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Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages / Sanping Chen.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Encounters with AsiaPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812243703
  • 9780812206289
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword: Old Wine in New Bottles -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Legacy of the Tuoba Xianbei: The Tang Dynasty -- Chapter 2. From Mulan to Unicorn -- Chapter 3. Brotherly Matters and the Canine Image: The Invasion of "Barbarian" Tongues -- Chapter 4. The Huns and the Bulgars: The Chinese Chapter -- Chapter 5. The Mystery of the "White-Drake" Oracle: The Iranian Shadows -- Chapter 6. Son of Heaven and Son of God -- Chapter 7. Bai Juyi and Central Asia -- Appendix. Turkic or Proto-Mongolian? A Note on the Tuoba Language -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
Summary: In contrast to the economic and cultural dominance by the south and the east coast over the past several centuries, influence in China in the early Middle Ages was centered in the north and featured a significantly multicultural society. Many events that were profoundly formative for the future of East Asian civilization occurred during this period, although much of this multiculturalism has long been obscured due to the Confucian monopoly of written records. Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages endeavors to expose a number of long-hidden non-Sinitic characteristics and manifestations of heritage, some lasting to this very day.Sanping Chen investigates several foundational aspects of Chinese culture during this period, including the legendary unicorn and the fabled heroine Mulan, to determine the origin and development of the lore. His meticulous research yields surprising results. For instance, he finds that the character Mulan is not of Chinese origin and that Central Asian influences are to be found in language, religion, governance, and other fundamental characteristics of Chinese culture. As Victor Mair writes in the Foreword, "While not everyone will acquiesce in the entirety of Dr. Chen's findings, no reputable scholar can afford to ignore them with impunity."These "foreign"-origin elements were largely the legacy of the Tuoba, whose descendants in fact dominated China's political and cultural stage for nearly a millennium. Long before the Mongols, the Tuoba set a precedent for "using the civilized to rule the civilized" by attracting a large number of sedentary Central Asians to East Asia. This not only added a strong pre-Islamic Iranian layer to the contemporary Sinitic culture but also commenced China's golden age under the cosmopolitan Tang dynasty, whose nominally "Chinese" ruling house is revealed by Chen to be the biological and cultural heir of the Tuoba.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780812206289

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword: Old Wine in New Bottles -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Legacy of the Tuoba Xianbei: The Tang Dynasty -- Chapter 2. From Mulan to Unicorn -- Chapter 3. Brotherly Matters and the Canine Image: The Invasion of "Barbarian" Tongues -- Chapter 4. The Huns and the Bulgars: The Chinese Chapter -- Chapter 5. The Mystery of the "White-Drake" Oracle: The Iranian Shadows -- Chapter 6. Son of Heaven and Son of God -- Chapter 7. Bai Juyi and Central Asia -- Appendix. Turkic or Proto-Mongolian? A Note on the Tuoba Language -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In contrast to the economic and cultural dominance by the south and the east coast over the past several centuries, influence in China in the early Middle Ages was centered in the north and featured a significantly multicultural society. Many events that were profoundly formative for the future of East Asian civilization occurred during this period, although much of this multiculturalism has long been obscured due to the Confucian monopoly of written records. Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages endeavors to expose a number of long-hidden non-Sinitic characteristics and manifestations of heritage, some lasting to this very day.Sanping Chen investigates several foundational aspects of Chinese culture during this period, including the legendary unicorn and the fabled heroine Mulan, to determine the origin and development of the lore. His meticulous research yields surprising results. For instance, he finds that the character Mulan is not of Chinese origin and that Central Asian influences are to be found in language, religion, governance, and other fundamental characteristics of Chinese culture. As Victor Mair writes in the Foreword, "While not everyone will acquiesce in the entirety of Dr. Chen's findings, no reputable scholar can afford to ignore them with impunity."These "foreign"-origin elements were largely the legacy of the Tuoba, whose descendants in fact dominated China's political and cultural stage for nearly a millennium. Long before the Mongols, the Tuoba set a precedent for "using the civilized to rule the civilized" by attracting a large number of sedentary Central Asians to East Asia. This not only added a strong pre-Islamic Iranian layer to the contemporary Sinitic culture but also commenced China's golden age under the cosmopolitan Tang dynasty, whose nominally "Chinese" ruling house is revealed by Chen to be the biological and cultural heir of the Tuoba.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2022)