The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction
The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction

Author: William C. Hedberg

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 023155026X

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The classic Chinese novel The Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan) tells the story of a band of outlaws in twelfth-century China and their insurrection against the corrupt imperial court. Imported into Japan in the early seventeenth century, it became a ubiquitous source of inspiration for translations, adaptations, parodies, and illustrated woodblock prints. There is no work of Chinese fiction more important to both the development of early modern Japanese literature and the Japanese imagination of China than The Water Margin. In The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction, William C. Hedberg investigates the reception of The Water Margin in a variety of early modern and modern Japanese contexts, from eighteenth-century Confucian scholarship and literary exegesis to early twentieth-century colonial ethnography. He examines the ways Japanese interest in Chinese texts contributed to new ideas about literary canons and national character. By constructing an account of Japanese literature through the lens of The Water Margin’s literary afterlives, Hedberg offers an alternative history of East Asian textual culture: one that focuses on the transregional dimensions of Japanese literary history and helps us rethink the definition and boundaries of Japanese literature itself.

Water Margin
Water Margin

Author: Shi Nai'an

Publisher: Asiapac Books Pte Ltd

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9812294589

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Water Margin is well-known as one of the four greatest Chinese literary classics*. It tells the stories of a group of heroes, who stand for different classes of people daring to struggle against the corruption and oppression of the times. Altogether there are 105 men and three women among the notable characters in the Liangshan band. These stories take place at the end of the Northern Song period and describe vividly the people??s lives of love and hate, ties of friendship, loyalty and enmity, etc. This book relives the most stirring chapters in the novel which have become the subject of numerous dramas and films, and are the most popular episodes in Chinese fiction. They include Lin Chong killing the unworthy chief of Liangshan Marsh, Wu Song slaying a tiger with his bare fists and avenging injustices, and Song Jiang??s attacks on the Zhu Family Village. With artistic skills and wit, cartoonist Huang Qingrong presents vivid scenes in this drama of valour and brings alive the heroic legend.

The Classic Chinese Novel
The Classic Chinese Novel

Author: C T Hsia

Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

Published: 2016-02-15

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9629966573

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C. T. Hsia examines six landmark texts: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, Journey to the West, Chin P'ing Mei, The Scholars, and Dream of the Red Chamber. In addition to providing historical and bibliographical information, he critiques structure and style, as well as major characters and episodes in relation to moral and philosophical themes. C. T. Hsia cites Western classics for comparison and excerpts each novel. Hailed as a classic upon its publication in 1968, The Classic Chinese Novel has remained the best singlevolume critical introduction to the subject.

The Story of Stone
The Story of Stone

Author: Jing Wang

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780822311959

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In this pathbreaking study of three of the most familiar texts in the Chinese tradition--all concerning stones endowed with magical properties--Jing Wang develops a monumental reconstruction of ancient Chinese stone lore. Wang's thorough and systematic comparison of these classic works illuminates the various tellings of the stone story and provides new insight into major topics in traditional Chinese literature. Bringing together Chinese myth, religion, folklore, art, and literature, this book is the first in any language to amass the sources of stone myth and stone lore in Chinese culture. Uniting classical Chinese studies with contemporary Western theoretical concerns, Wang examines these stone narratives by analyzing intertextuality within Chinese traditions. She offers revelatory interpretations to long-standing critical issues, such as the paradoxical character of the monkey in The Journey to the West, the circularity of narrative logic in The Dream of the Red Chamber, and the structural necessity of the stone tablet in Water Margin. By both challenging and incorporating traditional sinological scholarship, Wang's The Story of Stone reveals the ideological ramifications of these three literary works on Chinese cultural history and makes the past relevant to contemporary intellectual discourse. Specialists in Chinese literature and culture, comparative literature, literary theory, and religious studies will find much of interest in this outstanding work, which is sure to become a standard reference on the subject.

香江水缘
香江水缘

Author: Matthew Flynn

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789881566577

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Water Margin: Hong Kong's Link to the Sea is an enchanting exploration of the human and natural geography of Hong Kong's coastline and waters. The volume opens with Hong Kong's early history as a wild coastal frontier (haijiang) of imperial China and follows the social and cultural development of its maritime border zone. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Chinese and Western influences created the city of Hong Kong, a durable crossroads forever reinventing itself. Today, Hong Kong's coastline boasts an intense mix of urban high-rise dwellings, vast shipping facilities, and near-pristine wild areas. It is home to one of the most vibrant water sports venues in Asia and hosts a range of unique wildlife populations, including dolphins, turtles, and migratory birds. This volume focuses on Hong Kong's coral and marine diversity, containing a breathtaking array of underwater photographs. The text is filled with little-known tales of pearl fishing, crocodile boating, piracy, the adventures of the city's fishing fleet, and the voices of Hong Kong's ocean heros, including Olympic gold medalist Lee Lai Shan, singer G.E.M., and the elders of Hong Kong's remote fishing villages. A portfolio of Robin Moyer's black and white photography recaptures Hong Kong's seascapes and its unceasing resources of wonder for local residents and tourists alike. The volume also covers global ocean protection initiatives sponsored by the Ocean Recovery Alliance. In addition to raising awareness and an appreciation for these precious waters, the text examines the key challenge of reviving and preserving Hong Kong's aquatic environment for future generations.

The Three Mrs. Parkers
The Three Mrs. Parkers

Author: Joan Avna Medlicott

Publisher: Wheeler Publishing, Incorporated

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9781587249327

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Three women of different generations--cantankerous Winifred Parker, her widowed daughter-in-law Zoe, and Zoe's daughter, Katie, mourning the loss of her child--are drawn together by circumstances beyond their control.

The Water Kingdom
The Water Kingdom

Author: Philip Ball

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-05-05

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 022647092X

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From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China’s culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization. Water, Ball shows, is a key that unlocks much of Chinese culture. In The Water Kingdom, he takes us on a grand journey through China’s past and present, showing how the complexity and energy of the country and its history repeatedly come back to the challenges, opportunities, and inspiration provided by the waterways. Drawing on stories from travelers and explorers, poets and painters, bureaucrats and activists, all of whom have been influenced by an environment shaped and permeated by water, Ball explores how the ubiquitous relationship of the Chinese people to water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression. From the Han emperors to Mao, the ability to manage the waters ? to provide irrigation and defend against floods ? was a barometer of political legitimacy, often resulting in engineering works on a gigantic scale. It is a struggle that continues today, as the strain of economic growth on water resources may be the greatest threat to China’s future. The Water Kingdom offers an unusual and fascinating history, uncovering just how much of China’s art, politics, and outlook have been defined by the links between humanity and nature.