Download or read book The Chinese Knight Errant written by James J.Y. Liu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1967, is a comprehensive study of knight-errantry in Chinese history and literature from the fourth century BC to the twentieth century. After discussing the social and intellectual backgrounds of knight-errantry, it gives examples of historical knights and describes the development of the theme of knight-errantry in poetry, fiction and drama. Many biographies, anecdotes, poems and tales are translated in full, while long prose romances and dramatic works are summarized and discussed. As background to these, sketches of the developments of Chinese fiction and drama are provided. In a final chapter, comparisons are made between Chinese and European knights, and between Chinese and Western chivalric literature.
Download or read book The Sword Or the Needle written by Roland Altenburger and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on narratives about female knights-errant (xia) along thematic lines in Chinese literacy history, this text provides an overview of the narrative subgenre, the literary representation of gender and the particularities of the Chinese knight-errantry narrative.
Download or read book Chinese Martial Arts Cinema written by Stephen Teo and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-13 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive, fully-researched account of the historical and contemporary development of the traditional martial arts genre in the Chinese cinema known as wuxia (literal translation: martial chivalry) - a genre which audiences around the world became familiar with through the phenomenal 'crossover' hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The book unveils rich layers of the wuxia tradition as it developed in the early Shanghai cinema in the late 1920s, and from the 1950s onwards, in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industries. Key attractions of the book are analyses of:*The history of the tradition as it began in the Shanghai cinema, its rise and popularity as a serialized form in the silent cinema of the late 1920s, and its eventual prohibition by the government in 1931.*The fantastic characteristics of the genre, their relationship with folklore, myth and religion, and their similarities and differences with the kung fu sub-genre of martial arts cinema.*The protagonists and heroes of the genre, in particular the figure of the female knight-errant.*The chief personalities and masterpieces of the genre - directors such as King Hu, Chu Yuan, Zhang Che, Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, and films such as Come Drink With Me (1966), The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), A Touch of Zen (1970-71), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006).
Download or read book Traditional Chinese Stories written by Yau-Woon Ma and published by Cheng & Tsui. This book was released on 1986 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries the Chinese referred to their fiction as xiaoshuo, etymologically meaning roadside gossip or small talk, and held it in relative disregard.
Download or read book Chinese Martial Arts Film and the Philosophy of Action written by Stephen Teo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the philosophy of Chinese martial arts film, arguing that philosophy provides a key to understanding the whole genre. It draws on Chinese philosophical ideas derived from, or based on, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and other schools of thought such as Mohism and Legalism, examines a cluster of recent Chinese martial arts films centering on the figure of the xia—the heroic protagonist, the Chinese equivalent of medieval Europe’s knight-errant—and outlines the philosophical principles and themes undergirding the actions of xia and their narratives. Overall, the author argues that the genre, apart from being an action-oriented entertainment medium, is inherently moral and ethical.
Download or read book The Assassin written by Peng Hsiao-yen and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Assassin tells the story of a swordswoman who refrains from killing. Hou Hsiao-hsien astonishes his audience once again by upsetting almost every convention of the wuxia (martial arts) genre in the film. This collection offers eleven readings, each as original and thought-provoking as the film itself, beginning with one given by the director himself. Contributors analyze the elliptical way of storytelling, Hou’s adaptation of the source text (a tale from the Tang dynasty, also included in this volume), the film’s appropriation of traditional Chinese visual aesthetics, as well as the concept of xia (knight-errant) that is embedded in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist worldviews. There are also discussions of the much-celebrated sonic design of The Assassin: the nearly exclusive use of a diegetic film score is a statement on the director’s belief in cinematic reality. Underlying all the chapters is a focus on how Hou reinvents Tang-dynasty China in contemporary culture. The meticulously recreated everyday reality of the Tang world in the film highlights the ethnic and cultural diversity of the dynasty. It was a time when Sogdian traders acted as important intermediaries between Central Asia and the Tang court, and as a result Sogdian culture permeated the society. Taking note of the vibrant hybridity of Tang culture in the film, this volume shows that the historical openness to non-Chinese elements is in fact an essential part of the Chineseness expressed in Hou’s work. The Assassin is a gateway to the remote Tang-dynasty world, but in Hou’s hands the concerns of that premodern world turn out to be highly relevant to the world of the audience. “This book promises to be a useful companion to the film The Assassin. Contributors to this collection have convincingly and compellingly elucidated some of the film’s most difficult features. The result is a rich and wide-ranging analysis of one of the most beautiful films of our time.” —Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, The University of Texas at Austin “This collection of essays unfolds the many layers of The Assassin by speaking to its aesthetic achievements, reinvention of genre conventions, deep historical engagement, and philosophical substance. It exceeds the sum of its individual parts by building a vibrant cross-disciplinary conversation among a diverse group of accomplished scholars, who contribute original and compelling insights on the film.” —Jean Ma, Stanford University
Download or read book Paper Swordsmen written by John Christopher Hamm and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The martial arts novel is one of the most distinctive and widely-read forms of modern Chinese fiction. John Christopher Hamm offers the first in-depth English-language study of this fascinating and influential genre, focusing on the work of its undisputed twentieth-century master, Jin Yong.
Download or read book The Art of Chinese Poetry written by James J. Y. Liu and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1966-04-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise introduction to Chinese poetry serves as a primer for English-speakers eager to expand their understanding and enjoyment of Chinese culture. James J. Y. Liu first examines the Chinese language as a medium of poetic expression and, contrary to the usual focus on the visual qualities of Chinese script, emphasizes the auditory effects of Chinese verse. He provides a succinct survey of Chinese poetry theory and concludes with his own view of poetry, based upon traditional Chinese concepts. "[This] books should be read by all those interested in Chinese poetry."—Achilles Fang, Poetry "[This is] a significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Chinese poetry, lucidly presented in a way that will attract a wide audience, and offering an original synthesis of Chinese and Western views that will stimulate and inspire students of poetry everywhere."—Hans H. Frankel, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies "This is a book which can be recommended without reservation to anyone who wants to explore the world of Chinese poetry in translation."—James R. Hightower, Journal of Asian Studies
Download or read book The Adventures of Ma Suzhen written by Paul Bevan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The comic novel, The Adventures of Ma Suzhen, was written during a highpoint in the popularity of xia “knight-errant” fiction. It is an action-packed tale of a young woman who takes revenge for her brother, Ma Yongzhen, a gangster and performing strongman, who has been murdered by a rival gang in China’s most cosmopolitan city, Shanghai. After publication of the book in 1923, the character of Ma Suzhen appeared on stage, and subsequently in a film made by the Mingxing Film Company. The book version translated here, displays a delightful combination of the xia and popular“Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies” genres, with additional elements of Gong’an “court case” fiction. The translation is followed by an essay that explores the background to the legend of Ma Suzhen – a fictional figure, whose exhilarating escapades reflect some of the new possibilities and freedoms available to women following the founding of the Chinese Republic.
Download or read book Chinese Emperor written by Jean Levi and published by Random House Value Publishing. This book was released on 1990 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tang Dynasty Tales written by William H. Nienhauser and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2010 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive survey of the genre of Tang tales in English, including discussions of the numerous Chinese studies from the last decade. Tang Tales itself contains the first annotated translations of these famous stories, which are deciphered and interpreted specifically for students and scholars interested in the medieval Chinese literature. Following the model of intertextual readings employed by Glen Dudbridge in The Tale of Li Wa (Oxford, 1983), the annotation points to the resonances to the classical texts; the translator's notes following each translation then explain how these references expand the meaning of the text. In addition to six translations of the major tales (chuanqi, "transmitting the strange"), there is also a rendition of a fantastic tale by Liu Zongyuan, suggesting close ties with popular and oral literature. The appended glossary of terms marks the first attempt to create such a reference for readers and scholars of Tang tales that will be of use in reading other tales as well. The meticulous scholarship of this book elevates it above all existing collections of these stories, and the inclusion of the standard introduction to the Tang tales for graduate students and researchers engenders a deeper appreciation.
Download or read book The Past and the Punishments written by Hua Yu and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1996-05-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To travel through these stories is to cross a landscape of stunning beauty and terrific cruelty, where expectations are subverted, where moral certainties are shattered, where gorgeously wrought surfaces beguile at the same time that acts of incredible brutality horrify. It is no wonder that Yu Hua’s stories caused a sensation when they first appeared in the 1980s. His work represents a sophisticated and often disturbing revolution in the Chinese literary tradition, reminiscent of the fiction of modernists like Kafka, Kawabata, Borges, and Robbe-Grillet, but drawing inspiration from several strains of traditional Chinese narrative as well. This is the first collection of short fiction by Yu Hua to appear in English. It takes us on a haunting and harrowing journey from classical China through the Cultural Revolution and into the new era of economic reform, exploding along the way our preconceived notions of what Chinese literature and culture are all about in the 1990s.
Download or read book The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature written by William H. Nienhauser and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""A vertitable feast of concise, useful, reliable, and up-to-dateinformation (all prepared by top scholars in the field), Nienhauser's now two-volumetitle stands alone as THE standard reference work for the study of traditionalChinese literature. Nothing like it has ever been published."" --Choice The second volume to The Indiana Companion to TraditionalChinese Literature is both a supplement and an update to the original volume. VolumeII includes over 60 new entries on famous writers, works, and genres of traditionalChinese literature, followed by an extensive bibliographic update (1985-1997) ofeditions, translations, and studies (primarily in English, Chinese, Japanese, French, and German) for the 500+ entries of Volume I.
Download or read book The Libertine s Friend written by Giovanni Vitiello and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delving into three hundred years of Chinese literature, from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, The Libertine’s Friend uncovers the complex and fascinating history of male homosexual and homosocial relations in the late imperial era. Drawing particularly on overlooked works of pornographic fiction, Giovanni Vitiello offers a frank exploration of the importance of same-sex love and eroticism to the evolution of masculinity in China. Vitiello’s story unfolds chronologically, beginning with the earliest sources on homoeroticism in pre-imperial China and concluding with a look at developments in the twentieth century. Along the way, he identifies a number of recurring characters—for example, the libertine scholar, the chivalric hero, and the lustful monk—and sheds light on a set of key issues, including the social and legal boundaries that regulated sex between men, the rise of male prostitution, and the aesthetics of male beauty. Drawing on this trove of material, Vitiello presents a historical outline of changing notions of male homosexuality in China, revealing the integral part that same-sex desire has played in its culture.
Download or read book How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context written by Zong-qi Cai and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context is an introduction to the golden age of Chinese poetry, spanning the earliest times through the Tang dynasty (618–907). It aims to break down barriers—between language and culture, poetry and history—that have stood in the way of teaching and learning Chinese poetry. Not only a primer in early Chinese poetry, the volume demonstrates the unique and central role of poetry in the making of Chinese culture. Each chapter focuses on a specific theme to show the interplay between poetry and the world. Readers discover the key role that poetry played in Chinese diplomacy, court politics, empire building, and institutionalized learning; as well as how poems shed light on gender and women’s status, war and knight-errantry, Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and more. The chapters also show how people of different social classes used poetry as a means of gaining entry into officialdom, creating self-identity, fostering friendship, and airing grievances. The volume includes historical vignettes and anecdotes that contextualize individual poems, investigating how some featured texts subvert and challenge the grand narratives of Chinese history. Presenting poems in Chinese along with English translations and commentary, How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context unites teaching poetry with the social circumstances surrounding its creation, making it a pioneering and versatile text for the study of Chinese language, literature, history, and culture.
Download or read book Women Warriors and Wartime Spies of China written by Louise Edwards and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores China's most famous women warriors and wartime spies, shedding new light on the relationship between gender and militarisation.
Download or read book Assassin s Mace written by Saif Ul Islam Khan and published by . This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book 'Assassin's Mace, a Chinese Game Changer' is an intriguing and captivating analysis of China's ancient strategy that advocates use of 'surprise weapons' by an inferior (person or force) to defeat a superior adversary and adaptation of this strategy by modern China as she takes strides towards enhancing her position in global order. The long term goal for China is to avenge its historical suppression and make the Middle Kingdom the numero uno nation of the world. International relationship, economic development and security issues are being orchestrated with finesse to attain the objective. The author has examined China's attempt to focus her efforts to meet her goal. After an objective assessment of China's international relationship and security concerns and likely future actions, the author brings focus of the reader to the evolution of Assassin's Mace weapons. The book attempts to trace the trajectory in the evolution of combat disruptive technologies and unveils scenarios in which Assassin's Mace may be employed in future high technology environment.
