I am a huge fan of Craig Clunas and his wonderful books that examine Chinese culture from the point of view of its material artifacts (or at least those that have endured until today either physically or in literary references), and Empire of Brightness in my opinion is one of his best. Eight chapters examine eight different themes (such as time, space, direction, images, sex, categorizations, pleasure/play, violence, old age…) using the artifacts of the Ming to introduce hypotheses on what life in the Ming was 'really' like. His examples are always fascinating and broad-reaching, and in this volume focus on extracts from the famous late Ming novel Jin Ping Mei, the observations of a Korean traveller Ch'oe Pu (1454-1504), a textbook of spoken Ming Chinese, the diary of Li Rihua (1565-1635) and other diverse private letters, paintings, sculpture, etc.

The Ming, we discover, was more an age of 'do what I say, not what I do' as readers discover the gaps that Clunas excels at spotting--for example, Confucians may have insisted on the ability to reprimand an emperor, but the reality was that it could be costly to one's life (as in the case of Lian Zining who "volubly challenged the usurping Yongle emperor..and had his tongue ripped out as a punishment" (p. 187)--an event that Shih-Shan Henry Tsai covers in less than one line in [b:Perpetual Happiness|993311|Perpetual Happiness|Shih-Shan Henry Tsai|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347502892s/993311.jpg|978805], p. 90. (These are two excellent volumes to read side-by-side as Clunas' cultural forensics add real depth to Tsai's excellent descriptive history of the dynasty's second emperor, Yongle.)

A word must be added about the excellent illustrations. Amongst the best features of this work are the many excellent illustrations that accompany the text ('seeing is believing'). Many publishers/authors cannot afford the fees some museums charge for use of their collections' photos, but Clunas has been the recipient of financial support from SOAS' Humanities Research Funds and SOAS Central Research Funds, which enabled him to acquire the book's illustrations from which we readers so greatly benefit. If only institutions would understand the importance of sharing their collections freely with the public (as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has newly done, to accolades from students everywhere). But the point is--another feature of this excellent text is its richness in appropriate and diverse illustrations. An excellent index (that includes important Chinese characters) and bibliography are the frosting on the cake. ( )