Bøker av Michael J. Puett

This book studies the debates that raged in China from the Warring States period to the early Han concerning how and under what circumstances new institutions could be formed and legitimated.

This book argues for the continuing tension across historical contexts between movements emphasizing ritual and movements emphasizing sincerity. Our contemporary age has, at great risk, downplayed the importance of ritual. Drawing on examples from Chinese, Greek, Jewish, and contemporary culture, the book presents an innovative interdisciplinary account of how ritual works.

By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.