Fu Poetry Along the Silk Roads: Third-Century Chinese Writings on Exotica

Description

This book explores the dissemination of ideas and information on the early silk roads between Europe and China, through the first detailed study of the Sinicization of foreign objects in Chinese poetic writing of the third century CE. Third-century literary developments and the prevailing literary works from that era leave us with an impressive amount of information concerning exotic objects, such as plants, animals, and crafts, and record the cultural exchange between distant peoples whose goods, ideas, and technologies entered China. These hitherto-forgotten rhapsodies express the profound interest and excitement of learned men for foreign objects. They bear witness to the cultural exchanges between China and other civilizations and provide a more nuanced insight of early medieval China as an integrated society rather than an isolated one. 01.0_pp_i_iv_Frontmatter 02.0_pp_v_v_Contents 03.0_pp_vi_vi_List_of_Illustrations 04.0_pp_vii_viii_Acknowledgements 05.0_pp_1_18_Introduction_A_Century_of_Writing_on_Objects 06.0_pp_19_20_Exotic_Objects_at_Court 06.1_pp_21_36_Rosemary_and_the_Contest_of_the_Caos 06.2_pp_37_52_The_Agate_Bridle_Transforming_an_Indian_Rock_into_a_Political_Symbol 07.0_pp_53_54_Exotic_Objects_in_the_Mainstream 07.1_pp_55_74_Pomegranate_Becoming_Chinese_Apple 07.2_pp_75_92_Monkeys_Gods_Elsewhere_Pets_Here 08.0_pp_93_94_Exotic_Images_in_the_Sacred_Space 08.1_pp_95_110_Peacock_Auspiciousness_Challenged 08.2_pp_111_130_The_Lotus_Becoming_A_Chinese_Icon 09.0_pp_131_142_Conclusion_The_Value_of_Otherness_in_Literature 10.0_pp_143_160_Bibliography 11.0_pp_161_167_Index