Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature

Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature PDF Author:
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295744847
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In literatures worldwide, animal fables have been analyzed for their revealingly anthropomorphic views, but until now little attention has been given to the animal tales of China. The complex, competitive relationship between rodents (vilified as thieves of grain) and the felines with whom they are perennially at war is explored in this presentation of Chinese tales about cats and mice. Master translator Wilt Idema situates them in an overview of animal tales in world literature, in the Chinese literary tradition as a whole, and within Chinese imaginative depictions of animals. The tales demonstrate the animals’ symbolism and their unusually prominent—and verbal—role in the stories. These readings depict cats and mice in conflict, in marital bonds, and in litigation—most centrally in a legal case of a mouse against a cat in the underworld court of King Yama. Many of the stories adopt the perspective of the mice as animals merely trying to survive, while also recognizing that cats are natural hunters. This entertaining volume will appeal to readers interested in Chinese literature and society, comparative literature, and posthumanist consideration of human-animal relations.

Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature

Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature PDF Author:
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295744847
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book

Book Description
In literatures worldwide, animal fables have been analyzed for their revealingly anthropomorphic views, but until now little attention has been given to the animal tales of China. The complex, competitive relationship between rodents (vilified as thieves of grain) and the felines with whom they are perennially at war is explored in this presentation of Chinese tales about cats and mice. Master translator Wilt Idema situates them in an overview of animal tales in world literature, in the Chinese literary tradition as a whole, and within Chinese imaginative depictions of animals. The tales demonstrate the animals’ symbolism and their unusually prominent—and verbal—role in the stories. These readings depict cats and mice in conflict, in marital bonds, and in litigation—most centrally in a legal case of a mouse against a cat in the underworld court of King Yama. Many of the stories adopt the perspective of the mice as animals merely trying to survive, while also recognizing that cats are natural hunters. This entertaining volume will appeal to readers interested in Chinese literature and society, comparative literature, and posthumanist consideration of human-animal relations.

Cat and Rat

Cat and Rat PDF Author: Ed Young
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805060499
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
To select the animals of the zodiac, the Jade Emperor has called for a race between all the animals. Full-color illustrations.

Seven Blind Mice

Seven Blind Mice PDF Author: Ed Young
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 039925742X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
The Caldecott Honor book and modern classic now in boardbook format. Finally! Nearly twenty years ago, Ed Young translated the ancient parable of the seven blind men and the elephant into a modern children's classic, one as simple as it is profound. A lesson in colors, numbers, the days of the week and most important, knowledge, this beautifully illustrated book has stood the test of time and continues to entertain and teach. Now in board book format, even the youngest children can experience the beauty and wisdom.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs PDF Author: John Simpson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780192800022
Category : Proverbs, American
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Lists recorded usages and meaning for hundreds of proverbs arranged by key word, from "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" to "Youth must be served."

Rats, Cats, Rogues, and Heroes

Rats, Cats, Rogues, and Heroes PDF Author: Robert J. Antony
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538169347
Category : Criminal anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Rats, Cats, Rogues, and Heroes reveals China's history and culture through the eyes of ordinary men and women using an interdisciplinary perspective that incorporates history, anthropology, folk studies, and literature to examine the sociocultural and symbolic worlds of gangsters, sorcerers, and prostitutes in late imperial and modern China.

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament

Classic Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament PDF Author: Victor H. Mair
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350337226
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Bathed with the blood and tears of countless poets and authors and naturally expressing the most heartfelt emotions of ancient peoples, poems of mourning and texts of lament stand out in classical Chinese literature as brilliant and unique. Composed and celebrated over 3000 years, they are central to the Chinese literary tradition but have been largely unknown to English readers. Including over 100 major pieces by leading literary figures from 800 BCE – 1800, this is the first English anthology of classic Chinese poems of mourning and texts of sacrificial offering. With annotated translations by leading scholars and reading guides accompanying each piece, this book reveals a powerful literary heritage to students and serious readers of Chinese literature, history and civilization.

Further Adventures on the Journey to the West

Further Adventures on the Journey to the West PDF Author: Master of Silent Whistle Studio
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295747730
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
As the audacious Monkey King battles his way through a landscape of inexplicable places and unfamiliar passions, Further Adventures on the Journey to the West offers a wry, revisionist critique of the late-Ming fascination with desire. Building on the great sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West, which recounts the escapades of a monk and three companions traveling to India in search of Buddhist scriptures to carry back to China, this sequel is a parable of self-delusion that explores the tension between desire and emptiness from a Buddhist perspective. The consummate literati novel, written by an accomplished artist for a well-educated readership, it is filled with allusions and parodies and features a dream-sequence narrative that is innovative and sophisticated even by modern standards. This new, fully annotated translation by two acclaimed scholars and translators brings to life this remarkably inventive, playful early modern text. The volume includes the original commentaries and illustrations, a critical introduction and afterword, and notes that highlight the sources of the novel’s intertextual references, revealing the author’s erudition and versatility.

Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse PDF Author: George Daugherty
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780439455985
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
Sagwa the cat loves playing with her mouse friend, Shei-Hu, but when the "cool" cats make fun of her, she must decide if her friendship is more important than being cool.

In the Land of Tigers and Snakes

In the Land of Tigers and Snakes PDF Author: Huaiyu Chen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231554648
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Animals play crucial roles in Buddhist thought and practice. However, many symbolically or culturally significant animals found in India, where Buddhism originated, do not inhabit China, to which Buddhism spread in the medieval period. In order to adapt Buddhist ideas and imagery to the Chinese context, writers reinterpreted and modified the meanings different creatures possessed. Medieval sources tell stories of monks taming wild tigers, detail rituals for killing snakes, and even address the question of whether a parrot could achieve enlightenment. Huaiyu Chen examines how Buddhist ideas about animals changed and were changed by medieval Chinese culture. He explores the entangled relations among animals, religions, the state, and local communities, considering both the multivalent meanings associated with animals and the daily experience of living with the natural world. Chen illustrates how Buddhism influenced Chinese knowledge and experience of animals as well as how Chinese state ideology, Daoism, and local cultic practices reshaped Buddhism. He shows how Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism developed doctrines, rituals, discourses, and practices to manage power relations between animals and humans. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including traditional texts, stone inscriptions, manuscripts, and visual culture, this interdisciplinary book bridges history, religious studies, animal studies, and environmental studies. In examining how Buddhist depictions of the natural world and Chinese taxonomies of animals mutually enriched each other, In the Land of Tigers and Snakes offers a new perspective on how Buddhism took root in Chinese society.

A Certain Justice

A Certain Justice PDF Author: Haiyan Lee
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226825264
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
A much-needed account of the hierarchy of justice that defines China’s unique political-legal culture. To many outsiders, China has an image as a realm of Oriental despotism where law is at best window dressing and at worst an instrument of coercion and tyranny. In this highly original contribution to the interdisciplinary field of law and humanities, Haiyan Lee contends that this image arises from a skewed understanding of China’s political-legal culture, particularly the failure to distinguish what she calls high justice and low justice. In the Chinese legal imagination, Lee shows, justice is a vertical concept, with low justice between individuals firmly subordinated to the high justice of the state. China’s political-legal culture is marked by a mistrust of law’s powers, and as a result, it privileges substantive over procedural justice. Calling on a wide array of narratives—stories of crime and punishment, subterfuge and exposé, guilt and redemption—A Certain Justice helps us recognize the fight for justice outside the familiar arenas of liberal democracy and the rule of law.