Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire
Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture) by Liang Cai
2014 | ISBN: 143844849X, 1438448503 | English | 276 pages | PDF | 15 MB
2014 | ISBN: 143844849X, 1438448503 | English | 276 pages | PDF | 15 MB
Finalist for the 2015 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion
Winner of the 2014 Academic Excellence Award presented by Chinese Historians in the United States
When did Confucianism become the reigning political ideology of imperial China? A pervasive narrative holds it was during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (141 87 BCE). In this book, Liang Cai maintains that such a date would have been too early and provides a new account of this transformation. A hidden narrative in Sima Qian s The Grand Scribe s Records (Shi ji) shows that Confucians were a powerless minority in the political realm of this period. Cai argues that the notorious witchcraft scandal of 91 87 BCE reshuffled the power structure of the Western Han bureaucracy and provided Confucians an opportune moment to seize power, evolve into a new elite class, and set the tenor of political discourse for centuries to come."