Ancestral Memory in Early China

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2011. First Edition. Grey octavo with yellow spine title; xii, 470 pages: illustrations; index; 24 cm. Near fine; clean, bright and tight. Hardcover. ISBN: 9780674056077

Ancestral ritual in early China was an orchestrated dance between what was present (the offerings and the living) and what was absent (the ancestors). The interconnections among the tangible elements of the sacrifice were overt and almost mechanical, but extending those connections to the invisible guests required a medium that was itself invisible. Thus in early China, ancestral sacrifice was associated with focused thinking about the ancestors, with a structured mental effort by the living to reach out to the absent forebears and to give them shape and existence. Thinking about the ancestors, about those who had become distant, required active deliberation and meditation, qualities that had to be nurtured and learned.

Contents: The Han tree of knowledge. An imaginary yardstick for ritual performance. A history of remembering and forgetting imperial ancestors. A spectrum of interpretations on afterlife existence. The context of early Chinese performative thinking. The symbolic language of fading memories.

// Ancestor worship, Ancestor worship, China History To 1500