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China's cultural heritage : the Qing dynasty, 1644-1912

Author: Richard J Smith
Publisher: Boulder : Westview Press, 1994.
Edition/Format:   Book : English : 2nd edView all editions and formats
Summary:
The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) - a crucial bridge between "traditional" and "modern" China - was a period remarkable for its expansiveness and cultural sophistication. In this extensively revised and expanded edition of his highly regarded book, Richard J. Smith shows how the Chinese of the Qing Dynasty viewed the world; how their outlook was expressed in their institutions, material culture, and customs; and how
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Smith, Richard J. (Richard Joseph), 1944-
China's cultural heritage.
Boulder : Westview Press, 1994
(OCoLC)624398199
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Richard J Smith
ISBN: 0813313465 9780813313467 0813313473 9780813313474
OCLC Number: 29753748
Description: xiv, 386 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.
Contents: The Qing inheritance --
The Qing political order --
Social and economic institutions --
Language and symbolic reference --
Thought --
Religion --
Art --
Literature --
Social life --
Tradition and modernity, 1860-1993.
Responsibility: Richard J. Smith.
More information:

Abstract:

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) - a crucial bridge between "traditional" and "modern" China - was a period remarkable for its expansiveness and cultural sophistication. In this extensively revised and expanded edition of his highly regarded book, Richard J. Smith shows how the Chinese of the Qing Dynasty viewed the world; how their outlook was expressed in their institutions, material culture, and customs; and how China's preoccupation with order, unity, and harmony contributed to the remarkable cohesiveness and continuity of traditional Chinese civilization. In addition to offering a new and challenging interpretation of Chinese culture as a whole, he provides a fresh perspective on a wide variety of topics, from gender issues, philosophy, religion, and mythology to language, aesthetics, and symbolism.

He also examines a number of important but too-often neglected aspects of traditional Chinese daily life, including divination, food, music, sexual practices, festivals, child-rearing, and games. Based on the author's careful rethinking of certain themes and arguments presented in the first edition, this revised version of China's Cultural Heritage also draws heavily upon the enormous body of new scholarship on Chinese history and culture that has appeared in the last decade. Although focused primarily on the Qing Dynasty, the book not only sheds valuable light on the distant past but it also helps us to understand China's contemporary problems of modernization. A concluding chapter systematically explores the legacy of traditional Chinese culture to the twentieth century.

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