The Politics of the Past in Early China

Cambridge University Press 2020,

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Details

Author

Leung Vincent S.

Publishers

Cambridge University Press 2020

Keyword

CINA China Chine

Binding description

Dust jacket

State of preservation

As New

Binding

Softcover

Inscribed

First edition

Description

8vo, br. ed. Why did the past matter so greatly in ancient China? How did it matter and to whom? This is an innovative study of how the past was implicated in the long transition of power in early China, as embodied by the decline of the late Bronze Age aristocracy and the rise of empires over the first millenium BCE. Engaging with a wide array of historical materials, including inscriptional records, excavated manuscripts, and transmitted texts, Vincent S. Leung moves beyond the historiographical canon and explores how the past was mobilized as powerful ideological capital in diverse political debate and ethical dialogue. Appeals to the past in early China were more than a matter of cultural attitude, Leung argues, but were rather deliberate ways of articulating political thought and challenging ethical debates during periods of crisis. Significant power lies in the retelling of the past.