Christian de Pee is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

Illustrations
Preface
 
Introduction: The Practice of the Text

The Practice of the Classical Text: The Writing of Weddings in the Middle Period
The Practice of the Academic Text: The Writing of Weddings in Modern and Postmodern History

1. Ritual Manuals: Exegetical Hermeneutics and the Re-Embodiment of Antiquity

Canonical Weddings: Fragments and Hermeneutics
Rites of the Kaiyuan Period: The Merging of Canon and Precedent
Manuals of Letters and Ceremonies: The Hermeneutics of Practice and the Preservation of Ritual
The Hermeneutical Shift in the Northern Song: Epigraphy, Archaeology, and the Identity of Past and Present
Ritual Manuals of the Northern Song: The Hermeneutics of Text and the Embodiment of Antiquity
Toward a New Ritual Scripture: Zhu Xi's Family Rituals
Conclusion

2. Wedding Correspondence and Nuptial Songs: Writing as Cultural Capital and Text as Ritual Object

Cultural Capital and the Inscription of Ritual Time in Wedding Correspondence
Social Boundaries and Symbolic Capital in Writing Manuals
Ritual Time and Sexual Metaphors in Wedding Addresses, Poems, and Jokes
Conclusion

3. Calendars, Almanacs, Miracle Tales, and Medical Texts: Cosmic Cycles and the Liminal Affairs of Man

Patterns of Auspicious and Inauspicious Time in Calendars
The Calculation of Cosmic Blessings and Dangers in Almanacs
The Blessings and Dangers of Weddings in Miracle Tales
The Vulnerable and Dangerous Body of the Bride in Miracle Tales and Medical Texts
Conclusion

4. Legal Codes, Verdicts, and Contracts: Universal Order and Local Practice

Marriage and the Universal Order: The Annotated Tang Code and the Song Penal Code
Universal Law and Local Practice: A Collection of Pure and Lucid Verdicts
Interference with Ritual Practice: Imperial Canon of Sacred Governance and Comprehensive Institutions
Conclusion

Conclusion. Texts and Tombs, Ritual and History

The Practice of the Tomb: Material Traces of Ritual
The Practice of the Text: Written Traces of Ritual
The Practice of History: Toward a Cultural History of the Middle Period

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index