| Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge: Two Memoirs about Courtesans Contributor(s): Li, Wai-Yee (Translator), Mao, Xiang (Author), Yu, Huai (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231186851 ISBN-13: 9780231186858 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $19.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Collections | Asian - Chinese - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs - Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes - Women |
| Dewey: 306.740 |
| LCCN: 2019023901 |
| Series: Translations from the Asian Classics |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (0.95 lbs) 368 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Chinese - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Amid the turmoil of the Ming-Qing dynastic transition in seventeenth-century China, some intellectuals sought refuge in romantic memories from what they perceived as cataclysmic events. This volume presents two memoirs by famous men of letters, Reminiscences of the Plum Shadows Convent by Mao Xiang (1611-93) and Miscellaneous Records of Plank Bridge by Yu Huai (1616-96), that recall times spent with courtesans. They evoke the courtesan world in the final decades of the Ming dynasty and the aftermath of its collapse. Mao Xiang chronicles his relationship with the courtesan Dong Bai, who became his concubine two years before the Ming dynasty fell. His mournful remembrance of their life together, written shortly after her early death, includes harrowing descriptions of their wartime sufferings as well as idyllic depictions of romantic bliss. Yu Huai offers a group portrait of Nanjing courtesans, mixing personal memories with reported anecdotes. Writing fifty years after the fall of the Ming, he expresses a deep nostalgia for courtesan culture that bears the toll of individual loss and national calamity. Together, they shed light on the sensibilities of late Ming intellectuals: their recollections of refined pleasures and ruminations on the vagaries of memory coexist with political engagement and a belief in bearing witness. With an introduction and extensive annotations, Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge is a valuable source for the literature of remembrance, the representation of women, and the social role of intellectuals during a tumultuous period in Chinese history. |
Contributor Bio(s): Li, Wai-Yee: - Wai-yee Li is professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. She is the author of Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature (Harvard University Asia Center, 2014) and The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography (Harvard University Asia Center, 2007). |