List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Books about things: The literature of Ming connoisseurship 2. Ideas about things: Themes in Ming connoisseurship literature 3. Words about things: The language of Ming connoisseurship 4. Things of the past: Uses of the antique in Ming material culture 5. Things in motion: Ming luxury objects as commodities 6. Anxieties about things: Consumption and class in Ming China Conclusion Appendix I Editors of Treatise on Superfluous Things Appendix II Selected prices for works of art and antique artefacts c. 1560-1620 Notes Bibliography of primary sources Bibliography of secondary literature Index