Historical Chinese Letter Writing

Letter writing is a pivotal yet neglected medium of historical Chinese communication. The epistolary format is key to sinological research. As historical letters have a specific vocabulary and rhetorical structure it is difficult to read them without the supporting apparatus of specialised study.<br /> The aim of this compendium is to fill the gap in Chinese studies by providing a bilingual Chinese-English edition of a corpus of Chinese letters prepared for advanced students of Classical Chinese as well as academics with an interest in historical Chinese epistolary art. The book has a broad and general introduction systematically constructed vocabulary sections as well as detailed grammatical and philological explanations. <br /><br />It focuses on Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) letter writing a high point of pre-1911 epistolary activity in Chinese and will appeal to Chinese scholars and Sinologists at a broad range of academic levels.<br /><br />The author was awarded with the AcademyAward for Young Outstanding Scholarsby the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for this book.<br />