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D. R. Howland explores China’s representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan—the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of “brushtalk,” in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes—history and poetry—as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies. With Japan’s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China’s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change—one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China’s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as “kin,” based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a “barbarian,” an alien force molded by European influence. By probing China’s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China’s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism.
DIVD. R. Howland explores China & rsquo;s representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan & mdash;the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of & ldquo;brushtalk, & rdquo; in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes & mdash;history and poetry & mdash;as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies. With Japan & rsquo;s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China & rsquo;s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change & mdash;one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China & rsquo;s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as & ldquo;kin, & rdquo; based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a & ldquo;barbarian, & rdquo; an alien force molded by European influence. By probing China & rsquo;s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China & rsquo;s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism. /div
This book is the first monograph of its kind in the academic world which comprehensively expounds the new methodology of humanities. The quadruple-evidence method is one which integrates quadruple-evidences to open up new horizon for interpretation of ancient culture in the three-dimensional manner. The first layer of evidence refers to documents passed down from the past; the second layer of evidence refers to local written materials; the third layer of evidence includes oral legends of anthropology and folklore and etiquette in the living folk customs; the fourth layer of evidence refers to those ancient objects and images either unearthed in archaeological excavations or handed down from the past. The book consists of theoretical explorations and their applications in individual cases. While the first part studies the academic evolution, theory and methodological value of the quadruple-evidence method, the second part, in using the method in different cases, explores different historical and cultural phenomena in the history of China, attempting to extend the frontier of the origin of civilization from the approach of mythological study.
This enlightening book leads readers though the history of ancient China, up to and through its decline, including how power was centralized within the Zhou royal house and aristocratic families that ruled their individual territories. This resource explains the Spring and Autumn periods, as well as Confucius’s influence, and the positive and negative aspects of the Qin Dynasty. Readers will be captivated by the ebb and flow of rulers, the excitement of peasant revolts, and rebellions that ultimately resulted in the fall of ancient China.
Shao-yun Yang challenges assumptions that the cultural and socioeconomic watershed of the Tang-Song transition (800–1127 CE) was marked by a xenophobic or nationalist hardening of ethnocultural boundaries in response to growing foreign threats. In that period, reinterpretations of Chineseness and its supposed antithesis, “barbarism,” were not straightforward products of political change but had their own developmental logic based in two interrelated intellectual shifts among the literati elite: the emergence of Confucian ideological and intellectual orthodoxy and the rise of neo-Confucian (daoxue) philosophy. New discourses emphasized the fluidity of the Chinese-barbarian dichotomy, subverting the centrality of cultural or ritual practices to Chinese identity and redefining the essence of Chinese civilization and its purported superiority. The key issues at stake concerned the acceptability of intellectual pluralism in a Chinese society and the importance of Confucian moral values to the integrity and continuity of the Chinese state. Through close reading of the contexts and changing geopolitical realities in which new interpretations of identity emerged, this intellectual history engages with ongoing debates over relevance of the concepts of culture, nation, and ethnicity to premodern China.
An internationally acclaimed expert explains why Chinese-style architecture has remained so consistent for two thousand years, no matter where it is built. For the last two millennia, an overwhelming number of Chinese buildings have been elevated on platforms, supported by pillars, and covered by ceramic-tile roofs. Less obvious features, like the brackets connecting the pillars to roof frames, also have been remarkably constant. What makes the shared features more significant, however, is that they are present in Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Islamic milieus; residential, funerary, and garden structures; in Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and elsewhere. How did Chinese-style architecture maintain such standardization for so long, even beyond China’s borders? Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt examines the essential features of Chinese architecture and its global transmission and translation from the predynastic age to the eighteenth century. Across myriad political, social, and cultural contexts within China and throughout East Asia, certain design and construction principles endured. Builders never abandoned perishable wood in favor of more permanent building materials, even though Chinese engineers knew how to make brick and stone structures in the last millennium BCE. Chinese architecture the world over is also distinctive in that it was invariably accomplished by anonymous craftsmen. And Chinese buildings held consistently to the plan of the four-sided enclosure, which both afforded privacy and differentiated sacred interior space from an exterior understood as the sphere of profane activity. Finally, Chinese-style buildings have always and everywhere been organized along straight lines. Taking note of these and other fascinating uniformities, The Borders of Chinese Architecture offers an accessible and authoritative overview of a tradition studiously preserved across time and space.
Ge Zhaoguang, an eminent historian of traditional China and a public intellectual, takes on fundamental questions that shape the domestic and international politics of the world’s most populous country and its second largest economy. What Is China? offers an insider’s account that addresses sensitive problems of Chinese identity and shows how modern scholarship about China—whether conducted in China, East Asia, or the West—has attempted to make sense of the country’s shifting territorial boundaries and its diversity of ethnic groups and cultures. Ge considers, for example, the ancient concept of tianxia, or All-Under-Heaven, which assigned supremacy to the imperial court and lesser status to officials, citizens, tributary states, and tribal peoples. Does China’s government still operate with a belief in divine rule of All-Under-Heaven, or has it taken a different view of other actors, inside and outside its current borders? Responding both to Western theories of the nation-state and to Chinese intellectuals eager to promote “national learning,” Ge offers an insightful and erudite account of how China sees its place in the world. As he wrestles with complex historical and cultural forces guiding the inner workings of an often misunderstood nation, Ge also teases out many nuances of China’s encounter with the contemporary world, using China’s past to explain aspects of its present and to provide insight into various paths the nation might follow as the twenty-first century unfolds.
Do you know why there have been so many problems in various parts of the world? In furtherance of their colonial interests, British politicians from time to time wrote national borders for other peoples. They did so in the Balkans, in Africa and in the Middle East. They even drew the border between China and India. Such borders were very often not based on the conditions on the ground. This sowed the seeds of future conflicts. Open your eyes and be open-minded, learn history from different perspectives. Hear the other side, reflect on our own position, independent thinking, say no to double standard. What have we learnt from history? The Great Flood of Yahweh killed almost all living things (including the lovely boys and girls in China). Is this not genocide? In the Conquest of Canaan, did Yahweh not instruct his Chosen People to embark on genocide? Are these really consistent with the all-loving Christian God? God must have been very upset by so many people claiming to be Christians but doing evil things in his name. The story of Christianity should have been a love story. I think that Jesus (as told in the Gospels) is really great. I love you. You love me. Love the one who persecutes you. This is of course easier said than done. But if we at least try to practice what Jesus preaches, this world will certainly be more beautiful. Who decides what is orthodoxy and what is heresy? How is such a decision made? Is it correct that orthodoxy is essentially the winner, and heresy the loser, of an argument? Is it correct that, as a matter of history, the outcome of the argument (orthodoxy or heresy) is very often dependent upon which argument is backed by military power? Is it correct that, perhaps ironically, very often orthodoxy started off as a heresy? Is it correct that, in the course of history, yesterday’s heresy may become today’s orthodoxy; and vice versa? Most of the kings who were given the honour of “the great” (e.g. King Alexander the Great) were mass murderers. What should be the correct “universal” value? Muslims could fight defensive wars. They were not supposed to embark on aggression. But did they not march, with weapons of destruction, all the way out from Arabia? Do you know that Martin Luther (the founder of Protestantism) regarded the Jews “as no better than dogs”? Do you know that he said that the Jews “are children of the Devil, condemned to the flames of Hell?” The Americans’ right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was built upon the native peoples’ loss of their lives, homes and liberties. Do you agree that history is almost invariably written by the winners? Do you know why there have been so many problems in various parts of the world? In furtherance of their colonial interests, British politicians from time to time wrote national borders for other peoples. They did so in the Balkans, in Africa and in the Middle East. They even drew the border between China and India. Such borders were very often not based on the conditions on the ground. This sowed the seeds of future conflicts. The author introduces the influential moments and events in world history. More importantly, he raises questions and pinpoints some crucial facts that we have missed when we learnt history.
Studies of Sino-Viet relations have traditionally focused on Chinese aggression and Vietnamese resistance, or have assumed out-of-date ideas about Sinicization and the tributary system. They have limited themselves to national historical traditions, doing little to reach beyond the border. Ming China and Vietnam, by contrast, relies on sources and viewpoints from both sides of the border, for a truly transnational history of Sino-Viet relations. Kathlene Baldanza offers a detailed examination of geopolitical and cultural relations between Ming China (1368–1644) and Dai Viet, the state that would go on to become Vietnam. She highlights the internal debates and external alliances that characterized their diplomatic and military relations in the pre-modern period, showing especially that Vietnamese patronage of East Asian classical culture posed an ideological threat to Chinese states. Baldanza presents an analysis of seven linked biographies of Chinese and Vietnamese border-crossers whose lives illustrate the entangled histories of those countries.
Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity offers an integrated picture of Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppes during a formative period of world history. In the half millennium between 250 and 750 CE, settled empires underwent deep structural changes, while various nomadic peoples of the steppes (Huns, Avars, Turks, and others) experienced significant interactions and movements that changed their societies, cultures, and economies. This was a transformational era, a time when Roman, Persian, and Chinese monarchs were mutually aware of court practices, and when Christians and Buddhists criss-crossed the Eurasian lands together with merchants and armies. It was a time of greater circulation of ideas as well as material goods. This volume provides a conceptual frame for locating these developments in the same space and time. Without arguing for uniformity, it illuminates the interconnections and networks that tied countless local cultural expressions to far-reaching inter-regional ones.