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Jade Mountains And Cinnabar Pools
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Book Synopsis Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools by : James M. Hargett
Download or read book Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools written by James M. Hargett and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2018-12-21 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First-hand accounts of travel provide windows into places unknown to the reader, or new ways of seeing familiar places. In Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools, the first book-length treatment in English of Chinese travel literature (youji), James M. Hargett identifies and examines core works in the genre, from the Six Dynasties period (220�581), when its essential characteristics emerged, to its florescence in the late Ming dynasty (1368�1644). He traces the dynamic process through which the genre, most of which was written by scholars and officials, developed, and shows that key features include a journey toward an identifiable place; essay or diary format; description of places, phenomena, and conditions, accompanied by authorial observations, comments, and even personal feelings; inclusion of sensory details; and narration of movement through space and time. Travel literature�s inclusion of a variety of writing styles and purposes has made it hard to delineate. Hargett finds, however, that classic pieces of Chinese travel literature reveal much about the author, his values, and his view of the world, which in turn tells us about the author�s society, making travel literature a rich source of historical information.
Book Synopsis Jade Mountains & Cinnabar Pools by : James Morris Hargett
Download or read book Jade Mountains & Cinnabar Pools written by James Morris Hargett and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This broad-ranging study is the first book-length treatment in English or any other European language of Chinese travel literature (youji) as a genre. The material addressed, most of which was written by members of the scholar-official class, extends from the Six Dynasties period (220-581), when the essential, characteristic elements of prose travel literature in China emerged, to fluorescence in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), after which the tremendous physical expansion of the Chinese empire fundamentally changed the nature of travel. James Hargett identifies and examines the works that constitute the core of China's travel-literature tradition and traces the dynamic process through which the genre developed, as it incorporated interplay among authors and audiences, literary milieus, and cultural institutions. Travel literature's inclusion of a variety of writing styles and purposes has made it hard to delineate. Hargett finds, however, that classic pieces of Chinese travel literature present a coherent prose narrative of the physical experience of a journey through space towards an identifiable place; are written in essay or diary format, usually as an "account" (ji); describe places, phenomena, and conditions, accompanied by authorial observations, comments, and even personal feelings; include sensory details; and narrate movement through space and time. These accounts based on first-hand observation provide windows into places unknown to the reader, or new ways of seeing familiar places. They also reveal much about the author, his values, and his view of the world, and these features in turn tells us about the author's society, making travel literature a rich source of historical information"--
Book Synopsis Monastery of Jade Mountain by : Peter Goullart
Download or read book Monastery of Jade Mountain written by Peter Goullart and published by . This book was released on 2003-07-25 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era by : David B. Ruderman
Download or read book A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era written by David B. Ruderman and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1797, in what is now the Czech Republic, Pin as Hurwitz published one of the best-selling Hebrew books of the modern era. Nominally an extended commentary on a sixteenth-century kabbalist text, The Book of the Covenant was in fact a compendium of scientific knowledge and a manual of moral behavior. Its popularity stemmed from its ability to present the scientific advances and moral cosmopolitanism of its day in the context of Jewish legal and mystical tradition. Describing the latest developments in science and philosophy in the sacred language of Hebrew, Hurwitz argued that an intellectual understanding of the cosmos was not at odds with but actually key to achieving spiritual attainment. In A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era, David B. Ruderman offers a literary and intellectual history of Hurwitz�s book and its legacy. Hurwitz not only wrote the book, but was instrumental in selling it as well and his success ultimately led to the publication of more than forty editions in Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. Ruderman provides a multidimensional picture of the book and the intellectual tradition it helped to inaugurate. Complicating accounts that consider modern Jewish thought to be the product of a radical break from a religious, mystical past, Ruderman shows how, instead, a complex continuity shaped Jewish society�s confrontation with modernity.
Book Synopsis The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China by : Chun Mei
Download or read book The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China written by Chun Mei and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-01-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the concept of theatricality to study Water Margin and Journey to the West, this study illustrates how writing and reading in early modern China became fused with a theatrical imagination in response to destabilizing social and political forces.
Download or read book Guihai Yuheng Zhi written by Chengda Fan and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important work of twelfth-century Chinese scholarship is at once a gazetteer, an ethnography, and a natural history of south China - mainly Guangxi and Hainan - and its indigenous people. Now, for the first time in English, a complete and annotated translation captures its charm and significance for new generations of scholars. James M. Hargett is professor of Chinese at the State University of New York, Albany.
Book Synopsis The Rise of West Lake by : Xiaolin Duan
Download or read book The Rise of West Lake written by Xiaolin Duan and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "West Lake, near scenic Hangzhou on China's east coast, has been a major tourist site since the twelfth century and a model for idealized nature. Visitors boat to its islands, stroll through its gardens, worship in its temples, and celebrate it in poetry and painting. Xiaolin Duan examines the interplay between cultural norms and the natural environment around West Lake during the Song dynasty (960-1279). After the Song lost north China to the Jurchens and the imperial court fled south, a new capital was established at Hangzhou in 1127, making the area the national political and cultural center. Duan shows how leisure activities in, on, and around West Lake influenced visitors' conceptualization of nature and sparked the emergence of the lake as a tourist destination, and how the natural landscape played an active role in shaping social pursuits and cultural constructs. Incorporating evidence from miscellanies, local and temple gazetteers, paintings, maps, poems, and anecdotes, she explores the complexity of the lake as an interactive site where ecological and economic concerns contended and where spiritual pursuits overlapped with aesthetic ones. The book will appeal to readers interested in urban and environmental history, cultural geography, and the sociology of tourism"--
Book Synopsis The Collapse of Complex Societies by : Joseph Tainter
Download or read book The Collapse of Complex Societies written by Joseph Tainter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.
Book Synopsis Transforming Monkey by : Hongmei Sun
Download or read book Transforming Monkey written by Hongmei Sun and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Able to shape-shift and ride the clouds, wielding a magic cudgel and playing tricks, Sun Wukong (aka Monkey or the Monkey King) first attained superstar status as the protagonist of the sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji) and lives on in literature and popular culture internationally. In this far-ranging study Hongmei Sun discusses the thousand-year evolution of this figure in imperial China and multimedia adaptations in Republican, Maoist, and post-socialist China and the United States, including the film Princess Iron Fan (1941), Maoist revolutionary operas, online creative writings influenced by Hong Kong film A Chinese Odyssey (1995), and Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese. At the intersection of Chinese studies, Asian American studies, film studies, and translation and adaptation studies, Transforming Monkey provides a renewed understanding of the Monkey King character as a rebel and trickster, and demonstrates his impact on the Chinese self-conception of national identity as he travels through time and across borders.
Book Synopsis The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters by : Stephen Eskildsen
Download or read book The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters written by Stephen Eskildsen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephen Eskildsen's book offers an in-depth study of the beliefs and practices of the Quanzhen (Complete Realization) School of Taoism, the predominant school of monastic Taoism in China. The Quanzhen School was founded in the latter half of the twelfth century by the eccentric holy man Wan Zhe (1113–1170), whose work was continued by his famous disciples commonly known as the Seven Realized Ones. This study draws upon surviving texts to examine the Quanzhen masters' approaches to mental discipline, intense asceticism, cultivation of health and longevity, mystical experience, supernormal powers, death and dying, charity and evangelism, and ritual. From these primary sources, Eskildsen provides a clear understanding of the nature of Quanzhen Taoism and reveals its core emphasis to be the cultivation of clarity and purity of mind that occurs not only through seated meditation, but also throughout the daily activities of life.
Book Synopsis Journey to the West by : Wu Cheng'en
Download or read book Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en and published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!
Book Synopsis The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature by : Victor H. Mair
Download or read book The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature written by Victor H. Mair and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-03 with total page 902 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its fresh translations by newer voices in the field, its broad scope, and its flowing style, this anthology places the immense riches of Chinese literature within easy reach. Ranging from the beginnings to 1919, this abridged version of The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature retains all the characteristics of the original. In putting together these selections Victor H. Mair interprets "literature" very broadly to include not just literary fiction, poetry, and drama, but folk and popular literature, lyrics and arias, elegies and rhapsodies, biographies, autobiographies and memoirs, letters, criticism and theory, and travelogues and jokes.
Book Synopsis In the Shadow of the Cypress by : Thomas Steinbeck
Download or read book In the Shadow of the Cypress written by Thomas Steinbeck and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Steinbeck has been praised by Publishers Weekly for his stylistic brilliance and “accomplished voice.” Now, his enthralling novel In the Shadow of the Cypress blends history and suspense with literary mastery and brings vivid realism to California’s rich heritage. In 1906, the Chinese in California lived in the shadows. Their alien customs, traditions, and language hid what they valued from their neighbors . . . and left them open to scorn and prejudice. Their communities were ruled—and divided—by the necessity of survival among the many would-be masters surrounding them, by struggles between powerful tongs, and by duty to their ancestors. Then, in the wake of natural disaster, fate brought to light artifacts of incredible value along the Monterey coast: an ancient Chinese jade seal and a plaque inscribed in a trio of languages lost to all but scholars of antiquity. At first, chance placed control of those treasures in the hands of outsiders—the wayward Irishman who’d discovered them and a marine scholar who was determined to explore their secrets. The path to the truth, however, would prove to be as tangled as the roots of the ancient cypress that had guarded these treasures for so long, for there are some secrets the Chinese were not ready to share. Whether by fate, by subtle design, or by some intricate combination of the two, the artifacts disappeared again . . . before it could be proved that they must have come there ages before Europeans ever touched the wild and beautiful California coast. Nearly a century would pass before an unconventional young American scientist unearths evidence of this great discovery and its mysterious disappearance. Taking up the challenge, he begins to assemble a new generation of explorers to resume theperilous search into the ocean’s depth . . . and theshadows of history. Armed with cutting-edge, moderntechnology, and drawing on connections to powerful families at home and abroad, this time Americans and Chinese will follow together the path of secrets that have long proved as elusive as the ancient treasures that held them. This striking debut novel by a masterful writer weaves together two fascinating eras into one remarkable tale. In the Shadow of the Cypress is an evocative, dramatic story that depicts California in all its multicultural variety, with a suspense that draws the reader inexorably on until the very last page.
Book Synopsis A Ming Confucian’s World by : Lu Rong
Download or read book A Ming Confucian’s World written by Lu Rong and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2022-04-25 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A forgotten century marks the years between the Ming dynasty's (1368–1644) turbulent founding and its sixteenth-century age of exploration and economic transformation. In this period of social stability, retired scholar-official Lu Rong chronicled his observations of Chinese society in Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden (Shuyuan zaji). Openly expressing his admirations and frustrations, Lu provides a window into the quotidian that sets Bean Garden apart from other works of the biji genre of "informal notes." Mark Halperin organizes a translated selection of Lu's accounts from Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden to create a panorama of Ming life. A man of unusual curiosity, Lu describes multiple social classes, ethnicities, and locales in his accounts of political intrigues, farming techniques, religious practices, etiquette, crime, and family life. Centuries after their composition, Lu's words continue to provide a richly textured portrait of China on the cusp of the early modern era.
Book Synopsis The Halberd at Red Cliff by : Xiaofei Tian
Download or read book The Halberd at Red Cliff written by Xiaofei Tian and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The turn of the third century CE—known as the Jian’an era or Three Kingdoms period—holds double significance for the Chinese cultural tradition. Its writings laid the foundation of classical poetry and literary criticism. Its historical personages and events have also inspired works of poetry, fiction, drama, film, and art throughout Chinese history, including Internet fantasy literature today. There is a vast body of secondary literature on these two subjects individually, but very little on their interface.The image of the Jian’an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian’an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses."
Book Synopsis Wandering on the Way by : Tzu Chuang
Download or read book Wandering on the Way written by Tzu Chuang and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2000-04-01 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this vivid, contemporary translation, Victor Mair captures the quintessential life and spirit of Chuang Tzu while remaining faithful to the original text.
Book Synopsis The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East by : Adam C. Schwartz
Download or read book The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East written by Adam C. Schwartz and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-11-18 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
