This book is a project in comparative history, but along two distinct axes, one historical and the other historiographical. Its purpose is to constructively juxtapose the early modern European and Chinese approaches to historical study that have been called "antiquarian." As an exercise in historical recovery, the essays in this volume amass new information about the range of antiquarian-type scholarship on the past, on nature, and on peoples undertaken at either end of the Eurasian landmass between 1500 and 1800. As a historiographical project, the book challenges the received---and often very much under conceptualized---use of the term "antiquarian" in both European and Chinese contexts. Readers will not only learn more about the range of European and Chinese scholarship on the past---and especially the material past---but they will also be able to integrate some of the historiographical observations and corrections into new ways of conceiving of the history of historical scholarship in Europe since the Renaissance, and to reflect on the impact of these European terms on Chinese approaches to the Chinese past. This comparison is a two-way street, with the European tradition clarified by knowledge of Chinese practices, and Chinese approaches better understood when placed alongside the European ones.

Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500-1800 (The Bard Graduate Center Cultural Histories of the Material World)

History

Miller, Peter N.

Louis, François

Asia

University of Michigan Press

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.

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

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Bard Graduate Center

Jahr für Jahr fördern Chinas Archäologen erstaunliche, teils spektakuläre Schätze aus Gold und Silber zutage. Damit erschliesst sich immer deutlicher, welch zentrale Stellung die Goldschmiedekunst innerhalb des mittelalterlichen chinesischen Kunsthandwerks einnahm. Essentiell für ein genaueres Studium dieses noch wenig erforschten Handwerkszweiges sind Informationen zum gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Umfeld, in dem die Goldschmiedearbeiten produziert wurden. Diese Studie beschäftigt sich daher mit der Organisation der mittelalterlichen Goldschmiedewerkstätten, mit kaiserlichen, religiösen und privaten Aufträgen, mit der Identität und gesellschaftlichen Position der Goldschmiede, mit der Identifikation von Produktionszentren, mit Transport und Handel sowie mit der Geschichte einzelner Objekte. Zudem widmet sie sich ausführlich den materiellen Ressourcen, deren Gewinnung und monetärer Verwendung. Zum Verständnis der frühen Entwicklungen reicht der untersuchte Zeitraum zurück bis zu den Anfängen des Goldschmiedeberufes unter der Östlichen Zhou-Dynastie (770-221 v. Chr.).

Die Goldschmiede der Tang- und Song-Zeit: Archäologische, sozial- und wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Materialien zur Goldschmiedekunst Chinas vor 1279 ... / Etudes asiatique suisse) (German Edition)

Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Louis, François. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Louis, François