Title: Changing stories in the Chinese world /
Authors: Elvin, Mark.
Publisher: Stanford University Press,
Year: 1998
Subjects: Chinese literature History and criticism.; Chinese literature History and criticism.; Chinese literature Social aspects.; China Social life and customs.
Abstract: "This book is an innovative attempt to convey something of how it has felt since the early nineteenth century to be Chinese. It is based on the assumption that people live their lives in stories, or as if they themselves were in stories - stories that are largely a social inheritance but are also in some measure self-created or at least continually adapted, edited, or extended."--BOOK JACKET. "The author describes and interprets some of the most important stories through which the Chinese have lived their lives in the last two hundred years and their understanding of them."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: The inner world of the early nineteenth century : Li Ruzhen, The destinies of the flowers in the mirror -- Unseen lives : Zhang Yingchang, The bell of poesy -- The crisis of absurdity : Ping Jinya, Tides in the human sea -- The magic of moral power : Hao Ran, The children of the western sands -- The punishment of Heaven : Sima Zhongyuan, The bastard -- Strangers and sojourners : Yuan Ze'nan, A commonplace fellow.