Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China

This book explores how religious culture influenced the ways in which the early Chinese explained the workings of the human senses.

Roel Sterckx (Author)

9781107547780, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 December 2015

246 pages, 9 b/w illus.
15 x 23 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

'… on matters of food, ritual, and sacrifice the details offered in this book provide many useful insights.' Bob Trubshaw, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture

In ancient China, the preparation of food and the offering up of food as a religious sacrifice were intimately connected with models of sagehood and ideas of self-cultivation and morality. Drawing on received and newly excavated written sources, Roel Sterckx's book explores how this vibrant culture influenced the ways in which the early Chinese explained the workings of the human senses, and the role of sensory experience in communicating with the spirit world. The book, which begins with a survey of dietary culture from the Zhou to the Han, offers intriguing insights into the ritual preparation of food - some butchers and cooks were highly regarded and would rise to positions of influence as a result of their culinary skills - and the sacrificial ceremony itself. As a major contribution to the study of early China and to the development of philosophical thought, the book will be essential reading for students of the period, and for anyone interested in ritual and religion in the ancient world.

1. Customs and cuisine
2. Cooking the world
3. Sacrifice and sense
4. The economics of sacrifice
5. Sages, spirits, and senses.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA], Asian history [HBJF]