[Download] "The Twilight of the Masters: Masters Literature (Zishu) in Early Medieval China (Critical Essay)" by The Journal of the American Oriental Society " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: The Twilight of the Masters: Masters Literature (Zishu) in Early Medieval China (Critical Essay)
- Author : The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Release Date : January 01, 2006
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 260 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION In the early period of Chinese history, the notion of authorship is closely tied to the notion of sagehood. It is not that being a sage necessarily entails creating and writing (zuo [NON ASCII]), but rather that one must be a sage to create and write. In his paper "The Temptations of Sage-hood, or: The Rise and Decline of Sagely Writing in Early China," Michael Puett makes a compelling case arguing that over the course of the second century, with the spread of paper and increasing commonality of writing, the claim to sagehood no longer served as a basis for textual authority. (1) As a result of the technological advance and shifts in the cultural paradigm of writing and sagehood, writing of all kinds was produced in increasing quantity, but in this essay I shall focus on one particular type of writing known as "Masters' Works" or "Masters Literature," zishu.