Author: Benjamin A. Elman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674036476
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 606
Book Description
In On Their Own Terms, Benjamin A. Elman offers a much-needed synthesis of early Chinese science during the Jesuit period (1600-1800) and the modern sciences as they evolved in China under Protestant influence (1840s-1900). By 1600 Europe was ahead of Asia in producing basic machines, such as clocks, levers, and pulleys, that would be necessary for the mechanization of agriculture and industry. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Elman shows, Europeans still sought from the Chinese their secrets of producing silk, fine textiles, and porcelain, as well as large-scale tea cultivation. Chinese literati borrowed in turn new algebraic notations of Hindu-Arabic origin, Tychonic cosmology, Euclidian geometry, and various computational advances. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, imperial reformers, early Republicans, Guomindang party cadres, and Chinese Communists have all prioritized science and technology. In this book, Elman gives a nuanced account of the ways in which native Chinese science evolved over four centuries, under the influence of both Jesuit and Protestant missionaries. In the end, he argues, the Chinese produced modern science on their own terms.
Chinese Stories for Language Learners
Author: Vivian Ling
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462922279
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
The highly anticipated next book in Tuttle's Stories for Language Learners series is here! This book presents 22 classic Chinese proverbs and the traditional tales behind them. The stories are bilingual, with the Chinese and English versions presented on facing pages. Each includes an explanation of how the proverb is used today, cultural notes, vocabulary and discussion questions. Online audio recordings of the tales by native speakers give students a chance to improve their pronunciation and comprehension. Some of the proverbs featured in this collection include: "Painting the Eyes on the Dragon" Based on the story of a famous court painter in 6th century China who painted dragons, this proverb refers to the finishing touches needed to bring a work of art or literature to life. In a discussion, it refers to the final statements used to clinch the argument. "Waiting for Rabbits by a Tree Stump" Based on an ancient folktale about a foolish farmer who sees a rabbit kill itself in front of him by running into a tree stump, then gives up tilling his field to wait for more rabbits by the stump. This saying is applied to people who wait passively for luck to strike again. It also refers to impractical people who stick to one way of doing things only because it has worked for them once in the past. "Pure Water Has No Fish; Perfect People Have No Friends" Many versions of this historical tale exist. The one told here is about a 2nd century AD official sent to govern a far-flung outpost on the Silk Road who is fastidious in applying strict rules and thereby causes the local people to rebel against him. In the professional world, it is used to refer to people who do not like to work with an overly strict supervisor or colleague. Whether being used in a classroom or for self-study, Chinese Stories for Language Learners provides an educational and entertaining way for intermediate Mandarin learners to expand their vocabulary and understanding of the language.
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462922279
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
The highly anticipated next book in Tuttle's Stories for Language Learners series is here! This book presents 22 classic Chinese proverbs and the traditional tales behind them. The stories are bilingual, with the Chinese and English versions presented on facing pages. Each includes an explanation of how the proverb is used today, cultural notes, vocabulary and discussion questions. Online audio recordings of the tales by native speakers give students a chance to improve their pronunciation and comprehension. Some of the proverbs featured in this collection include: "Painting the Eyes on the Dragon" Based on the story of a famous court painter in 6th century China who painted dragons, this proverb refers to the finishing touches needed to bring a work of art or literature to life. In a discussion, it refers to the final statements used to clinch the argument. "Waiting for Rabbits by a Tree Stump" Based on an ancient folktale about a foolish farmer who sees a rabbit kill itself in front of him by running into a tree stump, then gives up tilling his field to wait for more rabbits by the stump. This saying is applied to people who wait passively for luck to strike again. It also refers to impractical people who stick to one way of doing things only because it has worked for them once in the past. "Pure Water Has No Fish; Perfect People Have No Friends" Many versions of this historical tale exist. The one told here is about a 2nd century AD official sent to govern a far-flung outpost on the Silk Road who is fastidious in applying strict rules and thereby causes the local people to rebel against him. In the professional world, it is used to refer to people who do not like to work with an overly strict supervisor or colleague. Whether being used in a classroom or for self-study, Chinese Stories for Language Learners provides an educational and entertaining way for intermediate Mandarin learners to expand their vocabulary and understanding of the language.
The Journey to the West, Books 1, 2 And 3
Author: Jeff Pepper
Publisher: Imagin8 LLC
ISBN: 9781952601262
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
This book contains the full text, in Traditional Chinese, of the first three books in our Journey to the West series for people learning to read Chinese. The three stories told here - The Rise of the Monkey King, Trouble in Heaven, and The Immortal Peaches - are unchanged from our original versions except for minor editing and reformatting. These three stories all focus on the adventures of Sun Wukong, The Handsome Monkey King, one of the most famous characters in Chinese literature and culture. His legendary bravery, foolish mistakes, sharp-tongued commentary and yearning for immortality and spiritual knowledge have inspired hundreds of books, television shows, graphic novels, video games and films. These books are based on the original epic 2,000 page novel written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng'en. It is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. These stories are written, as much as possible, using the 600 word vocabulary of HSK3. They are presented in Traditional Chinese characters and pinyin, and include an English version and complete glossary. Free audio versions of all books in this series are available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel, and on our website, www.imagin8press.com.
Publisher: Imagin8 LLC
ISBN: 9781952601262
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
This book contains the full text, in Traditional Chinese, of the first three books in our Journey to the West series for people learning to read Chinese. The three stories told here - The Rise of the Monkey King, Trouble in Heaven, and The Immortal Peaches - are unchanged from our original versions except for minor editing and reformatting. These three stories all focus on the adventures of Sun Wukong, The Handsome Monkey King, one of the most famous characters in Chinese literature and culture. His legendary bravery, foolish mistakes, sharp-tongued commentary and yearning for immortality and spiritual knowledge have inspired hundreds of books, television shows, graphic novels, video games and films. These books are based on the original epic 2,000 page novel written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng'en. It is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. These stories are written, as much as possible, using the 600 word vocabulary of HSK3. They are presented in Traditional Chinese characters and pinyin, and include an English version and complete glossary. Free audio versions of all books in this series are available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel, and on our website, www.imagin8press.com.
World Philology
Author: Sheldon Pollock
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674052862
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
Philology—the discipline of making sense of texts—is enjoying a renaissance within academia after decades of neglect. World Philology charts the evolution of philology across the many cultures and historical time periods in which it has been practiced, and demonstrates how this branch of knowledge, like philosophy and mathematics, is an essential component of human understanding. Every civilization has developed ways of interpreting the texts that it produces, and differences of philological practice are as instructive as the similarities. We owe our idea of a textual edition for example, to the third-century BCE scholars of the Alexandrian Library. Rabbinical philology created an innovation in hermeneutics by shifting focus from how the Bible commands to what it commands. Philologists in Song China and Tokugawa Japan produced startling insights into the nature of linguistic signs. In the early modern period, new kinds of philology arose in Europe but also among Indian, Chinese, and Japanese commentators, Persian editors, and Ottoman educationalists who began to interpret texts in ways that had little historical precedent. They made judgments about the integrity and consistency of texts, decided how to create critical editions, and determined what it actually means to read. Covering a wide range of cultures—Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Indo-Persian, Japanese, Ottoman, and modern European—World Philology lays the groundwork for a new scholarly discipline.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674052862
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
Philology—the discipline of making sense of texts—is enjoying a renaissance within academia after decades of neglect. World Philology charts the evolution of philology across the many cultures and historical time periods in which it has been practiced, and demonstrates how this branch of knowledge, like philosophy and mathematics, is an essential component of human understanding. Every civilization has developed ways of interpreting the texts that it produces, and differences of philological practice are as instructive as the similarities. We owe our idea of a textual edition for example, to the third-century BCE scholars of the Alexandrian Library. Rabbinical philology created an innovation in hermeneutics by shifting focus from how the Bible commands to what it commands. Philologists in Song China and Tokugawa Japan produced startling insights into the nature of linguistic signs. In the early modern period, new kinds of philology arose in Europe but also among Indian, Chinese, and Japanese commentators, Persian editors, and Ottoman educationalists who began to interpret texts in ways that had little historical precedent. They made judgments about the integrity and consistency of texts, decided how to create critical editions, and determined what it actually means to read. Covering a wide range of cultures—Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Indo-Persian, Japanese, Ottoman, and modern European—World Philology lays the groundwork for a new scholarly discipline.
Seeing Like a State
Author: James C. Scott
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300252986
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300252986
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University
Linguistic Engineering
Author: Ji Fengyuan
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824844688
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
When Mao and the Chinese Communist Party won power in 1949, they were determined to create new, revolutionary human beings. Their most precise instrument of ideological transformation was a massive program of linguistic engineering. They taught everyone a new political vocabulary, gave old words new meanings, converted traditional terms to revolutionary purposes, suppressed words that expressed "incorrect" thought, and required the whole population to recite slogans, stock phrases, and scripts that gave "correct" linguistic form to "correct" thought. They assumed that constant repetition would cause the revolutionary formulae to penetrate people's minds, engendering revolutionary beliefs and values. In an introductory chapter, Dr. Ji assesses the potential of linguistic engineering by examining research on the relationship between language and thought. In subsequent chapters, she traces the origins of linguistic engineering in China, describes its development during the early years of communist rule, then explores in detail the unprecedented manipulation of language during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976. Along the way, she analyzes the forms of linguistic engineering associated with land reform, class struggle, personal relationships, the Great Leap Forward, Mao-worship, Red Guard activism, revolutionary violence, Public Criticism Meetings, the model revolutionary operas, and foreign language teaching. She also reinterprets Mao’s strategy during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, showing how he manipulated exegetical principles and contexts of judgment to "frame" his alleged opponents. The work concludes with an assessment of the successes and failures of linguistic engineering and an account of how the Chinese Communist Party relaxed its control of language after Mao's death.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824844688
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
When Mao and the Chinese Communist Party won power in 1949, they were determined to create new, revolutionary human beings. Their most precise instrument of ideological transformation was a massive program of linguistic engineering. They taught everyone a new political vocabulary, gave old words new meanings, converted traditional terms to revolutionary purposes, suppressed words that expressed "incorrect" thought, and required the whole population to recite slogans, stock phrases, and scripts that gave "correct" linguistic form to "correct" thought. They assumed that constant repetition would cause the revolutionary formulae to penetrate people's minds, engendering revolutionary beliefs and values. In an introductory chapter, Dr. Ji assesses the potential of linguistic engineering by examining research on the relationship between language and thought. In subsequent chapters, she traces the origins of linguistic engineering in China, describes its development during the early years of communist rule, then explores in detail the unprecedented manipulation of language during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976. Along the way, she analyzes the forms of linguistic engineering associated with land reform, class struggle, personal relationships, the Great Leap Forward, Mao-worship, Red Guard activism, revolutionary violence, Public Criticism Meetings, the model revolutionary operas, and foreign language teaching. She also reinterprets Mao’s strategy during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, showing how he manipulated exegetical principles and contexts of judgment to "frame" his alleged opponents. The work concludes with an assessment of the successes and failures of linguistic engineering and an account of how the Chinese Communist Party relaxed its control of language after Mao's death.