Description: By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.
Brief description: Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology and Director of the Asia Center at Harvard University, is the author of The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life and To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China.
Review Quotes: In explicating the unfolding notions of spirit and cosmos in ancient China, Puett engages extensively with the greatest authorities in the field... To this ambitious tour de force through the 'world of thought in ancient China, ' Puett adds the comparative perspective of anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marshall Sahlins, and such diverse others as Mircea Eliade and Max Weber. Puett thus puts China solidly in a global comparative context.-- "Chinese Historical Review" (9/1/2004 12:00:00 AM)