Ritual Performance in Early Chinese Thought
Product details
- ISBN 9781350358966
- Weight: 460g
- Dimensions: 160 x 242mm
- Publication Date: 14 Nov 2024
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Examining early Chinese ritual discourse during the Warring States and early Western Han Periods, this book reveals how performance became a fundamental feature of ritual and politics in early China. Through a dramaturgical lens, Thomas Radice explores the extent to which performer/spectator relationships influenced all aspects of early Chinese religious, ethical, and political discourse.
Arguing that the Confucians conceived ritual as primarily a dramaturgical matter, this book demonstrates not only that theatricality was necessary for expression and deception in a community of spectators, but also how a theatrical ‘presence’ ultimately became essential to all forms of public life in early China. Thomas Radice illuminates previously unexplored connections between early Chinese texts, aesthetics, and traditions.
