Early Chinese religion. / Part one, : Shang through Han (1250 BC-220 AD) / / edited by John Lagerwey and Marc Kalinowski.

• TeilnehmendeR: Kalinowski, Marc,; Lagerwey, John,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2009.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Handbuch der Orientalistik. China ; v. 21/1.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (2 volumes (1280 pages))
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

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 circa 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).

Table of Contents

Preliminary Materials / J. Lagerwey and M. Kalinowski -- Introduction / John Lagerwey and Marc Kalinowski -- Shang State Religion And The Pantheon Of The Oracle Texts / Robert Eno -- Shang And Zhou Funeral Practices: Interpretation Of Material Vestiges / Alain Thote -- Bronze Inscriptions, The Shijing And The Shangshu: The Evolution Of The Ancestral Sacrifice During The Western Zhou / Martin Kern -- Rituals For The Earth / Kominami Ichirô -- Ancestor Worship During The Eastern Zhou / Constance A. Cook -- Ritual And Ritual Texts In Early China / Mu-Chou Poo -- Chinese History Writing Between The Sacred And The Secular / Yuri Pines -- Diviners And Astrologers Under The Eastern Zhou: Transmitted Texts And Recent Archaeological Discoveries / Marc Kalinowski -- The Image And Status Of Shamans In Ancient China / Fu-Shih Lin -- The Subject And The Sovereign: Exploring The Self In Early Chinese Self-Cultivation / Romain Graziani -- Ethics And Self-Cultivation Practice In Early China / Mark Csikszentmihàlyi -- The Mythology Of Early China / Mark Edward Lewis -- Ritual Practices For Constructing Terrestrial / Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann -- The Rite, The Norm And The Dao: Philosophy Of Sacrifice And Transcendence Of Power In Ancient China / Jean Levi -- Combining The Ghosts And Spirits, Centering The Realm: Mortuary Ritual And Political Organization In The Ritual Compendia Of Early China / Michael Puett -- Classics Without Canonization: Learning And Authority In Qin And Han / Michael Nylan -- State And Local Cults In Han Religion / Marianne Bujard -- Language Of Heaven, Exegetical Skepticism And The Re-Insertion Of Religious Concepts In The Gongyang Tradition / Joachim Gentz -- The Economics Of Religion In Warring States And Early Imperial China / Roel Sterckx -- Taboos: An Aspect Of Belief In The Qin And Han / Liu Tseng-Kuei -- Death And The Dead: Practices And Images In The Qin And Han / Michèle Pirazzoli-T’Serstevens -- Eastern Han Commemorative Stelae: Laying The Cornerstones Of Public Memory / K.E. Brashier -- Latter Han Religious Mass Movements And The Early Daoist Church / Grégoire Espesset -- They Shall Expel Demons: Etiology, The Medical Canon And The Transformation Of Medical Techniques Before The Tang / LI Jianmin -- List Of Authors / J. Lagerwey and M. Kalinowski -- Bibliography / J. Lagerwey and M. Kalinowski -- Index / J. Lagerwey and M. Kalinowski.