Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China
Honorable Mention for the 2016 Kayden Book Award

This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns, topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each component of the standard personal letter. References to letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout.

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary sources.

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Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China
Honorable Mention for the 2016 Kayden Book Award

This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns, topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each component of the standard personal letter. References to letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout.

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary sources.

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Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China

by Antje Richter
Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China

by Antje Richter

Paperback

$35.00 
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Overview

Honorable Mention for the 2016 Kayden Book Award

This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns, topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each component of the standard personal letter. References to letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout.

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary sources.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295992785
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 06/15/2013
Series: MLI / A China Program Book
Pages: 244
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Antje Richter is assistant professor of Chinese language and civilization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She previously taught at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction:

Epistolary Research in Chinese Studies and Beyond

Textual Sources of Early Medieval Chinese Letter Writing

The Organization of This Book

Remarks on Translation

Part One. Materials and Concepts of Letter Writing

1. Materiality and Terminology:

The Spread of Paper

Calligraphy and Letter Writing

Writers and Transporters of Letters

Terminology

The Genre of Personal Letters

2. Letters and Literary Thought:

Cao Pi's "Disquisitions on Literature" on Letters as a Genre

The Absence of Letters in Lu Ji's "Rhapsody on Literature"

Liu Xie's The Literary Mind and the Carving

of Dragons on Letters

Letters in Xiao Tong's Selections of Refined Literature

Letters about Literary Thought

Part Two. Epistolary Conventions and Literary Individuality

3. Structures and Phrases

Letter Opening

Letter Body

Letter Closing

Terms of Address and Self-Designation

4. Topoi

Lamenting Separation

Letters as Substitutes for Face-to-Face Conversation

The Limits of Writing and Language

5. Normativity and Authenticity

Letter-Writing Guides

Expressing Individuality within the Bounds of Convention

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary-Index

What People are Saying About This

Cynthia Chennault

"Richter's intellectual breadth and dialogue with contemporary scholars of letter-writing traditions in Europe should ensure her work has a broad reception. This is original scholarship that handles an important literary genre with sensitivity and sophistication."

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