The Columbia History of Chinese Literature

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature PDF Author: Victor H. Mair
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231528515
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1369

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Columbia History of Chinese Literature is a comprehensive yet portable guide to China's vast literary traditions. Stretching from earliest times to the present, the text features original contributions by leading specialists working in all genres and periods. Chapters cover poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, and consider such contextual subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion, the role of women, and China's relationship with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. Opening with a major section on the linguistic and intellectual foundations of Chinese literature, the anthology traces the development of forms and movements over time, along with critical trends, and pays particular attention to the premodern canon.

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature PDF Author: Victor H. Mair
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231528515
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1369

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Columbia History of Chinese Literature is a comprehensive yet portable guide to China's vast literary traditions. Stretching from earliest times to the present, the text features original contributions by leading specialists working in all genres and periods. Chapters cover poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, and consider such contextual subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion, the role of women, and China's relationship with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. Opening with a major section on the linguistic and intellectual foundations of Chinese literature, the anthology traces the development of forms and movements over time, along with critical trends, and pays particular attention to the premodern canon.

The Grand Scribe's Records

The Grand Scribe's Records PDF Author: Qian Sima
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253340284
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Get Book Here

Book Description


Ancestral Memory in Early China

Ancestral Memory in Early China PDF Author: K.E. Brashier
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684170567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ancestral ritual in early China was an orchestrated dance between what was present (the offerings and the living) and what was absent (the ancestors). The interconnections among the tangible elements of the sacrifice were overt and almost mechanical, but extending those connections to the invisible guests required a medium that was itself invisible. Thus in early China, ancestral sacrifice was associated with focused thinking about the ancestors, with a structured mental effort by the living to reach out to the absent forebears and to give them shape and existence. Thinking about the ancestors—about those who had become distant—required active deliberation and meditation, qualities that had to be nurtured and learned. This study is a history of the early Chinese ancestral cult, particularly its cognitive aspects. Its goals are to excavate the cult’s color and vitality and to quell assumptions that it was no more than a simplistic and uninspired exchange of food for longevity, of prayers for prosperity. Ancestor worship was not, the author contends, merely mechanical and thoughtless. Rather, it was an idea system that aroused serious debates about the nature of postmortem existence, served as the religious backbone to Confucianism, and may even have been the forerunner of Daoist and Buddhist meditation practices.

ART MYTH AND RITUAL P

ART MYTH AND RITUAL P PDF Author: Kwang-chih CHANG
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029402
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading scholar in the United States on Chinese archaeology challenges long-standing conceptions of the rise of political authority in ancient China. Questioning Marx's concept of an "Asiatic" mode of production, Wittfogel's "hydraulic hypothesis," and cultural-materialist theories on the importance of technology, K. C. Chang builds an impressive counterargument, one which ranges widely from recent archaeological discoveries to studies of mythology, ancient Chinese poetry, and the iconography of Shang food vessels.

Eastern Han (AD 25-220) Tombs in Sichuan

Eastern Han (AD 25-220) Tombs in Sichuan PDF Author: Xuan Chen
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784912174
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 124

Get Book Here

Book Description
This work explores the many factors underlying the extended popularity of the cliff tomb, a local burial form in the Sichuan Basin in China during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220).

The Divine Nature of Power

The Divine Nature of Power PDF Author: Tracy Miller
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 168417046X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
Built around three sacred springs, the Jin Shrines complex (Jinci), near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, contains a wealth of ancient art and architecture dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The complex’s 1,500-year-long textual record allows us to compare physical and written evidence to understand how the built environment was manipulated to communicate ideas about divinity, identity, and status. Jinci’s significance varied over time according to both its patrons’ needs and changes in the political and physical landscape. The impact of these changes can be read in the physical development of the site. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, and religious, social, and art historians, this book seeks to recover the motivations behind the creation of religious art, including temple buildings, sculpture, and wall paintings. Through an examination of building style and site organization, the author illuminates the multiplicity of meanings projected by buildings within a sacred landscape and the ability of competing patronage groups to modify those meanings with text and context, thereby affecting the identity of the deities housed within them. This study of the art and architecture of Jinci is thus about divine creations and their power to create divinity.

Constructing “Korean” Origins

Constructing “Korean” Origins PDF Author: Hyung Il Pai
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 168417337X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 589

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this wide-ranging study, Hyung Il Pai examines how archaeological finds from throughout Northeast Asia have been used in Korea to construct a myth of state formation. This myth emphasizes the ancient development of a pure Korean race that created a civilization rivaling those of China and Japan and a unified state controlling a wide area in Asia. Through a new analysis of the archaeological data, Pai shows that the Korean state was in fact formed much later and that it reflected diverse influences from throughout Northern Asia, particularly the material culture of Han China.

Art, Myth, and Ritual

Art, Myth, and Ritual PDF Author: K. C. Chang
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674253434
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading scholar in the United States on Chinese archaeology challenges long-standing conceptions of the rise of political authority in ancient China. Questioning Marx’s concept of an “Asiatic” mode of production, Wittfogel’s “hydraulic hypothesis,” and cultural-materialist theories on the importance of technology, K. C. Chang builds an impressive counterargument, one which ranges widely from recent archaeological discoveries to studies of mythology, ancient Chinese poetry, and the iconography of Shang food vessels.

The Wu Liang Shrine

The Wu Liang Shrine PDF Author: Wu Hung
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780804715294
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Get Book Here

Book Description
The funerary shrine of the Confucian scholar Wu Liang, created in AD 151, is the most important surviving pre-Buddhist monument in China. That is to say, it is the most important single work of visual art from the centuries that set the patterns of Chinese thought for almost two millennia. The importance of the shrine lies in the beauty of the stone reliefs on its walls and, especially, in the remarkably comprehensive iconography of its nearly one hundred scenes. They constitute, in effect, a coherent symbolic structure of the universe as the Han Chinese conceived it. This structure consists of three sections: the ceiling carvings present the Mandate of Heaven; the scenes on the two gables depict the paradise of the immortals; and the 44 stories related on the walls illustrate the history of mankind, starting with the creators of human culture and ending with a portrait of Wu Liang, who designed his own memorial. The author finds the shrine comparable, in the comprehensiveness and cultural significance of its iconography, to the cathedral at Chartres or the Sistine Chapel.

Mirror of Morality

Mirror of Morality PDF Author: Julia K. Murray
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 082486364X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mirror of Morality takes an interdisciplinary look at an important form of pictorial art produced during two millennia of Chinese imperial rule. Ideas about individual morality and state ideology were based on the ancient teachings of Confucius with modifications by later interpreters and government institutions. Throughout the imperial period, members of the elite made, sponsored, and inscribed or used illustrations of themes taken from history, literature, and recent events to promote desired conduct among various social groups. This dimension of Chinese art history has never before been broadly covered or investigated in historical context. The first half of the study examines the nature of narrative illustration in China and traces the evolution of its functions, conventions, and rhetorical strategies from the second century BCE through the eleventh century. Under the stimulus of Buddhism, sophisticated techniques developed for representing stories in visual form. While tracing changes in the social functions and cultural positions of narrative illustration, the second half of the book argues that narrative illustration continued to play a vital role in elite visual culture.