{"product_id":"savage-exchange-9780674417199","title":"Savage Exchange","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTamara T. Chin explores the politics of representation during the Han dynasty at a pivotal moment when China was asserting imperialist power on the Eurasian continent and expanding its local and long-distance (“Silk Road”) markets. Chin explains why rival political groups introduced new literary forms with which to represent these expanded markets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery now and then, the collective scholarly consciousness is stirred up by a new book that makes unexpected connections among well-known ‘facts’ and thereby fundamentally changes the perception of an entire epoch. Tamara Chin’s \u003ci\u003eSavage Exchange\u003c\/i\u003e is such a book. -- Lothar von Falkenhausen * Journal of Chinese Studies *\u003cbr\u003eTamara Chin vividly illuminates the imbrication of rhetorical idioms, literary styles, and theories of value that shaped the clash between moral philosophy and political economy at a defining moment in the construction of the Chinese empire. \u003ci\u003eSavage Exchange \u003c\/i\u003einitiates an immensely rewarding dialogue between literary analysis and economic history. -- Richard von Glahn, University of California, Los Angeles\u003cbr\u003eThis book offers an utterly refreshing look at the entanglement of the economic and literary in ancient Chinese writings about exotica, foreign markets, aesthetic extravagance, and border crossing in general. Tamara Chin’s masterful exegesis ranges across the \u003ci\u003eShiji\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eHanshu\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eGuanzi\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003efu\u003c\/i\u003e-rhapsody to reveal an ancient world that is at once new yet surprisingly familiar in its anxieties about lavish expenditure, quantification, economic abstraction, strange idioms, accumulations of wealth and their moral implications. \u003ci\u003eSavage Exchange \u003c\/i\u003eis a brilliant contribution to classical scholarship, comparative literature, and comparative analyses of ancient economic thought. -- Lydia H. Liu, Columbia University\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSavage Exchange\u003c\/i\u003e is a major breakthrough in conceptualizing grounds of comparison between early Chinese texts and other literary traditions. By drawing attention to a range of texts often outside the purview of literary scholars, Tamara Chin rethinks the relationship between centers and margins in the Chinese tradition. How did knowledge of distant lands or other peoples shape literary imagination? How can we extend the concept of ‘text’ to material remains (such as coins)? By asking these and other absorbing questions, Chin reveals hidden connections between what at first sight appear to be disparate fields of knowledge. -- Wai-yee Li, Harvard University","brand":"Harvard University, Asia Center","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403592016215,"sku":"9780674417199","price":35.66,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674417199.jpg?v=1730483918","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/savage-exchange-9780674417199","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}