Download or read book A Jesuit in the Forbidden City written by R. Po-chia Hsia and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 16th century Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci was the founder of the Catholic Mission in China and one of the most famous missionaries of all time. A pioneer in bringing Christianity to China, Ricci spent twenty eight years in the country, in which time he crossed the cultural divides between China and the West by immersing himself in the language and culture of his hosts. Even 400 years later, he is still one of the best known westerners in China, celebrated for introducing western scientific and religious ideas to China and for explaining Chinese culture to Europe. The first critical biography of Ricci to use all relevant sources, both Chinese and Western, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City tells the story of a remarkable life that bridged Counter-Reformation Catholic Europe and China under the Ming dynasty. Hsia follows the life of Ricci from his childhood in Macerata, through his education in Rome, to his sojourn in Portuguese India, before the start of his long journey of self-discovery and cultural encounter in the Ming realm. Along the way, we glimpse the workings of the Portuguese maritime empire in Asia, the mission of the Society of Jesus, and life in the European enclave of Macau on the Chinese coast, as well as invaluable sketches of Ricci's fellow Jesuits and portraits of the Chinese mandarins who formed networks indispensible for Ricci's success. Examining a range of new sources, Hsia offers important new insights into Ricci's long period of trial and frustration in Guangdong province, where he first appeared in the persona of a foreign Buddhist monk, before the crucial move to Nanchang in 1595 that led to his sustained intellectual conversation with a leading Confucian scholar and subsequent synthesis of Christianity and Confucianism in propagating the Gospels in China. With his expertise in cartography, mathematics, and astronomy, Ricci quickly won recognition, especially after he had settled in Nanjing in 1598, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty. As his reputation and friendships grew, Ricci launched into a sharp polemic against Buddhism, while his career found its crowning achievement in the imperial capital of Beijing, leaving behind a life, work, and legacy that is still very much alive today.

Download or read book Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China 1583 1610 written by Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-11 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Here at last is the text that many college teachers of Chinese, Asian, and world history have been waiting for: an accessible collection of primary sources on the life of the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci and the Catholic mission that he helped establish in China. Ricci's missionary career indeed constituted a key moment in modern history, for it was through his examples and recommendations that the Jesuits in China collectively adopted an accommodative approach to Chinese culture and embarked on various projects of cultural translation that resulted in the first wave of sustained interactions between Chinese and European civilizations. Instructors and students alike will benefit greatly from Hsia's lucid introduction, which sets Ricci's life story against the broader background of Portuguese Asia, Catholic renewal, and late Ming China; the pithy, informative introductory statements preceding each document; a chronological chart of major relevant events; and an excellent annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources in multiple languages. This is a very affordable text produced at the highest academic standards." —Qiong Zhang, Associate Professor of History, Wake Forest University

Download or read book Fruitful Sites written by Craig Clunas and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gardens are sites that can be at one and the same time admired works of art and valuable pieces of real estate. As the first account in English to be wholly based on contemporary Chinese sources, this beautifully illustrated book grounds the practices of garden-making in Ming Dynasty China (1369–1644) firmly in the social and cultural history of the day. Who owned gardens? Who visited them? How were they represented in words, in paintings and in visual culture generally, and what meanings did these representations hold at different levels of Chinese society? Drawing on a wide range of recent work in cultural theory, Craig Clunas provides for the first time a historical and materialist account of Chinese garden culture, and replaces broad generalizations and orientalist fantasy with a convincing picture of the garden's role in social life.

Download or read book Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China written by Craig Clunas and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2006-03-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China is not simply a survey of sixteenth-century images, but rather, a thorough and thoughtful examination of visual culture in China's Ming Dynasty, one that considers images wherever they appeared—not only paintings, but also illustrated books, maps, ceramic bowls, lacquered boxes, painted fans, and even clothing and tomb pictures. Clunas's theory of visuality incorporates not only the image and the object upon which it is placed but also the culture which produced and purchased it. Economic changes in sixteenth-century China—the rapid expansion of trade routes and a growing class of consumers—are thus intricately bound up with the evolution of the image itself. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China will be a touchstone for students of Chinese history, art, and culture.

Download or read book Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos written by Sarah Schneewind and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: """Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos"", the first book focusing on premortem shrines in any era of Chinese history, places the institution at the intersection of politics and religion. When a local official left his post, grateful subjects housed an image of him in a temple, requiting his grace: that was the ideal model. By Ming times, the “living shrine” was legal, old, and justified by readings of the classics.Sarah Schneewind argues that the institution could invite and pressure officials to serve local interests; the policies that had earned a man commemoration were carved into stone beside the shrine. Since everyone recognized that elite men might honor living officials just to further their own careers, premortem shrine rhetoric stressed the role of commoners, who embraced the opportunity by initiating many living shrines. This legitimate, institutionalized political voice for commoners expands a scholarly understanding of “public opinion” in late imperial China, aligning it with the efficacy of deities to create a nascent political conception Schneewind calls the “minor Mandate of Heaven.” Her exploration of premortem shrine theory and practice illuminates Ming thought and politics, including the Donglin Party’s battle with eunuch dictator Wei Zhongxian and Gu Yanwu’s theories."

Download or read book Art as a Pathway to God written by Susangeline Yalili Patrick and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book integrates history, theology, and art and analyzes the Jesuits’ cross-cultural mission in late imperial China. Readers will find a rich collection of resources from historical sites, museums, manuscripts, and archival materials, including previous unpublished works of art. The production and circulation of art from different historical periods and categories show the artistic, theological, and missional values of Christian art. It highlights European Jesuits, Asian Christians, transnationalism, and gives voice to Chinese Christian women and their patronage of art in the seventeenth century. It offers a rare systematic study of the relation between art and mission history.

Download or read book Development History Of Ancient Chinese Glass Technology written by and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worldwide research on ancient glass began in the early 20th century. A consensus has been reached in the community of Archaeology that the first manmade or synthetic glasses, based on archaeological findings, originated in the Middle East during the 5000-3000's BC. By contrast, the manufacturing technology of pottery and ceramics were well developed in ancient China. The earliest pottery and ceramics dates back to the Shang Dynasty - the Zhou Dynasty (1700 BC-770 BC), while the earliest ancient glass artifacts unearthed in China dates back to the Western Han Dynasty. Utilizing the state-of-the art analytical and spectroscopic methods, the recent findings demonstrate that China had already developed its own glassmaking technology at latest since 200 BC. There are two schools of viewpoint on the origin of ancient Chinese glass. The more common one believes that ancient Chinese glass originated from the import of glassmaking technology from the West as a result of Sino-West trade exchanges in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD). The other scientifically demonstrates that homemade ancient Chinese glass with unique domestic formula containing both PbO and BaO were made as early as in the Pre-Qin Period or even the Warring States Period (770 BC-221 BC), known as Yousha or Faience.This English version of the previously published Chinese book entitled Development History of Ancient Chinese Glass Technology is for universities and research institutes where various research and educational activities of ancient glass and history are conducted. With 18 chapters, the scope of this book covers very detailed information on scientifically based findings of ancient Chinese glass development and imports and influence of foreign glass products as well as influence of the foreign glass manufacturing processes through the trade exchanges along the Silk Road(s).

Download or read book Chinese Popular Prints written by John Lust and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese Popular Prints ventures into the world of Chinese blockprint illustration that had its assured niche in the rich history of Chinese popular culture from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. These prints were not considered high art in China, but were produced for the urban and rural populations. The book deals with all aspects of the Chinese popular print. In the first two chapters its invention, origins, powerful traditions and its history are described. Classical art and the Ming illustrated book were important impetuses. Three major centres of north and central China emerged. Finally the popular print took on something of the roles of the modern cinema or television. In the following four chapters the main themes are: the printmakers and printshops; society, symbolism and visual pun; categories of popular prints and their display; technical terms. A description of the workshops and their techniques, figure drawing and colouring, gives a good insight in the technical side of the print. A varied popular culture and a certain realism are strands in it, as are spirit protection of the house, recalls of the past, hopes for the future, the hold of the theatre, etc. Two elaborate appendices provide much detailed information about persons, symbols, as well as about some images in the lore of the print. A special section of 28 illustrations (8 full colour) demonstrates the potentialities of the Chinese blockprint illustration.

Download or read book The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China Volume 3 written by Joseph Needham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A section of Volume IV, part 1 and a section of Volume IV, part 3 of the major series:

Download or read book The Population History of China 1368 1953 written by Shuji Cao and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1368 to 1953, China's administrative divisions were mainly composed of counties, prefectures, and provinces. This book shows the population figures, density, and changes in the provincial population in China during this period and population figures of each major city and town and its proportion in terms of the provincial population during this period―the urbanization rate. Data in this book is drawn partly from historical sources and partly from statistical-model-based calculations. The book also includes provincial population maps in 1393, and their original statistical models, population databases, and metadata.

Download or read book Papers on Chinese History written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Basic Spoken Chinese written by Cornelius C. Kubler and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a beginning-level course in spoken Chinese that employs a revolutionary new method designed to have you quickly speaking and comprehending Mandarin Chinese. Along with its sister book Basic Written Chinese and their accompanying workbooks, Basic Spoken Chinese offers a complete introductory course to the Chinese language. As a native English speaker, working hard to learn Chinese is not enough; you have to work smart to learn this very different language efficiently. Downloadable audio and video reinforce the material introduced in the book. No matter why you've chosen to learn Chinese--for business, travel, cultural studies or another goal--the Basic Chinese approach of two separate but integrated tracks in spoken and written Chinese will help you learn this language most efficiently and successfully. Detailed explanations in English of Chinese pronunciation, grammar, usage, culture, society, and recommended learning approaches. A digital Instructor's Guide is available electronically. A written Character Transcript (Simplified and Traditional) is available electronically. The downloadable materials feature: 40 videos with dozens of native speakers filmed on location in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. 6 hours of native-speaker audio, including all of the book's conversations. Build up sections, new words, and pronunciation exercises. Available separately, Basic Spoken Chinese Practice Essentials is the companion workbook for Basic Spoken Chinese. This practical guide includes a broad range of drills and exercises designed to enhance your proficiency in speaking and comprehending dramatically. While intended for use with the companion textbook, it can be used together with any Chinese textbook or teaching program to hone your Chinese language skills.

Download or read book A Sociological Analysis of Depression in China written by I-Hsin Hsiao and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the relationship between macro-social structure, social construction and micro-healthcare behaviors. It constructs a two-layered and two-faceted sociological analytical framework to analyze the causes of depression in China and account for the comparatively low rate of depression in the country, and provides a sociological interpretation of depression in China from a global perspective that has rarely been adopted in previous sociological studies in China. Presenting first-hand data and case studies, it describes and analyzes patients’ subjective experience and actions as well as physicians’ viewpoints. It also includes interviews with 34 patients, 4 family members, 3 psychological consultants and 5 psychiatrists. Offering an integrated interpretation of depression in China from the perspectives of sociology, medical science and psychology, this book is intended primarily, but not exclusively, for the growing body of researchers and students who are looking for ways of analyzing depression, especially in China. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners working in the field.

Download or read book Glossary of Chinese Medicine E Book written by Li Tian and published by Elsevier Health Sciences. This book was released on 2016-07-02 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone who learns the skills of acupuncture or who extends his knowledge of TCM is inevitably confronted with terms which hitherto had always meant something different to him or her. Take the use of the word "wind", for example, to refer to a pathogenic factor contributing to illnesses – rather than its sense as a climatic factor. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that, in most books, these terms are not used in a clear and uniform way. One of the many examples is the Chinese term "xu" which is translated as "insufficiency" but also as "deficiency" or "severity" and is often not even used consistently within one and the same publication. This glossary presents all the Chinese terms (in Chinese characters and in Pinyin script) that are relevant to TCM and provides their English translations. It also provides an explanation of how, for example, the location or the function of an acupuncture point can be concluded from its name. • Teaches the reader to correctly pronounce important terms from TCM, which are increasingly used in pinyin transcription• The significance of TCM concepts provide explanations for the function of points and medications• Written by leading experts in the field• Attractive design throughout

Download or read book Dao De Jing written by Lao Zi and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dao De Jing, or so simply referred to as the Laozi, is a Chinese classic text. The text's true authorship and date of composition or compilation are still debated. The oldest excavated portion dates back to the late 4th century BCE, but modern scholarship dates other parts of the text as having been written, or at least compiled later than the earliest portions of the Zhuangzi. The Tao Te Ching, along with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism, and strongly influenced other schools, such as Legalism, Confucianism, and Chinese Buddhism, which when first introduced into China was largely interpreted through the use of Daoist words and concepts. Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and even gardeners, have used the Daodejing as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside East Asia, and it is among the most translated works in world literature.

Download or read book Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine written by Elisabeth Hsu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-27 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, focusing on a biography of Chunyu Yi.

Download or read book International Law and Domestic Legal Systems written by Dinah Shelton and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 749 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Different countries incorporate and interpret international law in different ways. This book provides a systematic analysis of the domestic constitutional regime of over two dozen countries, setting out the status accorded to international law in those countries and its normative weight, as well as problems relating to its implementation. This country-by-country comparison allows the book to examine how the international legal order and domestic legal systems interact and influence each other. Through a series of chapters on the role of international law in 27 countries throughout the world, it shows a growing tendency towards greater democratic participation in treaty-making coupled with a significant utilization of informal agreements that by-pass such participation, as well as a role for non-binding normative instruments as persuasive authority in domestic judicial decision-making. The chapters suggest a stronger attachment to international law in legal systems that have survived a period of repression, resulting in many cases in a higher normative status for international human rights instruments in those states. The impact of the European Union on the constitutional order of its member states is also examined.