Global Chinese Histories, 250-1650 – serie

Alexander Akin examines how the expansion of publishing in the late Ming dynasty prompted changes in the nature and circulation of cartographic materials in East Asia. Focusing on mass-produced printed maps, East Asian Cartographic Print Culture: The Late Ming Publishing Boom and its Trans-Regional Connections investigates a series of pathbreaking late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century works in genres including geographical education, military affairs, and history, analysing how maps achieved unprecedented penetration among published materials, even in the absence of major theoretical or technological changes like those that transformed contemporary European cartography. By examining contemporaneous developments in neighboring Choson Korea and Japan, this book demonstrates the crucial importance of considering the East Asian sphere in this period as a network of communication and publication, rather than as discrete national units with separate cartographic histories. It also reexamines the Jesuit printing of maps on Ming soil within the broader context of the local cartographic publishing boom and its trans-regional repercussions.

Based on a collaboration between historians of Chinese and European politics, Political Communication in Chinese and European History, 800-1600 offers a first comprehensive overview of current research on political communication in middle-period European and Chinese history. The chapters present new work on the sources and processes of political communication in European and Chinese history partly through juxtaposing and combining formerly separate historiographies and partly through direct comparison. Contrary to earlier comparative work on empires and state formation, which aimed to explain similarities and differences with encompassing models and new theories of divergence, the goal is to further conversations between historians by engaging regional historiographies from the bottom up.

This volume of interdisciplinary essays examines the intersection of religion and literature in medieval China, focusing on the impact of Buddhism and Daoism on a wide range of elite and popular literary texts and religious practices in the 3rd-11th centuries CE. Drawing on the work of the interdisciplinary scholar Stephen Bokenkamp, the essays weave together the many cross-currents of religious, intellectual, and literary traditions in medieval China to provide vivid pictures of medieval Chinese religion and culture as it was lived and practiced. The contributors to the volume are all highly regarded experts in the fields of Chinese poetry, Daoism, Buddhism, popular religion, and literature. Their research papers cut across imagined disciplinary boundaries to show that the culture of medieval China can only be understood by close reading of texts from multiple genres, traditions, and approaches.

In the eleventh century, the cities of the Song Empire (960-1279) emerged into writing. Literati in prior centuries had looked away from crowded streets, but literati in the eleventh century found beauty in towering buildings and busy harbors. Their purpose in writing the city was ideological. On the written page, they tried to establish a distinction that eluded them in the avenues and to discern an immanent pattern in the movement of people, goods, and money. By the end of the eleventh century, however, they recognized that they had failed in their efforts. They had lost the Way in the city. Urban Life and Intellectual Crisis in Middle-Period China, 800-1100 reveals the central place of urban life in the history of the eleventh century. Important developments in literary innovation and monetary policy, in canonical exegesis and civil engineering, in financial reform and public health, converge in this book as they converged in the city.

This book is a critical anthology that showcases the rich tradition of comic literature from medieval China. Spanning jokes, satires, witty poetry, humorous anecdotes, anthropomorphic biographies, and comedy theatre, this collection provides readers with a unique glimpse into the humor and societal dynamics of Middle Period China.Expertly translated by leading scholars, the anthology features critical prefaces and annotations that contextualize the works for contemporary readers. Two substantial general introductions offer an overview of the development of humor writing in China and establishes a framework for cross-cultural comparison with Western comic traditions. This volume combines scholarly rigor with accessible translations, making it an invaluable resource for understanding medieval Chinese culture.Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Middle Period China, 600–1300 is designed for scholars, educators, and students of premodern China, comparative literature, Global History, and Global Medieval Studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International license.

This volume addresses social, cultural, and artistic change during China’s middle period across the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960), and the succeeding Song dynasty (960–1279). Focusing on historiography, political thought, literati culture, and visual arts, the essays demonstrate how disparate the initiating moments and timelines of change were in different social, cultural, or geographic domains. This volume proposes deconstructing distinct processes of change that trace unique temporal arcs, allowing for new hypotheses regarding causal relations. This approach reveals that many perceived “transmissions” from Tang through Song are better understood as retrospective tenth-century or Song “inventions.” The contributing scholars represent many spheres of the field and span several scholarly generations, deploying methodological approaches that encompass cross-genre examinations of canonical and less-studied sources alongside digital humanities techniques. Accessible to scholars and students of middle period China at all levels, this volume introduces readers to key figures, texts, and debates from Tang to Song while proposing new frameworks and raising important new questions for multiple fields.

This volume investigates social, medical, and religious transformations during China’s middle period across the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960), and the succeeding Song dynasty (960–1279). Focusing on social history, medicine and medical history, and ritual and religion, the essays demonstrate how disparate the initiating moments and timelines of change were in different social, cultural, or geographic domains. This volume proposes deconstructing distinct processes of change that trace unique temporal arcs, allowing for new hypotheses regarding causal relations. This approach reveals that many perceived “transmissions” from Tang through Song are better understood as retrospective tenth-century or Song “inventions.” The contributing scholars represent many spheres of the field and span several scholarly generations, deploying methodological approaches that encompass cross-genre examinations of canonical and less-studied sources alongside digital humanities techniques. Accessible to scholars and students of middle period China at all levels, this volume introduces readers to key figures, texts, and debates from Tang to Song while proposing new frameworks and raising important new questions for multiple fields.

Based on a collaboration between historians of Chinese and European politics, Political Communication in Chinese and European History, 800-1600 offers a first comprehensive overview of current research on political communication in middle-period European and Chinese history.

This volume of interdisciplinary essays examines the intersection of religion and literature in medieval China, focusing on the impact of Buddhism and Daoism on a wide range of elite and popular literary texts and religious practices in the 3rd-11th centuries CE. Drawing on the work of the interdisciplinary scholar Stephen Bokenkamp, the essays weave together the many cross-currents of religious, intellectual, and literary traditions in medieval China to provide vivid pictures of medieval Chinese religion and culture as it was lived and practiced. The contributors to the volume are all highly regarded experts in the fields of Chinese poetry, Daoism, Buddhism, popular religion, and literature. Their research papers cut across imagined disciplinary boundaries to show that the culture of medieval China can only be understood by close reading of texts from multiple genres, traditions, and approaches.

Urban Life and Intellectual Crisis in Middle-Period China, 800-1100 reveals the central place of urban life in the history of the eleventh century. Important developments in literary innovation and monetary policy, in canonical exegesis and civil engineering, in financial reform and public health, converge in this book.