Fu Poetry Along the Silk Roads: Third-Century Chinese Writings on Exotica (East Meets West: East Asia and Its Periphery from 200 BCE to 1600 CE)

This book explores the dissemination of ideas and information on the early silk roads between Europe and China, through the first detailed study of the Sinicization of foreign objects in Chinese poetic writing of the third century CE. Third-century literary developments and the prevailing literary works from that era leave us with an impressive amount of information concerning exotic objects, such as plants, animals, and crafts, and record the cultural exchange between distant peoples whose goods, ideas, and technologies entered China. These hitherto-forgotten rhapsodies express the profound interest and excitement of learned men for foreign objects. They bear witness to the cultural exchanges between China and other civilizations and provide a more nuanced insight of early medieval China as an integrated society rather than an isolated one. This book explores the dissemination of ideas and information on the early silk roads between Europe and China, through the first detailed study of the Sinicization of foreign objects in Chinese poetic writing of the third century CE.00Third-century literary developments and the prevailing literary works from that era leave us with an impressive amount of information concerning exotic objects, such as plants, animals, and crafts, and record the cultural exchange between distant peoples whose goods, ideas, and technologies entered China.00These hitherto-forgotten rhapsodies express the profound interest and excitement of learned men for foreign objects. They bear witness to the cultural exchanges between China and other civilizations and provide a more nuanced insight of early medieval China as an integrated society rather than an isolated one Cover 1 Contents 5 List of Illustrations 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction. A Century of Writing on Objects 9 Part I. Exotic Objects at Court 27 Chapter One. Rosemary and the Contest of the Caos 29 Chapter Two. The Agate Bridle: Transforming an Indian Rock into a Political Symbol 45 Part II. Exotic Objects in the Mainstream 61 Chapter Three. Pomegranate: Becoming Chinese Apple 63 Chapter Four. Monkeys: Gods Elsewhere, Pets Here 83 Part III. Exotic Images in the Sacred Space 101 Chapter Five. Peacock: Auspiciousness Challenged 103 Chapter Six. The Lotus: Becoming A Chinese Icon 119 Conclusion. The Value of Otherness in Literature 139 Bibliography 151 Index 169 An exploration of the nature of cultural exchange of the exotic and Chinese influence in world culture through the study of yongwufu (rhapsodies on objects) and the connection between the early Silk Roads and Chinese poetic writing of the third century. By Xurong Kong. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web.