The Empire of the Text [Paperback]

Christopher Leigh Connery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999 | ISBN-10: 0847687392 | ISBN-13: 978-0847687398 | Edition: KDenn

This unique study argues that in the Qin-Han period, there arose in China a regime of textual authority_one that overlapped but did not coincide with imperial authority. Drawing on a wide range of research and theory, Connery makes an original contribution to the analysis of early imperial elite culture, particularly in the fields of literature and linguistics, intellectual, and institutional history. The author provides new contexts for thinking about canonization and textual transmission systems, an innovative framework for analysis and discussion of the early imperial elite, a socio-ideological exploration of one strand of late Han 'Confucian' thought, and a critique of the concepts of subjectivity and the 'birth of lyricism' in China.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A work of great brilliance and insight. This is scholarship at its best: skeptical, full of substance and ideas, not confined by conventional wisdom or fashionable trends. (Victor H. Mair )

Connery's experiment leads the reader into fascinating and sometimes difficult terrain. . . . Connery's arguments, which always deserve careful attention, are built upon two pillars: first, a meticulous and judicious use of sinological scholarship; and second, a profound engagement with theory. Readers will be stimulated and challenged by Connery's impressive scholarly achievement. . . . An excellent work. (Journal Of Asian Studies )

...important book of our times. Connery's work is a lucid alternative to some customs of scholarship in this area that should be re-assessed; he clears a lot of underbrush with this book and shows the way an alternative view would look. The Empire of the Text amounts to a principled re-thinking of the theoretical basis of the study of ancient Chinese culture, which pressures us to quit our familiar conceptual frames and examine the terms we use ina more cautious light. This is a projec of overwhelming critical significance. (Bulletin Of The Institute Of Chinese Literature And Philosop )

Connery is frankly 'interpretive and theoretical,' his book is an 'analytical experiment'. . . complementary in period and approach, [that] makes enormous contributions to our understanding of the power of Chinese sacred texts. Essential reading for students of early China. (Kidder Smith Religeous Studies Review, Vol. 26, No. 2 )

About the Author

Christopher Leigh Connery is associate professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; KDenn edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847687392
• ISBN-13: 978-0847687398
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,692,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkably learned and innovative approach to textuality, May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Empire of the Text (Paperback)

This study presents a remarkably learned and innovative approach to textuality as linked to the production of Chinese imperial identity. Texts function not just as literary icons but as material transactions and installations of power. While detailed in thick cultural ways, this innovative approach to textuality has larger implications for the China study field (where it will be taken by some as a threat to their own textual power at Chicago and Columbia etc.), as well as for the broader field of cultural studies where the "empire of the text" is still confined to the pop cultural text as such. This is the first of many books from an innovative scholar who denies himself the lesser comforts and pieties of the "Chinese field imaginary." Go for it.