Writing Against the State : Political Rhetorics in Third and Fourth Century China

Declercq, Dominik

ISBN 10: 9004103767 / ISBN 13: 9789004103764

Published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1998

About this Item

As new hardback copy in as new dustjacket still in publisher's original shrinkwrap. vi, 434pp.

Seller Inventory # 024740

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Writing Against the State : Political Rhetorics in Third and Fourth Century China
• Publisher: E. J. Brill, Leiden
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004103767
• ISBN 13: 9789004103764
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

This book is about the tension between de facto political power and the claims to intellectual and moral leadership of the shi (‘gentleman class’) in Early Medieval China.
Shelun, or Hypothetical Discourse, is a hitherto neglected Chinese literary genre. The author for the first time places the surviving texts against the political background that accounts for its rise and decline in early medieval China. Comprehensively annotated translations of seven Hypothetical Discourses are placed in the context of their authors' lives and times, with an emphasis on the post-Han examples of the genre.
This thorough study gives insight into this subgenre of fu by which the world of the Chinese gentleman class finds an always ambiguous expression in the rhyme-prose texts under review.

About the Author

Dominik Declercq studied Chinese at the Sinological Institute, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, and currently manages a Chinese joint venture enterprise for Alcatel Alsthom S.A.