Writing of Weddings in Middle-Period China

Christian de Pee is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

"…The Writing of Weddings in Middle-Period China … beautifully marries pathbreaking insights drawn from different disciplines, including gender studies, archaeology, and cultural anthropology." — Philosophy East & West"Christian de Pee has written an extraordinary book … The heart of the book is de Pee's masterful textual analysis … de Pee is only bringing 'another' perspective, albeit … a very important and brilliantly presented one, to our search for the 'truth' about China's middle period." — Journal of Asian Studies"…recommended to scholars of Chinese social history and anthropology for its textual sources and detailed information." — Journal of Chinese Religions"In many ways this is a remarkable book. It is replete with detailed and interesting data that relate to the celebration of weddings in the 'middle-period' of China's history—the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties." — Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society"De Pee presents a new theoretical approach to Middle-Period history. In so doing he sees texts as ritual objects in themselves (in various historical forms, often no longer extant), and he sees writing as a ritual practice embedded in a historical context. This book is pathbreaking and highly erudite. It sets a new standard for historical inquiry in the China field. It will unquestionably be recognized as a seminal work in its own field and beyond." — Bettine Birge, author of Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yüan China (960–1368)

• IllustrationsPreface  Introduction: The Practice of the Text The Practice of the Classical Text: The Writing of Weddings in the Middle PeriodThe Practice of the Academic Text: The Writing of Weddings in Modern and Postmodern History1. Ritual Manuals: Exegetical Hermeneutics and the Re-Embodiment of Antiquity Canonical Weddings: Fragments and HermeneuticsRites of the Kaiyuan Period: The Merging of Canon and PrecedentManuals of Letters and Ceremonies: The Hermeneutics of Practice and the Preservation of RitualThe Hermeneutical Shift in the Northern Song: Epigraphy, Archaeology, and the Identity of Past and PresentRitual Manuals of the Northern Song: The Hermeneutics of Text and the Embodiment of AntiquityToward a New Ritual Scripture: Zhu Xi’s Family RitualsConclusion2. Wedding Correspondence and Nuptial Songs: Writing as Cultural Capital and Text as Ritual Object Cultural Capital and the Inscription of Ritual Time in Wedding CorrespondenceSocial Boundaries and Symbolic Capital in Writing ManualsRitual Time and Sexual Metaphors in Wedding Addresses, Poems, and JokesConclusion3. Calendars, Almanacs, Miracle Tales, and Medical Texts: Cosmic Cycles and the Liminal Affairs of Man Patterns of Auspicious and Inauspicious Time in CalendarsThe Calculation of Cosmic Blessings and Dangers in AlmanacsThe Blessings and Dangers of Weddings in Miracle TalesThe Vulnerable and Dangerous Body of the Bride in Miracle Tales and Medical TextsConclusion4. Legal Codes, Verdicts, and Contracts: Universal Order and Local Practice Marriage and the Universal Order: The Annotated Tang Code and the Song Penal CodeUniversal Law and Local Practice: A Collection of Pure and Lucid VerdictsInterference with Ritual Practice: Imperial Canon of Sacred Governance and Comprehensive InstitutionsConclusionConclusion. Texts and Tombs, Ritual and History The Practice of the Tomb: Material Traces of RitualThe Practice of the Text: Written Traces of RitualThe Practice of History: Toward a Cultural History of the Middle PeriodGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex