Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical Chinese LiteratureStephen Owen's book, inspired by Chinese literature, is for all who value literature in any language. "Remembrances" takes up the strongest claims we can make for literature -- that it can sustain life in the present as well as the life of the past. The past has always played a particularly powerful role in Chinese civilization. Owen shows how the fascination with the past came into being in Chinese literature, and he discusses some of the forms it took and the ways readers have responded. He reflects on a series of moments in Chinese writing from the seventh century B.C. to the early nineteenth century, moments when the past rose up with particular force. Through poems, anecdotes, exegeses, and one long story of an ardent collector and his wife, Owen treats a theme basic to Chinese civilization not as an exotic conceit but as a motif fundamental to our own civilization, even though its expression differs from our own. -- From publisher's description. |
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afterword Analects ancient anecdotes anonymous dead Arthur Waley become blossoms bones ceremonial Ch'i Ch'ien Ch'ing-chao Chang Heng Chao Te-fu Chinese literature Chinese tradition Chou nomos Chuang-tzu collection colophons Confucius connoisseurs of song death desire discover dream dynasties encounter feeling figures flowers force fragment Fu's gaze Grand Councilor halberd Heaven Hu's human husband idyll images immortal inscription landscape later-born literature living world look loss memoirs memory millet ming miniature moral order Mount Hsien mountain narrative nature necessity Ou-yang Hsiu pain passion past Peach person pleasure poem poet poetic exposition poetry present recognize relation remembered repetition retribution retributive justice rite ruins śārī scene sentiment Shen Fu simurgh someone Southland speak splendor SPTK Ssu-ma Ch'ien stanza stele stone story Sung survives tears tell thing truth Ts'ao Ts'ao's Tsin Tu Fu Wang Shou-jen West Lake words writing Wu Wen-ying Yang Hu Yüan Yün