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As a literary civilization that has been studied intensively,
ancient Egypt has yielded the outlines of its religious, political,
economic and social institutions. Yet despite the fact that much is
known about Egyptian culture, especially Egyptian religion, until
now little has been known of the actual process through which an
object of daily life, such as wine, was integrated into the
religious system. This innovative study shows how the religious
significance of wine was actually woven into rituals and how
expressions were coined, stereotyped and transmitted over a long
span of time. The study begins by examining the development of
viticulture in Egypt, the location of the vineyards, the religious
and medical use of wine and the attitude of the Egyptians towards
wine drinking. It then moves on to study representations of wine
offering from the earliest times to the Graeco-Roman period, and to
examine liturgies of wine offering both in funerary and in divine
cults. The historical and textual documentation of wine and wine
offering is then used to explore the significance of wine and wine
offering in Egyptian religion.
First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
Considering the striking similarities between the treatment of the
dead and conceptions of the netherworld in ancient Egypt and China,
how can these traditions be compared? In this book, Mu-chou Poo
considers this question, and provides a new perspective on
archaeological materials, including tomb structures and funerary
texts, by addressing them in the context of universal human
problems such as death, the future of the dead, and the search for
happiness in life. To frame his analysis, Poo chronologically
reconstructs the emergence of the idea of netherworld and its
evolution in both ancient Egypt and ancient China. He explores the
relationship between religious beliefs and social ethics in these
civilizations, and looks at the reasons why similar social and
material conditions could have produced varied expressions of the
afterlife, and what such variations reveal about each of the
parties in question. Poo argues that a comparison between both
visions of the netherworld and their relationship to life
experience enables us to gain further insight into the nature of
each culture. Additionally, through his analysis, he shows that
thematic comparison of ancient civilizations is not only possible,
but extremely relevant to modern society.
For modern people, ghost stories are no more than thrilling
entertainment. For those living in antiquity, ghosts were far more
serious beings, as they could affect the life and death of people
and cause endless fear and anxiety. How did ancient societies
imagine what ghosts looked like, what they could do, and how people
could deal with them? From the vantage point of modernity, what can
we learn about an obscure, but no less important aspect of an
ancient culture? In this volume, Mu-chou Poo explores the ghosts of
ancient China, the ideas that they nurtured, and their role in its
culture. His study provides fascinating insights into the
interaction between the idea of ghosts and religious activities,
literary imagination, and social life devoted to them. Comparing
Chinese ghosts with those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece,
and Rome, Poo also offers a wider perspective on the role of ghosts
in human history.
In this volume, Mu-chou Poo offers a new overview of daily life in
ancient China. Synthesizing a range of textual and archaeological
materials, he brings a thematic approach to the topic that enables
a multi-faceted understanding of the ideological, economical,
legal, social, and emotional aspects of life in ancient China. The
volume focuses on the Han period and examines key topics such as
government organization and elite ideology, urban and country life,
practical technology, leisure and festivity, and death and burial
customs. Written in clear and engaging prose, this volume serves as
a useful introduction to the culture and society of ancient China.
It also enables students to better understand the construction of
history and to reflect critically on the nature of historical
writing.
In this volume, Mu-chou Poo offers a new overview of daily life in
ancient China. Synthesizing a range of textual and archaeological
materials, he brings a thematic approach to the topic that enables
a multi-faceted understanding of the ideological, economical,
legal, social, and emotional aspects of life in ancient China. The
volume focuses on the Han period and examines key topics such as
government organization and elite ideology, urban and country life,
practical technology, leisure and festivity, and death and burial
customs. Written in clear and engaging prose, this volume serves as
a useful introduction to the culture and society of ancient China.
It also enables students to better understand the construction of
history and to reflect critically on the nature of historical
writing.
This book is the first major reassessment of ancient Chinese
religion to appear in recent years. It provides a historical
investigation of broadly shared religious beliefs and goals in
ancient China from the earliest period to the end of the Han
Dynasty. The author makes use of recently acquired archeological
data, traditional texts, and modern scholarly work from China,
Japan, and the West. The overall concern of this book is to try to
reach the religious mentality of the ancient Chinese in the context
of personal and daily experiences. Poo deals with such problems as
the definition of religion, the popular/elite controversy in
methodology, and the use of "elite" documents in the study of
ordinary life.
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