The end of the Chinese 'Middle ages'
The end of the Chinese 'Middle ages': essays in Mid-Tang literary culture Stephen Owen
Publisher: Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 1996.
ISBN: 0804726671
DDC: 895.1109003
LCC: PL2291
Edition: (pbk. : alk. paper)
Summary:
"This book explores, through a series of essays, a set of
interrelated elements that define the literary culture of China in
the late eight and early ninth centuries. This period, known as the
Mid-Tang, broke with many of the intellectual habits of the "middle
period" of Chinese culture and adumbrated many of the characteristics
of China in the Song and later periods." "The first essay examines
"singularity," representations of identity as an assertion of
superiority over others and as an alienation that brings rejection by
others. The second essay addresses different ways of representing
landscapes, showing the ways in which the underlying order of nature
had become a problem in the Mid-Tang. The third essay discusses the
tendency to offer hypothetical explanations for phenomena that either
run contrary to received wisdom or try to account for situations
usually thought not to require explanation. When carried out at the
level of pure play, such subjective acts of interpretation are wit,
and the fourth essay analyzes playfully inflated interpretations of
domestic spaces and leisure activities as a discourse of private
valuation, articulated against commonsense values." "The fifth essay
takes up some fundamental changes in the way writing, especially the
writing of poetry, was represented in the Mid-Tang. In this period,
writers began talking about poetry as an "art," and the poet is seen
as someone with special talents who works on a piece over time and
shapes it according to the demands of art. The two final essays treat
classical tales from the new culture of romance that took shape late
in the eighth century."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes:
Includes index.
Singularity and Possession -- Reading and Landscape -- Interpreting
-- Wit and the Private Life -- Ideas of Poetry and Writing in the
Early Ninth Century -- Romance -- Conflicting Interpretations:
"Yingying's Story" -- Supplementary Texts -- "Poems on My Dwelling in
the Rear Park" /Zhao Yi -- "Huo Xiaoyu's Story" /Jiang Fang --
"Yingying's Story" /Yuan Zhen.
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