Physiognomy in Ming China : fortune and the body /

Physiognomy in Ming China : fortune and the body /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Wang, Xing, 1989- author.
Imprint:Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020]
Description:vi, 325 pages : illustrations color ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Series:Sinica Leidensia ; Volume 149
Sinica Leidensia ; v. 149.
Subject:
Fortune-telling -- China -- History.
Physiognomy -- China -- History.
Divination.
Physiognomy.
China.
History.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12414100
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9789004429543
9004429549
9789004429550
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-320) and index.
Summary:"In Physiognomy in Ming China : Fortune and the Body, Xing Wang investigates the intellectual and technical contexts in which the knowledge of physiognomy (xiangshu) was produced and transformed in Ming China (1368-1644 C.E.). Known as a fortune-telling technique via examining the human body and material objects, Xing Wang shows how the construction of the physiognomic body in many Ming texts represent a unique, unprecedented 'somatic cosmology'. Applying an anthropological reading to these texts and providing detailed analysis of this technique, the author proves that this physiognomic cosmology in Ming China emerged as a part of a new body discourse which differs from the modern scholarly discourse on the body"--
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgements
  • List of Figures and Tables
  • Chronology of Chinese Dynasties
  • Abbreviations and Conventions
  • Introduction
  • 1. The Intellectual Context of Ming Physiognomy
  • 1. The Categorisation of Physiognomic Knowledge in Chinese History
  • 2. The Textual Background of Physiognomy Manuals
  • 3. The Intellectual Context of the Physiognomic Body
  • 4. Conclusion
  • 2. The Social Context of Physiognomy in the Ming
  • 1. Physiognomy Practitioners
  • 2. Practising Physiognomy
  • 3. Social Perceptions of Physiognomy
  • 4. Conclusion
  • 3. The Physiognomic Conceptualisation of the Cosmos
  • 1. Materiality and the Meanings of 'Things' in a Physiognomic Cosmology
  • 2. The Physiognomy of Things and the Perception of the Cosmos
  • 3. The Physiognomy of Characters as a Bodily and Cosmic Process
  • 4. Conclusion
  • 4. The Physiognomic Conceptualisation of the Body Microcosm
  • 1. The Topology of Fortune
  • 2. The Head and the Face: Microcosm of a Microcosm
  • 3. Different Systems of the Facial Microcosm
  • 4. Microcosms Beyond the Head
  • 5. Conclusion
  • 5. The Physiognomic Conceptualisation of Human Physiology
  • 1. The Physiognomy of the Formed and Formless Body
  • 2. The Physiognomy of Pulses
  • 3. Physiognomy of Gendered Body
  • 4. Interactions with Medical Knowledge and Practices
  • 5. Conclusion
  • 6. Categorising the Body and Interpreting Fortune
  • 1. Categorising the Body for Fortune-telling
  • 2. Differentiating Fortune in Gender and Body Growth
  • 3. Exceptions in Body Categorisations
  • 4. Conclusion
  • 7. Cultivating the Body and Changing Fortune
  • 1. The Paradox of Predestined Fortune
  • 2. Cultivation and the Changing Fortune
  • 3. Conclusion
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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