Research Catalog

Title

Crisis and transformation in seventeenth-century China : society, culture, and modernity in Li Yü's world / Chun-shu Chang and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang.

Author

Chang, Chun-shu, 1934-

Publication

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Chang, Shelley Hsueh-lun, 1934-

Description

x, 452 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The seventeenth century was a time of great social and political upheaval in China. In Crisis and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century China, Chun-shu and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang offer a detailed and engaging analysis of society, culture, and the state in China during this critical period in its history." "The main thread of the book follows the life and works of a remarkable figure of the period, Li Yu (1611-80), whose vast array of accomplishments and experiences mirror seventeenth-century China in all its complexity and excitement. Li Yu's China was a world of unprecedented changes in almost all spheres of life. A thriving commercial and industrial economy, stupendous population growth, and the emergence of a new age of science and technology were accompanied by intense urbanization, radical views on money, wealth, and luxury, liberal attitudes toward sexuality, and developments which would change the nature of the literary and intellectual world. The Changs' exhaustive exploration of Chinese historical and literary sources of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is combined with a selective application of interpretive insights and analytic techniques from the major theoretical schools." "An important resource for scholars in history, literature, and Asian studies, Crisis and Transformation extends its appeal to those interested in the history of science, issues of gender and social transformation, and popular culture movements."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• China > Social life and customs > 960-1644
• Li, Yu, 1611-1680? > Criticism and interpretation

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue. In Search of Li Yu and His World: Conflict and Tension between Individual and Society -- 1. Sociopolitical Change and Individual Response: Li Yu's Life and Work in the Age of Transition -- 2. Crisis and Transformation in the Ming-Ching World: The Making of a Professional Writer -- 3. State and Society in Li Yu's Plays -- 4. Individual and Society in Li Yu's Fiction -- 5. Crisis and Revolution in the Ming-Ching Intellectual World: Li Yu's World in Historical Perspective -- Epilogue. In Appreciation of Li Yu: The Individual in Political Change and Sociocultural Transformation.

ISBN

0472102559

LCCN

91025205

OCLC

• 24216928
• ocm24216928

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries