During the Northern and Southern Dynasties periods, authors composed many short writings that related a type of matter or event that they called “strange.” There were the accounts of strange concerned marvelous objects from foreign places, the wonderful feats of magicians and alchemists, event involved meetings between humans and ghost. These accounts are called in Chinese zhiguai or “accounts of the strange.” As the most important early example of the zhiguai genre, the book Sou shen ji (In Search of the Supernatural: Written Record) is a 4th century CE Chinese compilation of legends, short stories and hearsay concerning spirits, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. Although the authorship of the book is not made explicit in the text, it is comely believed to be compiled by Gan Bao, a historian at the court of Emperor Yuan of Jin in 350 AD. The book consists of 464 stories in 20 rolls. The Zhiguai narratives are the early period of Chinese novel development. Most of the stories have rather short plot; The characters are lack of delicate writing and specific description. Zhiguai’s writing is rather childish in various aspects compared with later novels. For instance the following story is a typical short story in Sou shen ji: Hairy Tortoise and Horned Hare In the time of Chou* of Shang, the giant tortoise grew hair and the hare grew horns—signs that armor would soon arise *The bad last king of Shang Of course, there are certain exceptions which contain all the essential characters of later novels. For instance, the following one contains specific description of the plot: The Escort Commandant Xin Daodu, from Longxi Commandery, was travelling to further his education, and arrived at a place about four or five li away ... ... middle of paper ... ...l: The Written Record. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1996. Print Grigg, Hugh. "Soushenji No. 395 Translation: The Escort Commandant (搜神记三九五)." East Asia Student. N.p., 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. Juan, Qin. "Queer Novels in the Wei-and-Jin Period and Northern & Southern Dynasties:Images of Monsters and Their Cultural Connotations." CNKI. N.p., Mar. 2008. Lu, Xun. Zhongguo Xiao Shuo De Li Shi De Bian Qian. Xianggang: Jin Dai Tu Shu Gong Si, 1964. Print St. André, James. "Démons Et Merveilles Dans La Littérature Chinoise Des Six Dynasties: Le Fantastique Et L'anecdotique Dans Le Soushen Ji De Gan Bao. By Rémi Mathieu. Pp. 163. Paris, Editions You-Feng, 2000." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11.02 (2001): n. pag. Print. Tao, Qian, Tang He, and Mo Wang. Sou Shen Hou Ji: 2 Juan. China: S.n., 1791. Print.
The title of Ray Huang’s book 1587: A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty Decline suggests that this book is a work based on a single year in which little occurred. But in reality, Huang’s look at the events of 1587 demonstrates the complex workings of the leadership during the decline of the Ming dynasty, giving the reader an insight into the societal structure, the governmental process, and the mistakes that occurred systematically to enhance the progression towards the seemingly inevitable downfall. Though nothing of historical significance occurred during the year 1587, Huang is able to demonstrate the way in which the existing culture and the smaller, more systematic elements of political leadership can be understood within the context of a seemingly unimportant period of time. Chapter 1: The Wan-Li Emperor, begins by explaining the major premise of the work: The concept of looking at a single year in the history of the leadership of China and evaluating the implications for understanding other aspects of history, including the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
Twitchett, Denis, and J. Wechsler Howard. "Kao-tsung (reign 649–83) and the Empress Wu: the Inheritor and the Usurper". In The Cambridge History of China. 242-89: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
。Li Xiaobing, Sun Yi, Li Xiaoxiao, Chinese in America: from History to Present, Sichuan People's Press, Sichuan, 2003
He wrote Farewell to Liudan Panguan in Wuwei for leaving for Anxi Xingying to report to Gao Kaifu 武威送劉單判官赴安西行營便呈高開府when he was at a farewell party for Liudan and Liudan’s troops was going to go to the war against Dashi大食(Arab Abbasid Caliphate) on the frontier:
Liu, Jiahe, and Dongfang Shao. “Early Buddhism and Taoism in China (A.D. 65-420).” Buddhist-Christian Studies 12 (1992): 35–41. JSTOR. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
Chang, Lan Samantha. "Hangzhou 1925." Ploughshares 30.1 (2004): 100-106. Academic Search Complete. Web. 04 Oct. 2015.
Feng Menglong continues to illustrate the concept of love in his short story or poem “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” where money is given for exchange of a deep feeling for love. Money and the quantification of Human Relations in terms of silver coins in Feng Menglong's story, Chinese literature, is the profound work generated during the era of Yuan and Ming dynasties of creative narrative. In addition, throughout this spell, popularity of the vernacular narrative outstandingly cannot be overemphasized. As contrasted with the high degree of complex and conventional long-established fiction, vernacular narratives were build with a lot of flexibility and thus could well portray the amazing and sometimes sleazy literature of the Chinese life and cultural aspects of the ages, such as monetization of human relationships that came as a result of Ming dynasty's unparalleled success.
Chang, Kwang-chih 1968 The Archeology of Ancient China Yale University Press, New Haven & London
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.
Boltz, William G. Lao tzu Tao te ching. In Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael Loewe. Berkeley: University of California, 1993.
At the center of Japanese and Chinese politics and gender roles lies the teachings of Confucius. The five relationships (五倫） of Confucius permeated the lives of all within the Heian and Tang societies.4 However, the focus here will be on the lives of the courtesans. The Genji Monogatari provides us with an unrivalled look into the inner-workings of Confucianism and court life in the Heian period. Song Geng, in his discourse on power and masculinity in Ch...
Guide, Travel China. Liu CHe - Emperor Wu of Western Han. n.d. 27 Febuary 2014 .
Hsueh, Chun- tu, The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives (Hong Kong: Joint _____Publishing Co., 1986), pp.1-15, 119-131, 139-171
The Warring States is the subject and title of Griffith’s third chapter, which gives an enlightening look at the life and times in China after the defeat of the rule of Chin at Ching Yang in 453. (p. 20) The country was divided into eight individual warring sects (with the exception of Yen...