The Writing of Weddings in Middle-Period China

A groundbreaking work that treats writing as a ritual practice and texts as ritual objects. Approaching writing as a form of cultural practice and understanding text as an historical object, this book not only recovers elements of the ritual practice of Middle-Period weddings, but also reassesses the relationship between texts and the Middle-Period past. Its fourfold narrative of the writing of weddings and its spirited engagement with the texts-ritual manuals, engagement letters, nuptial songs,