A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture

Editor:
Antje Richter

Publisher:
Brill

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:

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.

Table of Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction: The Study of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture
Source: pp 1 –14

1 Reconstructing the Postal Relay System of the Han Period
Source: pp 15 –52

2 Letters as Calligraphy Exemplars: The Long and Eventful Life of Yan Zhenqing’s (709–785) Imperial Commissioner Liu Letter
Source: pp 53 –96

3 Chinese Decorated Letter Papers
Source: pp 97 –134

4 Material and Symbolic Economies: Letters and Gifts in Early Medieval China
Source: pp 135 –186

5 Letters in the Wen xuan
Source: pp 187 –238

6 Between Letter and Testament: Letters of Familial Admonition in Han and Six Dynasties China
Source: pp 239 –275

7 The Space of Separation: The Early Medieval Tradition of Four-Syllable “Presentation and Response” Poetry
Source: pp 276 –306

8 Letters and Memorials in the Early Third Century: The Case of Cao Zhi
Source: pp 307 –330

9 Liu Xie’s Institutional Mind: Letters, Administrative Documents, and Political Imagination in Fifth- and Sixth-Century China
Source: pp 331 –362

10 Bureaucratic Influences on Letters in Middle Period China: Observations from Manuscript Letters and Literati Discourse
Source: pp 363 –397

11 Private Letter Manuscripts from Early Imperial China
Source: pp 399 –474

12 Su Shi’s Informal Letters in Literature and Life
Source: pp 475 –507

13 The Letter as Artifact of Sentiment and Legal Evidence
Source: pp 508 –545

14 Infinite Variations of Writing and Desire: Love Letters in China and Europe
Source: pp 546 –581

15 Writing from Revolution’s Debris: Shen Congwen’s Family Letters in the Mao Era
Source: pp 582 –617

16 Captured in Words: Functions and Limits of Autobiographical Expression in Early Chinese Epistolary Literature
Source: pp 619 –642

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”
Source: pp 643 –674

18 The Inscription of Emotion in Mid-Tang Collegial Letters
Source: pp 675 –720

19 Halves and Holes: Collections, Networks, and Epistolary Practices of Chan Monks
Source: pp 721 –743

20 Letters as Windows on Ming-Qing Women’s Literary Culture
Source: pp 744 –774

21 Epistolary Networks and Practice in the Early Qing: The Letters Written to Yan Guangmin
Source: pp 775 –826

22 Aid and Comfort: Lu Zhaolin’s Letters
Source: pp 827 –852

23 She Association Circulars from Dunhuang
Source: pp 853 –877

24 Between Writing and Publishing Letters: Publishing a Letter about Book Proprietorship
Source: pp 878 –899

25 Opinions Going Public: Letters to the Editors in China’s Earliest Modern Newspapers
Source: pp 900 –931

Scholarship on Chinese Epistolary Literature and Culture: A Select Bibliography
Source: pp 933 –941

Index