Brill's Humanities in China Library – serie

The “May Fourth Movement” of 1919 is generally seen as the central event in China’s transformation from the traditional to the modern. It signalled the arrival of effective student activism on the political scene; it heralded the success of outspoken anti-imperialist ideologies; its slogans and pamphlets demonstrated the rhetorical qualities of the new vernacular writing; some of its participants went on to become leading cultural and political figures; it is said to have given birth to the Communist Party. The latter aspect has ensured that a particular narrative of the movement remained enshrined in official Chinese state ideology for many decades, a narrative often opposed by those outside China for similarly ideological reasons. No movement in modern Chinese history and culture has been more researched, yet none has been less understood. This award-winning book, by one of Peking University’s most famous professors, represents a groundbreaking attempt to return to a study of “May Fourth” that is solidly grounded in historical fact. Favouring smaller stories over grand narratives, concentrating on unknown, marginal materials rather than familiar key documents, and highlighting “May Fourth”’s indebtedness to the cultural debates of the preceding late Qing period, Chen Pingyuan reconstructs part of the actual historical scenery, demonstrating the great variety of ideas expressed during those tumultuous decades.

This groundbreaking book by the eminent Peking University professor Hong Zicheng covers the literary scene in China during the 1949-1999 period, primarily focusing on fiction, poetry, drama, and prose writing. Reprinted sixteen times since its publication in the PRC in 1999 it is now available in English translation at last. The first section of the book deals with the 1949-1976 period. Often derided and ignored as an arid era for literature by both Chinese and overseas critics, Professor Hong describes the literature that was popular and officially acceptable at the time, and the cultural policies and political campaigns that shaped the tastes of readers and the literary creativity of writers during the period. This part of the book is remarkable for Professor Hong’s candidness and open-mindedness, qualities that would have made this text difficult to publish at an earlier date in China. Furthermore, the platform that the first part of the text provides renders the second part even more understandable to readers unfamiliar with the post-1976 literary scene – and offers new insights to those who are familiar with it – demonstrating as it does the close links between the two distinctive eras. These links are provided by the resumption of literary traditions that had been more-or-less abandoned during the preceding ten-year period, as well as reactions against literature nurtured and guided by the state cultural apparatus. The second part of the book consists of a comprehensive description of developments – and insightful explanations of those developments – in the literary arts and literary criticism since 1976. A unique and much needed accomplishment in contemporary literary studies. Also available in paperback.

The Question for Twentieth-Century China has been the integration of tradition and modernity. In this collection of essays written over a period of some twenty years (1987-2006), Chen Lai reflects on the question in an informative and original way. He reads behind the political slogans and engages with the thought both of Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and Western sociology, and representative Chinese thinkers, notably Feng Youlan and Liang Shuming. While the focus is on China, the book also appeals to anyone interested in this fascinating question of how to modernise whilst retaining the positive values of tradition. Chen Lai’s unique and balanced grasp of society marks him out as the foremost thinker in China on this topic today.

Winner of the 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title AwardIn An Intellectual History of China, Professor Ge Zhaoguang presents a history of traditional Chinese knowledge, thought and belief to the late six century CE with a new approach offering a new perspective. It appropriates a wide range of source materials and emphasizes the necessity of understanding ideas and thought in their proper historical contexts. Its analytical narrative focuses on the dialectical interaction between historical background and intellectual thought. While discussing the complex dynamics of interaction among the intellectual thought of elite Chinese scholars, their historical conditions, their canonical texts and the “worlds of general knowledge, thought and belief,” it also illuminates the significance of key issues such as the formation of the Chinese world order and its underlying value system, the origins of Chinese cultural identity and foreign influences.

This groundbreaking book by the eminent Peking University professor Hong Zicheng covers the literary scene in China during the 1949-1999 period, primarily focusing on fiction, poetry, drama, and prose writing. Reprinted sixteen times since its publication in the PRC in 1999, it is now available in English translation at last.The first section of the book deals with the 1949-1976 period. Often derided and ignored as an arid era for literature by both Chinese and overseas critics, Professor Hong describes the literature that was popular and officially acceptable at the time, and the cultural policies and political campaigns that shaped the tastes of readers and the literary creativity of writers during the period. This part of the book is remarkable for Professor Hong’s candidness and open-mindedness, qualities that would have made this text difficult to publish at an earlier date in China. Furthermore, the platform that the first part of the text provides renders the second part even more understandable to readers unfamiliar with the post-1976 literary scene – and offers new insights to those who are familiar with it – demonstrating as it does the close links between the two distinctive eras. These links are provided by the resumption of literary traditions that had been more-or-less abandoned during the preceding ten-year period, as well as reactions against literature nurtured and guided by the state cultural apparatus. The second part of the book consists of a comprehensive description of developments – and insightful explanations of those developments – in the literary arts and literary criticism since 1976. A unique and much needed accomplishment in contemporary literary studies.

In Inheritance within Rupture, Luo Zhitian brings together ten essays to explore the themes of change and continuity, rupture and inheritance from the late Qing through the early Republic (1890s-1940s). Rejecting binaries such as tradition/modernity, conservative/liberal, Luo blurs the divisions between intellectual opponents and clarifies the divergences between scholarly friends. Centering these discussions around some of the most famous intellectual debates in the modern period, Luo challenges our understanding of ideological positions, political affiliation, and scholarly identity in early twentieth-century China. By focusing on the influence of cultural inheritance within the rupture of modernity, we come to understand those concerns shared by all Chinese in their own times and in the present.

In Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang, Rong Xinjiang provides an accessible overview of Dunhuang studies, an academic field that emerged following the discovery of a medieval monastic library at the Mogao caves near Dunhuang. The manuscripts were hidden in a cave at the beginning of the 11th century and remained unnoticed until 1900, when a Daoist monk accidentally found them and subsequently sold most of them to foreign explorers and scholars. The availability of this unprecedented amount of first-hand material from China’s middle period provided a stimulus for a number of scholarly fields both in China and the West. Rong Xinjiang’s book provides, for the first time in English, a convenient summary of the history of Dunhuang studies and its contribution to scholarship.

This book offers an account of the development and transformations of the discourse of ancestors’ instructions in the Song period. It explains how rulers selected words and deeds of ancestors in tandem with changes in current affairs, and how they gave them different meanings to create not only an image of the ancestors that were suitable for emulation but also a talisman to safeguard their administration. Using abundant resources, exercising an economy of words and academic rigor, the author digs deep to tease apart the complex and versatile relationship between the meaning and the truth of the Song discourse on ancestors’ instructions.

This book provides a survey of Yuan sanqu, with its principal sections focusing on fundamental theories, compositional features, and historical evolution. Its treatment of qu criticism and bibliography offers a comprehensive perspective on the defining characteristics of sanqu. Serving both as a general overview of sanqu and a foundation for future research, this publication explores this unique yet historically marginalized genre of song-poetry. It generates new insights through textual analysis and the nuanced discussion of dualistic concepts, such as the interplay between literature and music, the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the relationship between ci-lyrics and song-poetry.

This book takes as its main thread the struggle and cyclical alternation between the New Historiography (rooted in China's narrative historical tradition) and the New Sinology (grounded in textual criticism) in modern Chinese historiography over the past century. Focusing primarily on the differing interpretations of historical scholarship's essence among various schools of historians during this period, it examines the resulting divergences in concepts, methodologies, and approaches. The work further evaluates the actual impact of these differences on the development of historical studies. This book is essential for anyone interested in the intersection of history, culture, and intellectual thought.