All Mine! - Happiness, Ownership, and Naming in Eleventh-Century China

Stephen Owen contends that in the new money economy of the Song Dynasty, writers became preoccupied with the question of whether material things can bring happiness. In a series of essays, All Mine! offers strikingly original readings of major eleventh-century figures.

List of contents

Introduction
1. What’s in a Name? The Biography of the Retired Layman Six Ones
2. The Magistrate of Peach Blossom Spring
3. Missing Stones
4. All Mine: The Poetics of Ownership
5. The Stone That Tells Its Name
6. The Bamboo in the Breast and in the Belly
Closure
Further Readings
Sources and Translations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Stephen Owen is James Bryant Conant University Professor Emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His many books include, most recently, Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries (2019).

Summary

Stephen Owen contends that in the new money economy of the Song Dynasty, writers became preoccupied with the question of whether material things can bring happiness. In a series of essays, All Mine! offers strikingly original readings of major eleventh-century figures.

Additional text

Brilliant and persuasive readings of important Song essays that reveal a paradigm shift in the consciousness of writers. Considering the pressures of a lived environment complicated by obsession with objects, ownership, and self-representation, these readings are presented in a mode of hypothetical propositions, drawing the reader into a conversation with the texts and the translator.

Product details

• Authors: Stephen Owen
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2021
• EAN: 9780231203111
• ISBN: 978-0-231-20311-1
• No. of pages: 208
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, HISTORY / Asia / China, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Chinese, Chinese, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, history; Asian history; Chinese history; Song Dynasty