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Honor and Shame in Early China In this major new study, Mark Edward Lewis traces how the changing languageofhonorandshamehelpedtoarticulateandjustifytransformations inChinesesocietybetweentheWarringStatesandtheendoftheHandynasty. Throughcarefulexaminationofawidevarietyoftexts,hedemonstrateshow honor–shamediscoursejustifiedtheactionsofdiverseandpotentiallyrival groups. Over centuries, the formally recognized political order came to be intertwined with groups articulating alternative models of honor. These groupsbothparticipatedintheexistingorderand,throughtheirownvisions of what was truly honorable, paved the way for subsequent political struc- tures.FillingamajorlacunainthestudyofearlyChina,Lewispresentsways inwhichtheearlyChineseempirescanbefruitfullyconsideredincompara- tivecontextanddevelopsamoresystematicunderstandingofthefundamen- talroleofhonor-shameinshapingstatesandsocieties. mark edward lewis is Kwoh-ting Li Professor of Chinese Culture at StanfordUniversity. Honor and Shame in Early China Mark Edward Lewis StanfordUniversity,California UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108843690 DOI:10.1017/9781108919678 ©MarkEdwardLewis2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJbooksLtd,PadstowCornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-108-84369-0Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Acknowledgments pagevi Introduction 1 1 HonorandShameoftheKingandtheWarrior 17 2 AcquiredHonorintheWarringStates 47 3 State-BasedHonorintheWarringStates 86 4 HonoroftheImperialOfficials 124 5 HonorinLocalSocietyintheEarlyEmpires 157 6 HonorandShameofWritersandPartisans 186 Conclusion 219 WorksCited 222 Index 243 v Acknowledgments The thinking and research that ultimately resulted in this book began during ayear’ssabbaticalfundedbytheAlexandervonHumboldtFoundationwhich I spent at the University of Münster, where I was hosted by Reinhard Emmerich.Iwouldalsoliketoexpressmygratitudetothescholarswhoread allorpartofearlierversionsofthemanuscript,pointingoutmanyerrorsand making useful suggestions that have significantly improved the text: Roel Sterckx, Charles Sanft, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Maria Khayutina, Marco Pouget,MarkusHaselbeck,RaffaelaRettinger–thelastfourduringasummer attheInstituteforAdvancedStudiesattheUniversityofMunich,whereIwas hosted by Armin Selbitschka – and two anonymous readers from Cambridge UniversityPress.Ialsothankallthescholarswhoseworksarecitedthroughout thetext, andwhosecontributions wereinvaluable. Aboveall,Iwouldliketo thankmywife,KristinIngridFryklund,forallofherworkinthepreparationof themanuscript.Finally,IwouldliketothankLucyRhymer,EmilySharp,and therestofthepeopleatCambridgeUniversityPresswhohelpedtransformthe finalmanuscriptintoapublishedmonograph. vi Introduction Thisbooktraceshowadiscourseofhonorandshamehelpedcreatetheimperial stateinChina.Throughexaminingchangingclaimstohonor,itstudiesWarring Statesarticulationsofnewsocialrolesandnetworks,earlyimperialredefinitions ofthestate’spoweranditsagents’status,andhowgroupsnotemployedbythe stateassertedastatusthatmatchedorexceededthatattributedtothebureaucracy. Such groups also denounced as shameful the elite pursuits of wealth or high officethatmotivatedthosewhoconstitutedtheformalstateandpoliticalelites. Thesegroupsincludedscholars,hermits,bravoes,writers,andlocallypowerful families, and, while not formally part of the state-defined public realm, in practice they became essential to the functioning of the imperial order. The rolesthattheyplayed,andthelanguageinwhichthesewerejustified,cameto definea non-state publicrealm which remained inpermanent tension withthe imperialgovernment.Thustheevolvinglanguageofhonorandshameallowsus tomovebeyondafocusonthecourtandbureaucracytoachieveamorecomplete pictureofHanimperialstateandsociety. HonorandShame Honorandshamearecorrelatedsocialphenomenaroutinelystudiedtogether.1 Honorisgenerallyunderstoodasaperson’svalueperceivedbytheselfandhis orhergroup.Consequently,itexpressesasociety’sperceptionofwhatdefines asuperiorperson.Thisincludesboth“honorasprecedence,”i.e.,therecogni- tion that one is a member of the social elite, and “honor of virtue,” i.e., the recognitionthatone’sdeedsmeritesteem.AsJulianPitt-Rivershasargued,in an accepted social order “the sentiment of honor inspires conduct which is honorable, the conduct receives recognition and establishes reputation, and 1 Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society, ed. J. G. Peristiany (London: WeidenfieldandNicolson,1965);HonorandShameandtheUnityoftheMediterranean,ed. DavidD.Gilmore(Washington,DC:AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation,1987);Honorand Grace in Anthropology, ed. J. G. Peristiany and Julian Pitt-Rivers (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,1992);JulianPitt-Rivers,TheFateofShechemorthePoliticsofSex:Essays intheAnthropologyoftheMediterranean(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1977). 1 2 Introduction reputationisfinallysanctifiedbythebestowalofhonors.”2Thusthereisaself- reinforcing loopbetween the individuals’sself-perception, his orheractions, andtheresponsesofthegroup. Bycontrast,shameistheaffectiveresponsetohumiliationorrejection;itisthe person’s perception that he or she is held in contempt by others, which elicits powerful emotions manifest in blushing, the inability to speak, or a desire to disappear. As a self-conscious state of mind based on one’s understanding of a situation, shame has a strong cognitive dimension. It therefore evolves over timealongwithidealsofhonor.Thuscriticsoftheideathatthereisadistinctive “honor–shamecomplex”thatmarkstheMediterraneanhavearguedthatvariants intheusesofthesetermsaresogreatthattheypotentiallyappearanywhereand are regularly interlinked.3 Having a sense of honor requires having a sense of shame, since only someone who knows shame can be honorable, and only someonewithasenseofwhatishonorablewillfeelappropriateshame. This linkage is demonstrated by the fact that the two terms could become synonyms: As the basis of repute, honor and shame are synonymous, since shamelessness is dishonorable;apersonofgoodreputeistakentohaveboth,oneofevilreputeiscredited withneither...Assuch,theyareconstituentsofvirtue.4 AnexampleistheLatinpudor,whichmeant“shame,”butalsoindicatedwhat we would call a sense of “honor,” and even takes on such senses as “moral conscience” or “personal integrity.”5 In early Chinese society the words for “shame”alsoindicatedhonor. TheSocialRolesofHonorandShame Giventhathonorandshamedefineasociety’sideals,oritsimageofthehighest formsofhumanity,andthattheyvaryacrossspaceandtime,theyareusefulfor 2 Julian Pitt-Rivers, “Honour and Social Status,” in Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean,p.22. 3 Michael Herzfeld, “Honour and Shame: Problems in the Comparative Analysis of Moral Systems,” Man 15 (1980), pp. 339–351; Herzfeld, “‘As in Your Own House’: Hospitality, Ethnography, and the Stereotype of Mediterranean Society,” in Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean, pp. 75–89; Unni Wikan, “Shame and Honour: A Contestable Pair,”Man19(1984),pp.635–652. 4 Pitt-Rivers,“HonourandSocialStatus,”p.42. 5 CarlinA.Barton,RomanHonor:TheFireintheBones(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress, 2001),pp.14–15,18–19,199–200, 202,207n.32,211,217,221,224,229, 230–231,235, 236–239,241–243;AlbertS.Gérard,ThePhaedraSyndrome:OfShameandGuiltinDrama (Atlanta,GA:Amsterdam,1993),pp.22–25,27,28,31,32,35–36;CharlesSegal,Languageand DesireinSeneca’sPhaedra(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1986),pp.73–74,76,93–94, 133,181,195–196;andFlorenceDupont,LesmonstresdeSénèque(Paris:Belin,1995),pp. 241–243.SeealsoMarikoAsano-Tamanoi,“Shame,Family,andStateinCataloniaandJapan,” inHonorandShameandtheUnityoftheMediterranean,pp.111–114.

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