Authoring virile bodies: self-cultivation and textual production in early China
The recently excavated Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan manuscripts have been instrumental in reconstructing early Chinese self-cultivation practices, such as meditation, calisthenics and sexual exercises, providing scholars with new information that was not preserved in the received literature. This arti...
| Published in: | Studies in Chinese Religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
2016
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| In: |
Studies in Chinese Religions
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| Further subjects: | B
religiouseconomy
B Self-cultivation B religio-medical marketplace B early China B excavated manuscripts |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The recently excavated Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan manuscripts have been instrumental in reconstructing early Chinese self-cultivation practices, such as meditation, calisthenics and sexual exercises, providing scholars with new information that was not preserved in the received literature. This article focuses on the production, dissemination, and use of these manuscripts and their role in promoting regimens of self-cultivation. Fusing two theoretical frameworks, the ‘religio-medical marketplace’ model and the ‘supply-side religious economy’ paradigm, with a close reading of excavated and received sources, I suggest that the production of these manuscripts can be seen as a component of a conscious strategy employed by ‘masters of techniques’ in their attempts to attract the patronage of elite customers in the religio-medical marketplace. This was done by employing a multifaceted approach: couching these manuscripts in familiar terminology and literary allusions, presenting the problems of their clientele, aging men, as solvable conditions, and limiting access to their texts and techniques in order to package them as luxury items. Uncovering the methodology and ideology behind the manufacturing of these manuscripts, I argue, allows us to determine the utility, pragmatics, and cultural practices embedded and reiterated in their narratives and shed new light on the role of textual production in the propagation of self-cultivation regimens in early China. |
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| ISSN: | 2372-9996 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in Chinese Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/23729988.2016.1131464 |