Book contents
- The Politics of the Past in Early China
- The Politics of the Past in Early China
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Time out of Joint
- 2 A Parenthetical Past
- 3 Specter of the Past
- 4 The Rehabilitation of Antiquity in the Early Han Empire
- 5 Sima Qian’s Critical Past
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - A Parenthetical Past
Deep History and Anti-history in the Late Warring States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2019
- The Politics of the Past in Early China
- The Politics of the Past in Early China
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Time out of Joint
- 2 A Parenthetical Past
- 3 Specter of the Past
- 4 The Rehabilitation of Antiquity in the Early Han Empire
- 5 Sima Qian’s Critical Past
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter studies voices that were skeptical or even inimical towards the supposed utility of historical knowledge for the construction and functioning of a proper political order. In particular, I focus the discussion on the Guodian Laozi and the Mengzi, as representative examples of, respectively, the cosmogonic and bioethical literatures of the late Warring States period that were part of this broader antihistorical current. In the Laozi, we see the delineation of a cosmogonic history, a type of deep history that was mobilized to question and undermine the meaningfulness and relevance of all other historical narratives. In the Mengzi, we see a purposeful distancing from and subjugation of historical knowledge as an authoritative source towards the proper cultivation of one’s ethical potential. The cultivated skepticism or even hostility towards the authority of the past in these two different texts points to the contentiousness of the field of the past in the latter half of the Warring States period.
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- Information
- The Politics of the Past in Early China , pp. 75 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019