![]() ![]() The only way to fly beyond the limitation of one’s own language is to study the history of other (preferably older) cultures. Contemporary cultural theories have produced as little penetrating or valid worldview as the bold claim of a teenager who announces that he knows everything about life before he has lived it. To play god in the field of cultural studies is an attempt to counteract gravity 1 2 Preface by pulling one’s hair or fly as a bird soaring, swooping, and changing direction instinctively. These “scientific” theories ignore or deny the restrictions of their own language. How does language relate to worldview? What would happen to law after its language loses absolute boundary and binding power? How do music, visual, and theatrical images influence literature, especially a mature literature? How does an established language and ideology penetrate and cultivate the collective consciousness and unconsciousness by creating endless repetition of seemingly varied images and tones? This historic revision provides an alternative to the linguistic history that is constructed by established cultural theories and in linguistic jargons such as semantic system, universal grammar, phonology, or morphology. Within Chinese cultural history, they can find explanations for many major issues that have been haunting historians and cultural theorists for decades. Western scholars of social science and humanities might also benefit from this study. One might see a future of a mature literary language that is overly inflated with law, and a political system that is maintained by increasingly sophisticated media rhetoric. An understanding of the history of Chinese language and its impact upon the Chinese mind can be helpful for the students of Western culture because it illustrates an experience beyond the horizon of contemporary speakers of Western languages whose literatures have evolved for only a few hundred years. ![]() What happened to Chinese will take place in younger languages in their own time and in their unique and native forms. The longer a language lives, the richer, more diverse and refined it becomes. It attempts to show that the way in which Chinese literature grew and reacted to its music and visual expression is essentially the same as contemporary English and other Western languages. ![]() It is written in the familiar terms of English speakers. A Few Final Words 87 89 117 145 180 209 Chapter Notes Bibliography Index 213 221 261 v This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is a general history of the Chinese language from the ancient to early modern period. Painting, Theatre and the Imagery of Poetry 4. On the cover: Portrait of Li Qingzhao (Palace Museum, Beijing) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 Table of Contents Preface Introduction 1 3 Part I. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Language and culture - 2011047290 CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2012 Sharron Gu. Includes bibliographical references and index. A cultural history of the Chinese language / Sharron Gu. A Cultural History of the Chinese Language ALSO BY SHARRON GU Language and Culture in the Growth of Imperialism (McFarland, 2012) A Cultural History of the Chinese Language SHARRON GU McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Gu, Sharron. ![]()
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