Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China

出版者:Brill Academic Pub

作者:Donald Harper

页数:560

出版时间:2017-8-11

价格:USD 190.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9789004310193

具体描述

Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China is a comprehensive introduction to the manuscripts known as daybooks, examples of which have been found in Warring States, Qin, and Han tombs (453 BCE–220 CE). Their main content concerns hemerology, or “knowledge of good and bad days.” Daybooks reveal the place of hemerology in daily life and are invaluable sources for the study of popular culture.

Eleven scholars have contributed chapters examining the daybooks from different perspectives, detailing their significance as manuscript-objects intended for everyday use and showing their connection to almanacs still popular in Chinese communities today as well as to hemerological literature in medieval Europe and ancient Babylon.

Contributors include: Marianne Bujard, László Sándor Chardonnens, Christopher Cullen, Donald Harper, Marc Kalinowski, Li Ling, Liu Lexian, Alasdair Livingstone, Richard Smith, Alain Thote, and Yan Changgui.

作者简介

Donald Harper, Ph.D. (1983), is the Centennial Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Chicago. His research and publications focus on newly discovered manuscripts and their significance for the history of religion, science, and technology in early China.

Marc Kalinowski, Ph.D. (1978), is Professor of Chinese Religion and Thought at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. He has published widely on correlative cosmology and mantic arts in transmitted texts and the manuscript culture of early and medieval China.

目录信息

Introduction
Donald Harper and Marc Kalinowski
Hemerology
Technical Occult and Scientific Literature
Codicology of Daybook Manuscripts
Daybook Studies and Ancient Chinese Hemerology
Conventions Used in this Volume
Chinese Terms and Translations
Latin, Medieval Vernacular, and Cuneiform Sources
Chinese Conceptual Terms and Hemerological Terminology
1 Daybooks in Archaeological Context
Alain Thote
Daybooks in Tombs
The Four Tombs
Manuscripts in Tombs
Conclusion
2 Daybooks: A Type of Popular Hemerological Manual of the Warring States, Qin, and Han
Liu Lexian
Content and Defining Features of Daybooks
Overview of Fully Published Daybooks and Daybook-Related Manuscripts
Unpublished or Partially Published Hemerological Material
Comparison of Daybooks to Related Technical Literature in Excavated Manuscripts
Daybooks from the Perspective of the Bibliographic Treatise of the Book of Han
Daybooks and Later Hemerological Texts
Conclusion
3 Daybooks in the Context of Manuscript Culture and Popular Culture Studies
Donald Harper
Hemerology and Hemerological Literature through the Lens of Late Han Historiography
Makers and Users of Daybooks
The Form and Function of Daybook Manuscripts
Daybooks in Everyday Life
Conclusion
4 Hemerology and Prediction in the Daybooks: Ideas and Practices
Marc Kalinowski
Daily Activities and Life Expectations in the Daybooks
Techniques and Systems
Conclusion
Supplement 4.1
Supplement 4.2
Supplement 4.3
Supplement 4.4
Supplement 4.5
5 Daybooks and the Spirit World
Yan Changgui
The Spirit World
Spirit Origin and Background: Explanation of the “Death Corpse-Ghost” Diagram
Expelling Demons and Spirits: Techniques of Exorcism in “Spellbinding”
Spirits in the Context of Hemerology
Conclusion
Supplement 5.1
6 The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts
Li Ling
Discovery of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts and the History of Ownership
The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts: Physical Description and Contents
The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts and Ancient Chinese Hemerological Literature
Conclusion
7 Calendars and Calendar Making in Qin and Han Times
Christopher Cullen
Looking at a Calendar
Calculating the Calendar
Who Calculated the Calendar?
Conclusion
8 Daybooks in Qin and Han Religion
Marianne Bujard
The First Tiller Cult: Public and Private Rites
Local Cults of the Qin and Han
Private Rituals in the Daybooks
Conclusion
9 The Legacy of Daybooks in Late Imperial and Modern China
Richard Smith
Brief Overview of Calendars and Almanacs from the Tang through the Ming Dynasty
State-Sponsored Cosmology in the Qing
The State Calendar and Its Derivatives
Qing Dynasty Almanacs
Concluding Remarks
10 Hemerology in Medieval Europe
László Sándor Chardonnens
Hemerology and Daybooks
Hemerology and the Study of Time
Divination, Commemoration, and Natural Philosophy
Hemerological Practices
Conclusion
11 Babylonian Hemerologies and Menologies 408
Alasdair Livingstone
Research Background
The Babylonian Cultic Calendar
The Hemerologies
Use of the Hemerologies
Retrospect: A Scientific Experiment in Hemerology
Appendices
Appendix A: Survey of Excavated Daybooks, Daybook-Related Manuscripts, and Other Hemerological Material
Appendix B: Summary of Published Daybooks and Daybook-Related Manuscripts
Appendix C: Description of Select Hemerologies and Classificatory Systems in Daybooks
Bibliography
Plates
Index
· · · · · · (收起)

用户评价

坦白说，我对“流行文化”在古代的对应物感到有些困惑，但这也是最吸引我的地方。作者必然要对“流行”做出一个超越我们当代语境的界定。这本书如果能成功地展示出，古代社会对于“非理性”和“超验力量”的接受程度，远高于我们现代人想象的那样，那将是一个颠覆性的观点。我猜测，书中可能会有大量关于“谶纬之学”如何从边缘走向主流，甚至在特定历史时期成为政治合法性工具的论述。这种从边缘思潮到权力核心的渗透过程，是社会心理学和历史学交叉的绝佳领域。我希望作者能拿出扎实的文本证据，描绘出这些“命运叙事”在不同社会阶层中的具体“使用场景”，而不是空泛地谈论理论。如果能展现出，在信息匮乏的年代，人们是多么依赖于这些宏大而具有确定性的解释体系来构建自己对世界的理解，那么这本书的社会意义将非常深远。

这本书的标题所暗示的深度和广度，让我对其中可能涉及的文化人类学视角充满了期待。我设想，这不仅仅是一本梳理历史文献的枯燥读物，而更像是一场深入人心的田野调查，只不过研究对象是时间的洪流本身。我想知道，那些被视为“宿命”的力量，在不同的历史时期是如何被“包装”和“消费”的？例如，汉代的“图谶”文化是如何演变成后世文人墨客笔下的浪漫主义母题，又是如何渗透进普通百姓的日常口头禅中的？如果作者能引入社会结构和权力运作的分析框架，那就更妙了。毕竟，命运的解释权往往掌握在精英手中，他们如何利用这些“天命”的叙事来巩固或挑战现有的社会秩序，绝对是值得深挖的议题。我希望看到的，是一种批判性的审视，而不是简单的历史复述。比如，现代的流行文化中对“草根英雄逆袭”的痴迷，是否能在早期的“天命所归”的叙事中找到源头？这种跨越千年的“人设”构建逻辑，想必是本书最引人入胜的部分之一。

我十分好奇作者是如何定义和界定“早期中国”的范畴的，这个时间跨度对论述的完整性至关重要。本书的重点如果偏向于先秦到魏晋，那么它必然会触及到大量关于“德”与“命”的哲学思辨，这需要极高的思辨能力来驾驭。我尤其想了解，在那个信息传播极其缓慢的时代，“流行”是如何形成的？是依靠宫廷的推崇，还是民间口耳相传的力量更为强大？如果作者能提供一些关于古代“爆款”文化产品（比如某个流行的符咒、一首广为传颂的诗歌，或者一个特定的谶语）的传播路径分析，那将极大地丰富我的认知。此外，本书如果能探讨“命运观”如何影响艺术创作，例如早期绘画、雕塑中对人物宿命感的表现，我会非常感兴趣。这本书在我眼中，应该是一面映照我们自身文化身份的棱镜，通过观察古人的“宿命”情结，反观我们现代人在“不确定性”面前的焦虑与应对策略。

这本书的书名听起来就充满了神秘的吸引力，让我立刻联想到了古代中国那些流传千年的神话传说和民间信仰是如何与我们今天所熟悉的流行文化相互交织的。我迫不及待地想知道作者是如何梳理出这样一条看似跨越时空的文化脉络的。是像一个考古学家那样，从浩如烟海的古籍中挖掘出那些被遗忘的“命运之书”的痕迹，然后将它们与现代的娱乐现象进行对照分析吗？我很期待看到那些关于占卜、谶纬、预言在古代社会所扮演的角色，以及它们是如何潜移默化地影响了人们的思维模式和行为选择。如果作者能用生动的笔触描绘出古代人对未知的恐惧与探索欲，并将其与当代社会对星座、塔罗牌、乃至各种“玄学”的追捧进行有趣的类比，那这本书的价值就不仅仅停留在学术层面，更像是一把解开我们自身文化心理密码的钥匙。我尤其好奇作者如何处理“流行”这个概念，毕竟在古代，“流行”的载体和传播方式与现代有着天壤之别，这种跨时代的比较无疑会带来许多意想不到的洞见。

从一个普通读者的角度来看，我更关注的是这本书的叙事节奏和语言的亲和力。毕竟，“命运”和“流行文化”这两个主题，如果处理得当，是极具大众吸引力的。我希望作者能像一位技艺高超的说书人，将那些晦涩的古代思想，用现代人能够理解和共鸣的方式娓娓道来。想象一下，如果能将《周易》的某个卦象的解释，与当下热门的偶像剧中的情感纠葛进行对比分析，那该是多么令人拍案叫绝的写法！我最害怕的就是那种只有专业人士才能看懂的学术术语堆砌。因此，我对作者是否成功地架设了古今对话的桥梁感到非常好奇。这本书的成功与否，很大程度上取决于它能否让一个对古代哲学一窍不通的读者，也能在阅读过程中感受到那种“原来如此”的惊喜。如果它能启发我们重新审视自己日常生活中那些看似随机的决定背后，是否也隐藏着某种古老的文化“脚本”，那就太值了。