Birds and Beasts in Chinese Texts and Trade
Lectures Related to South China and the Overseas World
by Roderich Ptak
Paperback (Published)
(May 2011)
ISBN: 9783447064491
6.65 x 9.45 inches
Price: $55.00
Out of stock
With this volume, Roderich Ptak tries to build bridges between China’s South and the overseas world, between the real and the imagined, and philological and other dimensions. The book comprises six studies (based on different lectures ) which deal with animals in traditional Chinese texts from pre-Han times to the Qing period. The animals mentioned can be related to trade, daily life, literature, etc. with a regional focus on South China and the maritime world. The birds and beasts are instrumentalized for various purposes and in various ways occasionally appearing as exotic creatures, but their zoological identification remains difficult. The first paper comments on animal terms in the Confucian Classics; among other things it addresses the issue of “literary” versus “real” species. The following three contributions look at late medieval and early modern themes: methodological questions surrounding the maritime trade in animals; references to camels in ethnographic and other accounts carrying data on Africa and the Near East; and the shipment of horses from Hainan to the Chinese mainland. The fifth essay investigates the bird names listed in “Aomen jilue”, a Qing gazetteer on Macau. Some of the descriptions associated with these birds go back to Jesuit records. Jesuit works including the famous Ricci map form the theme of the last study which discusses how animals were presented in these sources.
- By (author) Roderich Ptak
Other Titles in this Series
The Portuguese in Sri Lanka and South India
Studies in the History of Diplomacy, Empire and Trade, 1500-1650
Volume 25
Revisiting Hormuz
Portuguese Interactions in the Persian Gulf Region in the Early Modern Period
Volume 19
Soqotra
Geschichte einer christlichen Insel im Indischen Ozean vom Altertum bis zur fruhen Neuzeit
Volume 17
Wilde Schönheiten
Ein Beitrag zur Motivgeschichte der Perlen in der chinesischen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Song-Zeit
Volume 31
The Earliest Extant Bird List of Hainan
An Annotated Translation of the Avian Section in Qiongtai zhi
Volume 28
On Feathers and Furs
The Animal Section in Duan Chengshi's Youyang zazu (ca. 853). An annotated translation
Volume 30
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