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  • General Editors: Patrick Hannan, Denis Twitchett

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26 results in Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions

Page 1 of 2

Poetry and Politics
  • The Life and Works of Juan Chi, A.D. 210–263
  • Donald Holzman
  • Published online:
    10 November 2010
    Print publication:
    27 January 1977
  • Poetry and Politics is the first full-length study in any language of the life and works of the Chinese poet and thinker, Juan Chi (AD 210–263). This book contains translations of all Juan Chi's important works, in verse and prose, his letters and all the historical accounts of his life. The reader is thus enabled, for the first time in a work of this kind, to see a Chinese writer in the round, in his works and in his setting. Juan Chi's attachment to traditional Confucian values kept him in the centre of political and social life, but eventually his disgust with the disloyalty and self-seeking he saw in Wei society made him turn away. He attempted in Taoism and in the pursuit of Taoist immortality to find the purity and permanence so lacking in the world, but without an ultimate commitment. Juan Chi was accused both in his lifetime and subsequently of being a Confucian hero and a Taoist iconoclast, and in him can be seen the contradictory intellectual and religious forces t hat were slowly bringing in the Chinese Middle Ages.

'The Lament for the South'
  • Yu Hsin's 'Ai Chiang-Nan Fu'
  • William T. Graham, Jr
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    12 June 1980
  • The Ai Chiang-nan fu by the sixth-century poet Yu Hsin is one of the most famous and difficult of all Chinese medieval poems. It relates in a highly allegorical and elliptical manner the fall of the Liang dynasty, which the poet served. The poem belongs to the genre of the fu; rhapsodical, elegiac works written in an irregular metre. It is, however not at all typical of the genre, which is more often associated with descriptions of hunting parks, sacrifices, plants and birds. The poem thus deserves study both for its literary merits and for its uniqueness. Dr Graham provides a translation of the poem with a very detailed literary and historical commentary. Most previous studies of the fu have concentrated on the Han period but Dr Graham offers an extended discussion in any language of the genre in the period of the six dynasties (222–589). The book also includes an introduction to the history of the period.

The Aristocratic Families in Early Imperial China
  • A Case Study of the Po-Ling Ts'ui Family
  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    22 June 1978
  • Much scholarly work has been published on the Chinese medieval 'aristocracy', in Chinese, Japanese and Western languages. It is commonly accepted that the change from an aristocratic society to a 'meritocracy' was one of the turning points of Chinese history. But since almost every aspect of political, economic and cultural history is involved in questions of the nature of the aristocracy, perhaps the only way to test theories of the means by which a small elite preserved its social status and political prestige for seven or eight hundred years is by tracing the fortunes of a single family in great detail. The present work is a fully documented case study of the Ts'uis of Po-ling from the first through the ninth centuries. By observing OW evolution of the Ts'uis as an aristocratic kinship group – and an unusual quantity of rich and original source material was available to Dr Ebrey – the author demonstrates OW fluctuation in aristocratic influence and tic changing basis of such families' prestige and power. Studies such as this are essential to enlarge our knowledge not only of medieval society and politics in China but also the development of family and lineage. In the light of the detailed evidence Dr Ebrey provides, many conventional views many well have to be abandoned.

The Bureaucracy of Han Times
  • Hans Bielenstein
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    11 September 1980
  • This is a comprehensive and fully documented study of Chinese bureaucracy during the Han period, when many of the basic lines of Chinese government practice were laid down. It is also more detailed and wider in scope than similar works on other periods of Chinese history. The book covers the time from 202 BC to AD 9 and from AD 25 to 189, analysing and describing the central and local administrations, the army, official salaries, civil service recruitment and power in government. Professor Bielenstein translates all Chinese official titles and includes alphabetical lists of these titles with their English and Chinese equivalents. Thus his book will serve both as a description for the names of offices at every level of government. The book will be of interest to all scholars of Chinese history, as well as to experts in other fields of institutional history, government and political science.

Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China
  • Ray Huang
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    16 January 1975
  • Originally published in 1974, this is a detailed study of the financial administration of the Chinese government during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), with particular attention to the sixteenth century, a topic about which very little has been published either in Chinese or any Western language. Professor Huang has worked through an enormous quantity and variety of source material - in particular the 133 substantial volumes of the Ming Veritable Records - and has compared the documents on financial matters with the entries in local gazetteers. The complicated workings of government finance present great difficulties to all specialists in Chinese financial and administrative history and in different branches of local Chinese history from the fifteenth century onwards. Professor Huang's study will provide all such researchers with an authoritative work of reference.

Stone Lake
  • The Poetry of Fan Chengda 1126–1193
  • J. D. Schmidt
  • Published online:
    29 March 2010
    Print publication:
    25 September 1992
  • Stone Lake is a translation and study of the poetry of Fan Chengda (1126–1193), one of the most famous Chinese poets of the twelfth century. For the non-specialist reader the main attraction of this 1992 book will be the translations from an extensive body of Fan Chengda's poetry, which make up almost half of the text, and includes poems on such familiar themes as the Chinese countryside, peasant life, Buddhism and growing old. The more technical part of the book contains a biography of the poet, a discussion of his affiliation with poets of the generation before him such as Lu You and Yang Wanli, a detailed analysis of his style, and discussion of the major themes of his work.

Within the Human Realm
  • The Poetry of Huang Zunxian, 1848–1905
  • J. D. Schmidt
  • Published online:
    25 March 2010
    Print publication:
    25 November 1994
  • This book is a study of the poetry of Huang Zunxian, one of the most famous authors of late nineteenth-century China. The first part consists of a detailed biography outlining Huang's literary and political career. This is followed by a critical discussion of Huang's poetry, including such topics as his theory of literature, his traditional verse, his highly original poetry on foreign lands, his political satire and his scientific verse. The book concludes with a generous sampling of his poetry in translation.

The Thought of Chang Tsai (1020–1077)
  • Ira E. Kasoff
  • Published online:
    02 February 2010
    Print publication:
    13 September 1984
  • Chang Tsai is one of the three major Chinese philosophers who, in the eleventh century, revitalised Confucian thought after centuries of stagnation and formed the foundation for the neo-Confucian thinking that was predominant till the nineteenth century. The book analyses in depth Chang's views of man, his nature and endowments, the cosmos, heaven and earth, the problems of learning and self cultivation, the ideal of the sage - and how that ideal might be attained. It looks at the intellectual climate of the eleventh century, the assumptions Chinese intellectuals shared, and the problems which concerned them. It describes the triumph of Chang's rivals within the neo-Confucian movement and the subsequent emergence of neo-Confucianism to state orthodoxy in the thirteenth century.

Fu Ssu-nien
  • A Life in Chinese History and Politics
  • Fan-sen Wang
  • Published online:
    01 February 2010
    Print publication:
    06 November 2000
  • Fu Ssu-nien, scholar, and political and social critic, was one of the most colourful, influential intellectual figures in twentieth-century China. Wang Fan-sen's biography of Fu's life and contributions offers an in-depth examination of his role in intellectual development in modern China. Fu's life in many ways embodied the dilemma faced by modern Chinese intellectuals: dissatisfied with the model of the traditional literati, they lacked a professional, academic model to take its place. Fu's early years as a student leader of the May Fourth movement and subsequent life as an activist were born of intellectual dissatisfaction: as an educator and founder of the Institute of Philology and History at Peking University and the Academia Sinica, he worked to fill the void by professionalizing Chinese research and education. This book, incorporating original, previously unpublished material from Fu's personal archives, fills a major gap in the cultural and intellectual history of modern China.

Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China
  • A Reading of Tai Fu's 'Kuang-i chi'
  • Glen Dudbridge
  • Published online:
    15 January 2010
    Print publication:
    24 November 1995
  • The remains of Tai Fu's lost collection Kuang-i chi ('The Great Book of Marvels') preserve three hundred short tales of encounters with the other world. This study develops a style of close reading through which those tales give access to the lives of individuals in eighth-century China. Through the eyes of a mid-century county official the picture emerges of a complex lay society, served by a mixed priesthood of ritual practitioners, whose members' lives at all levels were profoundly shaped by their perceived experience of contact with the other world. It was a society embarking on fundamental change, and this book uses the sharp historical focus of Tai Fu's collection to study the dynamics of that change. The work gracefully reveals the transition from the beliefs and institutions of early mediaeval China towards those we now recognize as modern.

Law and Order in Sung China
  • Brian E. McKnight
  • Published online:
    23 December 2009
    Print publication:
    30 October 1992
  • This study examines law enforcement within the context of Sung society. Professor McKnight shows that the group of criminals who were the core of the habitual criminal group in Sung China were young unattached males with few lifeskills. What became of the criminal after capture and conviction is also an important aspect of this study, which addresses basic questions in Chinese punishment. This work is the first comprehensive study of law enforcement in traditional China. The depth and rigour to which the subject is treated would make it most appropriate for scholars in legal history and East Asian studies.

From Chronicle to Canon
  • The Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn according to Tung Chung-shu
  • Sarah A. Queen
  • Published online:
    10 December 2009
    Print publication:
    28 August 1996
  • Every general account of the development of Chinese thought makes mention of Tung Chung-shu (c. 195–105 bce) as one of the pivotal philosophers of the Han. Professor Queen's accomplishment is a meticulous dissection of Tung Chung-shu's major work. The Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'un-ch'iu fan lu) established the first state-sponsored Confucian Canon, and created an ideal of the ruler and his role in government that was central to political discussion for two thousand years. The author has carefully scrutinised this text for authenticity, and has concluded that it was compiled several centuries after Tung's death, but was mostly compiled from Tung's authentic writings. By historicising this important text, Queen allows a new view of Tung's relation to the political and doctrinal discourses of his day, and also addresses the role of scriptures in Confucian spirituality.

Reconsidering Tu Fu
  • Literary Greatness and Cultural Context
  • Eva Shan Chou
  • Foreword by James R. Hightower
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    24 November 1995
  • Tu Fu is, by universal consent, the greatest poet of the Chinese tradition. In the epochal An Lu-shan rebellion, he alone of his contemporaries consistently recorded in poetry the great events and pervasive sufferings of the time. For a millennium, Tu Fu's poetry has been accepted as epitomizing the Chinese moral conscience at its highest, and as such his work has been placed almost beyond the reach of criticism. In Reconsidering Tu Fu, Eva Shan Chou defuses these formidable problems by examining Tu Fu as both a cultural monument and a poet. She investigates the evolution of his stature as an icon and shows its continuing effect upon interpretations of Tu Fu's work. Dr Chou provides translations of many poems, both well known and obscure. Her analyses are both original in their formulation and considerate of the many fine readings of traditional commentators.

The Writing of Official History under the T'ang
  • Denis Twitchett
  • Published online:
    03 November 2009
    Print publication:
    24 April 1992
  • This book describes how the Chinese government, between about 620 and 850, developed an official organization designed to select, process, and edit material for inclusion in official historical works eventually to be incorporated in an official history of the dynasty. The first part gives a detailed account of the establishment of the official apparatus designed to produce a record of the T'ang dynasty, which would remain standard for more than a millennium, with some analysis of the individuals who served in these offices. The second part gives all available detail about the various works produced by this apparatus, divided among its various genres, and listing all known titles, their authorship, and their relationships to one another. The third part shows the cumulative process by which a dynastic history came into being, and the way in which we can detect various elements in the completed history.

The Shanghai Badlands
  • Wartime Terrorism and Urban Crime, 1937–1941
  • Frederic Wakeman, Jr
  • Published online:
    02 November 2009
    Print publication:
    13 July 1996
  • Between August 1937 and December 1941, when the Chinese sectors of Shanghai were occupied by the Japanese, terrorist wars broke out between Nationalist secret agents and assassins of the Japanese military authorities. The most intensely disputed area was the western suburb, the Badlands, but warfare was not restricted to that zone. A spate of assassinations, bombings, and machine gun raids took place under the noses of the authorities. Thanks to the release of secret Chinese police files by the CIA, the inner workings of these terrorist groups and their links to the notorious Green Gang can now be exposed for the first time. In so doing, this book also explores the social history of Shanghai's underworld, the worsening relations between the US and Japan before World War II, and the rivalry between leaders Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei during China's War of Resistance.

Yüan Hung-tao and the Kung-an School
  • Chih-P'ing Chou
  • Published online:
    30 October 2009
    Print publication:
    31 March 1988
  • Professor Chou here offers a perspective on the rise and fall of the Kung-an school as a key to understanding the development of Chinese literary criticism in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. His book focuses upon the literary theories of Yüan Hung-tao (1568–1610) - the leader of the Kung-an school - and his two brothers. Its core is a detailed study of the poetry and prose of Yüan Hung-tao, comparing his theories with his writings and analysing systematically the merits and flaws of his work. The book concludes with a discussion of the legacy of the Kung-an school, treating the school not only as the major force behind the expressive trend in the late Ming period, but also as one of the precursors of the modern Chinese literary movement.

Manslaughter, Markets, and Moral Economy
  • Violent Disputes over Property Rights in Eighteenth-Century China
  • Thomas M. Buoye
  • Published online:
    28 October 2009
    Print publication:
    31 July 2000
  • In this book, Thomas Buoye examines the impact of large-scale economic change on social conflict in eighteenth-century China. He draws upon a large body of actual, documented homicide cases originating in property disputes to recreate the social tensions of rural China during the Qianlong reign (1736–95). The development of property rights, a process that had begun in the Ming dynasty, was accompanied by other changes that fostered disruption and conflict, including an explosion in the population growth and the increasing strain on land and resources, and increasing commercialization in agriculture. Buoye challenges the 'markets' and 'moral economy' theories of economic behaviour. Applying the theories of Douglass North for the first time to this subject, he uses an institutional framework to explain seemingly irrational economic choices. Buoye examines demographic and technological factors, ideology, and political and economic institutions in rural China to understand the link between economic and social change.

Mourning in Late Imperial China
  • Filial Piety and the State
  • Norman Kutcher
  • Published online:
    14 October 2009
    Print publication:
    13 August 1999
  • As a conquest dynasty, Qing China's new Manchu leaders desperately needed to legitimize their rule. To win the approval of China's native elites, they developed an ambitious plan to return Confucianism to civil society. Filial piety, the core Confucian value, would once again be upheld by the state, and laborious and time-consuming mourning rituals, the touchstones of a well-ordered Confucian society, would be observed by officials throughout the empire. In this way, the emperor would be following the ancient dictate that he 'govern all-under-heaven with filial piety'. Norman Kutcher's study of mourning looks beneath the rhetoric to demonstrate how the state - unwilling to make the sacrifices that a genuine commitment to proper mourning demanded - quietly but forcefully undermined, not reinvigorated, the Confucian mourning system. With acute sensitivity to language and its changing meanings, Kutcher sheds light on a wide variety of issues that are of interest to historians of late Imperial China.

Community, Trade, and Networks
  • Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century
  • Hugh R. Clark
  • Published online:
    13 October 2009
    Print publication:
    30 August 1991
  • Community, Trade, and Networks traces the economic and demographic history of a corner of China's southeast coast from the third to the thirteenth century, investigating the relationship between changes in the agrarian and urban economies of the area and the expanding role of domestic and foreign trade. It provides a fresh perspective on the role of commercialized production and trade in a regional economy in the premodern era and demonstrates that trade was able to drive change in a premodern economy in a way that has not generally been recognized.

Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–819
  • Jo-Shui Chen
  • Published online:
    07 October 2009
    Print publication:
    27 November 1992
  • This book is a comprehensive study of Liu Tsang-yüan (773–819), a major literary and intellectual figure in Chinese history. The major aspects of Liu's life and work are explored: the social and cultural background of his family, his relationship with the ku-wen prose reforms and new canonical scholarship in the mid-T'ang, his social and political criticism, his views on Confucian doctrine, and his sentiments and reflections regarding the private realm of human life. Its scope goes beyond the 'life and thought' of this principal intellectual figure in its special emphasis on the connections between Liu's thought and mid-T'ang intellectual change, modifying the conventional view that the mid-T'ang Confucian revival led by Han Yü (768–824) and Liu Tsung-yüan was a precursor of Sung Neo-Confucianism. Chen suggests that the mid-T'ang Confucian movement was essentially a revival of an old form of Confucianism and that Liu's was a powerful voice expressing this sentiment. This in-depth study also encompasses a general interpretation of the nature of the T'ang-Sung intellectual transition. Anyone familiar with the intriguing yet elusive Liu Tsang-yüan will find this book fascinating.

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