Download or read book Three Kingdoms and Chinese Culture written by Kimberly Besio and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length treatment in English of Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi), often regarded as China's first great classical novel. Set in the historical period of the disunion (220–280 AD), Three Kingdoms fuses history and popular tradition to create a sweeping epic of heroism and political ambition. The essays in this volume explore the multifarious connections between Three Kingdoms and Chinese culture from a variety of disciplines, including history, literature, philosophy, art history, theater, cultural studies, and communications, demonstrating the diversity of backgrounds against which this novel can be studied. Some of the most memorable episodes and figures in Chinese literature appear within its pages, and Three Kingdoms has had a profound influence on personal, social, and political behavior, even language usage, in the daily life of people in China today. The novel has inspired countless works of theater and art, and, more recently, has been the source for movies and a television series. Long popular in other countries of East Asia, such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, Three Kingdoms has also been introduced to younger generations around the globe through a series of extremely popular computer games. This study helps create a better understanding of the work's unique place in Chinese culture.

Download or read book Contemporary Studies on Modern Chinese History III written by Zeng Yeying and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-14 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of modern Chinese history has developed rapidly in recent decades and has seen increased exploration of new topics and innovative approaches. Resulting from a special issue of Modern Chinese History Studies, this volume is devoted to showcasing the healthy development of Chinese modern history studies, and has already been revised twice in the original language. This three-volume set exhibits major achievements in the study of modern Chinese history and shows how the role of history has been in debate, transformation, and re-evaluation throughout this tortuous yet prosperous period. This volume investigates the critical movements, such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement and the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression, that contribute to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In addition, it includes valuable summaries of various perspectives in modern Chinese history studies, such as the translation of overseas studies, and pioneering topics that historians have examined between 2009 and 2019. This book will benefit scholars and students of Chinese history, especially those who are interested in modern Chinese history.

Download or read book Empresses and Consorts written by Shou Chen and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here rendered into English for the first time, these chapters provide important insights into the worlds of palace women and court politics, while revealing much about the lives of upper-class women in general at the close of the third century."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book A Modern Chinese Journey to the West written by Ulric Killion and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book begins, and perhaps should end, with an excerpt from the writings of the late eminent Chinese scholar, Fung Yu-lan (or Feng Youlan) (1895-1990), who wrote: "The ancient Chinese culture is an inherent factor determining the Chinese style.". If the latter enunciation of Fung Yu-lan stirs one's interest in Chinese culture for the typical reasons, such as, an interest in ancient periods of China; romanticism, which focuses on the exotic and mysterious, for example, Zen Buddhism and Taoism; or simply as the source of exotic objets d'art, then all the better. Because for a typical Westerner bound in Western conventionalism and parochialism, engendering an understanding of the policies and practices of the People's Republic of China (China) necessitates understanding a modern China in light of Chinese traditional culture (or philosophy), or a China in antiquity. The consequence of Chinese traditional culture affects many political economy concerns of modern China, ranging from socio-economic, political, to international trade and other concerns. Indeed, philosophical antecedents influence modern Chinese policies and practices.

Download or read book The Scholar and the State written by Liangyan Ge and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In imperial China, intellectuals devoted years of their lives to passing rigorous examinations in order to obtain a civil service position in the state bureaucracy. This traditional employment of the literati class conferred social power and moral legitimacy, but changing social and political circumstances in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) periods forced many to seek alternative careers. Politically engaged but excluded from their traditional bureaucratic roles, creative writers authored critiques of state power in the form of fiction written in the vernacular language. In this study, Liangyan Ge examines the novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Scholars, Dream of the Red Chamber (also known as Story of the Stone), and a number of erotic pieces, showing that as the literati class grappled with its own increasing marginalization, its fiction reassessed the assumption that intellectuals’ proper role was to serve state interests and began to imagine possibilities for a new political order.

Download or read book Rhetoric and the Discourses of Power in Court Culture written by David R. Knechtges and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-03-25 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key imperial and royal courts--in Han, Tang, and Song dynasty China; medieval and renaissance Europe; and Heian and Muromachi Japan--are examined in this comparative and interdisciplinary volume as loci of power and as entities that establish, influence, or counter the norms of a larger society. Contributions by twelve scholars are organized into sections on the rhetoric of persuasion, taste, communication, gender, and natural nobility. Writing from the perspectives of literature, history, and philosophy, the authors examine the use and purpose of rhetoric in their respective areas. In Rhetoric of Persuasion, we see that in both the third-century court of the last Han emperor and the fourteenth-century court of Edward II, rhetoric served to justify the deposition of a ruler and the establishment of a new regime. Rhetoric of Taste examines the court’s influence on aesthetic values in China and Japan, specifically literary tastes in ninth-century China, the melding of literary and historical texts into a sort of national history in fifteenth-century Japan, and the embrace of literati painting innovations in twelfth-century China during a time when the literati themselves were out of favor. Rhetoric of Communication considers official communications to the throne in third-century China, the importance of secret communications in Charlemagne’s court, and the implications of the use of classical Chinese in the Japanese court during the eighth and ninth centuries. Rhetoric of Gender offers the biography of a former Han emperor’s favorite consort and studies the metaphorical possibilities of Tang palace plaints. Rhetoric of Natural Nobility focuses on Dante’s efforts to confirm his nobility of soul as a poet, surmounting his non-noble ancestry, and the development of the texts that supported the political ideologies of the fifteenth-century Burgundian dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold.

Download or read book Gentlemen s Prescriptions for Women s Lives A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese Women written by Sherry J. Mou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As far back as the first century BCE, Chinese dynastic historians - all men - began recording the achievements of Chinese women and creating a structure of understanding that would be used to limit and control them. To men, these women became role models for their daughters and wives; to the few literate women readers, they became paradigms for their own behavior. Thus, although these biographies are descriptive by nature, they actually became prescriptive. Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives is an enlightening source for studying Chinese women of the Imperial era as well as for understanding Chinese womanhood in general. By contextualizing these biographies, the author shows us these women not just as the complaisant, calm-eyed, delicate figures that adorn Confucian texts, but also as the products of the Confucian tradition's appropriation of women.

Download or read book The Craft of a Chinese Commentator written by Rudolf G. Wagner and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Laozi has been translated into Western languages hundreds of times over the past two hundred years. It has become the book of Chinese philosophy most widely appreciated for its philosophical depth and lyrical form. Nevertheless, very little attention has been paid to the way in which this book was read in China. This book introduces the reader to a highly sophisticated Chinese way of reading this Taoist classic, a way that differs greatly from the many translations of the Laozi available in the West. The most famous among the Chinese commentators on the Laozi—a man appreciated even by his opponents for the sheer brilliance of his analysis—is Wang Bi (226–249). Born into a short period of intellectual ferment and freedom after the collapse of the Han dynasty, this self-assured genius, in the short twenty-three years of his life, dashed off two of the most enduring works of Chinese philosophy, a commentary on the Laozi and another on the Book of Changes. By carefully reconstructing Wang Bi's Laozi text as well as his commentary, this book explores Wang Bi's craft as a scholarly commentator who is also a philosopher in his own right. By situating his work within the context of other competing commentaries and extracting their way of reading the Laozi, this book shows how the Laozi has been approached in many different ways, ranging from a philosophical underpinning for a particular theory of political rule to a guide to techniques of life-prolongation. Amidst his competitors, however, Wang Bi stands out through a literary and philosophical analysis of the Laozi that manages to "use the Laozi to explain the Laozi," rather than imposing an agenda on the text. Through a critical adaptation of several hundred years of commentaries on the classics, Wang Bi reaches a scholarly level in the art of understanding that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Download or read book A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms 23 220 AD written by Rafe de Crespigny and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006-12-01 with total page 1347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication is the long-awaited complement to Michael Loewe's acclaimed Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (2000). With more than 8,000 entries, based upon historical records and surviving inscriptions, the comprehensive Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) now provides information on men and women of the Chinese world who lived at the time of Later (or Eastern) Han, from Liu Xiu, founding Emperor Guangwu (reg. 24-57), to the celebrated warlord Cao Cao (155-220) at the end of the dynasty. The entries, including surnames, personal names, styles and dates, are accompanied by maps, genealogical tables and indexes, with lists of books and special accounts of women. These features, together with the convenient surveys of the history and the administrative structure of the dynasty, will make Rafe de Crespigny's work an indispensable tool for any further serious study of a significant but comparatively neglected period of imperial China.

Download or read book Writing Against the State written by Dominik Declercq and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1998 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surviving examples of the early medieval "shelun," a subgenre of the "fu," are translated and interpreted against their political background in this original contribution to Chinese "Nanbeichao" studies.

Download or read book Dong Zhongshu a Confucian Heritage and the Chunqiu Fanlu written by Michael Loewe and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assumption that a system described as ‘Confucianism’ formulated by Dong Zhongshu became accepted as the norm during the Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) is challenged and his supposed authorship of the Chunqiu fanlu examined.

Download or read book The Peony Pavilion written by Xianzu Tang and published by Cheng & Tsui. This book was released on 1994 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Formerly banned in China, performed at New York's Lincoln Center, and named as an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice, The Peony Pavilion has an intriguingly diverse appeal.

Download or read book The Peony Pavilion Second Edition written by Xianzu Tang and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-18 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a complete English translation of a great love story by Tang Xianzu, perhaps the finest of the Ming dramatists. Cyril Birch and Catherine Swatek reflect upon contemporary performances of the play in light of its history.

Download or read book Golden Dragon And Purple Phoenix The Chinese And Their Multi ethnic Descendants In Southeast Asia written by Khoon Choy Lee and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: News & media coverage! Book Launch of Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix - 3rd July 2013 Many books have been written about the Chinese in Southeast Asia, but very few, if any, are written specifically about the multi-ethnic descendants of Chinese immigrants. Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix is not about the diaspora per se of Chinese in Southeast Asia but about the impact of intermarriage between Chinese immigrants and the natives, that is, the intermingling of blood and the offspring from such unions — the influence they wielded on the society and environment they chose to live in. It is also about how they rose to high positions and their contributions to their societies. Some rose to become kings or king makers, others to become presidents, prime ministers, senior ministers, prominent businessmen, or religious leaders. Some openly declared their ancestry and are proud of their Chinese DNA, while others have forgotten their heritage and in their fervour to prove their allegiance to their country of birth, dissociate themselves, assertively through violence, indirectly through economic sanctions and various other means. In short, the multi-ethnic Chinese descendants form a unique community with unique cultural genes of its own, and these fresh and rarely-known stories about them in this book will be a good resource for historical researchers as well as fascinating reading materials for readers in general. With 14 years' experience as a journalist and a 29-year career as a politician and diplomat, Mr. Lee Khoon Choy has set foot on every land in Southeast Asia and observed closely the local life in each country. Mindful of his Hakka identity, Mr. Lee has a keen interest in multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, etc. Contents:The Lokjins in ThailandThe Mestizos of the Philippines (混血儿米斯蒂佐)The Mingling of Chinese and Javanese Blood — The Peranakan (土生华人)The Tayoke Kabya and the Kokangese in MyanmarThe Konkat-Cen in CambodiaThe Minh Huong (明乡) of VietnamSino-Laos and the Hmong (苗) in LaosBaba (峇峇) and Nyonya (娘惹) in MalaysiaWesternised SingaporeansBrunei: Land of the Smiling People Readership: General readers, academics, professionals and students who are interested in the history and culture of multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in ten Southeast Asian countries, including their language, lifestyle, influence as well as stories on prominent state leaders and business of Chinese heritage. Keywords:Southeast Asia;Mixed-Blood Chinese;CultureKey Features:Brings new knowledge about the Chinese immigrants in Southeast AsiaShowcases the differences between Chinese immigrants and their multi-ethnic descendantsBrings awareness to the large portion of younger Chinese citizens of Southeast Asia

Download or read book The Dream and the Text written by Carol Schreier Rupprecht and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1993-07-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book partakes of a long tradition of dream interpretation, but, at the same time, is unique in its cross-cultural and interdisciplinary methods and in its mix of theoretical and analytical approaches. It includes a great chronological and geographical range, from ancient Sumeria to eighteenth-century China; medieval Hispanic dream poetry to Italian Renaissance dream theory; Shakespeare to Nerval; and from Dostoevsky, through Emily Bront�, to Henry James. Rupprecht also incorporates various critical orientations including archetypal, comparative, feminist, historicist, linguistic, postmodern, psychoanalytic, religious, reader response, and self-psychology.

Download or read book Problems of Han Administration written by Michael Loewe and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Loewe calls on literary and material evidence to examine three problems that arose in administering China’s early empires. Religious rites due to an emperor’s predecessors must both pay the correct services to his ancestors and demonstrate his right to succeed to the throne. In practical terms, tax collectors, merchants, farmers and townsmen required the establishment of a standard set of weights and measures that was universally operative and which they could trust. Those who saw reason to criticise the decisions taken by the emperor and his immediate advisors, whether on grounds of moral principles or political expediency, needed opportunities and the means of expressing their views, whether as remonstrants to the throne, by withdrawal from public life or as authors of private writings.

Download or read book Mechanisms in Ancient Chinese Books with Illustrations written by Kuo-Hung Hsiao and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a unique approach for studying mechanisms and machines with drawings that were depicted unclearly in ancient Chinese books. The historical, cultural and technical backgrounds of the mechanisms are explained, and various mechanisms described and illustrated in ancient books are introduced. By utilizing the idea for the conceptual design of modern mechanisms, all feasible designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain members and joints that meet the technical standards of the subjects’ time periods are synthesized systematically. Ancient Chinese crossbows (the original crossbow and repeating crossbows), textile mechanisms (silk-reeling mechanism, spinning mechanisms, and looms), and many other artisan's tool mechanisms are used as illustrated examples. Such an approach provides a logical method for the reconstruction designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain structures. It also provides an innovative direction for researchers to further identify the original structures of mechanisms and machines with drawings in ancient literature. This book can be used as a textbook and/or supplemental reading material for courses related to history of ancient (Chinese) machinery and creative mechanism design for senior and graduate students.