Historical Chinese Letter Writing

Description

Daniel Z. Kadar was awarded with the Academy Award for Young Outstanding Scholars by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for this book. Letter writing is a pivotal yet neglected medium of historical Chinese communication. The epistolary format is key to sinological research. As historical letters have a specific vocabulary and rhetorical structure it is difficult to read them without the supporting apparatus of specialised study. This compendium fills the gap in Chinese studies by providing a bilingual Chinese-English edition of a corpus of Chinese letters, prepared for advanced students of Classical Chinese as well as academics with an interest in historical Chinese epistolary art. The book has a broad and general introduction, systematically constructed vocabulary sections as well as detailed grammatical and philological explanations. It focuses on Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) letter writing, a high point of pre-1911 epistolary activity in Chinese, and will appeal to Chinese scholars and Sinologists at a broad range of academic levels.

Daniel Z. Kadar is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.He is winner of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Young Scholar Award 2010.

"The author is an expert in the field and this is a particularly valuable contribution to a previously neglected, but important topic. There is a wealth of literary and historical detail here." - Professor Andy Kirkpatrick, Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong "Daniel Z. Kadar's work is a landmark in Chinese epistolary scholarship: not only is it the first major collection of Chinese historical letters presented in the English language, but it is also a meticulously compiled textbook for anyone who has a vested interest in ancient Chinese civilization. The author's strong background in discourse pragmatics is thoroughly reflected in the design of the book, which will serve the reader well. This book is a welcome addition to classical Chinese materials for readers ranging from undergrads to accomplished scholars." - Hongyin Tao, Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA