This Culture of Ours

by Bol, Peter K.

• ISBN13: 9780804723619
• ISBN10: 0804723613
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-08-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This book traces the shared culture of the Chinese elite from the seventh to the twelfth centuries. The early T'ang definition of 'This Culture of Ours' combined literary and scholarly traditions from the previous five centuries. The late Sung Neo-Confucian movement challenged that definition. The author argues that the Tang-Sung transition is best understood as a transition from a literary view of culture - in which literary accomplishment and mastery of traditional forms were regarded as essential - to the ethical orientation of Neo-Confucianism, in which the cultivation of one's innate moral ability was regarded as the goal of learning. The author shows that this transformation paralleled the collapse of the T'ang order and the restoration of a centralized empire under the Sung, underscoring the connection between elite formation and political institutions.

Table of Contents

Chinese Dynasties and Various Rulers	viii
Introduction	1	(31)
The Transformation of the Shih	32	(44)
Scholarship and Literary Composition at the Early T'ang Court	76	(32)
The Crisis of Culture After 755	108	(40)
Civil Policy and Literary Culture: The Beginnings of Sung Intellectual Culture	148	(28)
Thinkers and Then Writers: Intellectual Trends in the Mid-Eleventh Century	176	(36)
For Perfect Order: Wang An-shih and Ssu-ma Kuang	212	(42)
Su Shih's Tao: Unity with Individuality	254	(46)
Ch'eng I and the New Culture of Tao-hsueh	300	(45)
Appendix: The Ch'ao Family of the Northern and Southern Sung	345	(12)
Notes	357	(92)
Bibliography	449	(34)
Chinese Character List	483	(14)
Index	497