Early medieval China: a sourcebook

"This innovative sourcebook builds a dynamic understanding of China's early medieval period (220–589) through an original selection and arrangement of literary, historical, religious, and critical texts. A tumultuous and formative era, these centuries saw the longest stretch of political fragmentation in China's imperial history, resulting in new ethnic configurations, the rise of powerful clans, and a pervasive divide between north and south. Deploying thematic categories, the editors sketch the period in a novel way for students and, by featuring many texts translated into English for the first time, recast the era for specialists. Thematic topics include regional definitions and tensions, governing mechanisms and social reality, ideas of self and other, relations with the unseen world, everyday life, and cultural concepts. Within each section, the editors and translators introduce the selected texts and provide critical commentary on their historical significance, along with suggestions for further reading and research."--Provided by publisher.

Return to the north?: the debate on moving the capital back to Luoyang / Jessey J.C. Choo -- The disputation at Pengcheng: accounts from the Wei Shu and the Song Shu / Albert E. Dien -- Between imitation and mockery: the southern treatments of northern cultures / Jessey J.C. Choo -- Literary imagination of the north and south / Ping Wang -- Managing locality in early medieval China: evidence from Changsha / Yang Lu -- Classical scholarship in the Shu region: the case of Qiao Zhou / J. Michael Farmer -- Ranking men and assessing talent: Xiahou Xuan's response to an inquiry by Sima Yi / Timothy M. Davis -- On land and wealth: Liu Zishang's "petition on closing off mountains and lakes" and Yang Xi's "discussion on abolishing old regulations regarding mountains and marshes" / Charles Holcombe -- Crime and punishment: the case of Liu Hui in the Wei Shu / Jen-der Lee -- Marriage and social status: Shen Yue's "Impeaching Wang Yuan" / David R. Knechtges -- Religion and society on the Silk Road: the inscriptional evidence from Turfan / Huaiyu Chen -- The art of discourse: Xi Kang's "Sound is without sadness or joy" / Robert Ashmore -- Poetry on the mysterious: the writings of Sun Chuo / Pa…