Wang Aihe’s Cosmology and Political Culture reexamines the relation between cultural heritage of cosmology and political heritage of the Chinese empires through Shang to Han dynasty by taking a closer look into the transition from sifang 四方(“four quarters”) to wuxing五行(“five phases”) cosmology. In this ambitious book, she effectively argues that Chinese “cosmology and political power were mutually constructive” (p. 210) instead of being static and self-existing, and in so doing, successfully challenged the idea of viewing cosmology as the essence of Chinese civilization and “the structure of Chinese mind” (p. 215).
Wang developed her thesis into five chapters. In the first chapter, she introduces the background of this work and gives a description of different approaches and assumptions from scholars in this field of research. As a graduate from Harvard anthropology department, Wang didn’t only looks at the books in classical historical and sinological category but also in anthropological category as she tempts to place this study among many researches that has done before. Wang refutes the historian stance, such as Gu Jiegang and Needham, of reductionism of cosmology, as well as the anthropologists’ dichotomies and sinologists’ conclusion of the origin of “wuxing”. In the second chapter, “Sifang and Center: The Cosmology of the Ruling Clan”, Wang uses oracle bone inscriptions and excavated materials from Shang to Zhou period to investigate the continuity between Shang “sifang” and the later Zhou’s religious system. …show more content…
She argues that “in Shang oracle bone inscriptions “fang” is primarily a concept of political geography” (p. 26). Thus by being surrounded with alien polities, Shang developed the sense of being in the middle and applied it to its state rituals and other aspects of lives as Wang proposed. To prove this point, Wang ingeniously uses the 亞-shape tomb structures, bronze inscriptions with the 亞 symbol and even much later Zhou architecture. Though little solid evidence is given in this work to prove the connection between “sifang” and the tomb structures and architectures in Zhou times, but it is a very interesting argument. The third chapter explores the origin of “wuxing”. Wang argues “wuxing” developed from “sifang” and the transition between two cosmologies was “intrinsic to the construction of new power relations and the destruction of political relations that had persisted through the two millennia of the Bronze Age” (p. 76-77). In doing so, one reads that there were four groups of political players who consciously construct the “wuxing” system to “deprive the hereditary king of monopolized divine authority and to disseminate it among themselves” (p. 126). “Wuxing” system as the chapter argues, it is a system that does not need a fixed center in the middle. It is a circular concept of metabolism of power. Thus transferring the pivot power of the king to the local lords of Warring States. But Wang does not clearly state that if the partakers of this decentralization actually conspired “wuxing” in sole purpose of seizing the power. In chapter four, Wang mainly used “Wuxing Zhi五行志” in Hanshu 汉书 to illustrate the moralization of wuxing cosmology lasted for generations. As a result, “the Five Phases were subjest to the supreme authority of Heaven and served as the verification and embodiment of Heaven’s moral intention” (p. 168). Wang brilliantly and effectively interpreted the material Wuxing Zhi and compared Wuxing Zhi to Hongfan 洪范 to demonstrate the moralization process of “wuxing” by Han scholars. But since Wuxing Zhi being
Wang developed her thesis into five chapters. In the first chapter, she introduces the background of this work and gives a description of different approaches and assumptions from scholars in this field of research. As a graduate from Harvard anthropology department, Wang didn’t only looks at the books in classical historical and sinological category but also in anthropological category as she tempts to place this study among many researches that has done before. Wang refutes the historian stance, such as Gu Jiegang and Needham, of reductionism of cosmology, as well as the anthropologists’ dichotomies and sinologists’ conclusion of the origin of “wuxing”. In the second chapter, “Sifang and Center: The Cosmology of the Ruling Clan”, Wang uses oracle bone inscriptions and excavated materials from Shang to Zhou period to investigate the continuity between Shang “sifang” and the later Zhou’s religious system. …show more content…
She argues that “in Shang oracle bone inscriptions “fang” is primarily a concept of political geography” (p. 26). Thus by being surrounded with alien polities, Shang developed the sense of being in the middle and applied it to its state rituals and other aspects of lives as Wang proposed. To prove this point, Wang ingeniously uses the 亞-shape tomb structures, bronze inscriptions with the 亞 symbol and even much later Zhou architecture. Though little solid evidence is given in this work to prove the connection between “sifang” and the tomb structures and architectures in Zhou times, but it is a very interesting argument. The third chapter explores the origin of “wuxing”. Wang argues “wuxing” developed from “sifang” and the transition between two cosmologies was “intrinsic to the construction of new power relations and the destruction of political relations that had persisted through the two millennia of the Bronze Age” (p. 76-77). In doing so, one reads that there were four groups of political players who consciously construct the “wuxing” system to “deprive the hereditary king of monopolized divine authority and to disseminate it among themselves” (p. 126). “Wuxing” system as the chapter argues, it is a system that does not need a fixed center in the middle. It is a circular concept of metabolism of power. Thus transferring the pivot power of the king to the local lords of Warring States. But Wang does not clearly state that if the partakers of this decentralization actually conspired “wuxing” in sole purpose of seizing the power. In chapter four, Wang mainly used “Wuxing Zhi五行志” in Hanshu 汉书 to illustrate the moralization of wuxing cosmology lasted for generations. As a result, “the Five Phases were subjest to the supreme authority of Heaven and served as the verification and embodiment of Heaven’s moral intention” (p. 168). Wang brilliantly and effectively interpreted the material Wuxing Zhi and compared Wuxing Zhi to Hongfan 洪范 to demonstrate the moralization process of “wuxing” by Han scholars. But since Wuxing Zhi being