“Review of K. E. Brashier, Public Memory in Early China,” _Frontiers of History in China_ 1.1 (2016): 163-166. By Wicky Tse

https://www.academia.edu/25315180/_Review_of_K_E_Brashier_Public_Memory_in_Early_China_Frontiers_of_History_in_China_1_1_2016_163_166 In his previous book, Ancestral Memory in Early China (2011), K. E. Brashier, a religious studies professor at Reed College, illuminated our understanding of early Chinese ancestral cults and established himself as an indisputable authority on the topic. To do so, he delineated how deceased ancestors were transformed into living memory in early China, covering roughly the early Zhou to the end of the Later Han dynasty. Brashier examined a wide variety of textual records relevant to rituals and customs surrounding ancestral worship and also analyzed their cognitive aspects. Adopting the performance theory framework, he showed the interactions between the living and the dead via the practice of rituals and the psychological manipulation of the ritual performers before and during ceremonies of ancestral sacrifice. This effort also advanced discussions of the concepts of afterworld and afterlife in early China. ...