Of Body and Brush
Grand Sacrifice as Text/Performance in Eighteenth-Century China
332 pages
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12 halftones, 25 line drawings
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6 x 9
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© 1997
The Qianlong emperor, who dominated the religious and political life of eighteenth-century China, was in turn dominated by elaborate ritual prescriptions. These texts determined what he wore and ate, how he moved, and above all how he performed the yearly Grand Sacrifices. In Of Body and Brush, Angela Zito offers a stunningly original analysis of the way ritualizing power was produced jointly by the throne and the official literati who dictated these prescriptions.
Forging a critical cultural historical method that challenges traditional categories of Chinese studies, Zito shows for the first time that in their performance, the ritual texts embodied, literally, the metaphysics upon which imperial power rested. By combining rule through the brush (the production of ritual texts) with rule through the body (mandated performance), the throne both exhibited its power and attempted to control resistance to it. Bridging Chinese history, anthropology, religion, and performance and cultural studies, Zito brings an important new perspective to the human sciences in general.
Forging a critical cultural historical method that challenges traditional categories of Chinese studies, Zito shows for the first time that in their performance, the ritual texts embodied, literally, the metaphysics upon which imperial power rested. By combining rule through the brush (the production of ritual texts) with rule through the body (mandated performance), the throne both exhibited its power and attempted to control resistance to it. Bridging Chinese history, anthropology, religion, and performance and cultural studies, Zito brings an important new perspective to the human sciences in general.
American Council of Learned Societies: Best First Book in History of Religs.
Short Listed
Contents
List of Illustrations
Prologue: Clothing, Carrying, and Codifying
Abbreviations
Introduction
Pt. 1: Ruling Boundaries
1: Signifying Emperorship: Of Portraits and Princes
2: Method, Monarchy, and Ritual
Pt. 2: Text: Editing the Ritual Corpus
3: Classifying Li: Time and Agency
4: Writing the Ritualist Metaphysics: Self and World
Pt. 3: Performance: The Ritualizing Body Inscribes
5: Sacrificial Spaces: Contextualizing the City
6: Cosmic Preparation: Orders of Knowledge
7: Filial Ceremony: Centering
8: The Politics of Boundary: Inscription and Incorporation
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Characters
References
Index
Prologue: Clothing, Carrying, and Codifying
Abbreviations
Introduction
Pt. 1: Ruling Boundaries
1: Signifying Emperorship: Of Portraits and Princes
2: Method, Monarchy, and Ritual
Pt. 2: Text: Editing the Ritual Corpus
3: Classifying Li: Time and Agency
4: Writing the Ritualist Metaphysics: Self and World
Pt. 3: Performance: The Ritualizing Body Inscribes
5: Sacrificial Spaces: Contextualizing the City
6: Cosmic Preparation: Orders of Knowledge
7: Filial Ceremony: Centering
8: The Politics of Boundary: Inscription and Incorporation
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Characters
References
Index
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