Reform in the balance : the defense of literary culture in mid-Tang China / / Anthony DeBlasi

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910954577803321
• Autore: DeBlasi Anthony
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Albany, : State University of New York Press, c2002
• ISBN: 9780791488331; 0791488330
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (viii, 214 pages)
• Collana: SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture
• Disciplina: 895.1/09003
• Soggetti: Chinese literature - Tang dynasty, 618-907 - History and criticism; Intellectuals - China
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-205) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: ""Reform in the Balance: The Defense of Literary Culture in Mid-Tang China""; ""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Prelude: The Changing World in Eighth-Century China""; ""Intellectual Culture in the Mid-Tang Mainstream""; ""Defining the Mid-Tang Mainstream""; ""Politics and Social Change in the Mid-Tang""; ""The Confucian Revival""; ""The Plan of This Study""; ""1. The Literary Response to the Mid-Tang Crisis""; ""Literary Decline and the Roots of Disorder""; ""The Continuing Promise of Literary Pursuits""; ""The Nature of the Literary Man""; ""Completeness and Balance in Mainstream Thought""; ""The Evolution of the Literary Mainstream"" ""Conclusion""; ""2. Literary Education in the Mid-Tang Mainstream""; ""Educational Assumptions in Medieval China""; ""Mid-Tang Literary Learning and the Tradition""; ""The Guiding Tradition""; ""Alternate Visions""; ""Conclusion""; ""3. Literary Politics in the Mid-Tang""; ""The Elements of Mainstream Political Thought""; ""Bai Juyi and His Celin""; ""Liu Yuxi's Accommodative Politcal Philosophy""; ""Conclusion""; ""4. Moral Choices in the Literary Mainstream""; ""Literature and the Self""; ""Models for Moral Man""; ""Desire and Morality in Quan Deyu's Thought"" ""A Remedy for Desires""; ""Conclusion""; ""5. The Guwen Alternative""; ""Guwen Literary Theory""; ""Guwen Approaches to Learning""; ""The Basis of Morality in Guwen Ideology""; ""The Politics of Individual Responsibility""; ; ""Conclusion""; ""Final Considerations""; ""The Vitality of Tang Literary Conservatism""; ""The Legacy of the Mainstream""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index ""
• Sommario/riassunto: Anthony DeBlasi offers a remapping of China's intellectual landscape during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Recreating a world of intense philosophical debate, influenced by political uncertainty and social disorder, he reveals the logic behind the period's most popular philosophical positions.Reform in the Balance casts aside traditional evaluations of the predominance of the Ancient Style Movement (guwen) during this era. Building on recent scholarship and his own reading of Tang sources, the author argues that the period's dominant intellectual position advocated moderately conservative cultural reform designed to defend literary pursuits and the broader cultural tradition from more strident critics.