| Authors during the Song (960-1279 CE) and Yuan (1272-1368) dynasties produced and reproduced different conceptualizations of wedding ritual. They used different textual genres to express competing views on the nature of ritual in general, and of text, time, space, bodies, and reproduction in particular. A proper understanding of these divergent conceptualizations requires a reconstruction of discursive contexts, stressing text as text and text as cultural action, while de-enphasizing weddings as historical practice.; With cappings, funerals, and sacrifice, weddings ranked among the family rituals promoted by neo-Confucians in their attempt to restore ancient ritual at the local level (Chapter One). Literati who sought distinction through literary composition dazzled prospective affines with engagement letters much as they won admiration at other social occasions. For the wedding night, they composed intricate song cycles that interweave themes of immortals and the boudoir with a ritual sequence of public consummation (Chapter Two). Legal texts pair weddings with instances of transfer of property and persons, emphasizing contracts and the concomitant changes in rights and obligations. Laws and legal cases indicate debates within the imperium as well as conflicts between the imperium and local communities about legitimate forms of sexual cohabitation and their markers (Chapter Three). In almanacs and calendars, fate determines matches as it determines success in the civil service examinations, career, and hour and station of birth and death. The creation of a new social unit and the consecration of a new social space in weddings draw concerns similar to those of childbirth, funerals, and the construction of houses and graves (Chapter Four).; Previous studies of traditional Chinese marriage have implicitly converted text into practice, reducing texts (and, by extension, ritual performance) to reflections of reified, transparent, unconscious practice. This has led to a disregard of context (since the conversion of text into practice deletes all textual distinctions) and to the assemblage of textual passages ("data") across literary genres and intellectual agendas into attempted reconstructions of Song wedding ritual that are in fact imposed narratives couched in anachronistic, foreign terms. |
