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.

Edited by leading figures in the fields of early medieval Chinese literature, history, and religion, this is a truly outstanding volume--beautifully conceived and superbly organized, with excellent selections of sources, careful translations. and informative introductions. -- Michael Puett, author of To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China This magisterial volume is of singular importance to the study of early medieval Chinese history, literature, thought, and religion. Written by the Who's Who in a field that has grown exponentially in recent years, this sourcebook presents up-to-date scholarship at the highest level. Wide-ranging in scope, rich in detail, and thoroughly interdisciplinary, it serves as the principal guide to the world of early medieval China and as a wonderful inspiration to students. -- Martin Kern, Princeton University

About the Author
Wendy Swartz is an associate professor of Chinese literature at Rutgers University. She is the author of Reading Tao Yuanming: Shifting Paradigms of Historical Reception (427-1900) and articles on early medieval Chinese poetry and classical literary thought and criticism. Robert Ford Campany is a professor of Asian studies and religion at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China and three other books and numerous articles on the history of Chinese religions and the comparative study of religion. Yang Lu has taught at Princeton University and the University of Kansas and is a professor of Chinese history at Peking University. He specializes in the history of medieval China and of Buddhism. His publications include works on the cultural and political history of the Tang dynasty, Buddhist scholasticism in China, and Chinese historiography. Jessey J. C. Choo is an assistant professor at Rutgers University and specializes in the cultural history of medieval China. She is currently finishing a book-length study on memory, identity, and the transformation of mortuary and commemorative rituals in medieval China.

Reviews
A rich and pathbreaking collection of materials that span the humanistic discipliines, this volume includes key texts that should not be omitted in a sourcebook of this kind as well as many that are available for the first time in English. Its thematic organization encourages new ways of thinking about the period that transcend traditional boundaries. The expert translations and extensive critical matter will make this an indispensable resource on early medieval China. -- Pauline Yu, President, American Council of Learned Societies [An] excellent resource... Highly recommended. CHOICE [A] pioneering handbook. Library Journal


Awards
Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014. Commended for Best Reference Work 2014.



Book Information
ISBN 9780231159876
Author Wendy Swartz
Format Paperback
Page Count 744
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press