Early China最新文献

{"title":"RETHINKING THE ANCESTRAL SHRINES IN THE EARLY EMPIRES","authors":"Tian Tian, Zhou Wen","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.12","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the development of early imperial ancestral shrines by exploring the Liye and Yuelu 嶽麓 Qin slips, along with other excavated texts and historical documents. It argues that Qin Shihuang's 秦始皇 court was the first to specify the regulations for the early imperial ancestral shrine, a crucial part of which was the establishment of the Taishang huang 太上皇 shrines throughout the realm, making the imperial ancestral cult part of the daily local administrative affairs. The Western Han courts largely adopted the regulations stipulated by Qin Shihuang in their commandery and kingdom shrines until late Western Han, when ritual reforms brought the imperial ancestral shrines closer to what Michael Loewe calls the Reformist vision, entailing potential conflicts between bloodlines and the hereditary order of succession. By no means did the early empires simply continue in the stipulations for the imperial ancestral shrines the royal practices of the pre-imperial period; instead, the precedents transmitted to Eastern Han reflected two major ritual reforms, with local ancestral shrines and personal participation by the emperor key subjects of debates.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"WANG MANG 王莽 (c. 45 b.c.e.–23 c.e.) AND CLASSICAL LEARNING AS PATH TO SUPREME POWER","authors":"Béatrice L'Haridon","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.11","url":null,"abstract":"This article inquires into the ideological circumstances behind Wang Mang's 王莽 seizure of power, to examine how he built legitimacy at every stage of his career, by establishing a political and symbolic continuum between the role of the minister and that of the sovereign, rather than suddenly wresting power from the Liu clan. His classical learning in general and his references to Zhougong 周公 in particular were fundamental to the success of the process, which took place in three important stages: first, the offering of a white pheasant to the court; second, the bestowal of “Nine Conferrals” 九錫, and third, the composition of “Wang Mang's declaration” 莽誥. However, although the Classics constituted common references for Wang Mang and the scholars supporting him, the Classics were also used by some opponents objecting to the concentration of power in the hands of Wang Mang.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"BAN GU'S VIEW ON THE “SECOND VICTORY” OF “CONFUCIANISM” AND THE FALL OF THE FORMER HAN","authors":"Hans van Ess","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.13","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay, which focuses on the reigns of Emperors Xuan and Yuan in Western Han, complicates the prevailing presumption that Ban Gu identified as a Ru 儒, and valued the Ru contributions to good governance above those who were identified with other forms of expertise. By a close reading of biographies of all major Ru scholars active during the time of these two emperors as well as some later ones, this essay provides further proof in support of points registered by Michael Loewe throughout his long career.</p>","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"OPPOSITION TO BUDDHISM AND THE HAN LEGACY","authors":"T. H. Barrett","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Michael Loewe has repeatedly and as recently as 2021 looked at how Confucius appears in Han sources and has drawn attention to his lack of prominence, at least to the degree one might expect. Here, a preliminary assessment of the sources of opposition to Buddhism in one key sixth-century <span>c.e.</span> collection of polemics further demonstrates that adherence to <span>mingjiao</span> 名教 (Teaching of a Good Name) or to <span>lijiao</span> 禮教 (teaching on ritual) appears there as the main identifiers of opponents; <span>rujiao</span>, the term often later translated as “Confucianism,” is mentioned but once. While the commitment to values such as filial piety promoted by opponents of Buddhism is clear; their institutional coherence and self-awareness as a group does not seem to have been at all on a par with that of the Buddhist community. That situation did not start to shift until the Tang dynasty.</p>","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"DU FU 杜甫 ON THE HAN DYNASTY: A MEDIEVAL VIEW OF THE CLASSICAL CHINESE EMPIRE","authors":"D. Mcmullen","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.14","url":null,"abstract":"Du Fu, one of the two most celebrated poets of the Tang, was very much a product of his era in the way that he found a usable past in Han-dynasty verse, episodes, and people. From 750 on, his writings were replete with allusions to the Han, some subtle and others more forthright. Taken together, these allusions suggest his firm beliefs in the course of history determined by human moral agency, in morality as “a man's own charge”; also in the role of fate determining the succession of dynasties, even as he deplored the workings of capricious fate on individual lives. Such beliefs are unremarkable in content, being much closer to conventional Tang concepts of the individual than most commentaries on Du Fu allow.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56563673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"HOW DO EXCAVATED MANUSCRIPTS AND TRANSMITTED CANONS AND COMMENTARIES SHED LIGHT ON EACH OTHER? AN OUTLOOK FROM MATHEMATICS","authors":"Karine 力娜 Chemla 林","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.15","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Before the mathematical manuscript titled Writings on Mathematical Procedures (Suanshu shu 筭數書) was found at Zhangjiashan, historians of mathematics could trace mathematics in early imperial China only on the basis of the received canonical literature, notably The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures (Jiuzhang suanshu 九章算術). After the Zhangjiashan and other mathematical manuscripts were found, they were mainly compared with The Nine Chapters, in the belief that these were all early imperial mathematical works and therefore adequate objects of comparison. As such, The Nine Chapters was transmitted with layers of commentaries and subcommentaries. This article argues that Writings on Mathematical Procedures presents important parallels with the commentarial literature on The Nine Chapters. This sheds light on how such exegeses were composed. The article further demonstrates that examination of these commentaries and subcommentaries allows us to perceive parallels between Writings on Mathematical Procedures and The Nine Chapters that to date have not been considered.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56563756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"THE WAY TO THE WHITE TIGER HALL CONFERENCE: EVIDENCE GLEANED FROM THE FORMATION PROCESS OF THE BAIHU TONG","authors":"Shi Jian","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.16","url":null,"abstract":"The White Tiger Hall conference, held in the fourth year (79 c.e.) of the Jianchu 建初 reign in the Eastern Han, was a significant event in both politics and classical learning during and after that time. As the summary of the conference, composed after its conclusion, the Baihu tong 白虎通 is the main resource for investigating the details of this conference. Clarifying the formation process of the Baihu tong is helpful to elicit information regarding the White Tiger Hall conference from the findings recorded in its text. By tracing the history of the court conferences as an administrative institution and considering the particular nature of manuscript compilation, textual genre formats, and literary circulation during the Han, this paper suggests that the Baihu yizou 白虎議奏 referred to in the sources represents the compilation of the positions of the different debaters during the conference by Chunyu Gong 淳于恭 that was eventually sent to Emperor Zhang 章帝 for his approval; the Baihu tongde lun 白虎通德論 would be the corpus of the final rulings that had already been compiled before the conference ended and then edited by Ban Gu 班固. Later, the Emperor instructed his archivists to compose the Baihu tong by condensing the Baihu tongde lun. According to its formation process, the Baihu tong is the work of a collection of experts, rather than a compilation by a single person. Evidence shows that, although Emperor Zhang could weigh in on the court discussions (chengzhi linjue 稱制臨決), he could not ignore the consensus, nor could he simply mandate that the conference participants agree with him. In this regard, the Baihu tong cannot be considered a synthesis of the court's findings, establishing a single court ideology. Rather, it is best to see the text we have now as evidence of vigorous debates among the conference participants, including the Emperor himself and a range of other officials. In conclusion, the best way to uncover the facts about the White Tiger Hall conference via the Baihu tong is to reverse the process of textual formation, to glean information about the probable historical basis for the disputes recorded in the text.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56563833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"NOTES ON THE “NOTE” (JI 記) IN EARLY ADMINISTRATIVE TEXTS","authors":"Luke Habberstad","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.9","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines ji 記 in received and excavated texts from the late Warring States, Qin, and Western Han periods. In pre-imperial texts, the word rarely appears, and when it does, it usually refers to records of historical events, precedents, or authoritative knowledge, but the word, in contrast to later periods, never means “note” or “letter.” By contrast, Western Han documents from the arid northwest regions contain many examples of texts that self-identify as ji. These ji are best characterized as less formal notes or letters that invited or required exchanges of items or information between people. The articles argues that this incorporation of ji into different kinds of administrative work gave the word a wider and subtler palette of meanings than it apparently enjoyed in the pre-imperial period, judging from the extant sources. The shift is echoed in descriptions of practices at the Western Han imperial court. Thus, a closer look at ji reminds us that administrative texts help us understand not only government operations, but also shifts in manuscript practices during the early empires.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56564406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EAC volume 45 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.24","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45606146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"LETTER FROM THE EDITOR","authors":"Sarah Allan","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.22","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42368029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}