Qian Qianyi's reflections on Yellow Mountain
Subtitle: traces of a late-Ming hatchet and chisel
By: Stephen McDowall
Contributors: Qian, Qianyi, 1582-1664
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press; Eurospan [distributor]
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Hong Kong; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9789622090842
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Description and travel
Other titles: Account of my travels at Yellow Mountain.
Description: Qian Qianyi's Reflections on Yellow Mountain is a close examination of travel writing in seventeenth-century China, presenting an innovative reading of the youji genre. Taking the 'Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain' by the noted poet, official and literary historian Qian Qianyi (1582-1664) as his focus, Stephen McDowall departs from traditional readings of youji, by reading the landscape of Qian's essay as the product of a complex representational tradition, rather than as an empirically verifiable space. Drawing from a broad range of materials including personal anecdotes, traditional cosmographical sources, gazetteers, Daoist classics, paintings and woodblock prints, this book explores the fascinating world of late-Ming Jiangnan, highlighting the extent to which this one scholar's depiction of Yellow Mountain is informed, not so much by first-hand observation, as by the layers of meaning left by generations of travelers before him. McDowall includes the first complete English-language translation of Qian Qianyi's account, and presents the first full-length critical study to appear in any language. The ideas explored here make this book essential reading for scholars and students of late imperial Chinese history and literature, and also offer thought-provoking new insights for anyone interested in travel writing, human geography, the sociology of tourism, and visual culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [194]-213) and index.

In English and Chinese, includes English translations of Chinese names and text.
Table of contents: title: Pt I. : -- 1.; title: Of trivial things :; title: writing the self in late-Ming literary culture -- -- 2.; title: Landscape of brush and ink :; title: Literary tradition at Yellow Mountain -- -- 3.; title: Hills and waterways :; title: Yellow Mountain in Seventeenth-Century visual culture -- -- 4.; title: Traces of hatchet and chisel :; title: Qian Qianyi's Reflections on Yellow Mountain -- -- Part II. : -- 5.; title: "Account of my travels at Yellow Mountain" / Qian Qianyi (1582-1664).