Daniel Z. Kadar is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

"The author is an expert in the field and this is a particularly valuable contribution to a previously neglected, but important topic. There is a wealth of literary and historical detail here." - Professor Andy Kirkpatrick, Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

• Part I: Family Letter Writing; 1: Family Letter Writing I: Letters of Zheng Banqiao; 2: Family Letter Writing II: Letters of Zeng Guofan; Part II: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse; 3: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse I: Literary Letters of Jin Shengtan; 4: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse II: Scholarly Letters of Gu Yanwu; Part III: Non-family 'Social' Letter Writing; 5: Non-Family 'Social' Letters I: Letters of Xu Jiacun; 6: Non-Family 'Social' Letters II: Letters of Gong Weizhai; Part IV: Political Letter Writing; 7: Political Letters: A Long Letter of Yuan Shikai; Postscript: What next?; Appendix I: The Chinese Texts (printed in a punctuated form); Appendix II: Chronological List of Chinese Dynasties; Glossary of Epistolary Expressions, Honorifics and Grammatical Words; Bibliography; Index.

Daniel Z. Kadar is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

"The author is an expert in the field and this is a particularly valuable contribution to a previously neglected, but important topic. There is a wealth of literary and historical detail here." - Professor Andy Kirkpatrick, Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

• Part I: Family Letter Writing; 1: Family Letter Writing I: Letters of Zheng Banqiao; 2: Family Letter Writing II: Letters of Zeng Guofan; Part II: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse; 3: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse I: Literary Letters of Jin Shengtan; 4: 'Specialized' Epistolary Discourse II: Scholarly Letters of Gu Yanwu; Part III: Non-family 'Social' Letter Writing; 5: Non-Family 'Social' Letters I: Letters of Xu Jiacun; 6: Non-Family 'Social' Letters II: Letters of Gong Weizhai; Part IV: Political Letter Writing; 7: Political Letters: A Long Letter of Yuan Shikai; Postscript: What next?; Appendix I: The Chinese Texts (printed in a punctuated form); Appendix II: Chronological List of Chinese Dynasties; Glossary of Epistolary Expressions, Honorifics and Grammatical Words; Bibliography; Index.