In the seventh century the great T'ang nation was obliged to reconquer the southernmost portion of what had been considered Chinese territory for many centuries, a region today corresponding roughly with northern Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong. The Vermilion Bird attempts to recover the actual character of the monsoon realms of T'ang-a scattering of palisaded garrisons, isolated monasteries, and commercial towns, all surrounded by dark, haunted woods. Professor Schafer examines the thoughts, emotions, imaginations, and daily lives of the men of that era, through the medium of their literature, for evidence of the changes inspired by this new environment, and especially for signs of the transformation of the ancient symbol of the South, the sacred vermilion bird. The Journal of Asian Studies called this book: A work of immense and devoted scholarship, a mine of fascinating information, a delight to read, and an indispensable work of reference on Medieval China.

Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South

Arts & Photography

SCHAFER, Edward H.

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Hainan Island is the southernmost extent of what is now People's Republic of China. Today the island is strategically important for its geographic position and its rich mineral and oil resources, and economically important as a thriving tropical resort. Historically, however, Hainan had been regarded as a backwater by successive Chinese dynasties. In Shore of Pearls the eminent Sinologist Edward Schafer recounts the history and culture of the island, annexed during the reign of Han emperor Wu Di in 111 BC, when Chinese armies defeated its indigenous Li people. Pearl gathering became an important industry, and this treasure island also yielded other luxury goods prized by the Chinese court, including incense, medicinal herbs precious metals, tortoise shell, ivory, and exotic woods. However, the difficulty of colonizing and exploiting Hainan's riches changed its reputation from a treasure island to one of a dank, poisonous land unfit for normal men, and it later became a place of exile for scholars and officials who had offended the court, including the great poet Su Shi, as well as a lair for criminals and pirates. As in Vermilion Bird, Professor Schafer writes precisely and poetically about this fascinating interface between China and the cultures of its southern borders.

Shore of Pearls

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in T'ang Literature

Since the early seventeenth century, Taoism-the native religion of China-has been generally regarded by authorities there as base superstition and potentially subversive. The Taoist poetry of medieval China was consequently ignored by Chinese arbiters of taste and, until recently, most Western scholars and translators have accepted this judgment uncritically; a body of beautiful verse, with analogues in the poetry of Christian mysticism, has remained virtually unknown in our time. This book augments the efforts of a few contemporary Western scholars to recover the meaning and value of this literary heritage. The eminent sinologist Edward H. Shafer translated all the surviving verse of the ninth-century poet Ts'ao T'ang, and to the selections published here has added introductory remarks on the source of the poet's imagery and short essays on his treatment of figures of the Taoist pantheon. Ts'ao Tang has placed these deities and demiurges in a number of unstable or ambiguous settings such as celestial gardens, sparkling palaces on the summits of sacred mountains, and secret places of rendezvous on magic islands in the eastern sea. The poet creates a world of illusions, in which it is difficult to distinguish vestments from rainbows, castles from crags, birds from spirits, sea-waves from sea-mounts-even lords from ladies. These contrived wonders are all metaphors for a world completely inaccessible to our mortal senses.

Mirages on the Sea of Time: The Taoist Poetry of Ts'Ao T'Ang

Poetry

Univ. Of California Pr.

In the seventh century the great T'ang nation was obliged to reconquer the southernmost portion of what had been considered Chinese territory for many centuries, a region today corresponding roughly with northern Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong. The Vermilion Bird attempts to recover the actual character of the monsoon realms of T'ang-a scattering of palisaded garrisons, isolated monasteries, and commercial towns, all surrounded by dark, haunted woods. Professor Schafer examines the thoughts, emotions, imaginations, and daily lives of the men of that era, through the medium of their literature, for evidence of the changes inspired by this new environment, and especially for signs of the transformation of the ancient symbol of the South, the sacred vermilion bird. The Journal of Asian Studies called this book: A work of immense and devoted scholarship, a mine of fascinating information, a delight to read, and an indispensable work of reference on Medieval China.

The Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South

History

Ancient China (Great Ages of Man)

the-editors-of-time-life-books

Time-Life Books, of

Time Life UK

The Golden Peaches Of Samarkand: A Study Of T'ang Exotics

In the seventh century the kingdom of Samarkand sent formal gifts of fancy yellow peaches, large as goose eggs and with a color like gold, to the Chinese court at Ch'ang-an. What kind of fruit these golden peaches really were cannot now be guessed, but they have the glamour of mystery, and they symbolize all the exotic things longed for, and unknown things hoped for, by the people of the T'ang empire.This book examines the exotics imported into China during the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907), and depicts their influence on Chinese life. Into the land during the three centuries of T'ang came the natives of almost every nation of Asia, all bringing exotic wares either as gifts or as goods to be sold. Ivory, rare woods, drugs, diamonds, magicians, dancing girls--the author covers all classes of unusual imports, their places of origin, their lore, their effort on costume, dwellings, diet, and on painting, sculpture, music, and poetry.This book is not a statistical record of commercial imports and medieval trade, but rather a "humanistic essay, however material its subject matter."

The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'Ang Exotics

Literary Licensing, LLC

In the seventh century the kingdom of Samarkand sent formal gifts of fancy yellow peaches, large as goose eggs and with a color like gold, to the Chinese court at Ch'ang-an. What kind of fruit these golden peaches really were cannot now be guessed, but they have the glamour of mystery, and they symbolize all the exotic things longed for, and unknown things hoped for, by the people of the T'ang empire.This book examines the exotics imported into China during the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907), and depicts their influence on Chinese life. Into the land during the three centuries of T'ang came the natives of almost every nation of Asia, all bringing exotic wares either as gifts or as goods to be sold. Ivory, rare woods, drugs, diamonds, magicians, dancing girlsthe author covers all classes of unusual imports, their places of origin, their lore, their effort on costume, dwellings, diet, and on painting, sculpture, music, and poetry.This book is not a statistical record of commercial imports and medieval trade, but rather a "humanistic essay, however material its subject matter."

Literary

Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars

In the author's own words, this work attempts to recreate, for the 20th-century reader, the sky and the apparitions that ornament it as they were conceived, imagined, and reacted to by the men of T'ang-dynasty China-that is, to suggest what the medieval Chinese . . . thought they saw in the night sky, and how they treated those magic lights in their active lives, their private commitments, and their literary fabrications. Inevitably, this enterprise meant the exploration of the borderlands where science, faith, tradition, invention, and fantasy overlap. Armed with the new awareness that this fascinating work provides, we can better understand the great legacy of art and literature of this greatest period of cultural flowering in Chinese history.

Floating World Editions

Although Chinese sources as early as the first millennium B.C. had mentioned stones as objects of value or aesthetic merit, this 12th-century catalogue is the first whole work in Chinese literature devoted to the subject. By this date the appreciation of viewing stones in gardens and in the studios of scholars had ignited a craze, and Du Wan, a stone collector and descendent of the great T'ang poet Tu Fu, recorded his travels in search of interesting specimens and how and why he acquired them. Professor Schafer discusses the Chinese taste in stones, Tu Wan and the history and nature of his catalogue, and the technology and petrology of the 12th century. His synopsis of the Chinese text describes 144 types of stones with translated abstracts of each, material of great interest to modern collectors of scholar's rocks.

Tu Wan's Stone Cat. of Cloudy Forest: A Commentary and Synopsis

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Books by SCHAFER, Edward H.