Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368-1911 (Cornell East Asia Series No. 191)

The chapters in this ground-breaking volume examine the complex practices of biographical writing in Ming and Qing China. The authors draw on a rich variety of sources to answer some basic questions: Who were the writers of these texts and the subjects of their biographical constructions? What motivated these textual productions and sustained the routes from (re)creations to (re)publications? The informed and fascinating readings illuminate the enduring appeal of representing and represented lives in Chinese history.

Ihor Pidhainy is Assistant Professor of History at University of West Georgia, whose research focuses on political, social, and intellectual history of China in the late imperial period (1300–1900).

Roger Des Forges is Professor Emeritus of History at State University of New York at Buffalo, specializing in Chinese cultural, political, and social history.

Grace S. Fong is Professor of Chinese Literature at McGill University, with expertise in classical Chinese poetry and poetics, literary theory and criticism, and gender and women's writing.