Ten Thousand Things

Ten Thousand Things PDF Author: Lothar Ledderose
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691252882
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
An incomparable look at how Chinese artists have used mass production to assemble exquisite objects from standardized parts Chinese workers in the third century BC created seven thousand life-sized terracotta soldiers to guard the tomb of the First Emperor. In the eleventh century AD, Chinese builders constructed a pagoda from as many as thirty thousand separately carved wooden pieces. As these examples show, throughout history, Chinese artisans have produced works of art in astonishing quantities, and have done so without sacrificing quality, affordability, or speed of manufacture. In this book, Lothar Ledderose takes us on a remarkable tour of Chinese art and culture to explain how artists used complex systems of mass production to assemble extraordinary objects from standardized parts or modules. He reveals how these systems have deep roots in Chinese thought and reflect characteristically Chinese modes of social organization. Combining invaluable aesthetic and cultural insights with a rich variety of illustrations, Ten Thousand Things make a profound statement about Chinese art and society.

Ten Thousand Things

Ten Thousand Things PDF Author: Lothar Ledderose
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691252882
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
An incomparable look at how Chinese artists have used mass production to assemble exquisite objects from standardized parts Chinese workers in the third century BC created seven thousand life-sized terracotta soldiers to guard the tomb of the First Emperor. In the eleventh century AD, Chinese builders constructed a pagoda from as many as thirty thousand separately carved wooden pieces. As these examples show, throughout history, Chinese artisans have produced works of art in astonishing quantities, and have done so without sacrificing quality, affordability, or speed of manufacture. In this book, Lothar Ledderose takes us on a remarkable tour of Chinese art and culture to explain how artists used complex systems of mass production to assemble extraordinary objects from standardized parts or modules. He reveals how these systems have deep roots in Chinese thought and reflect characteristically Chinese modes of social organization. Combining invaluable aesthetic and cultural insights with a rich variety of illustrations, Ten Thousand Things make a profound statement about Chinese art and society.

Ten Thousand Things

Ten Thousand Things PDF Author: Judith Farquhar
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1935408186
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Examines the myriad ways contemporary residents of Beijing understand and nurture the good life, practice the embodied arts of everyday well-being, and in doing so draw on cultural resources ranging from ancient metaphysics to modern media.

The Crafting of the 10,000 Things

The Crafting of the 10,000 Things PDF Author: Dagmar Schäfer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226735850
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The last decades of the Ming dynasty, though plagued by chaos and destruction, saw a significant increase of publications that examined advances in knowledge and technology. Among the numerous guides and reference books that appeared during this period was a series of texts by Song Yingxing (1587–1666?), a minor local official living in southern China. His Tiangong kaiwu, the longest and most prominent of these works, documents the extraction and processing of raw materials and the manufacture of goods essential to everyday life, from yeast and wine to paper and ink to boats, carts, and firearms. In The Crafting of the 10,000 Things, Dagmar Schäfer probes this fascinating text and the legacy of its author to shed new light on the development of scientific thinking in China, the purpose of technical writing, and its role in and effects on Chinese history. Meticulously unfolding the layers of Song’s personal and cultural life, Schäfer chronicles the factors that motivated Song to transform practical knowledge into written culture. She then examines how Song gained, assessed, and ultimately presented knowledge, and in doing so articulates this era’s approaches to rationality, truth, and belief in the study of nature and culture alike. Finally, Schäfer places Song’s efforts in conjunction with the work of other Chinese philosophers and writers, before, during, and after his time, and argues that these writings demonstrate collectively a uniquely Chinese way of authorizing technology as a legitimate field of scholarly concern and philosophical knowledge. Offering an overview of a thousand years of scholarship, The Crafting of the 10,000 Things explains the role of technology and crafts in a culture that had an outstandingly successful tradition in this field and was a crucial influence on the technical development of Europe on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

Ten Thousand Things on China and the Chinese

Ten Thousand Things on China and the Chinese PDF Author: Barnum's Chinese Museum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description


China in Ten Words

China in Ten Words PDF Author: Yu Hua
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307739791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
From one of China’s most acclaimed writers: a unique, intimate look at the Chinese experience over the last several decades. Framed by ten phrases common in the Chinese vernacular, China in Ten Words uses personal stories and astute analysis to reveal as never before the world’s most populous yet oft-misunderstood nation. In "Disparity," for example, Yu Hua illustrates the expanding gaps that separate citizens of the country. In "Copycat," he depicts the escalating trend of piracy and imitation as a creative new form of revolutionary action. And in "Bamboozle," he describes the increasingly brazen practices of trickery, fraud, and chicanery that are, he suggests, becoming a way of life at every level of society. Witty, insightful, and courageous, this is a refreshingly candid vision of the "Chinese miracle" and all of its consequences.

Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things

Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things PDF Author: Gary Geddes
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 1402753446
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
"Gary Geddes follows the trail of the legendary Huishen, an Afghan monk who fled from Kabul to China and crossed the Pacific to North America a thousand years before Columbus."--Jacket.

'Ten thousand Chinese Things'

'Ten thousand Chinese Things' PDF Author: William B. Langdon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description


Chinese Whispers

Chinese Whispers PDF Author: Ben Chu
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297868462
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
'Chu's smart, iconoclastic portrait dismantles seven misconceptions' [NEW STATESMEN] about modern China and offers a corrective to Western assumptions. THE CHINESE ARE THE MOST HARDWORKING PEOPLE ON EARTH... so why are the younger generation derided as spoiled and lazy? CHINESE PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT POLITICAL FREEDOM... so why is the country's internet exploding with anti-regime dissent? CHINA WILL ONE DAY RULE THE WORLD... so why do the country's political leaders feel so insecure? Perhaps it is time to stop engaging in a centuries-old game of Chinese whispers in which the facts have become more and more distorted in the telling. Ben Chu examines the myths that have come to dominate our view of the world's most populous nation, forcing us to question everything we thought we knew about it. The result is a penetrating, surprising and provocative insight into China today.

Ten Thousand Things Relating to China and the Chinese

Ten Thousand Things Relating to China and the Chinese PDF Author: Nathan Dunn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art objects, Chinese
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


Wealth and Power

Wealth and Power PDF Author: Orville Schell
Publisher:
ISBN: 0679643478
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Two leading experts on China evaluate its rise throughout the past one hundred fifty years, sharing portraits of key intellectual and political leaders to explain how China transformed from a country under foreign assault to a world giant.