The Concepts of Feng (“Traditions”) and Su (“Customs”) in Ancient Chinese Texts of the Han Era (202 BCE — 220 CE)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2024.201Abstract
The concepts of feng 風 (“traditions”) and su 俗 (“customs”) played an important role in the political discourse of Ancient China from the Zhanguo period 戰國 (the Warring States, 5th–3rd cent. BCE). Meaning the heterogeneity and disunity in the habits of people belonging to different geographical regions or time periods, feng and su were the objects of observation and transformation by the government, which sought to unite its territories. Since the Han era 漢 (202 BCE — 220 CE) the collocation feng su has begun to be regularly and actively used in ancient Chinese texts, being the subject of discussion in various treatises and imperial decrees. This article examines the semantics of feng and su that developed under Zhou 周 (11th–3rd cent. BCE), proposes an explanation for the difference between them as an external and internal causation of human behavior. Based on the Han texts, the officials involved in the regulation of feng and su were identified, and it was found that most of them also served the emperor with advice and criticism. As a result of the analysis, the idea was also put forward that the frequency of using the collocation feng su in the texts increased as the country approached the time of crisis.
Keywords:
feng, su, Han shu, political ideology of Han, inspection tours around the country, customs of Ancient China
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Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.