Table of Contents

List of figures; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction: the history of the early empires; 1. Man and beast: the hybrid in early Chinese art and literature; 2. Water, earth and fire: the symbols of the Han dynasty; 3. The Han view of comets; 4. The authority of the emperors of Ch'in and Han; 5. The term K'an-yü and the choice of the moment; 6. Imperial sovereignty: Tung Chung-shu's contribution and his predecessors; 7. The cult of the dragon and the invocation for rain; 8. Divination by shells, bones and stalks during the Han period; 9. The oracles of the clouds and the winds; 10. The Almanacs (Jih-shu) from Shui-hu-ti: a preliminary survey; 11. The Chüeh-ti games: a re-enactment of the battle between Ch'ih-yu and Hsüan-yüan?; 12. The failure of the Confucian ethic in Later Han times; 13. The imperial tombs of the Former Han dynasty and their shrines; List of Han emperors; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.