces” (Fengshan shuܱᑐए). According to the account given there, the compet- ing partners in this struggle were mainly the ru ኵ (here used in the sense of scholars who maintained that any advice in the question of ritual should entirely be based upon evidence drawn from the “Classics”) and a group of specialists called fangshī ʦ (a term which should be translated by “masters of techniques” rather than by the often used, but rather biased term magicians). * I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Hans Stumpfeldt (Hamburg), Dr. Achim Mittag (Essen) and Dr. Monique Nagel- Angermann (Münster) for their helpful and inspiring comments on the text. Special thanks to Dr. Martin Svens- son Ekström (Stockholm), Prof. Dr. E. Bruce Brooks and Dr. A. Taeko Brooks (Amherst, Mass.) as well as two anonymous readers for the BMFEA for their competent and engaged revising of the draft.
    [Show full text]
  • The Investiture of the Gods, Feng Shen Yanyi
    Investiture of the Gods or Feng Shen Yanyi by Xu Zhonglin The Investiture of the Gods also called The Creation of the Gods, or simply by its native name Feng Shen Yanyi, meaning “Inauguration of Doctrines Dramatized by the Gods,” is an ancient masterpiece. Published around the 16th-century, it has been claimed a “novel” merging mythology, folklore and history. As to its key thematics, Investiture of the Gods features a work that mostly personifies myths that narrate the Cosmogony of the World according to the space-time established by the Chinese mythology. Editor 2 Contents 1 Illustration The Investiture Great Wall-Corridor Chapter 1 King Zhou and Goddess Nu Wa Chapter 2 The Rebellion of Su Hu Chapter 3 Daji enters the Palace Chapter 4 The Fox Sprite murders Daji Chapter 5 Cloud Dweller presents a Pine Wood Sword Chapter 6 The Burning Pillar Torture Chapter 7 Fei Zhong plots to depose the Queen Chapter 8 Princes take Flight Chapter 9 The Prime Minister's Resolve Chapter 10 The Discovery of Thunder-quaker Chapter 11 The III Fortunes of the Grand Dukes Chapter 12 The Birth of Nezha Chapter 13 Combat between two Fairies Chapter 14 Reincarnation with Lotus Flowers Chapter 15 Jiang Ziya leaves Mount Kunlun Chapter 16 Burning the Jade Lute Specter Chapter 17 The Serpent Pit Chapter 18 Flight from Morning Song Chapter 19 Gifts to the King Chapter 20 San Yisheng bribes the corrupt Courtiers Chapter 21 Flight through the Five Passes 1. The text, though partly abridged, amounts the supposedly original one hundred chapters.
    [Show full text]
  • Study Guide: Please Use the Questions to Develop a Deeper Understanding of the Text and to Review the Concepts
    HUMANITIES INSTITUTE CHINESE CULTURE Course Description This course traces the history of Chinese culture and cultural influences, with special attention to the impact of political structures, economics, and religion, beginning with ancient times, and spanning the various dynasties, culminating in the 21st century. The aspects of culture that are examined include language, history, customs, folklore, marriage, arts, literature, architecture, science and technology, philosophical ideas, religion, beliefs, and aesthetics. Instructor Dingman Wu is the author of A Panoramic View of Chinese Culture (Nanjing, 2010). Course Objectives By the end of this course, students will be able to A. to have an overall picture of traditional Chinese culture in the following four aspects a. factual aspect: languages, scenic and historic spots, etc. b. customs: Chinese cuisines, table manners, folklore, handcrafts and marriage customs, etc. c. achievements: in arts and literature, science and technology, etc. d. values: philosophical ideas, beliefs, and aesthetics. B. to find out essence and characteristics of Chinese culture and the universal values this culture shared with others; C. to understand contemporary events, ideas and issues in China based on Chinese traditional concepts. © 2015 by Humanities Institute 1 2 Instructions for the Study Guide: Please use the questions to develop a deeper understanding of the text and to review the concepts. As you read, consider the questions. Keeping careful notes or a journal will help you prepare to write the essays at the end of each section as well as the final essay. Your required and supplemental readings can be found in the “Readings” file. Instructions for Essays: Please write a 1,250 – 1,500 word essay that responds to the essay questions.
    [Show full text]