The Politics of Mourning in Early China
Looks at mourning practices during the Han dynasty to reassess whether filial piety was the overriding model for society and governance in early China.

The Politics of Mourning in Early China reevaluates the longstanding assumptions about early imperial political culture. According to most explanations, filial piety served as the linchpin of the social and political order, as all political relations were a seamless extension of the relationship between father and son-a relationship that was hierarchical, paternalistic, and personal. Offering a new perspective on the mourning practices and funerary monuments of the Han dynasty, Miranda Brown asks whether the early imperial elite did in fact imagine political participation solely along the lines of the father-son relationship or whether there were alternative visions of political association. The early imperial elite held remarkably varied and contradictory beliefs about political life, and they had multiple templates and changing scripts for political action. This book documents and explains such diversity and variation and shows that the Han dynasty practice of mourning expressed many visions of political life, visions that left lasting legacies.

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The Politics of Mourning in Early China
Looks at mourning practices during the Han dynasty to reassess whether filial piety was the overriding model for society and governance in early China.

The Politics of Mourning in Early China reevaluates the longstanding assumptions about early imperial political culture. According to most explanations, filial piety served as the linchpin of the social and political order, as all political relations were a seamless extension of the relationship between father and son-a relationship that was hierarchical, paternalistic, and personal. Offering a new perspective on the mourning practices and funerary monuments of the Han dynasty, Miranda Brown asks whether the early imperial elite did in fact imagine political participation solely along the lines of the father-son relationship or whether there were alternative visions of political association. The early imperial elite held remarkably varied and contradictory beliefs about political life, and they had multiple templates and changing scripts for political action. This book documents and explains such diversity and variation and shows that the Han dynasty practice of mourning expressed many visions of political life, visions that left lasting legacies.

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The Politics of Mourning in Early China

The Politics of Mourning in Early China

by Miranda Brown
The Politics of Mourning in Early China

The Politics of Mourning in Early China

by Miranda Brown

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Overview

Looks at mourning practices during the Han dynasty to reassess whether filial piety was the overriding model for society and governance in early China.

The Politics of Mourning in Early China reevaluates the longstanding assumptions about early imperial political culture. According to most explanations, filial piety served as the linchpin of the social and political order, as all political relations were a seamless extension of the relationship between father and son-a relationship that was hierarchical, paternalistic, and personal. Offering a new perspective on the mourning practices and funerary monuments of the Han dynasty, Miranda Brown asks whether the early imperial elite did in fact imagine political participation solely along the lines of the father-son relationship or whether there were alternative visions of political association. The early imperial elite held remarkably varied and contradictory beliefs about political life, and they had multiple templates and changing scripts for political action. This book documents and explains such diversity and variation and shows that the Han dynasty practice of mourning expressed many visions of political life, visions that left lasting legacies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780791471579
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Publication date: 08/02/2007
Series: SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Pages: 220
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Miranda Brown is Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She is the coauthor (with Conrad Schirokauer) of A Brief History of Chinese Civilization, Second Edition.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note on Translations and Chinese Text
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Introduction

1. Where Did All the Filial Sons Go?

2. Centuries of Tears and Woe

3. Sons and Mothers

4. Friends or Subordinates?

5. Loyal Ministers, Recluses, and Popular Heroes

Epilogue
The Song Rediscovery of the Han
Appendix
Overview of Han Sources Used for This Study
Notes
Work Cited
Index

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