The volume deals with the social and cultural role that the Chinese tradition assigned to professionals who provided essential services while often remaining independent, neither seeking nor being offered an official position. The topic is underresearched, and for this reason, Kory presents layers of historiographical and bibliographical material. He argues for including artisans, that is, those skilled in script, painting, engraving, games, or mechanical crafts (jīqiǎo 機巧), in a field dominated by experts in prognosticative and medical arts and takes an interest in how the official historians viewed the technicians' contribution to the ruler's and the wider society's well-being. The focus lies on the translation and interpretation of “Arrayed Traditions of Technicians and Artisans” in three dynastic histories from the sixth to the seventh centuries. Kory demonstrates how technicians and artisans were appointed to and worked for specialized offices at the imperial court or for influential personages, and, importantly, how they became eligible for appointment. Their careers usually began with family traditions and included periods of itinerancy and reclusion, often in proximity to Daoist or Buddhist practitioners. The volume ignores work that tackles the gap that customarily separates figures in official positions from those immersed in technical knowledge (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi and Nylan, “Technical Arts in the Han Histories,” 2021). Equipped with a reader-friendly set of useful tools, it is a welcome treasure trove of relevant primary sources and specific investigations.
Barbara Hendrischke (Mon,) studied this question.