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Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 1900-1949
Xiaorong Han explores how Chinese intellectuals envisioned the peasantry and its role in changing society during the first half of the twentieth century. Politically motivated intellectuals, both Communist and non-Communist, believed that rural peasants and their villages would be at the heart of change during this long period of national crisis. Nevertheless, intellectuals saw themselves as the true shapers of change who would transform and use the peasantry. Han uses intellectuals' writings to provide a comprehensive look at their views of the peasantry. He shows how intellectuals with varying politics created images of the peasant—a supposed contemporary image and an ideal image of the peasant transformed for political ends, how intellectuals theorized on the nature of Chinese rural life, and how intellectuals conceived their own relationships with peasants.
The Limits of Realism
Chinese intellectuals of the early twentieth century were attracted to realism primarily as a tool for social regeneration. Realism encouraged writers to adopt the stance of the independent cultural critic and drew into the compass of serious literature the disenfranchised "others" of Chinese society. As historical pressures forced new ideological commitments in the late twenties and thirties, however, writers grew suspicious both of the "individualism" implicit in the realist model and of the often superficial nature of the sympathies that their fiction evoked in the middle class. Anderson argues that realism must be defined negatively as a "discourse of limitations" and is of minimal utili...
Daoist Identity
Daoist Identity is an exploration of the various means by which Daoists over the centuries have created an identity for themselves. Using modern sociological studies of identity formation as its foundation, it brings together a representative sample of in-depth analyses by eminent American and Japanese scholars in the field. The discussion begins with critical examinations of the ways identity was found among the early movements of the Way of Great Peace and the Celestial Masters. The role of sacred texts and literary culture in Daoist identity formation is discussed. The volume then focuses on lineage formation and the increasing role of popular religious practices, such as spirit-writing, ...
Signposts of Self-Realization
In Signposts of Self-Realization, Xinmin Liu offers an ontological study of education and development of the individual self through the prisms of ethical progress and social evolution in the context of modern Chinese literature and film. Did self-realization in the Chinese modern follow the law of Social Darwinism: the biggest ego always won out? Is individualism always self-regarding, never other-regarding? How did the Greater I evolve out of the Lesser I socially and ethically? Confronting these questions, the author navigates through the terrains of paraphrastic translation, Buddhist nonself, lyrical epiphany, redemptive memory and ethnic orality to map out an alternative path for the growth of a modern Chinese self.
Shanghai Narrative
This book focuses on urban development in Shanghai over the past four decades, which is composed of two major development processes—the development of new spaces and the renewal of old ones. Seeking to bring the concept of space back into social analysis, the book explores changes affecting communities, interpersonal interactions, lifestyles and social mindsets in Shanghai from a spatial perspective. What’s more, all these social themes are presented using a narrative of spatial representation and spatialization. The book combines both academic and documentary-style contributions. It also provides cutting-edge research on the most representative case in Shanghai. As the book demonstrates, the story of social spaces in Shanghai is more than a combination of social analysis and spatial analysis but also involves historical analysis and contemporary narrative.
Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature
The Ming–Qing dynastic transition in seventeenth-century China was an epochal event that reverberated in Qing writings and beyond; political disorder was bound up with vibrant literary and cultural production. Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature focuses on the discursive and imaginative space commanded by women. Encompassing writings by women and by men writing in a feminine voice or assuming a female identity, as well as writings that turn women into a signifier through which authors convey their lamentation, nostalgia, or moral questions for the fallen Ming, the book delves into the mentality of those who remembered or reflected on the dynastic transition, as we...
Cultural Realism
Cultural Realism is an in-depth study of premodern Chinese strategic thought that has important implications for contemporary international relations theory. In applying a Western theoretical debate to China, Iain Johnston advances rigorous procedures for testing for the existence and influence of "strategic culture." Johnston sets out to answer two empirical questions. Is there a substantively consistent and temporally persistent Chinese strategic culture? If so, to what extent has it influenced China's approaches to security? The focus of his study is the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644). First Johnston examines ancient military texts as sources of Chinese stra...
Contemporary New Confucianism I
As the first volume of a two-volume seminal work on contemporary New Confucianism in China, this book charts the development of this intellectual trend and examines four leading thinkers of this intellectual movement in the 20th century. Contemporary New Confucianism refers to the Confucianism or Confucian thought that has emerged in China since the 1920s and that seeks to revive Confucian spirituality in a changing society. This volume first analyzes the cultural context, logical approach, major themes, and problems of New Confucianism before delving into the four leading figures, namely Liang Shumin, Xiong Shili, Ma Yifu, and Qian Mu. The chapter on Liang Shumin analyzes his concept of wil...
Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction
In traditional China, upper-class literati were inevitably strongly influenced by Confucian doctrine and rarely touched upon such topics as love and women in their writings. It was not until the mid-Tang, a generation or two after the An Lushan rebellion, that literary circles began to engage in overt discussion of the issues of love and women, through the use of the newly emerging genres of zhiguai and chuanqi fiction. The debate was carried out with an unprecedented enthusiasm, since the topics were considered to be the key to understanding the crisis in Chinese civilization. This book examines the repertoire of chuanqi and zhiguai written during the Six Dynasties and Tang periods and anal...
Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, Volume II
This volume of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women completes the four-volume project and contains more than 400 biographies of women active in the Tang through Ming dynasties (618-1644). Many of the entries are the result of original research and provide the only substantial information on women available in English. Of note is the inclusion of a large number of women who reached positions of authority during this period as well as women artists and writers, especially poets, during this period of increased female literacy and more liberal social attitudes to women's cultural roles. Wherever possible, entries incorporate translations of poems and sometimes prose works so as to let the women speak for themselves. The book also includes a multitude of entertainers and actresses. The volume includes a Guide to Chinese Words Used, a Chronology of Dynasties and Major Rulers, a Finding List by Background or Fields of Endeavor, and a Glossary of Chinese Names. It will prove to be a useful tool for research and teaching.
