Written at Imperial Command

Written at Imperial Command

Author: Fusheng Wu

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2009-01-08

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780791473702

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Explores both the literary features and historical context of poetry written for imperial rulers during China’s early medieval period.


Roaming into the Beyond: Representations of Xian Immortality in Early Medieval Chinese Verse

Roaming into the Beyond: Representations of Xian Immortality in Early Medieval Chinese Verse

Author: Zornica Kirkova

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-06-27

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 9004313699

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In Roaming into the Beyond Zornica Kirkova provides the first detailed study in a Western language of Daoism-inspired themes in early medieval Chinese poetry. She examines representations of Daoist xian immortality in a broad range of versified literature from the Han until the end of the Six Dynasties, focusing on the transformations of themes, concepts, and imagery within a wide literary and religious context. Adopting a more integrated approach, the author explores both the complex interaction between poetry and Daoist religion and the interrelations between various verse forms and poetic themes. This book not only enhances our understanding of the complexities of early medieval literature but also reevaluates the place of Daoist religious thought in the intellectual life of the period.


Mapping Meanings

Mapping Meanings

Author: Michael Lackner

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2004-06-01

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 9047405641

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Mapping Meanings, a broad-ranged introduction to China’s intellectual entry into the family of nations, guides the reader into the late Qing encounter with Western, at the same time connecting convincingly to the broader question of the mobility of knowledge.


Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch

Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch

Author: John Jorgensen

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2005-10-01

Total Pages: 888

ISBN-13: 9047415779

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Hui-neng, the patriarchal ancestor of all existing Ch’an/Zen, was invented by Shen-hui (684-758) based on a fusion of Buddhist and Confucian themes. This propaganda led to the creation of a large hagiographical literature that determined the trajectory of Ch’an.


Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 3 & 4)

Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 3 & 4)

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-09-18

Total Pages: 1036

ISBN-13: 9004271856

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At last here is the long-awaited, first Western-language reference guide focusing exclusively on Chinese literature from ca. 700 B.C.E. to the early seventh century C.E. Alphabetically organized, it contains no less than 1095 entries on major and minor writers, literary forms and "schools," and important Chinese literary terms. In addition to providing authoritative information about each subject, the compilers have taken meticulous care to include detailed, up-to-date bibliographies and source information. The reader will find it a treasure-trove of historical accounts, especially when browsing through the biographies of authors. Indispensable for scholars and students of pre-modern Chinese literature, history, and thought. Part Three contains Xia - Y. Part Four contains the Z and an extensive index to the four volumes.


Patronage and Community in Medieval China

Patronage and Community in Medieval China

Author: Andrew Chittick

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2010-07-02

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1438428995

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This first book-length treatment of a provincial military society in China's early medieval period offers a vivid portrait of this milieu and invites readers to reevaluate their understanding of a critical period in Chinese history. Drawing on poetry, local history, archaeology, and Buddhist materials, as well as more traditional historical sources, Andrew Chittick explores the culture and interrelationships of the leading figures of the Xiangyang region (in the north of modern Hubei province) in the centuries leading up to the Sui unification. Using the model of patron-client relations to characterize the interactions between local men and representatives of the southern court at Jiankang, the book emphasizes the way in which these interactions were shaped by personal ties and cultural and status differences. The result is a compelling explanation for the shifting, unstable, and violent nature of the political and military system of the southern dynasties. Offering a wider perspective which considers the social world beyond the capital elite, the book challenges earlier conceptions of medieval society as "aristocratic" and rooted in family lineage and officeholding. Andrew Chittick is E. Leslie Peter Associate Professor of East Asian Humanities at Eckerd College.


China between Empires

China between Empires

Author: Mark Edward Lewis

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-04-30

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0674265408

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After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. Mark Lewis traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions. The Yangzi River valley arose as the rice-producing center of the country. Literature moved beyond the court and capital to depict local culture, and newly emerging social spaces included the garden, temple, salon, and country villa. The growth of self-defined genteel families expanded the notion of the elite, moving it away from the traditional great Han families identified mostly by material wealth. Trailing the rebel movements that toppled the Han, the new faiths of Daoism and Buddhism altered every aspect of life, including the state, kinship structures, and the economy. By the time China was reunited by the Sui dynasty in 589 ce, the elite had been drawn into the state order, and imperial power had assumed a more transcendent nature. The Chinese were incorporated into a new world system in which they exchanged goods and ideas with states that shared a common Buddhist religion. The centuries between the Han and the Tang thus had a profound and permanent impact on the Chinese world.


Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 2)

Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 2)

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 680

ISBN-13: 9004201645

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At last here is the long-awaited, first Western-language reference guide focusing exclusively on Chinese literature from ca. 700 B.C.E. to the early seventh century C.E. Alphabetically organized, it contains no less than 1095 entries on major and minor writers, literary forms and "schools," and important Chinese literary terms. In addition to providing authoritative information about each subject, the compilers have taken meticulous care to include detailed, up-to-date bibliographies and source information. The reader will find it a treasure-trove of historical accounts, especially when browsing through the biographies of authors. Indispensable for scholars and students of pre-modern Chinese literature, history, and thought. Part Two contains S to Xi.


The Poetics of Sovereignty

The Poetics of Sovereignty

Author: Jack W. Chen

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 1684170559

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Emperor Taizong (r. 626–49) of the Tang is remembered as an exemplary ruler. This study addresses that aura of virtuous sovereignty and Taizong’s construction of a reputation for moral rulership through his own literary writings—with particular attention to his poetry. The author highlights the relationship between historiography and the literary and rhetorical strategies of sovereignty, contending that, for Taizong, and for the concept of sovereignty in general, politics is inextricable from cultural production. The work focuses on Taizong’s literary writings that speak directly to the relationship between cultural form and sovereign power, as well as on the question of how the Tang negotiated dynastic identity through literary stylistics. The author maintains that Taizong’s writings may have been self-serving at times, representing strategic attempts to control his self-image in the eyes of his court and empire, but that they also become the ideal image to which his self was normatively bound. This is the paradox at the heart of imperial authorship: Taizong was simultaneously the author of his representation and was authored by his representation; he was both subject and object of his writings.


Translating China for Western Readers

Translating China for Western Readers

Author: Ming Dong Gu

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2014-11-07

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1438455119

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Explores the challenges of translating Chinese works for Western readers, particularly premodern texts. This book explores the challenges of translating Chinese works, particularly premodern ones, for a contemporary Western readership. Reacting against the “cultural turn” in translation studies, contributors return to the origin of translation studies: translation practice. By returning to the time-honored basics of linguistics and hermeneutics, the book inquires into translation practice from the perspective of reading and reading theory. Essays in the first section of the work discuss the nature, function, rationale, criteria, and historical and conceptual values of translation. The second section focuses on the art and craft of translation, offering practical techniques and tips. Finally, the third section conducts critical assessments of translation policy and practice as well as formal and aesthetic issues. Throughout, contributors explore how a translation from the Chinese can read like a text in the Western reader’s own language. Ming Dong Gu is Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the author of Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System, also published by SUNY Press. Rainer Schulte is Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the author of Geography of Translation and Interpretation: Traveling Between Languages.