When natural disaster threatened the Grand Canal network in the early nineteenth century, the Qing government faced a crisis of colossal proportions. Leonard discusses the Daoguang Emperor's handling of this crisis within the context of the strategic, institutional, and technological imperatives that had long shaped management of the canal. Her lucid explication is accompanied by maps and drawings that clearly illustrate both the setting and the technical details of the canal. Jane Kate Leonard is Professor of Chinese History, University of Akron. Her most recent publications explore...
When natural disaster threatened the Grand Canal network in the early nineteenth century, the Qing government faced a crisis of colossal proportions. ...
Selected for Choice's list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1997. A comprehensive overview of China's 3,000 years of literary history, from its beginnings to the present day. After an introductory section discussing the concept of literature and other features of traditional Chinese society crucial to understanding its writings, the second part is broken into five major time periods (earliest times to 100 c.e.; 100-1000; 1000-1875; 1875-1915; and 1915 to the present) corresponding to changes in book production. The development of the major literary genres is traced in each of these...
Selected for Choice's list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1997. A comprehensive overview of China's 3,000 years of literary history, from its be...
This volume of selections and commentary by the premier Western translator and interpreter of the Chan-kuo Ts'e contains all of the author's favorite pieces. It also features more complete warring states narratives, the "romances"--persuasions of four of the best-known figures, Fan Chu, Chang Yi, Su Ch'in, and Ch'un-shen Chun, augmented by biographical material from the Shi-chi. This reader highlights both the nature of Chan-kuoTs'e, an important pre-Han collection, and its considerable pleasures. J. I. Crump is Professor Emeritus of Chinese literature,...
This volume of selections and commentary by the premier Western translator and interpreter of the Chan-kuo Ts'e contains all of the author's fa...
Lord Lao, first known as the philosopher Laozi, the purported author of the Daode jing, later became an immortal, a messiah, and high god of Daoism. Laozi, divinized during the Han dynasty and in early Daoist movements, reached his highest level of veneration under the Tang when the rulers honored him as a royal ancestor. In subsequent eras he remained prominent and is still a major deity in China today. Livia Kohn's two-part study first traces the historical development of Lord Lao and the roles he played at different times for different believers. Part Two is based on one of Lord...
Lord Lao, first known as the philosopher Laozi, the purported author of the Daode jing, later became an immortal, a messiah, and high god of Da...
Traditional woodblock prints preserve a Chinese folk art that has now nearly vanished. This book explores and explains the artistic and aesthetic bases of popular prints revealed in eighty-four late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prints belonging to the London-based Muban Foundation. Woodblock printing was the principal method of producing inexpensive and colorful single-sheet images for mass consumption in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China. Prints of this type are known today as "New Year pictures" because the demand for them peaked at New Year's time. However,...
Traditional woodblock prints preserve a Chinese folk art that has now nearly vanished. This book explores and explains the artistic and aesthetic base...
Yingjin Zhang guides the reader through the development of Chinese film criticism, pointing out that Western critics have studied a comparatively small number of films from a much larger body of work, often with a unidirectional Eurocentric bias. The result has been that the few have influenced the many, perpetuating a cycle of production of films from China that bow to the Western notion of "Chineseness." As a corrective, the author introduces readers to a much larger canon of film and proposes a multidirectional model of film studies, one that allows for a Western reading of Chinese film...
Yingjin Zhang guides the reader through the development of Chinese film criticism, pointing out that Western critics have studied a comparatively smal...
The relationships, both historical and philosophical, among the Zhuangzi's Inner, Outer, and Miscellaneous chapters are the subject of ancient and enduring controversy. Liu marshals linguistic, intertextual, intratextual, and historical evidence to establish an objectively demonstrable chronology and determine the philosophical affiliations among the various chapters. This major advance in Zhuangzi scholarship furnishes indispensable data for all students of the great Daoist text. In a lengthy afterword, Liu compares his conclusions with those of A. C. Graham and addresses...
The relationships, both historical and philosophical, among the Zhuangzi's Inner, Outer, and Miscellaneous chapters are the subject of anci...