This book is a literary biography of Shen Yueh, a statesman, historian, poet, and devout lay defender of both Buddhism and Taoism. The title "Reticient Marquis" (Yin-hou) was awarded posthumously by the Liang Emperor Wu, who, though owning his own rise to power partly to Shen's bold counsel, had found him less than forthcoming from that point onward. Shen was indeed very reserved, and continually tortured by the conflicting claims of his ascetic Buddhist ideals and his love for luxury, his chameleon-like ability to preserve his influence through three regimes, and his high social and political status. Richard B. Mather provides the first full description in a Western language of Shen's life and though and supplies numerous translations of his surviving letters, memorials, poems, and essays. Richard B. Mather is Professor Emeritus and East Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book is a literary biography of Shen Yueh, a statesman, historian, poet, and devout lay defender of both Buddhism and Taoism. The title "Reticient Marquis" (Yin-hou) was awarded posthumously by the Liang Emperor Wu, who, though owning his own rise to power partly to Shen's bold counsel, had found him less than forthcoming from that point onward. Shen was indeed very reserved, and continually tortured by the conflicting claims of his ascetic Buddhist ideals and his love for luxury, his chameleon-like ability to preserve his influence through three regimes, and his high social and political status. Richard B. Mather provides the first full description in a Western language of Shen's life and though and supplies numerous translations of his surviving letters, memorials, poems, and essays. Richard B. Mather is Professor Emeritus and East Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book is a literary biography of Shen Yueh, a statesman, historian, poet, and devout lay defender of both Buddhism and Taoism. His active career spanned three successive dynasties (Liu-Sung, Nan-Ch'i, and Liang), whose capitals were located in the lower Yangtze city of Chien-k'ang (modern Nanking). The title "Reticient Marquis" (Yin-hou) was awarded him posthumously by the Liang Emperor Wu, who, though owing his own rise to power partly to Shen's bold counsel, had found him less than forthcoming from that point onward. Shen was indeed very reserved, and continually tortured by the conflicting claims of his ascetic Buddhist ideals and his love for luxury, his chameleon-like ability to preserve his influence through three regimes, and his high social and political status. Richard B. Mather provides the first full description in a Western language of Shen's life and thought and supplies numerous translations of his surviving letters, memorials, poems, and essays. Because Shen was often in the center of controversy over matters of social, literary, and religious significance, his life may be read as an embodiment of some of the major issues and developments in the south during China's early middle ages. Professor Mather deals successively with all aspects of his life--his role as historian, courtier, poet, Taoist hermit, and Buddhist.

This work offers a sweeping re-assessment of the Jiankang Empire (3rd-6th centuries CE), known as the Chinese "Southern Dynasties." It shows how, although one of the medieval world's largest empires, Jiankang has been rendered politically invisible by the standard narrative of Chinese nationalist history, and proposes a new framework and terminology for writing about medieval East Asia. The book pays particular attention to the problem of ethnic identification, rejecting the idea of "ethnic Chinese," and delineating several other, more useful ethnographic categories, using case studies in agriculture/foodways and vernacular languages. The most important, the Wuren of the lower Yangzi region, were believed to be inherently different from the peoples of the Central Plains, and the rest of the book addresses the extent of their ethnogenesis in the medieval era. It assesses the political culture of the Jiankang Empire, emphasizing military strategy, institutional cultures, and political economy, showing how it differed from Central Plains-based empires, while having significant similarities to Southeast Asian regimes. It then explores how the Jiankang monarchs deployed three distinct repertoires of political legitimation (vernacular, Sinitic universalist, and Buddhist), arguing that the Sinitic repertoire was largely eclipsed in the sixth century, rendering the regime yet more similar to neighboring South Seas states. The conclusion points out how the research re-orients our understanding of acculturation and ethnic identification in medieval East Asia, generates new insights into the Tang-Song transition period, and offers new avenues of comparison with Southeast Asian and medieval European history.

This volume traces the modern critical and performance history of this play, one of Shakespeare's most-loved and most-performed comedies. The essay focus on such modern concerns as feminism, deconstruction, textual theory, and queer theory.

This biography of the court scholar Xun Xu explores central areas of intellectual life in third-century China — court lyrics, music, metrology, pitch systems, archeology, and historiography. It clarifies the relevant source texts in order to reveal fierce debates. Besides solving technical puzzles about the material details of court rites, the book unfolds factional struggles that developed into scholarly ones. Xun’s opponents were major figures like Zhang Hua and Zhi Yu. Xun Xu’s overall approach to antiquity and the derivation of truth made appeals to an idealized Zhou for authority. Ultimately, Xun’s precision and methods cost him both reputation and court status. The events mark a turning point in which ideals were moving away from such court constructs toward a relatively more philosophical antiquarianism and towards new terms and genres of self-expression.

First published in 1998. Including a wide range of information and recommended for academic libraries, this encyclopedia covers historiography and historians from around the world and will be a useful reference to students, researchers, scholars, librarians and the general public who are interested in the writing of history. Volume II covers entries from K to Z.