TY - BOOK ID - 7682952 TI - Offerings of jade and silk : ritual and symbol in the legitimation of the T'ang Dynasty PY - 1985 SN - 0300031912 PB - New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Legitimacy of governments. KW - Rites and ceremonies KW - Symbolism in politics KW - Legitimacy of governments KW - Rites et cérémonies KW - Légitimité (science politique) KW - Symbolisme en politique KW - Moeurs et coutumes KW - China KW - Social life and customs KW - Rites and ceremonies. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:7682952 AB - After their conquest of the Chinese empire in A.D. 618, the early rulers of the great T'ang dynasty sought to legitimate their authority. This book, which investigates the way various state rituals and political symbols were employed to attain this goal, is the first to view ritual as an important political tool of dynasties and a way of understanding traditional Chinese civilization. Howard Wechsler analyzes such ritual symbolic activitics as the manipulation of portents, the imperial accession ceremonies, worship of the imperial ancestors, the Feng and Shan sacrifices, rites at the Ming-t'ang, and the promulgation of the calendar. In so doing, he discerns a number of significant changes in the ceremonial performed by T'ang emperors compared with those of earlier periods in Chinese history. Wechsler argues that such shifts probably occurred because the T'ang required a different kind of legitimation than, for example, did the Han, and that this change had important repercussions not just for the T'ang but for later Chinese dynasties. ER -