Introduction:Various Modes of Ming /Christopher Lupke -- The Foundations of Fate: Early Chinese Conceptions of Ming. Command and the Content of Tradition / David Schaberg ; Following the Commands of Heaven: The Notion of Ming in Early China / Michael Puett ; Languages of Fate: Semantic Fields in Chinese and Greek / Lisa Raphals ; How to Steer Through Life: Confronting Fate in the Daybook / Mu-chou Poo -- Escape Attempts from Finitude: Ming in the Later Han and Six Dynasties Period. Living off the Books: Fifty Ways to Dodge Ming in Early Medieval China / Robert Campany ; Simple Twists of Fate: The Daoist Body and its Ming / Stephen Bokenkamp ; Multiple Vistas of Ming and Changing Visions of Life in the Work of Tao Qian / Zong-qi Cai -- Reversals of Fortune and Reversals of Reality: The Literary Career of Ming in Late Imperial Fiction and Drama. Turning Lethal Slander into Productive Instruction: Laws, Ledgers, and the Changing Taxonomies of Vernacular Production in Late Imperial China / Patricia Sieber ; Fate and Transcendence in the Rhetoric of Myth and Ritual / P. Steven Sangren -- Determinism's Progress: Voluntarism, Gender and Fatalism in Modern China. Hubris in Chinese Thought: A Theme in Post-Mao Cultural Criticism / Woei Lien Chong ; Gendered Fate / Deirdre Sabina Knight ; Divi/Nation: Modern Literary Representations of the Chinese Imagined Community / Christopher Lupke.

"Few ideas in Chinese discourse are as ubiqitous as ming, variously understood as "command," "allotted lifespan," "fate," or "life." In the earliest days of Chinese writing, ming was already present, invoked in divinations and etched into ancient bronzes; it has continued to inscribe itself down to the twenty-first century in literature and film. This volume assembles twelve essays by some of the most eminent scholars currently working in Chinese studies to produce the first comprehensive study in English of ming's broad web of meanings. The essays span the history of Chinese civilization and represent disciplines as varied as religion, philosophy, anthropology, literary studies, history, and sociology. Cross-cultural comparisons between ancient Chinese views of ming and Western conceptions of moira and fatum are discussed, providing a specific point of departure for contrasting the structure of attitudes between the two civilizations." "This authoritative collection testifies to the salience of ming in Chinese culture. It will appeal to a broad readership, including those interested in the history, philosophy, religion, literature, studies of gender, and anthropology of China and other related Asian cultures."--BOOK JACKET

Local access dig.pdf [Lupke-Ming.pdf]