Festivals and Songs of Ancient China: Spine or cover with flaws

Author: (French) Granet, Marcel; Zhao Bingxiang; Zhang Hongming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Ancient China's Festivals and Songs is one of Marcel Granet's representative works. Through an analysis of the love songs in the Book of Songs, Granet examined how the primitive customs ("custom") of ancient China were transformed into "civilized order" ("ritual"). At specific times and in sacred spaces, men and women transcended the boundaries of daily village life, gathering to compete and exchange gifts through singing. Women thus became the "great gift" ("qi"). This became the fundamental model for creating social order in ancient China. Granet had a profound influence on French anthropology. Represented by this book, his research on "complex societies" not only laid an important foundation for the formation of French structuralist anthropology but also opened a path worthy of contemporary anthropologists to continue exploring in the field of "anthropology of civilization."