This edited volume aims to “sketch the remarkable range and richness of Chinese responses to mortality” (p. 2) in eleven essays. Poo Mu-chou's sweeping survey of changes in burial practice and ideas of the afterlife in ancient times attempts to “reconstruct” from a handful of classical passages a “system” of burial and accompanying ideas. Poo posits that “it is reasonable to assume that this system represents a general consensus” (p. 14), yet admits on the same page that “this … system probably never existed as a universal institution at any given point in history.” Poo's dubious generalizations contrast sharply with the next two essays. Eugene Y. Wang offers a brilliantly constructed interpretation of the famous funerary banner found in Mawangdui Tomb 1 in its sepulchral context. He argues that the purpose of the visual representations on the occupant's coffins and banner was “to revive the dead” (p. 74) and that...
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