The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

Author: Liu Hsieh

Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

Published: 2015-01-15

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9629965852

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The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons is the first comprehensive work of literary criticism in Chinese, and one that has been considered essential reading for writers and critics since it was written some 1,500 years ago. A vast compendium of all that was known about Chinese literature at the time, it is simultaneously a taxonomy and history of genres and styles, and a manual for good writing. Its chapters, organized according to the I Ching, cover such topics as "Emotion and Literary Expression","Humor and Enigma","Spiritual Thought or Imagination", "The Nourishing of Vitality","Organization", and "Literary Flaws". "Mind" is the ideas, impressions, and emotions that take form—the "rving of the dragon"—in a literary work. Full of examples and delightful anecdotes drawn from Liu Hsieh's encyclopedic knowledge of Chinese literature, readers will discover distinctive concepts and standards of the art of writing that are both familiar and strange. The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons is not only a summa of classical Chinese literary aesthetics but also a wellspring of advice from the distant past on how to write.


Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan

Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan

Author: Dorothy Ko

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2003-08-28

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0520927826

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Representing an unprecedented collaboration among international scholars from Asia, Europe, and the United States, this volume rewrites the history of East Asia by rethinking the contentious relationship between Confucianism and women. The authors discuss the absence of women in the Confucian canonical tradition and examine the presence of women in politics, family, education, and art in premodern China, Korea, and Japan. What emerges is a concept of Confucianism that is dynamic instead of monolithic in shaping the cultures of East Asian societies. As teachers, mothers, writers, and rulers, women were active agents in this process. Neither rebels nor victims, these women embraced aspects of official norms while resisting others. The essays present a powerful image of what it meant to be female and to live a woman’s life in a variety of social settings and historical circumstances. Challenging the conventional notion of Confucianism as an oppressive tradition that victimized women, this provocative book reveals it as a modern construct that does not reflect the social and cultural histories of East Asia before the nineteenth century.


Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals 吕氏春秋; Volume II

Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals 吕氏春秋; Volume II

Author: Lü Buwei

Publisher: DeepLogic

Published:

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13:

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The Lüshi Chunqiu, also known in English as Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. The Shiji (chap. 85, p. 2510) biography of Lü Buwei has the earliest information about the Lüshi Chunqiu. Lü was a successful merchant from Handan who befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin. The king's son Zheng (政, who the Shiji suggests was actually Lü's son) eventually became the first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. When Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Lü Buwei was made regent for the 13-year-old Zheng. In order to establish Qin as the intellectual center of China, Lü "recruited scholars, treating them generously so that his retainers came to number three thousand" (tr. Knoblock and Riegel 2000:13). In 239 BC, he, in the words of the Shiji ...ordered that his retainers write down all that they had learned and assemble their theses into a work consisting of eight "Examinations," six "Discourses," and twelve "Almanacs," totaling more than 200,000 words. (Knoblock and Riegel 2000:14) According to Shiji, Lü exhibited the completed encyclopedic text at the city gate of Xianyang, capital of Qin, and above it was a notice offering a thousand measures of gold to any traveling scholar who could add or subtract even a single word. The Lüshi Chunqiu text comprises 26 juan (巻 "scrolls; books") in 160 pian (篇 "sections"), and is divided into three major parts; the Ji (紀, "The Almanacs"): Books 1-12 correspond to the months of the year, and list appropriate seasonal activities to ensure that the state runs smoothly. This part, which was copied as the Liji chapter Yueling, takes many passages from other texts, often without attribution. The Lan (覧, "The Examinations"): Books 13–20 each have 8 sections corresponding to the 64 Hexagrams in the Yijing. This is the longest and most eclectic part, giving quotations from many early texts, some no longer extant. The Lun (論, "The Discourses"): Books 21–26 mostly deal with rulership, excepting the final four sections about agriculture. This part resembles the Lan in composition. The book is the second volume of Lüshi Chunqiu covering the 览 or "The Examinations".


Classical Music

Classical Music

Author: Alexander J. Morin

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 1220

ISBN-13: 9780879306380

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Encompassing more than five hundred classical composers past and present, this listener's guide to classical music discusses the best recordings of symphonies, operas, choral pieces, chamber music, and more by the world's leading composers as performed by a variety of outstanding musicians and conductors, and includes essays on the classical repertory, composers, instruments, and more. Original.


Lyskarion

Lyskarion

Author: Janice A. Cullum

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9781894063029

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Can a world of many races exist without racism? Fantasy author J. A. Cullum doesn't believe so! In her new release, Lyskarion: The Song of the Wind, the author's story unfolds against a backdrop of racial and religious tensions, which are a curious reflection of our modern society. Hundreds of years before the story takes place, the Great Wizards created the Karionin, eight living crystals which substantially increase the bearer's power. When a conflict breaks out among the great wizards, this increased power results in mass destruction and death. Now people fear the wizard's potential for destruction, and few children train to become wizards. Plagued by racial and religious hatred, Tamar is home to nine races - humans live side by side with races who have the ability to shift their shape from human to animal form, including dolphins (Ingvalar), tigers (Linlar), and lizards (Isklar). The dolphins and humans get along; yet prejudices exist. The tigers and lizards have been attacking human settlements, and a devastating war seems inevitable. Cormor, the last of the great wizards, knows that the only chance for peace is for a legion of powerful wizards to reign once again. The fate of Tamar falls upon three youths - each with great potential, each with a reason for resistance. These young wizards-in-training must learn to overcome their differences and restore peace once again or humanity will be destroyed.


The Far East Trilogy

The Far East Trilogy

Author: Stephen Becker

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2016-10-25

Total Pages: 765

ISBN-13: 1504041488

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Three thrillers set in WWII-era Asia by a New York Times–bestselling author who writes “like a cross between Joseph Conrad and James Clavell” (Houston Chronicle). “A master of terse, ironic dialogue,” the author of A Covenant with Death presents a trilogy that journeys from the Gobi Desert to Peking to Burma in the chaotic years following the Second World War (Kirkus Reviews). The Chinese Bandit: An American ex-marine must run for his life in the cutthroat atmosphere of postwar China, pursued by both a dangerous criminal and Chiang Kai-shek’s forces. This one “will keep readers turning pages through the night” (Los Angeles Times). The Last Mandarin: An American mercenary chases a Japanese war criminal through the war-torn streets of Peking in this “fascinating . . . exciting” adventure (ThePhiladelphia Inquirer). The Blue-Eyed Shan: The battle between East and West explodes in a remote corner of Burma, as an anthropologist in an isolated mountain village finds himself fighting to save the people he loves from the Chinese Red Army and a fearsome tribe of headhunters. A thriller “as exciting as Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Publishers Weekly). Described as “absolutely ripping adventure” by Time and “sublime entertainment” by John Irving, the Far East Trilogy is an unforgettable saga filled with suspense, epic scope, and rich historical atmosphere.


A History of the Music for Wind Band

A History of the Music for Wind Band

Author: Leon J. Bly

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2024-07

Total Pages: 1188

ISBN-13: 364391654X

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The book provides a historical survey of the wind band’s music and denotes how historical and cultural developments have influenced it over the course of time. Although the modern wind band developed first in the 19th century, it has its roots in the wind music of ancient times, and music survives that has been composed since the Middle Ages. Therefore, this book covers the music from that time to the present, including the dance music of the Renaissance, the Harmoniemusik of the Classical Period, and the nationalistic music of the Romantic Period, as well as the major wind band repertoire developed after 1900.


Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan

Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan

Author:

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2016-11-14

Total Pages: 2243

ISBN-13: 0295999152

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Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan; sometimes called The Zuo Commentary) is China�s first great work of history. It consists of two interwoven texts - the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu, a terse annalistic record) and a vast web of narratives and speeches that add context and interpretation to the Annals. Completed by about 300 BCE, it is the longest and one of the most difficult texts surviving from pre-imperial times. It has been as important to the foundation and preservation of Chinese culture as the historical books of the Hebrew Bible have been to the Jewish and Christian traditions. It has shaped notions of history, justice, and the significance of human action in the Chinese tradition perhaps more so than any comparable work of Latin or Greek historiography has done to Western civilization. This translation, accompanied by the original text, an introduction, and annotations, will finally make Zuozhuan accessible to all.