Design by the Book: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli Tu

François Louis (Author), Bard Graduate Center Gallery (Issuing body, Host institution)

ISBN 10: 1941792103 / ISBN 13: 9781941792100

Published by Bard Graduate Center, 2017

About this Item

xvi, 180 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 23 cm. Catalogue published in conjunction with exhibition at Bard Graduate Center Gallery from March 24-July 30, 2017. Contents:
Part I. The Sanli tu in Medieval China: A Cultural Biography. Politics and Confucian Ritual in the 950s ; Redesigning the State Ritual Paraphernalia and Compiling the Sanli tu ; Tang Remains ; Didactics and Dynastic Propaganda ; Revisions and Early Antiquarianism ; Rejection, Preservation, Ambivalence
Part II. Ritual Objects in the Exhibition
Appendix 1: Editions of the Sanli tu
Appendix 2: Glossary of the Sanli tu Entries
Appendix 3: Works on View in the Exhibitio.

Seller Inventory # 17cb411

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Design by the Book: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli Tu
• Publisher: Bard Graduate Center
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1941792103
• ISBN 13: 9781941792100
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 17.78W x 22.23H x 2.03D centimeters 17.78 centimeters width by 22.23 centimeters height by 2.03 centimeters depth
• Weight: 635 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Archaeology
  • China
  • Anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

Today, China’s classical antiquity is often studied through recovered artifacts, but before this practice became widespread, scholars instead reconstructed the distant past through classical texts and transmitted illustrations. Among the most important illustrated commentaries was the Sanli tu, or Illustrations to the Ritual Classics, whose origins are said to date back to the great commentator Zheng Xuan. Design by the Book, which accompanies an exhibition at Bard Graduate Center Gallery, discusses the history and cultural significance of the Sanli tu in medieval China.

The Sanli tu survives in a version produced around 960 by Nie Chongyi, a professor at the court of the Later Zhou (951–960) and Northern Song (960–1127) dynasties. It is now mostly remembered—if at all—for its controversial entries and as a quaint predecessor of the more empirical antiquarian scholarship produced since the mid-eleventh century. But such criticism hides the fact that the book remained a standard resource for more than 150 years, playing a crucial role in the Song dynasty’s perception of ancient ritual and construction of a Confucian state cult. Richly illustrated, Design by the Book brings renewed focus to one of China’s most fascinating medieval works. 
 

About the Author

François Louis is associate professor of Chinese art and material culture at Bard Graduate Center in New York City.