How and Where Does One “Discover Childhood” in Han Dynasty China?
The word “representations” suggests representative views, not just any views, and imposes a discipline on the author to convince readers that she has mastered the source materials and discerned persistent thoughts from a past world. In the case of “early China” this world is long past, ranging over the first millennium B.C. and the early centuries of the following millennium: the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties. The source materials for this era are varied, but the ones used in this study are all of a literary quality, whether traditional transmitted texts or recent manuscripts unearthed by archeological excavations. Anne Behnke Kinney has immersed herself in this vast literature, sifted out the passages that pertain to childhood and youth, organized them into patterns, and then evaluated and given context to the patterns. The result is a tour de force, a distinct contribution to Han studies and to the history of childhood. This reviewer, as a historian of modern China, and particularly c
