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Bezig met laden... The divine woman : dragon ladies and rain maidens in T'ang literaturedoor Edward H. Schafer
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This important exploration of Chinese mythology focuses on the diverse and evocative associations between women and water in the literature of the T'ang dynasty as well as in the enormous classical canon it inherited. By extension, it peers from medieval China back into the mists of ancient days, when snake queens, river goddesses, and dragon ladies ruled over the vast seas, great river courses, and heavenly sources of water, deities who had to be placated by shaman intercessors chanting hymns lost even by the T'ang. As with his other notable works, Professor Schafer's meticulous researches into the material culture of the past, coupled with a delightful writing style, allow us to better appreciate the literature of the T'ang by clarifying important contemporaneous symbols of fertility, mutability, and power, including the wondrous and ubiquitous dragon. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)895.11Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Chinese Chinese poetryLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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This is also a go-to volume if you're looking for examples of classical Chinese paintings to illustrate both Tang poetry as well as the above-mentioned water/sexual/gender imagery. Read this while sitting with a laptop or tablet so you can look up all the wonderful visual references mentioned. For this reason, it's a very, very slow read. The annoying use of Wade-Giles made it even slower reading.
However, as Schafer himself notes, there are "endless reiterations of rain-soaked mountainsides, swirling mists, blinding cloudbanks, howling gibbons, and shrieking winds" so you may feel, as I did, the occasional need to skim sections until something catches your eye again. I for one would have appreciated more background on the female shamans who lost ground around the Han to these slimmer waisted ethereal 'rainbow maidens'. Diligent readers, however, will find many interesting nuggets of life during the Tang, for example this one regarding tea during the Tang: "Li Hsien-yng, in an elaborate fantasy based on the gift of a package of tea from a friendly monk, imagined that he saw the greenish hair of the Hsiang Fairy swirling in his bowl as he mixed the powdered tea leaves" (p. 125).
In the conclusion, Schafer states his authorial intention: "to disclose something of the entanglement of myth, religion, symbolism, and romantic imagination in a segment of T'ang literature. It is evident that even the subtlest poem or the smoothest tale confuses myth with history, legend with fact, pious hope with rational belief." Indeed. ( )