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First published in 2007. An encyclopaedic account of traditional Chinese festivals, customs and beliefs, lavishly illustrated with line drawings and paintings, this remarkable work by an Englishman who spent twenty years in China from the Imperial aftermath through the establishment of Communism, gives fascinating insights into a complex culture poised between past and present. Burckhardt's beautifully written and detailed work includes the rites practiced by the Manchu royal court and the rituals permitted under the Communist and Nationalist regimes, the festivals of working people and villagers as well as the ceremonies of the mandarins of Peking and Hong Kong, in all seasons of the year. He was especially close to the renowned Boat People of the former colony, and gives a unique account of life abroad the harbour junks and their sea-borne celebrations. Among the subjects dealt with are Chinese cuisine, the meaning of presents, secret societies, the Chinese calendar, cats (the Chinese prefer cats with yellow eyes), Chinese dress, jade carving, feng shui, etiquette, the hundreds of gods of house and wayside, temples and their guardians, and all the great festivals - those of the Moon, the Dragon Boats, the Hungry Ghosts, the Magnolia, the New Year and many more. Chinese creeds and customs were Burkhardt's passion, and no better account of them will ever be written.
First published in 2007. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
First published in 2007. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
After 1949 the Chinese Communists carried out land reform, the collectivization of agriculture, and the formation of people's communes. The new economic and political organizations that emerged have made peasant life more comfortable and secure, but many economic and status differentials and traditional customs remain resistant to change. Focusing on rural Kwangtung province, William L. Parish and Martin King Whyte examine the rural work-incentive system, village equality and inequality, rural health care and education, marriage customs, and the position of women, among other topics, to determine what and how much of the traditional Chinese ways of life is left in Communist China.
Covering wide-ranging topics from the arts and entertainment to customs and traditions from the ancient imperial and modern eras, Historical Dictionary of Chinese Culture provides more than 300 separate entries along with a comprehensive chronology, glossary of Chinese cultural terms, and an extensive bibliography of Western and Chinese-language sources. Dictionary entries of the decorative and fine arts include ceramics and porcelains, handicrafts, jade and seal carving, jewelry, and painting. The literary subjects range from fiction to non-fiction, but especially poetry. Major entertainment venues of cinema and film, classical puppetry, and theater, both ancient and modern are also covered. In addition to the arts, the authors include major customary practices from childbirth and childrearing to marriage and weddings to funerals and burial practices. Other aspects of the culture are also examined, including crime, foot-binding, pornography, and prostitution, and the government policies aimed at their eradication. Throughout the text, Chinese-language translations of key terms are presented in italics and parenthesis, along with biographies of figures central to the creation of China’s magnificent cultural heritage.
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Providing an analysis of Chinese divination as a means of organizing and interpreting reality, Richard Smith examines a wide variety of mantic techniques - from the use of the hallowed Yjing to such popular practices as siting (geomancy), astrology, numerology, physiognomy, the analysis of written characters, meteorological divination, the use of mediums (including spirit-writing), and dream interpretation. As he explains the pervasiveness and tenacity of divination in China, the author explores not only the connections between various mantic techniques but also the relationship between divination and other facets of Chinese culture, including philosophy, science and medicine. He discusses the symbolism of divination, its aesthetics, its ritual aspects, and its psychological and social significance, pointing out that in traditional China divination helped to order the future, just as history helped to order the past, and rituals the present.