Chinese Theories of Reading and Writing: A Route to Hermeneutics and Open Poetics (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture) - Softcover

Gu, Ming Dong

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791464245 ISBN 13: 9780791464243

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2006

Synopsis

A groundbreaking work that uncovers an implicit system of hermeneutics in traditional Chinese thought and aesthetics.

This ambitious work provides a systematic study of Chinese theories of reading and writing in intellectual thought and critical practice. The author maintains that there are two major hermeneutic traditions in Chinese literature: the politico-moralistic mainstream and the metaphysico-aesthetical undercurrent. In exploring the interaction between the two, Ming Dong Gu finds a movement toward interpretive openness. In this, the Chinese practice anticipates modern and Western theories of interpretation, especially literary openness and open poetics. Classic Chinese works are examined, including the Zhouyi (the I Ching or Book of Changes), the Shijing (the Book of Songs or Book of Poetry), and selected poetry, along with the philosophical background of the hermeneutic theories. Ultimately, Gu relates the Chinese practices of reading to Western hermeneutics, offering a cross-cultural conceptual model for the comparative study of reading and writing in general.

About this title

About the Author

Ming Dong Gu is Associate Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature and Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas, Dallas. He is the author of Chinese Theories of Reading and Writing: A Route to Hermeneutics and Open Poetics, also published by SUNY Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0791464245
• ISBN 13: 9780791464243
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 348