Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning

Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning PDF Author: Nicholas Morrow Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781621966234
Category : Chinese poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This study examines the role of the soul (hun) and the soul-summoning ritual in Chinese literature from ancient times up to the twentieth century. With five case studies from different dynasties, spanning ancient Chu and the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming-Qing transition periods, Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning shows Chinese poets were inspired by the belief in a soul that could be transported away from the body. On one hand, this provided a model for literature, as a therapeutic means of summoning back wayward souls; on the other, it inspired the imaginative range and formal structures of literary works, which followed the soul's journey from the individual person throughout the world and into the heavens. This study argues that the religious dimensions of Chinese poetry have not been sufficiently examined. The conception of the separable soul is a distinctive and perennial theme that has considerable explanatory reach in understanding traditional Chinese culture. Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning will be a valuable addition to students and scholars of Chinese culture, comparative literature, and religious studies"--

Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning

Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning PDF Author: Nicholas Morrow Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781621966234
Category : Chinese poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
"This study examines the role of the soul (hun) and the soul-summoning ritual in Chinese literature from ancient times up to the twentieth century. With five case studies from different dynasties, spanning ancient Chu and the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming-Qing transition periods, Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning shows Chinese poets were inspired by the belief in a soul that could be transported away from the body. On one hand, this provided a model for literature, as a therapeutic means of summoning back wayward souls; on the other, it inspired the imaginative range and formal structures of literary works, which followed the soul's journey from the individual person throughout the world and into the heavens. This study argues that the religious dimensions of Chinese poetry have not been sufficiently examined. The conception of the separable soul is a distinctive and perennial theme that has considerable explanatory reach in understanding traditional Chinese culture. Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning will be a valuable addition to students and scholars of Chinese culture, comparative literature, and religious studies"--

Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning

Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning PDF Author: Nicholas Morrow Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781621966395
Category : Chinese poetry
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"This study examines the role of the soul (hun) and the soul-summoning ritual in Chinese literature from ancient times up to the twentieth century. With five case studies from different dynasties, spanning ancient Chu and the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming-Qing transition periods, Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning shows Chinese poets were inspired by the belief in a soul that could be transported away from the body. On one hand, this provided a model for literature, as a therapeutic means of summoning back wayward souls; on the other, it inspired the imaginative range and formal structures of literary works, which followed the soul's journey from the individual person throughout the world and into the heavens. This study argues that the religious dimensions of Chinese poetry have not been sufficiently examined. The conception of the separable soul is a distinctive and perennial theme that has considerable explanatory reach in understanding traditional Chinese culture. Chinese Poetry as Soul Summoning will be a valuable addition to students and scholars of Chinese culture, comparative literature, and religious studies"--

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament PDF Author: Victor H. Mair
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350337226
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Bathed with the blood and tears of countless poets and authors and naturally expressing the most heartfelt emotions of ancient peoples, poems of mourning and texts of lament stand out in classical Chinese literature as brilliant and unique. Composed and celebrated over 3000 years, they are central to the Chinese literary tradition but have been largely unknown to English readers. Including over 100 major pieces by leading literary figures from 800 BCE – 1800, this is the first English anthology of classic Chinese poems of mourning and texts of sacrificial offering. With annotated translations by leading scholars and reading guides accompanying each piece, this book reveals a powerful literary heritage to students and serious readers of Chinese literature, history and civilization.

The Songs of Chu

The Songs of Chu PDF Author: Yuan Qu
Publisher: Translations from the Asian Classics
ISBN: 9780231166072
Category : Chinese poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Intro -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Nine Songs (Jiuge) -- 2. "Leaving My Troubles" ("Li sao") -- 3. "Ask the Sky" ("Tian wen") -- 4. Nine Cantos (Jiuzhang) -- 5. "Wandering Far Away" ("Yuan you") -- 6. "The Diviner" ("Bu ju") and "The Fisherman" ("Yufu") -- 7. Nine Variations (Jiubian) -- 8. "Summoning the Soul" ("Zhao hun") -- 9. "The Great Summoning" ("Da zhao") -- 10. "Regretting the Vows" ("Xi shi") -- 11. "Mourning Qu Yuan" ("Diao Qu Yuan") and "The Owl Rhapsody" ("Fu fu") -- 12. "I Lament It Was Not My Destiny" ("Ai shiming") -- 13. "Calling the Hermit Back" ("Zhao yinshi") -- Appendix: Dating the Works in the Chuci -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Elegies of Chu

Elegies of Chu PDF Author: Nicholas Morrow Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192550446
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Elegies of Chu (in Chinese, Chuci), one of the two surviving collections of ancient Chinese poetry, is a key source for the whole tradition of Chinese poetry. Because the elegies contain passionate expressions of political protest as well as shamanistic themes of magic spells and wandering spirits, they present an alternative face of early Chinese culture; one that does not align with orthodox Confucianism. This translation employs literary English devices in order to emphasise the original structure of these Chinese poems. It also examines the extraordinarily vivid diction of the source texts, including of onomatopoeia, ornate descriptions, exotic flowers, dramatic landscapes, metaphors and startling similes. This translation will be based on the original anthology compiled in the Han dynasty by Wang Yi (2nd century CE), and contains a selection of poems that were collected from the 3rd century BCE through the Han dynasty. The anthology provides readers with an understanding of Chinese literature and its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court.

The Soul of Chinese Poetry

The Soul of Chinese Poetry PDF Author: Arthur Tafero
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781481962018
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
A collection of the poetry of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Laozi is highlighted in the Tao Te Ching with an interpretation by the author and The Way of Zhuangzi is also included as a special bonus. To understand China and the Chinese, one must first understand the philosophy espoused in these two masterpieces of Chinese Literature.

Southern Identity and Southern Estrangement in Medieval Chinese Poetry

Southern Identity and Southern Estrangement in Medieval Chinese Poetry PDF Author: Ping Wang
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888139266
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
From ancient times, China's remote and exotic South—a shifting and expanding region beyond the Yangtze River—has been an enduring theme in Chinese literature. For poets and scholar-officials in medieval China, the South was a barbaric frontier region of alienation and disease. But it was also a place of richness and fascination, and for some a site of cultural triumph over exile. The eight essays in this collection explore how tensions between pride in southern culture and anxiety over the alien qualities of the southern frontier were behind many of the distinctive features of medieval Chinese literature. They examine how prominent writers from this period depicted themselves and the South in poetic form through attitudes that included patriotic attachment and bitter exile. By the Tang dynasty, poetic symbols and clichés about the exotic South had become well established, though many writers were still able to use these in innovative ways. Southern Identity and Southern Estrangement in Medieval Chinese Poetry is the first work in English to examine the cultural south in classical Chinese poetry. The book incorporates original research on key poets, such as Lu Ji, Jiang Yan, Wang Bo, and Li Bai. It also offers a broad survey of cultural and historical trends during the medieval period, as depicted in poetry. The book will be of interest to students of Chinese literature and cultural history. Ping Wang is assistant professor of Chinese at University of Washington, Seattle. Nicholas Morrow Williams is research assistant professor at the Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute, Hong Kong Baptist University. "A long-overdue appreciation of the South as a center for the production of medieval Chinese literature as well as a focal point of Chinese cultural and intellectual reflection and identity, this collection of essays by a stellar roster of leading scholars offers an immensely rich contribution to the study of classical Chinese poetry." — Martin Kern, Greg (’84) and Joanna (P13) Zeluck Professor in Asian Studies, Princeton University "This book presents a systematic study of how the symbol of the 'southland' was reinvented in medieval Chinese literature, taking readers on a cultural and geographic journey to survey the continuous rewriting of the South and its identity." — Yu Yu Cheng, Distinguished Professor of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University

How to Read Chinese Poetry

How to Read Chinese Poetry PDF Author: Zong-qi Cai
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231139403
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
In this "guided" anthology, experts lead students through the major genres and eras of Chinese poetry from antiquity to the modern time. The volume is divided into 6 chronological sections and features more than 140 examples of the best shi, sao, fu, ci, and qu poems. A comprehensive introduction and extensive thematic table of contents highlight the thematic, formal, and prosodic features of Chinese poetry, and each chapter is written by a scholar who specializes in a particular period or genre. Poems are presented in Chinese and English and are accompanied by a tone-marked romanized version, an explanation of Chinese linguistic and poetic conventions, and recommended reading strategies. Sound recordings of the poems are available online free of charge. These unique features facilitate an intense engagement with Chinese poetical texts and help the reader derive aesthetic pleasure and insight from these works as one could from the original. Contributors: Robert Ashmore (Univ. of California, Berkeley); Zong-qi Cai; Charles Egan (San Francisco State); Ronald Egan (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara); Grace Fong (McGill); David R. Knechtges (Univ. of Washington); Xinda Lian (Denison); Shuen-fu Lin (Univ. of Michigan); William H. Nienhauser Jr. (Univ. of Wisconsin); Maija Bell Samei; Jui-lung Su (National Univ. of Singapore); Wendy Swartz (Columbia); Xiaofei Tian (Harvard); Paula Varsano (Univ. of California, Berkeley); Fusheng Wu (Univ. of Utah)

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament PDF Author: Victor H. Mair
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135033720X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Bathed with the blood and tears of countless poets and authors and naturally expressing the most heartfelt emotions of ancient peoples, poems of mourning and texts of lament stand out in classical Chinese literature as brilliant and unique. Composed and celebrated over 3000 years, they are central to the Chinese literary tradition but have been largely unknown to English readers. Including over 100 major pieces by leading literary figures from 800 BCE – 1800, this is the first English anthology of classic Chinese poems of mourning and texts of sacrificial offering. With annotated translations by leading scholars and reading guides accompanying each piece, this book reveals a powerful literary heritage to students and serious readers of Chinese literature, history and civilization.

Pearl from the Dragon’s Mouth

Pearl from the Dragon’s Mouth PDF Author: Cecile Sun
Publisher: U OF M CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The interplay between the external world (ching) and the poet’s inner world (ch’ing) lies at the heart of Chinese poetry, and understanding the interaction of the two is crucial to understanding this work from within its own tradition. Closely coordinating her discussions of poetry and criticism so that practice and theory become mutually enriching and illuminating, Sun offers sensitive and original readings of poems and a wealth of insights into Chinese poetics.