Luke Waring is an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

• AcknowledgmentsConventionsDynasties and Western Han RulersIntroduction1. The Li Family Tombs2. Producing Texts3. Curating Texts4. Performing Texts5. Visualizing Texts6. Burying TextsConclusionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Fifty years ago, the discoveries of a perfectly preserved corpse in one tomb at Mawangdui and a substantial library in another tomb there astounded the scholarly world, giving rise to thousands of technical studies over the following decades. Now, Luke Waring’s Writing and Materiality in Ancient China provides a comprehensive overview of the tombs, of the lives and deaths of the people buried in them, and especially of the numerous kinds of writings buried with them. Probing in its detail, yet always attentive to broader questions of how to understand ancient culture, this is a model of what scholarship should be.

Luke Waring is an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

• AcknowledgmentsConventionsDynasties and Western Han RulersIntroduction1. The Li Family Tombs2. Producing Texts3. Curating Texts4. Performing Texts5. Visualizing Texts6. Burying TextsConclusionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Fifty years ago, the discoveries of a perfectly preserved corpse in one tomb at Mawangdui and a substantial library in another tomb there astounded the scholarly world, giving rise to thousands of technical studies over the following decades. Now, Luke Waring’s Writing and Materiality in Ancient China provides a comprehensive overview of the tombs, of the lives and deaths of the people buried in them, and especially of the numerous kinds of writings buried with them. Probing in its detail, yet always attentive to broader questions of how to understand ancient culture, this is a model of what scholarship should be.

Luke Waring is an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

• AcknowledgmentsConventionsDynasties and Western Han RulersIntroduction1. The Li Family Tombs2. Producing Texts3. Curating Texts4. Performing Texts5. Visualizing Texts6. Burying TextsConclusionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Fifty years ago, the discoveries of a perfectly preserved corpse in one tomb at Mawangdui and a substantial library in another tomb there astounded the scholarly world, giving rise to thousands of technical studies over the following decades. Now, Luke Waring’s Writing and Materiality in Ancient China provides a comprehensive overview of the tombs, of the lives and deaths of the people buried in them, and especially of the numerous kinds of writings buried with them. Probing in its detail, yet always attentive to broader questions of how to understand ancient culture, this is a model of what scholarship should be.