A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 4 China, 31)

A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture is the first publication, in any language, that is dedicated to the study of Chinese epistolary literature and culture in its entirety, from the early empire to the twentieth century. The volume includes twenty-five essays dedicated to a broad spectrum of topics from postal transmission to letter calligraphy, epistolary networks to genre questions. It introduces dozens of letters, often the first translations into English, and thus makes epistolary history palpable in all its vitality and diversity: letters written by men and women from all walks of life to friends and lovers, princes and kings, scholars and monks, seniors and juniors, family members and neighbors, potential patrons, newspaper editors, and many more. With contributions by: Pablo Ariel Blitstein, R. Joe Cutter, Alexei Ditter, Ronald Egan, Imre Galambos, Natascha Gentz, Enno Giele, Natasha Heller, David R. Knechtges, Paul W. Kroll, Jie Li, Y. Edmund Lien, Bonnie S. McDougall, Amy McNair, David Pattinson, Zeb Raft, Antje Richter, Anna M. Shields, Suyoung Son, Janet Theiss, Xiaofei Tian, Lik Hang Tsui, Matthew Wells, Ellen Widmer, and Suzanne E. Wright. 9200000040469018 history of chinese letters and epistolary culture-antje richter-2015 Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Abbreviations About the Contributors Introduction: The Study of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture Part 1 Material Aspects of Chinese Letter Writing Culture Chapter 1 Reconstructing the Postal Relay System of the Han Period Chapter 2 Letters as Calligraphy Exemplars: The Long and Eventful Life of Yan Zhenqing’s (709–785) Imperial Commissioner Liu Letter Chapter 3 Chinese Decorated Letter Papers Chapter 4 Material and Symbolic Economies: Letters and Gifts in Early Medieval China Part 2 Contemplating the Genre Chapter 5 Letters in the Wen xuan Chapter 6 Between Letter and Testament: Letters of Familial Admonition in Han and Six Dynasties China Chapter 7 The Space of Separation: The Early Medieval Tradition of Four-Syllable “Presentation and Response” Poetry Chapter 8 Letters and Memorials in the Early Third Century: The Case of Cao Zhi Chapter 9 Liu Xie’s Institutional Mind: Letters, Administrative Documents, and Political Imagination in Fifth- and Sixth-Century China Chapter 10 Bureaucratic Influences on Letters in Middle Period China: Observations from Manuscript Letters and Literati Discourse Part 3 Diversity of Content and Style Section 1 Informal Letters Chapter 11 Private Letter Manuscripts from Early Imperial China Chapter 12 Su Shi’s Informal Letters in Literature and Life Chapter 13 The Letter as Artifact of Sentiment and Legal Evidence Chapter 14 Infinite Variations of Writing and Desire: Love Letters in China and Europe Chapter 15 Writing from Revolution’s Debris: Shen Congwen’s Family Letters in the Mao Era Section 2 Literary Letters Chapter 16 Captured in Words: Functions and Limits of Autobiographical Expression in Early Chinese Epistolary Literature Chapter 17 Civil Examinations and Cover Letters in the Mid-Tang: Dugu Yu’s (776–815) “Letter Submitted to Attendant Gentleman Quan of the Ministry of Rites” Chapter 18 The Inscription of Emotion in Mid-Tang Collegial Letters Chapter 19 Halves and Holes: Collections, Networks, and Epistolary Practices of Chan Monks Chapter 20 Letters as Windows on Ming-Qing Women’s Literary Culture Chapter 21 Epistolary Networks and Practice in the Early Qing: The Letters Written to Yan Guangmin Section 3 Open Letters Chapter 22 Aid and Comfort: Lu Zhaolin’s Letters Chapter 23 She Association Circulars from Dunhuang Chapter 24 Between Writing and Publishing Letters: Publishing a Letter about Book Proprietorship Chapter 25 Opinions Going Public: Letters to the Editors in China’s Earliest Modern Newspapers Scholarship on Chinese Epistolary Literature and Culture: A Select Bibliography Index Dedicated To The Study Of Chinese Epistolary Literature And Culture From The Early Empire To The Twentieth Century, The Twenty-five Essays Of A History Of Chinese Letters And Epistolary Culture Discuss A Wealth Of Epistolary Topics And Provide Numerous Translations. __A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture__