A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Illustrations -- Abbreviations -- About the Contributors -- Introduction: The Study of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture -- Part 1 Material Aspects of Chinese Letter Writing Culture -- Chapter 1 Reconstructing the Postal Relay System of the Han Period -- Chapter 2 Letters as Calligraphy Exemplars: The Long and Eventful Life of Yan Zhenqing's (709-785) Imperial Commissioner Liu Letter -- Chapter 3 Chinese Decorated Letter Papers -- Chapter 4 Material and Symbolic Economies: Letters and Gifts in Early Medieval China -- Part 2 Contemplating the Genre -- Chapter 5 Letters in the Wen xuan -- Chapter 6 Between Letter and Testament: Letters of Familial Admonition in Han and Six Dynasties China -- Chapter 7 The Space of Separation: The Early Medieval Tradition of Four-Syllable "Presentation and Response" Poetry -- Chapter 8 Letters and Memorials in the Early Third Century: The Case of Cao Zhi -- Chapter 9 Liu Xie's Institutional Mind: Letters, Administrative Documents, and Political Imagination in Fifth- and Sixth-Century China -- Chapter 10 Bureaucratic Influences on Letters in Middle Period China: Observations from Manuscript Letters and Literati Discourse -- Part 3 Diversity of Content and Style -- Section 1 Informal Letters -- Chapter 11 Private Letter Manuscripts from Early Imperial China -- Chapter 12 Su Shi's Informal Letters in Literature and Life -- Chapter 13 The Letter as Artifact of Sentiment and Legal Evidence -- Chapter 14 Infinite Variations of Writing and Desire: Love Letters in China and Europe -- Chapter 15 Writing from Revolution's Debris: Shen Congwen's Family Letters in the Mao Era -- Section 2 Literary Letters -- Chapter 16 Captured in Words: Functions and Limits of Autobiographical Expression in Early Chinese Epistolary Literature.

Chapter 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" -- Chapter 18 The Inscription of Emotion in Mid-Tang Collegial Letters -- Chapter 19 Halves and Holes: Collections, Networks, and Epistolary Practices of Chan Monks -- Chapter 20 Letters as Windows on Ming-Qing Women's Literary Culture -- Chapter 21 Epistolary Networks and Practice in the Early Qing: The Letters Written to Yan Guangmin -- Section 3 Open Letters -- Chapter 22 Aid and Comfort: Lu Zhaolin's Letters -- Chapter 23 She Association Circulars from Dunhuang -- Chapter 24 Between Writing and Publishing Letters: Publishing a Letter about Book Proprietorship -- Chapter 25 Opinions Going Public: Letters to the Editors in China's Earliest Modern Newspapers -- Scholarship on Chinese Epistolary Literature and Culture: A Select Bibliography -- Index.

Dedicated to the study of Chinese epistolary literature and culture from the early empire to the twentieth century, the twenty-five essays of A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture discuss a wealth of epistolary topics and provide numerous translations.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.