State,Body,and Society:on Human Body Of Song Dynasty

Human body is not only a physical being, but also a social-cultural entity shaped by a mixture of political power, social consciousness, and cultural tradition. In this context, the history of human body is not merely the evolutionary process of people's constitutions, but the social one related to body. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the dissertation comprises other four chapters. The first Chapter is about the development of the systematic knowledge of human body in Song Dynasty. In the remote antiquity of China, people had have basics of human body; and from the Warring States Period to Qin and Han dynasties, there were more knowledge of it. There were, in fact, a large number of records relating to the deep understanding of human body in such the excavated documents as Huangdi Nei Jing, Feng Zhen Shi in Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts, etc. In Song dynasty there were very impressive achievements in making sense of human body, the first of which was that people boasted the world-class scientific understanding of anatomical physiology; the first of which that there were excellent knowledge of physical damage and bodies biology in criminal inspection. The great works showing those achievements go as follows:Ouxifan Wu Zang Tu, Cun Zhen Tu,Xi Xuan Ji Lu, etc. These documents, which mark a major advance in the understanding of human body of Song Dynasty, exercised a crucial impact over physiology as well as medicine during the period from Song Dynasty to Later Qing Dynasty. The dramatic development of the understanding of human body, on the one hand, lies in the much attention by the government to medicine, the perfect system of criminal procedure, and widespread medical knowledge; on the other hand, resulted from the improvement in traditional medicine. The unearthed corpses of the Song dynasty tombs are a major symbol of the promotion of body biology and figure studies.The second chapter focuses on the punishment and social disciplining of human body by the political power of Song dynasty. The first criminal code, named Song Jianlong Chong Xiang Ding Xing Tong, and the first set of decrees, called Jianlong Bian Chi, were enacted in the first ruling years of the creator of Song Dynasty. Besides, the rulers of the dynasty continued to use civic and criminal issues by the former laws of Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties and Ten King Kingdoms. The rulers of Song Dynasty, in fact, argued that, though there was, in theory, the parallel of laws and decrees, the latter practically enjoyed much more importance than the former did. With the evolution of the society of Song Dynasty, the rulers had come to think that laws were in no position to deal with all of issues, and decided to revise and re-enact decrees. Those criminal codes and decrees were so powerful and influential that the relationships of the Song Dynasty and ordinary people, and the interactions between people from all walks of life were fashioned by them. In ancient China, there was, in fact, no difference between violating laws and committing crimes; the former amounts to the latter. In a word, criminal penalty played the most significant and powerful role in ruling the country. Like Tang Dynasty's, the main criminal punishments were divided into the five types:flogging, flogging with a heavier stick, forced labor, exile and death penalty. Besides those main criminal penalties, there was one crueler torture, according to which, the executioner put criminals to death by dismembering the body. In addition to the main criminal punishments, the rulers make full use of the additional penalties, including forced leaving the hometown, public exposure, depriving the right of migration, forced military servitude, and depriving personal liberty. Not only the changes of these ruling methods marked the then political situation of Song Dynasty, but also showed the greater impact over human body exerted by severer social disciplining. Moreover, the punishment, depriving personal liberty, whose aim was controlling "body liberty" as a target of criminal penalty, ushered in the era of focusing more on "the punishment of body".The third chapter expounds the evolutionary methods of disciplining students in Song Dynasty. During the pre-Qin days, according to the axiom of the combination of politics and religion, rites and music, which were the chief means used by feudal rulers to consolidate feudal power, also were an educational way. The nature of the education, called the formation of scholars by rites and music, was a kind of practical "bildung". Since Qin and Han, the focus of education was on book knowledge; and rites and music transformed into knowledge per se. How to shape the ethics of scholars just by book knowledge? The answer for this question is the integration of knowledge and rites and music. In addition, Song Dynasty concentrated on set up schools, with a soaring number of students. How to provide the excellent management of education also arose from the wave. Gradually, setting up rules and regulations of school enjoyed great popularity in private schools, official education, scholars, and literati. Also, those rules and regulations used to discipline would-be scholars and future known or unknown officials. The social discipline of schools was actually the historic fruit of the institutionalization of the educational ideas of Song Dynasty.The fourth chapter places emphasis on the tattoo of Han nationality and the female foot-binding movement, thereby interpret the refashion of human body by the two social phenomena. Historically speaking, no doubt tattoo has for a long time been a cultural and global phenomenon. As a social and aesthetical point of Song and Tang Dynasties, the tattoo of Han nationality was greatly different from the one of other ethnic minorities. Besides, the part analyzes the details of the tattoo of Song Dynasty, the medicine or herbal of, and the methods of, the elimination of tattoo. Apart from it, the chapter re-constructs the diffusion process of tattoo in the Song society. Meanwhile, the forced tattoo experienced by people in military servitude is taken into consideration in this chapter. In addition to putting tattoo to use to discipline subjects, the rulers of Song Dynasty making the female foot-binding to realize the same purpose. By mutual proofing of written documents and archaeological materials, the chapter points out the differentiation between the female foot-binding of Song Dynasty and that of Qing Dynasty. In fact, Song Dynasty's were bow-shaped, slim, long bound-feet, compared with those of Qing Dynasty. Different ideas of foot-binding actually arose from different social classes, regions, and times. In other words, bound feet as folk custom had gradually transformed into a second sex character during the periods from Song to Qing. In further putting tattoo and the femal foot-binding into the perspective of body sociology and gender theory, the chapter the "thick description" in the process of social disciplining of human body.