From the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE to the present, the Chinese have been preoccupied with the concept of order (zhi). This cultural preoccupation has found expression not only in China's highly refined bureaucratic institutions and methods of social and economic organization but also in Chinese philosophy, religious and secular ritual, and a number of comprehensive systems for classifying every form of human achievement, as well as all natural and supernatural phenomena. Richard J. Smith's Mapping China and Managing the World focuses on several crucial devices employed by the Chinese for understanding and ordering their vast and variegated world, which they saw as encompassing "all under Heaven."

The book begins with discussions of how the ancient work known as the Yijing (Classic of Changes) and maps of "the world" became two prominent means by which the Chinese in imperial times (221 BCE to 1912) managed space and time. Smith goes on to show how ritual (li) served as a powerful tool for overcoming disorder, structuring Chinese society, and maintaining dynastic legitimacy. He then develops the idea that just as the Chinese classics and histories ordered the past, and ritual ordered the present, so divination ordered the future. The book concludes by emphasizing the enduring relevance of the Yijing in Chinese intellectual and cultural life as well as its place in the history of Sino-foreign interactions.

This selection of essays by one of the foremost scholars of Chinese intellectual and cultural history will be welcomed by Chinese and East Asian historians, as well as those interested more broadly in the cultures of, and interactions between, China and East Asia.

About the Author
Richard J. Smith is the George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, USA

Reviews

"Mapping China and Managing the World should prove a useful work for those who study China's cultural and social history as well as the global history of cultural exchange. [...] Smith's additions to his previous work and responses to other scholarship make Mapping China and Managing the World valuable both for those not already familiar with his previous scholarship and for those who are particularly interested in it. Additionally, instructors would do well to consult this work when preparing lectures on Chinese cosmology and when considering readings to assign to students, given the accessibility of the book and the number of useful illustrations in the chapters on the Yijing and Chinese cartography." - Daniel Knorr, University of Chicago, Journal of International and Global Studies

Book Information
ISBN 9780415685108
Author Richard J. Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 476g