![]() ![]() Having adopted Western values, most notably the idea of popular sovereignty as the single source of political legitimacy, these intellectuals brought about cultural and political disaster. Worse, it caused severe cultural disruption, since, fascinated with it, Chinese intellectuals-even traditionalists and Confucians, such as Zhang Taiyan 章太炎 (1869–1936) and Kang Youwei 康有爲 (1858–1927)-failed to address “China’s own historical and cultural specificity” in proposing a new post-monarchic order (p. ![]() China’s embrace of modernity brought about “serious chaos and lack of order” (p. He proclaims, “n my view, political modernity is precisely the chief cause of political problems” modernity is blamed for the “loss of historical nature, continuity and national spirit” “loss of sacredness, prestige and value” and “loss of loyalty” (pp. Jiang Qing is a self-avowed cultural and political conservative. Minor technical misgivings (e.g., the omission of Chinese characters) notwithstanding, A Confucian Constitutional Order should surely take pride in its place among the Princeton-China Series publications. Bell and Fan should be congratulated for their efforts, and Edmund Ryden should be proud of his translations. Read together, they provide readers of English with an excellent introduction to Jiang’s thought and, more broadly, to some recent developments in the Chinese intellectual scene. The book, coedited by Daniel Bell and Fan Ruiping, collects, in addition to Jiang’s essays, critical responses by four Chinese intellectuals, a counterresponse by Jiang, and a highly informative introduction by Daniel Bell. 1952) is taken from the opening remarks of the first of his three essays that stand at the core of A Confucian Constitutional Order (p. This statement by China’s controversial intellectual Jiang Qing 蔣慶 (b. This is a great tragedy for the world of Chinese thought.” inherent in their culture-Chinese culture-to think about China’s current political development. In other words, Chinese people are no longer able to use patterns of thought. A glance over China’s current world of thought shows that the Chinese people have already lost their ability to think independently about political questions. Every current of political thought in China assumes that democracy is the way ahead for China. ![]() “In recent years, China’s political development began to go astray. I also discuss how these Charmstones' life-histories exhibit a multiplicity of contexts that result in a variety of archaeological interpretations according to cultural affiliation. Charmstones are associated with sacred practices and stand as symbolic referents of fish, human spirits, and the cosmology of the "afterlife." While Shamans apparently employed the "sorcery stones" in ceremonies involving sympathetic magic, fish and ducks are manifestations of the human spirit in native cultures of California (Latta 1949, Kroeber 1909). Such patterns may exhibit multiple utilitarian and symbolic functions within the prehistoric interaction spheres in California. I will argue that the use and reclassification of these artifacts between cultures explains patterns of life-history. This research proposes a "transitional context" model, based on changes in systemic life-history that demonstrates shifts in artifacts' identities as they are exchanged or reused across cultures. In this paper, Schiffer's (1972) theoretical model is revised to explain the multiple possible uses of a charmstone cache found on the eastern shoreline of ancient Tulare Lake, near Tipton, California. Previous studies interpreted these artifacts as shamans' tools for fishing, rain-magic and curing ceremonies (Sharp 2000, Elasser & Rhoads 1996). According to most ethnographic testimonies gathered from Native California groups in the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent regions, charmstones are, ultimately, objects associated with inter-cultural patrimony and public ceremonialism. Charmstones" are a class of soft-stone carved artifacts found near waterways in Central California. ![]()
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