Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: The Practice of the Text
The Practice of the Classical Text: The Writing of
Weddings in the Middle Period
The Practice of the Academic Text: The Writing of
Weddings in Modern and Postmodern History
1. Ritual Manuals: Exegetical Hermeneutics and the Re-Embodiment of Antiquity
Canonical Weddings: Fragments and Hermeneutics
Rites of the Kaiyuan Period: The Merging of Canon and
Precedent
Manuals of Letters and Ceremonies: The Hermeneutics
of Practice and the Preservation of Ritual
The Hermeneutical Shift in the Northern Song:
Epigraphy, Archaeology, and the Identity of Past and
Present
Ritual Manuals of the Northern Song: The Hermeneutics
of Text and the Embodiment of Antiquity
Toward a New Ritual Scripture: Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals
Conclusion
2. Wedding Correspondence and Nuptial
Songs: Writing as Cultural Capital and Text as
Ritual Object
Cultural Capital and the Inscription of Ritual Time in
Wedding Correspondence
Social Boundaries and Symbolic Capital in Writing
Manuals
Ritual Time and Sexual Metaphors in Wedding
Addresses, Poems, and Jokes
Conclusion
3. Calendars, Almanacs, Miracle Tales, and Medical Texts: Cosmic Cycles and the Liminal
Affairs of Man
Patterns of Auspicious and Inauspicious Time in
Calendars
The Calculation of Cosmic Blessings and Dangers
in Almanacs
The Blessings and Dangers of Weddings in
Miracle Tales
The Vulnerable and Dangerous Body of the Bride in
Miracle Tales and Medical Texts
Conclusion
4. Legal Codes, Verdicts, and Contracts: Universal Order and Local Practice
Marriage and the Universal Order: The Annotated
Tang Code and the Song Penal Code
Universal Law and Local Practice: A Collection of
Pure and Lucid Verdicts
Interference with Ritual Practice: Imperial Canon of
Sacred Governance and Comprehensive Institutions
Conclusion
Conclusion. Texts and Tombs, Ritual and History
The Practice of the Tomb: Material Traces of Ritual
The Practice of the Text: Written Traces of Ritual
The Practice of History: Toward a Cultural History of
the Middle Period
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
