Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China by Erica Fox Brindley (review)

Journal of Chinese PhilosophyVolume 41, Issue S1 p. 764-767 Book Review Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China. By Erica Fox Brindley. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012. xi, 225 Pp. ISBN: 978-4384-4313-3.) Franklin Perkins, Franklin Perkins Nanyang Technical University, SingaporeSearch for more papers by this author Franklin Perkins, Franklin Perkins Nanyang Technical University, SingaporeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 June 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6253.12156Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume41, IssueS1Special Issue: Morality and Religiousness: Chinese and WesternDecember 2014Pages 764-767 RelatedInformation

Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China. By Erica Fox Brindley. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012. xi, 225 pp. $75.00 (cloth).

"Erica Fox Brindley, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China, Albany: SUNY Press (Chinese Philosophy and Culture Series), 2012, 237 pp." published on 05 Jul 2016 by Brill.

Reviewed by: Text and Ritual in Early China Brian J. Bruya (bio) Martin Kern , editor. Text and Ritual in Early China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. xxvii, 332 pp. Hardcover $40.00, ISBN 0–295–98562–3. Text and Ritual with Regard to Writing and Authority Text and Ritual in Early China, edited by Martin Kern, is an important book. While reading it, I was repeatedly reminded of Mark Edward Lewis's Writing and Authority in Early China (State University of New York Press, 1999), not just because of the formal and lexical similarities of the titles or to the many references to Lewis's book. Both Lewis and the contributors to Text and Ritual are meticulous in their scholarship, broad in their sources, assiduous in supporting their claims, cautious but insightful in their generalizations, and forward looking in their scholarship. They approach the texts of early China with a view to understanding the sociopolitical dynamics of the time and draw on every available text, leaving no stone unturned and taking nothing for granted. Given the time span of the period they cover, the multiplicity of texts, the variety of media on which the texts were recorded, the array of secondary sources, and the difficulty of the early language in its many manifestations, the task does not come easy. Even though the dates of the publication of Writing and Authority and of the conference "Text and Ritual in Early China" on which Text and Ritual is drawn are fewer than two years apart, there are two ways in which Text and Ritual can be seen as an updating of Writing and Authority. First, whereas Lewis makes numerous references to the Mawangdui, Baoshan, Yunmeng, and Fangmatan manuscripts, he makes little or no reference to such recent finds as the Guodian and Shanghai materials, which the contributors to Text and Ritual repeatedly bring into the discussion. Second, although Lewis and the contributors to Text and Ritual are on equal ground as outstanding expositors of the field of early Chinese studies, some of these same contributors have extolled Lewis's work as a grand synthesis of scholarship in the field, thus giving it, by default, a position of predominance and authority to which related books in the field, for the time being, will naturally be judged as responses and extensions.1 Lewis, showing a concern for the authority associated with ritual and with the texts that developed around it, notes that the relationship of writing and ritual goes all the way back to the earliest days of the Chinese polity and its persistent preoccupation with natural and spiritual forces. That writing was created seemingly for the purpose of recording the significance of events associated with these forces should signal the central importance of ritual in the history of texts in early China. In the first part of this review, I will summarize what I find to be the main insights of each chapter. Though there is very little to criticize, I will, in the second [End Page 338] part of my review, examine three important areas of concern that fall under the general heading of terminological precision. As a heuristic for approaching the diversity of topics in Text and Ritual in Early China, I will group the chapters as they relate to the broad themes of Writing and Authority. Nylan, Falkenhausen, and Brashier on Text and Authority Both Writing and Authority and Text and Ritual begin with the nexus of ritual and political authority. Lewis details its origins in the oracle bones and then shows how later texts, such as covenants (meng盟), local registers, and coins, developed out of the tradition of using ritual texts for the purpose of political control. Michael Nylan, in her chapter, "Toward an Archaeology of Writing: Text, Ritual, and the Culture of Public Display in the Classical Period (475 B.C.E.–220 C.E.)," extends this theme in the direction of artifactual displays. The chapter can be seen as a long and involved answer to the question, why do we "find what we ordinarily think of as 'secular' texts buried in tombs?" (p. 34). Nylan begins with a nice summary of "writing's share in ritual...

Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China

Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China

Brindley, Erica Fox, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China

Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China

Harmonie inmitten der Diversitat, Harmonie und Ausgewogenheit zwischen Individuum, Gesellschaft und Kosmos, aber auch die Harmonie der Musik im Besonderen bilden im Alten China die Grundlagen fur d...

BOOK REVIEWS ERICA FOX BRINDLEY, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2012. xi, 225 pp. US$75 (hb). ISBN 978-14384 -4313-3 Brindley’s study of music in early China makes an important contribution to our understanding of this highly consequential art form. One reason for this is her multi-disciplinary approach which includes political, intellectual, and religious history. By not limiting its analysis to a specific text or time, the book explores broad-ranging connections that might otherwise remain obscure if limited by now obsolete divisions such as Confucianism or Daoism. Music is amenable to this grand narrative approach because, at its core, it is a boundary-transcending medium with the potential to cross linguistic, cultural, and political barriers. This study can be seen as part of a recent body of border-crossing scholarship that includes Lothar von Falkenhausen’s Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius,1 which demonstrated how the burial of ritual implements had the ability to remain consistent when traversing important political divides. Governments are seen by Brindley as interested in overcoming divisiveness by using music to maintain control and spread harmony. While control is of central importance throughout the study, a key method of exerting this is harmony, and it is defined early in the work as a construct that is not homogenous. Instead, harmony must have the ability to accept diversity (pp. ix–x). The result is a debate between diversity and unity that is the focus of the second chapter of her book. There are abundant sources marshaled in the exploration of this question of how order was achieved, and there is ample analysis of the evidence to show that this topic was of great interest to governments in early China. One danger that exists in tracing the concept of music across disparate texts that represent unique authors, with at times conflicting value systems, is a diminishing of the unique way in which music was understood at different places and times. Brindley meets this challenge by consistently grounding her findings in close readings of seminal sources on the subject from the Warring States through the Han. The inclusion of recently excavated manuscripts among her sources is a particularly important indicator of the currency of her analysis. One text in particular that receives considerable attention is the ‘‘Xing zi ming chu’’ (性自命出 XZMC), which was found in both the Guodian 郭店 tomb from 300 BCE and in the looted Shanghai corpus. It is unfortunate that, in interpreting the XZMC, the book does not delve into the unique context of the Guodian tomb. Within the transmitted tradition, we 1 Lothar von Falkenhausen, Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence (Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2006). Journal of Chinese Religions, 41. 2, 148–189, November 2013 # Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 2013 DOI: 10.1179/0737769X13Z.0000000006 cannot be certain of what texts should or should not be associated with each other, leaving us the latitude to seek connections among sources based on thematic issues as Brindley does in her study. However, Guodian texts should be cross-referenced whenever possible. In particular, the ‘‘Wuxing pian’’ (五行篇) contains an important discussion of morality being transmitted through the sounds of jade and bronze, which is a clear musical reference. What is fascinating about the ‘‘Wuxing pian’’ is the central role that embodiment plays in both morality and music. By foregrounding the body, it raises the question whether the XZMC might also see individuals as agents, not as mere objects whose morals need shaping. The subject of the emotive side of music is explored in ‘‘The Expressive Potential of Music: Music and the Emotions in the Odes’’ (pp. 92–94) and ‘‘Musical Expression and Moral Perfection in the Analects’’ (pp. 95–99). These sections provide an outstanding discussion of music as a medium that does more than just exert control; it also can be a vehicle for expressing our emotions. Unfortunately, the discussion limits the role of music to the Odes and Analects, while specifically arguing that Xunzi and the XZMC are markedly different: ‘‘The concern of the XZMC and ‘Discourse...

Reviewed by: Military Thought in Early China by Christopher Rand Mark Metcalf (bio) Christopher Rand. Military Thought in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017. vii, 240 pp. Hardcover $85.00, isbn 978-1-4384-6517-3. Explaining the development of first millennium b.c.e. Chinese military thought on the basis of roles of the civil (文 wen) and the martial (武 wu) in governance is not a new approach. Many early China specialists, including Mark Edward Lewis, Lisa Raphals, Robin Yates, have clearly identified the importance of such a wen/wu tension in their writings.1 Where Military Thought in Early China differs from its predecessors, however, is in the way that it frames such a development in a manner that allows the reader to closely follow the development of military thought from the establishment of the Western Zhou through the divergence of ideas during the late Spring & Autumn and Warring States periods to the eventual consolidation of views during the Western Han. Initially written as a Ph.D. dissertation in 1977, after a 40-year career in government Christopher Rand revised his original work to incorporate new insights from research and discoveries during the intervening years. The result is impressive. The book is particularly noteworthy for its extensive use of primary sources to trace this development and the meticulous manner in which such references are documented and commented on in the endnotes. Each chapter also includes a very useful conclusion section that summarizes the key points discussed in the chapter and their significance in the development of early Chinese military thought. Rand's basic premise is that early Chinese views regarding social stability and political order have, at their core, the goal of answering "the Wen/Wu problem"; determining the appropriate roles for the civil and the martial. Presenting examples from the early Chinese literary corpus, he demonstrates the ubiquity of military thought in early Chinese texts and argues "Repeatedly one finds in pre-Qin writings the notion that war is a natural, evolving attribute of the human community, and that martial activity allowed, paradoxically, for the advancement of civilized life . . . the sages of Chinese [End Page 94] antiquity, according to tradition, did not exclude violence but rather stipulated it as an outlet for hostile feelings, much as those manifested by armed beasts. War was perceived as an impetus for positive change rather than a negative feature of social life." (pp. 5-6) Chapter 1, "The Emergence of the Wen/Wu Problem," begins with a discussion of the idealized role of wen and wu in government as evidenced by the actions of the eponymous Kings Wen and Wu in the establishment of the Western Zhou. The world was to be governed by the civil (wen) and the awe inspiring influence of a virtuous ruler was deemed sufficient, in most cases, to maintain order in the world. On the rare occasions when a state threated such order with inappropriate behavior, however, it was appropriate for and incumbent upon the ruler to use military force (wu) to return the world to its proper state. Rand meticulously analyzes several excerpts from early Chinese texts, particularly the Odes, to support this assertion. This peaceable state gradually, yet inexorably, unraveled over the next four centuries and with it the traditional roles of wen and wu. The first chapter concludes with the introduction of three "solutions" that were developed during the Warring States period in response to the "wen/wu problem." The first, militarism, "placed high value on martiality, as opposed to civility" (p. 22). Next, compartmentalization, which argued for "a clear separation between martial and civil" with "martial activity . . . subordinate to civility and . . . applied only in extremis" (p. 25). Finally, syncretism, which "attempted to refocus the wen/wu debate on the need for balance and reciprocality between martiality and civility" (pp. 26-27). Rand also identifies three perspectives, metaphysical, pragmatic, and ethical, which were used to implement the three solutions. These six terms are italicized throughout the text to highlight their significance as de facto technical terms; a very effective way of helping the reader to follow the individual threads of solutions or perspectives as they are woven throughout the narrative...

Reviewed by: Writing and Authority in Early China Lothar von Falkenhausen Writing and Authority in Early China. By Mark Edward Lewis. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. Pp. vii + 544. Hardcover $92.50. Paper $31.95. Writing and Authority in Early China is a forceful and sparklingly original work in which Mark Edward Lewis explores the role of writing and texts in the transformation of political authority during the Warring States, Qin, and Western Han periods. Following in the footsteps of the author's well-received first book1 and his magisterial contribution to the Cambridge History of Ancient China,2Writing and Authority establishes Lewis as the premier Western historian of the crucial centuries surrounding the unification of China under a centrally administered empire in 221 B.C. The book's complex, comprehensive, and coherent argument is informed by a variety of Western theoretical approaches, but it principally emanates from a close reading of the full record of transmitted texts and recently excavated manuscripts on [End Page 127] bamboo or wooden slips. The inclusion of the latter class of sources, beset with treacherous problems of decipherment, is still unusual in mainstream sinological scholarship and indicates the author's supreme confidence in his philological skills. With a firm hand, undaunted by the multifarious nature of his materials, Lewis guides the reader to some fundamental themes in recent sinology, opening manifold novel perspectives along the way. Even when dealing with well-known texts, he often proposes striking reinterpretations. In his Introduction, Lewis enumerates six main functions of writing in ancient China: enforcing state authority; creating text-based communities and "public spheres"; transcending the confines of space, time, and human mortality; fashioning figures of authority in the past; standardizing specialized technical terminology; and encrypting secret meanings. In Lewis' own words, "the culminating role of writing in the period, and the key to its importance in imperial China, was the creation of parallel realities within texts that claimed to depict the entire world" (p. 4). This ultimately led to the formation of the Confucian canon as a "textual double of the polity" that could survive cataclysmic changes of regimes. In chapter 1, "Writing the State," Lewis points out that before the Warring States period Chinese writing occurred exclusively in religious contexts. After circa 500 B.C., written documents gradually came to be used in the administration of government and trade. Both in their details of formulation and in the implication that anything committed to writing was thereby supernaturally validated, these new types of documents exhibit pervasive continuity with the earlier kinds of texts used in ritual communication with the ancestral spirits. Such continuity is also reflected in the rise of religious beliefs in a netherworld governed by a bureaucratic hierarchy and administrative processes parallel to those of the world of the living. According to Lewis, "the most important modification in the shift to an administrative polity [in the Warring States] was the extension of writing to new elements of the population. The attributes of the Zhou nobility ... were transferred to the common people in the administrative documents of the new state. This widening range of inscription into the state order altered the social meaning of being recorded from a sign of power to one of subjection" (p. 13). Warring States rulers were cast in the role not of the authors of texts but of the authority behind them. Administrative and legal texts were concerned, ultimately, with the proper naming of phenomena, a process that had to adapt itself continually to the changes of the times. The authority of rulers came to encompass both human society and the natural world. "Whereas local and central administration were largely created through reworking and rewriting the ritual bases of the old Zhou order by means of a rationalizing cosmology, the re-invention of rulership drew on the contemporary religious realm and what is sometimes described as shamanism to provide images of cosmic power" (p. 42). Lewis illustrates the mechanics for applying these universal principles of rulership by a comprehensive analysis of the Zhou li (or Zhou guan), emphasizing the cosmological arrangement of the ideal government described therein and the dual administrative and religious dimensions of...

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 47, Issue 1 p. 119-120 Short Reviews Of Recent Publications: East Asia LANGUAGE AS BODILY PRACTICE IN EARLY CHINA: A CHINESE GRAMMATOLOGY. By Geaney, Jane. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2018. Pp. xl+309. Paperback, $33.95; Hardback, $95.00. First published: 30 May 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.15151Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume47, Issue1March 2021Pages 119-120 RelatedInformation

Individualism in Early China: Human Agency and the Self in Thought and Politics

Individualism in Early China addresses an important lacuna in the field. It argues that the long shadow cast by scholars working in a comparative mode in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly Max Weber, has resulted in a continued failure to appreciate the role of individual agency in Chinese classical texts. One element of the problem has been the tendency to define individualism so narrowly that it excludes all but a small corner of the Western tradition. Erica Brindley shows that individualism, if defined expansively, can be found in all of the seminal texts of pre-Han China. While I am convinced of the importance of Brindley's project, two aspects of her analysis are likely to invite skepticism. The first potential challenge for a reader is appreciating Brindley's use of the term “conformism” to argue for individualism. The second is that by not exploring the function of the rites and music in Xunzi, Brindley overlooks the importance of creativity. By including an analysis of the aesthetic expression of morality, her search for individualism would have been markedly improved.On page xxx of the the introduction, Brindley explains how her book understands the type of individualism present in early China: “In other words, I refer to the individual not as an atomistic, isolated, and undifferentiated part of a whole, but as a distinct organism that must serve particular functions and fulfill a unique set of relationships in the worlds of which he or she is a part.” This relationship between the person and the community is ultimately what the book seeks to demonstrate. The problem is that this nuanced emphasis on connection at first seems contrary to the book's constant reference to conformism. Chapter 2, for example, is entitled “Centralizing Control: The Politics of Bodily Conformism.” This focus on conformism and the control of individuals dominates much of the book.The difficulty of finding individualism in conformity becomes clearest in the case of Laozi, one of the best texts available for finding the concept of personal agency in early China. By seeing the relationship between the individual and the Dao as conformist, Brindley obviates the possibility of agency. Brindley makes the point that human beings are an integral part of a universal context, the Dao. But her discussion of the Dao as denying individual agency through a process of depersonalization (pp. 36–8) seems to portray human beings as essentially transformed into the tools of a larger scheme, the Dao, where there is no place for individuals. Such a characterization of the Dao is obviously a far cry from that of Laozi's text, which consistently champions the importance of apparently insignificant individuals, such as babies. The reader begins to perceive that this discussion of conformism might ultimately be relinked to a more coherent discussion of individualism in Laozi on page 39. Here wu-wei, which is earlier defined by Brindely as “non-purposive action,” is shown to be a person-centered practice. Because of this, the value of the individual is once again recognizable from the way it was framed in the Introduction.Brindley repeatedly defends this surprising emphasis on conformism, as in her statement on page 128: “In contrast to our own notion of conformity, which signifies the degradation of the self, conformist behaviors in early China dignified the self by helping preserve individual responsibility. . .” I appreciate that scholars have the freedom to define terms as they see fit for a specific project, but I also cannot help but think that a less ambitious term such as “harmony” would have required much less effort to recast as a core element for this study. Moreover, the use of a concept from aesthetics could have assisted in a more complete assessment of Xunzi in chapter 4. Here we find a focus on the concept of xing (one's nature), which does serve to provide continuity from the book's earlier discussion of Mencius.This consistency is admirable and also part of the standard treatment of these two sources, but it overlooks the embodiment and personal expression of morality in the concepts of the rites and music. Attention to this creative side could have provided significant support to Brindley's analysis of individualism. In her conclusion, Brindley states, “characteristics such as uniqueness and creativity were not a central concern for most early Chinese authors. . .” (pp. 128–29); Zhuangzi is one exception she acknowledges in the notes. A plethora of scholarship exists on the importance of creativity in early China, including that of David Hall and Roger Ames, Scott Cook, and Antonio S. Cua. Leveraging this work could have strengthened a book that makes an important contribution to the field.