The Ambivalence of Creation
Subtitle: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: August 6, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780804736237
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: BCE to c 500 CE; Oriental & Indian philosophy; BCE to c 500 CE; History; China - History; Philosophy Of History; History - General History; History: World; China; Ancient - General; Asia - China; History / China; Historiography; Civilization
Description: "As early as the Warring States period in China (fourth through third centuries B.C.), debates arose concerning how and under what circumstances new institutions could be formed and legitimated. But the debates quickly encompassed more than just legitimation. Larger issues came to the fore: Can a sage innovate? If so, under what conditions? Where did human culture originally come from? Was it created by human sages? Is it therefore an artificial fabrication, or was it based in part on natural patterns?

Is it possible for new sages to emerge who could create something better? This book studies these debates from the Warring States period to the early Han (second century B.C.), analyzing the texts in detail and tracing the historical consequences of the various positions that emerged. It also examines the time's conflicting narratives about the origin of the state and how these narratives and ideas were manipulated for ideological purposes during the formation of the first empires."--BOOK JACKET.