Creating Confucian Authority: The Field of Ritual Learning in Early China to 9 CE (Sinica Leidensia, 152) - Hardcover

Chard, Robert L.

9789004461918: Creating Confucian Authority: The Field of Ritual Learning in Early China to 9 CE (Sinica Leidensia, 152)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004461914 ISBN 13: 9789004461918

Publisher: Brill, 2021

View all copies of this ISBN edition

0 Used

2 New

From US$ 52.20

Ritual Learning is a key driver in the cultural dominance of Confucianism. In early China, Confucian officials derive political influence from the sub-discipline of ritual. Imperial regimes establish legitimacy through their state religion, headed by sacrifices to ancestors and to deities of Heaven and Earth. Ritual Learning allows Confucian-educated officials to assert control over these cults, and reshape dynastic legitimacy according to their own design, claimed to derive from the sage kings of antiquity. Confucianism is not just a philosophical and intellectual tradition. Through its ritual expertise, it has cultural and political power, like that of a religion, allowing it to perpetuate itself successfully over time, even in contemporary China.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Robert L. Chard, PhD (1990, University of California, Berkeley) is University Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Anne’s College. He has published on the visible culture of Confucianism in China and Japan.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.