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Antje Richter is assistant professor of Chinese language and civilization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She previously taught at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction:
Epistolary Research in Chinese Studies and Beyond
Textual Sources of Early Medieval Chinese Letter Writing
The Organization of This Book
Remarks on Translation
Part One. Materials and Concepts of Letter Writing
1. Materiality and Terminology:
The Spread of Paper
Calligraphy and Letter Writing
Writers and Transporters of Letters
Terminology
The Genre of Personal Letters
2. Letters and Literary Thought:
Cao Pi's "Disquisitions on Literature" on Letters as a Genre
The Absence of Letters in Lu Ji's "Rhapsody on Literature"
Liu Xie's The Literary Mind and the Carving
of Dragons on Letters
Letters in Xiao Tong's Selections of Refined Literature
Letters about Literary Thought
Part Two. Epistolary Conventions and Literary Individuality
3. Structures and Phrases
Letter Opening
Letter Body
Letter Closing
Terms of Address and Self-Designation
4. Topoi
Lamenting Separation
Letters as Substitutes for Face-to-Face Conversation
The Limits of Writing and Language
5. Normativity and Authenticity
Letter-Writing Guides
Expressing Individuality within the Bounds of Convention
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Glossary-Index
About the author
Antje Richter is assistant professor of Chinese language and civilization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She previously taught at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg.
Summary
Makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time
