Scholars have noticed that centrally-appointed officials in imperial China were not only beholden to their superiors but also acted as brokers of local interests. We characterize such a structural position as ‘dual accountability’. Although accountability to superiors is readily understandable within the Weberian framework of bureaucratic hierarchy, the reasons behind local responsiveness bear explanation. This paper attempts to explain such responsiveness by investigating the larger ideological, structural, and institutional contexts of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). We explore two existing explanations – practical necessity and ‘Confucian’ or classical paternalism – and add a new explanation of our own: the emphasis on virtuous reputations in the system of bureaucratic recruitment and promotion. Our argument is supported by empirical evidence from a range of sources, including administrative records and inscriptions on ancient stelae. More generally, we question Weber’s hypothesis that the Chinese imperial system of administration fit the ideal type of traditional bureaucracy, and we examine the rational bases underlying an ‘inefficient’ system that was in place for two millennia.

This paper examines the reasons why Physician He (Yi-He, sixth century BCE) was regarded as a founder in the classical medical tradition of China. By most accounts, Physician He's importance owes much to his theoretical innovations. In contrast to earlier healers, Physician He purportedly framed the aetiology of illnesses solely in terms of natural causes, as opposed to attributing sickness to gods or demons. In this paper, I reread a famous episode in the Commentary by Zuo, which is often cited as evidence of the physician's naturalism. By paying close attention to the formal elements of the narrative as well as its larger discursive context, I argue that the standard reading of Physician He falls short. The episode provides little evidence of any secular challenge to religious conceptions of illness, and Physician He was, in fact, patterned after occult experts. A careful look moreover at the reception of Physician He in premodern histories of medicine reveals that the physician was extolled for his attunement to the will of the spirits as well as his powers of examination. Physician He's reputation as a naturalist furthermore represents a modern interpretation, one that reflects efforts to defend the indigenous medical tradition against its biomedical detractors.There are reports of physicians making frequent, true, and marvellous predictions, predictions such as I have never made myself, nor ever personally heard anyone make.-Prorrhetic II.

This article challenges the standard view that early, and especially, Han, Chinese elites attempted to preserve the corpse at death in order to ensure the post-mortem survival of the deceased's po (corporeal) soul. I will argue that the standard interpretation derives less from extant written records of mortuary practices and more from analogies sought by scholars between ancient Chinese and Egyptian notions of the afterlife. More importantly, the standard view has suffered from a propensity to interpret early material artifacts using much later medieval sources. Examining the archaeological and literary record, I propose that the early Chinese elites took for granted the impermanence of the body.

Discovered by farmers from an unmarked tomb in 1972 in Gansu, the Wuwei strips and tablets set forth a wealth of information about ancient Chinese drug formulary and acupuncture. The present article supplies the first English-language translation of its contents along with a brief introduction.

This paper re-evaluates a persistent but controversial claim in studies of China-to wit, that Chinese thought exhibited a different logical structure than that found in Europe. By situating what is now largely regarded as a Sinological problem within the broader context of the debate between Edward B. Tylor and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857 about primitive thought, it argues that this line of inquiry about cultural difference, as exemplified by the work of its earliest exponents, Marcel Granet (1884-1940), Joseph Needham (1900-1995, and Angus Charles Graham (1919Graham ( -1991, is still significant. The significance of these works lies not so much in their specific arguments about China as in the general approach they suggest for explaining cultural difference, an approach that can steer clear of the dangers in evolutionary and essentializing approaches to the study of human mentality.Dans cet article j'examine de nouveau une prétension persistante mais controversée dans les études de la Chine-c'est à dire, que la pensée chinoise fait preuve d'une différente structure logique que celle trouvée en Europe. En situant ce qui est principalement regardé comme un problème sinologique dans le contexte plus large d'un débat entre Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917) et Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857 sur la pensée primitive, j'affirme la signifiance actuelle de cette approche de la différence culturelle, telle que représentée par les écrits de ses premiers partisans, Marcel Granet (1884-1940), Joseph Needham (1900-1995) et Angus Charles Graham (1919-1991. La signifiance de ces ouvrages dérive moins de leurs arguments spécifiques sur la Chine, que de leur approche générale de l'explication de la différence culturelle, une approche qui peut éviter les dangers des approches évolutionnaires et réduc-tionnistes de l'étude des mentalités humaines.