Chinese Literary Forms in Heian Japan: Poetics and Practice

Brian Steininger

ISBN 10: 0674975154 / ISBN 13: 9780674975156

Published by Harvard University, Asia Center, 2017

About this Item

Brian Steininger revisits Japan's mid-Heian court of the Tale of Genji and the Pillow Book, where literary Chinese was not only the basis of official administration, but also a medium for political protest, sermons of mourning, and poems of celebration. Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs. Num Pages: 280 pages. BIC Classification: HBLC1. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 22 x 15. . . 2017. 1st Edition. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780674975156

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chinese Literary Forms in Heian Japan: Poetics and Practice
• Publisher: Harvard University, Asia Center
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674975154
• ISBN 13: 9780674975156
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Written Chinese served as a prestigious, cosmopolitan script across medieval East Asia, from as far west as the Tarim Basin to the eastern kingdom of Heian period Japan (794 1185). In this book, Brian Steininger revisits the mid-Heian court of the Tale of Genji and the Pillow Book, where literary Chinese was not only the basis of official administration, but also a medium for political protest, sermons of mourning, and poems of celebration.

Chinese Literary Forms in Heian Japan reconstructs the lived practice of Chinese poetic and prose genres among Heian officials, analyzing the material exchanges by which documents were commissioned, the local reinterpretations of Tang aesthetic principles, and the ritual venues in which literary Chinese texts were performed in Japanese vocalization. Even as state ideology and educational institutions proclaimed the Chinese script s embodiment of timeless cosmological patterns, everyday practice in this far-flung periphery subjected classical models to a string of improvised exceptions. Through careful comparison of literary and documentary sources, this book provides a vivid case study of one society s negotiation of literature s position both within a hierarchy of authority and between the incommensurable realms of script and speech.

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About the Author

Brian Steininger is Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University.