Before Confucius, livre ebook

Examines the original composition of China's oldest books, the Classic of Changes, the Venerated Documents, and the Classic of Poetry, and attempts to restore their original meanings.

Examines the original composition of China's oldest books, the Classic of Changes, the Venerated Documents, and the Classic of Poetry, and attempts to restore their original meanings.

Edward L. Shaughnessy examines the original composition of China's oldest books, the Classic of Changes, the Venerated Documents, and the Classic of Poetry. By describing the original contexts in which these books were written and what they meant to their original authors and readers, this work sheds light on both the degree to which Chinese culture already was literate by 1000 BC, and also on how the later classical tradition eventually diverged from these origins.

List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Marriage, Divorce and Revolution: Reading between the Lines of the Book of Changes
2. "New" Evidence on the Zhou Conquest
3. On the Authenticity of the Bamboo Annals
4. The Duke of Zhou's Retirement in the East and the Beginnings of the Minister-Monarch Debate in Chinese Political Philosophy
5. The Role of Grand Protector Shi in the Consolidation of the Zhou Conquest
6. From Liturgy to Literature: The Ritual Contexts of the Earliest Poems in the Book of Poetry
7. The Composition of "Qian" and "Kun" Hexagrams of the Zhouyi
8. How the Poetess Came to Burn the Royal Chamber
Selected Bibliography of Secondary Works
Index