Author : Li-ling Hsiao
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9047419952
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (474 download)
Book Synopsis The Eternal Present of the Past by : Li-ling Hsiao
Download or read book The Eternal Present of the Past written by Li-ling Hsiao and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study draws together various elements in late Ming culture – illustration, theater, literature – and examines their interrelation in the context of the publication of drama. It examines a late Ming conception of the stage as a mystical space in which the past was literally reborn within the present. This temporal conflation allowed the past to serve as a vigorous and immediate moral example and was considered a hugely important mechanism by which the continuity of the Confucian tradition could be upheld. By using theatrical conventions of stage arrangement, acting gesture, and frontal address, drama illustration recreated the mystical character of the stage within the pages of the book, and thus set the conflation of past and present on a broader footing.