China's Early Empires: A Re-appraisal

by Edited by Michael Nylan , Michael Loewe

• ISBN13: 9780521852975
• ISBN10: 0521852978
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Recent archaeological discoveries, including manuscripts, have shed new light on China's history, in particular Qin and Han (221 BCE-220 CE), this volume's main focus. They make possible a deeper account of the growth of cities and of the spread of Chinese influence over distant areas. This book provides the first comprehensive survey of recent developments, evaluating the newly-found evidence in the light of earlier conclusions from China, Japan, Europe and America. Through cross-cultural comparisons and a close study of both the excavated and received literature, new conclusions are presented with respect to relatively understudied topics, such as gender, history of science, and modes of persuasion, while challenging the 'common wisdom' in such fields as Buddhism, Daoism and social history. Thus the volume provides a supplement to Volume 1 of The Cambridge History of China (1986) and shows how subsequent archaeology has enriched our perception of China's history in this period.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Archaeology

Han Dynasty tomb structures and contents

Two Eastern Han sites: Mixian and Houshiguo

Excavated manuscripts: context and methodology

The archaeology of the outlying lands

Urbanism

The Eternal City and the City of Eternal Peace

Appendix: major sources for Chang'an

Imperial tombs

Appendix: tombs of the Han emperors

Archaeology in China: a view from outside

Administration

The laws of 186 BCE

Appendix: legal documents

Administration of the family (Qihuai bisi)

Appendix: on the sources

Social distinctions, groups and privileges

The operation of the government

Technical Arts

Numbers, numeracy and the cosmos

Appendix: nine canons

Divination and astrology received texts and excavated manuscripts

Writings related to divination

Mantic practitioners

Manuscripts, received texts and the healing arts

Appendix: early evidence of the healing arts

Yin-yang, five phases and qi

Appendix: correlative cosmology

Religious practices in Han

Religious change under Eastern Han and its successors some current perspectives and problems

Four problematic texts in the history of Daoism

Post-Han extra-canonical sources

Modes of Persuasion

The techniques of persuasion and the rhetoric of disorder (Luan)

Texts and authors in the Shiji

Tropes of music and poetry: from Wudi (r. 141-87 BCE) to ca. 100 CE

The art of persuasion from 100 BCE to 100 CE

Prose and authority 100-300 CE

Literary criticism and personal character in poetry ca. 100-300 CE

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.