Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones PDF Author: Peter Hessler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061834122
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones PDF Author: Peter Hessler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061834122
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

Sources of Shang History

Sources of Shang History PDF Author: David N. Keightley
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520054554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description


The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East

The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East PDF Author: Adam C. Schwartz
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501505297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
Since 1899 more than 73,000 pieces of inscribed divination shell and bone have been found inside the moated enclosure of the Anyang-core at the former capital of the late Shang state. Nearly all of these divinations were done on behalf of the Shang kingsand has led to the apt characterization that oracle bone inscriptions describe their motivations, experiences, and priorities. There are, however, much smaller sets of divination accounts that were done on behalf of members of the Shang elite other than the king.First noticed in the early 1930's, grouped and periodized shortly thereafter, oracle bone inscriptions produced explicitly by or on behalf of "royal familygroups" reveal information about key aspects of daily life in Shang societythat are barely even mentioned in Western scholarship. The newly published Huayuanzhuang East Oracle Bone inscriptions are a spectacular addition to the corpus of texts from Anyang: hundreds of intact or largely intact turtle shells and bovine scapulae densely inscribed with records of the divinations in which they were used. They were produced on the behalf of a mature prince of the royal family whose parents, both alive and still very much active, almost certainly were the twenty-first Shang king Wu Ding (r. c. 1200 B.C.) and his consort Lady Hao (fu Hao). The Huayuanzhuang East corpus is an unusually homogeneous set of more than two thousand five hundred divination records, produced over a short period of time on behalf of a prince of the royal family. There are typically multiple records of divinations regarding the same or similar topics that can be synchronized together, which not only allows for remarkable access into the esoteric world of divination practice, but also produce micro-reconstructions of what is essentially East Asia's earliest and most complete "day and month planner." Because these texts are unusually linguistically transparent and well preserved, homogeneous in orthography and content, and published to an unprecedentedly high standard, they are also ideal material for learning to read and interpret early epigraphic texts. The Huayuanzhuang East oracle bone inscriptions are a tremendously important Shang archive of "material documents" that were produced by a previously unknown divination and scribal organization. They expose us to an entirely fresh set of perspectives and preoccupationscentering ona member of the royal family at the commencement of China's historical period. The completely annotated English translation of the inscriptions is the first of its kind, and is a vibrant new source of Shang history that can be accessedto rewrite and supplement what we know about early Chinese civilization and life in the ancient world. Before the discerning reader are the motives, preoccupations, and experiences of a late Shang prince working simultaneously in service both for his Majesty, his parents, and hisown family.

River Town

River Town PDF Author: Peter Hessler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062028987
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable book, this memoir by a journalist who lived in a small city in China is “a vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be. “This touching memoir of an American dropped into the center of China transcends the boundaries of the travel genre and will appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about the heart and soul of the Chinese people. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “This is a colorful memoir from a Peace Corps volunteer who came away with more understanding of the Chinese than any foreign traveler has a right to expect.” —Booklist

The Oracle of the Bones/Book With Casting Bones and Casting Map Cloth

The Oracle of the Bones/Book With Casting Bones and Casting Map Cloth PDF Author: Claire O'Neil
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 9780312110390
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
An exciting new oracle system based on the ancient African and Caribbean tradition of bone-casting. This unique pack contains everything needed to become an adept bone-caster in very little time, including four ceramic bones, a lay diagram--onto which the bones are cast--and an illustrated book with complete instructions and interpretations.

Oracle Bone

Oracle Bone PDF Author: Lydia Kwa
Publisher: arsenal pulp press
ISBN: 1551527006
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In 7th-century China, life is rife with magic, fox spirits, and demons. Xie, the demon lover of the empress Wu Zhao, believes he must possess the oracle bone, which will bestow immortal powers on him. In his way is Qilan, an eccentric Daoist nun, who is training the orphan girl Ling to avenge her parents’ murder.

Oracle Bones, Stars, and Wheelbarrows

Oracle Bones, Stars, and Wheelbarrows PDF Author: Frank Ross
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780395549674
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Discusses the achievements of the ancient Chinese in astronomy, medicine, science, and engineering, as well as such influential Chinese inventions as paper, printing, gunpowder, and the compass.

The Zulu Bone Oracle

The Zulu Bone Oracle PDF Author: Ulufudu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description


Strange Stones

Strange Stones PDF Author: Peter Hessler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062206249
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage—a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions. This unusual perspective distinguishes Strange Stones, which showcases Hessler’s unmatched range as a storyteller. “Wild Flavor” invites readers along on a taste test between two rat restaurants in South China. One story profiles Yao Ming, basketball star and China’s most beloved export, another David Spindler, an obsessive and passionate historian of the Great Wall. In “Dr. Don,” Hessler writes movingly about a small-town pharmacist and his relationship with the people he serves. While Hessler’s subjects and locations vary, subtle but deeply important thematic links bind these pieces—the strength of local traditions, the surprising overlap between apparently opposing cultures, and the powerful lessons drawn from individuals who straddle different worlds.

Dragon Bones - Ritual, Myth and Oracle in Shang Period China

Dragon Bones - Ritual, Myth and Oracle in Shang Period China PDF Author: Jan Fries
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781905297627
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 838

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Book Description
Dragon Bones is a masterly and insightful exploration of ritual, myth and oracles in Shang Period China. The author shines a light on one of the most obscure and least-known areas of ritual practice in the ancient world, demonstrating its value and connection to the development of magical practices in China over a period of many centuries.