The Ethics of Immutable Things: Interpreting Lü Dalin’s Illustrated Investigations of Antiquity

Jeffrey Moser offers a new interpretation of Lü Dalin’s Kaogutu, the earliest extant illustrated catalog of Chinese antiquities. Earlier scholarship either incorporated the text into teleological histories of archaeology and epigraphy or conflated its agenda with that of other “antiquarian” writings. Moser argues instead that the catalog was integral to the distinctive philosophical agenda of its author, who envisioned the Kaogutu as both an argument for and a means of noncognitive, sensory-driven moral cultivation. As such, the catalog evinces a key distinction between the moral philosophy of Lü Dalin and the cognitive ethics of his teacher Cheng Yi. By elucidating the connections between the Kaogutu and Lü Dalin’s sensory ethics, Moser explains how Lü transformed the collecting of antiquities from an occasional pastime into an endeavor at the center of moral life.