Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“
Nominal Things is a groundbreaking philosophical study of medieval Chinese ritual vessels. It makes clear why such objects were of central cultural importance at the time and why their history should be anything but marginalized in contemporary literary and visual theory. Questioning the value of Western art historical concepts such as representation, Moser devises a new theoretical framework that follows the medieval Confucian discourse on illustrated lexicographic texts and the interpretation of classical bronzes.” -- François Louis, Bard Graduate Center
“This is an elegantly argued, well-written, and quite brilliant book. Moser marshals the full panoply of advanced critical methods in the contemporary humanities while engaging with a significant phenomenon in Chinese history: the revival of interest in antiquity during the Song period.
Nominal Things is unquestionably a remarkable achievement.” -- Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California, Los Angeles
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Conundrum of the Chalice
Making Facture Sensible
A Tale of Three Modes
On the Matter of Antiquarianism
Part I. The Lexical Picture
1. Names as Implements
Nature as Convention
The Revelation of Writing
2. Picturing Names
The Complexity of Yellow
The Art of Restoration
The Hermeneutics of Picturing
Monumental Designs
Part II. The Empirical Impression
3. The Style of Antiquity
Empty Seats and Wandering Ways
Trunks and Branches
Past as Present
The Fragility of Stone
The Failure of Confucius
4. Agents of Change
Erasure and Its Discontents
The Pacification of Huaixi
Recarving a Stele
The Reassuring Trace
The Indexical Hermeneutic
Bronzes as Indexical Things
5: Nominal Empiricism
Conversing with Things
The Sparrow in the Cup
How the Bell Tolls
Part III. The Schematic Thing
6: Substance into Schema
Two into One
The Novelty of Antiquity
Bronzes as Schemata
7: Nominal Casting
Facture after Failure
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chinese Texts
Glossary
Notes
Works Cited
Index
