Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China

by Craig Clunas

Now in paperback

This outstanding and original book, presented here with a new preface, examines the history of material culture in early modern China. Craig Clunas analyzes “superfluous things”―the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, carved jade, and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China―and describes contemporary attitudes to them. He informs his discussions with reference to both socio-cultural theory and current debates on eighteenth-century England concerning luxury, conspicuous consumption, and the growth of the consumer society.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Art History, Art, Material Culture

219 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 1991

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating study of material connoisseurship in Ming Dynasty China best read by someone who has a background in Chinese history and art. Six chapters cover the topics of 'Books about Things", "Ideas about Things", "Words about Things", "Things of the Past', "Things in Motion", and "Anxieties about Things"--in other words, a study of the collecting (and accumulation) of 'things' by China's consumers beginning with its gentry scholars, whose collecting interests came to set the tone for the Ming Dynasty's growing middle (merchant) class. Includes excerpts from the 'art critics' of the days exclaiming on what is collectible and desirable (and what is not), and discussions on how demand leads to production (and over-production or the production of fakes to meet the demand for 'antiquities'), and more. Although it focuses on one scholar's (Wen Zhenheng, 1585-1645) treatise, Clunas includes extracts from similar treatises and includes a brief history of the scholarship of 'connoisseurship'. Being a collector of Chinese 'things' myself, I loved the examples of what to (and not to) collect, and how it's a combination of factors (age, provenance, appearance, display) that made an object desirable and worthy of collection (or not) in the eyes of this Ming Dynasty scholar who starved himself to death when his world collapsed at the fall of his dynasty.

[Rytas Sakas]

Thought to share my 1500 words analysis but then got lazy to click copy paste

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read in 2024. Still a wonderful and fascinating read. Updated versions could really benefit with showing the characters because sometimes it’s hard to figure out what’s going on without seeing the Chinese.

[Jose · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating has to do with edition of this books, not the contents. The illustrations are so poor they are useless. The reproductions of printed characters, scholar objects and old paintings, are all blurred and discoloured. A pity.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really thought-provoking look at Ming China as an early modern consumerist state. Read for a class on Ming material literati culture and greatly enjoyed it. Will be returning to it eventually.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clunas studies late Ming manuals on art and luxuries and brings to life the world of Ming collectors and connoisseurs. The late Ming was an important time in the development of art and connoisseurship.

Wen Zhenheng was a descendent of the Ming painter Wen Zhengming and his "Treatise on Superfluous Things" was a manual for how and what to collect for the perfect Chinese gentleman.
Using collecting as a way to demonstrate taste and style was a way to demonstrate fidelity to Confucian norms, but yet as Clunas points out, commodification of style undermined the claim to be "simple"

To take one item for example, Japanese lacquer boxes were highly prized by the late Ming. Wen catalogues and demonstrates the topics and items important to collectors.

An insightful look in to the late Ming.

[Claudia]

wonderful

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early application of Bourdieu's Distinction to China. This book helped shift a bogged-down debate on "the roots of capitalism in China" from the production side to that of consumption.