The writing of weddings in middle-period China : text and ritual practice in the eighth through fourteenth centuries / Christian de Pee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Pee, Christian.

Series:

SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marriage customs and rites--China.

Marriage customs and rites.

Weddings in literature.

China--History--Tang dynasty, 618-907.

China.

History.

China--History--Song dynasty, 960-1279.

Physical Description:

xiv, 365 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2007]

Summary:

Approaching writing as a form of cultural practice and understanding text as an historical object, this book not only recovers elements of the ritual practice of Middle-Period weddings, but also reassesses the relationship between texts and the Middle-Period past. Its fourfold narrative of the writing of weddings and its spirited engagement with the texts-ritual manuals, engagement letters, nuptial songs, calendars and almanacs, and legal texts-offer a form and style for a cultural history that accommodates the particularities of the sources of the Chinese imperial past.

Contents:

Introduction: The practice of the text

Ritual manuals : exegetical hermeneutics and the re-embodiment of antiquity

Wedding correspondence and nuptial songs : writing as cultural capital and text as ritual object

Calendars, almanacs, miracle tales, and medical texts : cosmic cycles and the liminal affairs of man

Legal codes, verdicts, and contracts : universal order and local practice

Conclusion: Texts and tombs, ritual and history.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-355) and index.

ISBN:

0791470733

9780791470732

OCLC:

70864458