
The Halberd at Red Cliff
Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms
Xiaofei Tian(Author)
Harvard University, Asia Center (Publisher)
Published on 4. June 2018
Book
Hardback
470 pages
978-0-674-97703-7 (ISBN)
Description
The turn of the third century CE-known as the Jian'an era or Three Kingdoms period-holds double significance for the Chinese cultural tradition. Its writings laid the foundation of classical poetry and literary criticism. Its historical personages and events have also inspired works of poetry, fiction, drama, film, and art throughout Chinese history, including Internet fantasy literature today. There is a vast body of secondary literature on these two subjects individually, but very little on their interface.
The image of the Jian'an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian'an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses.
The image of the Jian'an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian'an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses.
Reviews / Votes
A persuasive and well-written claim about history. By offering a plausible historical reconstruction on how colligations can shape representations and social attitudes, [Tian] makes us reflect more carefully on the relation between imagination and knowledge, and on the different tools people have to make claims about the past. -- Pablo Blitstein * Journal of the American Oriental Society * The book is a triumph of scholarship, both enjoyable and instructive to read. It will interest sinologists specializing in various disciplines and periods and should also interest scholars of traditional Europe who have a comparative bent, as well as anyone engaged by the question of how literary texts and historical figures regenerate their influence and power over time. -- Paul Kroll, Professor Emeritus of Chinese, University of Colorado, BoulderMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-674-97703-7 (9780674977037)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Xiaofei Tian is Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University.