Savage Exchange explores the politics of representation during the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) at a pivotal moment when China was asserting imperialist power on the Eurasian continent and expanding its local and long-distance ("Silk Road") markets. Tamara T. Chin explains why rival political groups introduced new literary forms with which to represent these expanded markets. To promote a radically quantitative approach to the market, some thinkers developed innovative forms of fiction and genre. In opposition, traditionalists reasserted the authority of classical texts and advocated a...
Savage Exchange explores the politics of representation during the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) at a pivotal moment when China was asserting im...