The Chinese Pleasure Book - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Chinese Pleasure Book write by Michael Nylan. This book was released on 2021-09-14. The Chinese Pleasure Book available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book takes up one of the most important themes in Chinese thought: the relation of pleasurable activities to bodily health and to the health of the body politic. Unlike Western theories of pleasure, early Chinese writings contrast pleasure not with pain but with insecurity, assuming that it is right and proper to seek and take pleasure, as well as experience short-term delight. Equally important is the belief that certain long-term relational pleasures are more easily sustained, as well as potentially more satisfying and less damaging. The pleasures that become deeper and more ingrained as the person invests time and effort to their cultivation include friendship and music, sharing with others, developing integrity and greater clarity, reading and classical learning, and going home. Each of these activities is explored through the early sources (mainly fourth century BC to the eleventh century AD), with new translations of both well-known and seldom-cited texts.
The Confusions of Pleasure
The Confusions of Pleasure - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Confusions of Pleasure write by Timothy Brook. This book was released on 1998-05-18. The Confusions of Pleasure available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of commercial profits and intense competition for status. The Confusions of Pleasure marks a significant departure from the conventional ways in which Chinese history has been written. Rather than recounting the Ming dynasty in a series of political events and philosophical achievements, it narrates this longue durée in terms of the habits and strains of everyday life. Peppered with stories of real people and their negotiations of a rapidly changing world, this book provides a new way of seeing the Ming dynasty that not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of the period but also provides an entertaining and accessible introduction to Chinese history for anyone.
Pictures for Use and Pleasure
Pictures for Use and Pleasure - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Pictures for Use and Pleasure write by James Cahill. This book was released on 2010. Pictures for Use and Pleasure available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "This is an outstanding piece of work: timely, essential, authoritative, and original. Cahill throws light on obscure artists, emerging styles and regional traditions, unexplored aspects of cultural life, enigmatic iconographies, and questions of authorship and authenticity, leaving the reader richly informed and full of new ideas."--Susan Nelson, Indiana University "Cahill brings the vast body of 'vernacular' painting into the legitimate venue of art historical criticism, giving connoisseurs, viewers, and readers a more capacious and accurate grasp of the world of Chinese pictorial art."--Susan Mann, author of The Talented Women of the Zhang Family
Gardens of Pleasure
Gardens of Pleasure - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Gardens of Pleasure write by Ferdinand M. Bertholet. This book was released on 2003. Gardens of Pleasure available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "Drawing on the largest collection of erotic art in the world, this book initiates the reader into China's intimate "gardens of pleasure." Over one hundred of the most beautiful masterpieces from this golden age - many never before published - reveal the voluptuous secrets of a lost world. An essay by Jaques Pimpaneau traces the development of Chinese eroticism in its cultural context, emphasizing the influence of religions and historical events on sexual practices. Commentaries by Ferdinand Bertholet explain the cultural symbolism of the paintings." "Beautifully ornamented with poems contemporary with the paintings, this is a collector's volume and a tribute to the unknown masters of Chinese erotic art."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Sexuality in China
Sexuality in China - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Sexuality in China write by Howard Chiang. This book was released on 2018-06-15. Sexuality in China available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. What was sex like in China, from imperial times through the post-Mao era? The answer depends, of course, on who was having sex, where they were located in time and place, and what kind of familial, social, and political structures they participated in. This collection offers a variety of perspectives by addressing diverse topics such as polygamy, pornography, free love, eugenics, sexology, crimes of passion, homosexuality, intersexuality, transsexuality, masculine anxiety, sex work, and HIV/AIDS. Following a loose chronological sequence, the chapters examine revealing historical moments in which human desire and power dynamics came into play. Collectively, the contributors undertake a necessary historiographic intervention by reconsidering Western categorizations and exploring Chinese understandings of sexuality and erotic orientation.
