Paolo Santangelo

Donatella Guida

This volume aims at starting a debate on functions, role and relevance of states of mind in Chinese History and civilization. It focuses on an anthropological aspect of human experience, the affective world, as it is represented and evaluated in the various sources. A number of well-known specialists, ranging from the philosophical basic concepts to some fundamental questions about terminology, analyze literary, historical and judicial materials: this collection of essays presents different opinions, experiences and perspectives on the understanding of emotional and mental states in Chinese civilization, as well as about the difficulties met on the topic. A fascinating and useful reading for all those who are interested in humanities and in the history of mentality.

Questions and Themes on Emotions in Chinese Civilization

Love, Hatred, and Other Passions

"This study questions the common premise that individualism was lacking in premodern China and contends that not only was the concept of the individual important in traditional China, but that it existed in interesting ways that are different from modes of individualism in the West. Key terms such as xing ("human nature"), xin ("heart-mind"), and ji ("self") are used to analyze various texts. In addition to weaving together ideas from history, philosophy, art, and literature, especially the literary dimensions of late imperial history (both classical and vernacular), this study also incorporates Western intellectual tradition, including the ideas of thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and the Romantics. This inquiry into the moral philosophy and ethics of the self-seen in both its public and private dimensions in late imperial China is an important resource for scholars and students in many subfields of Chinese studies, such as history, intellectual history, art history, history of literature, and history of religion."--

Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China

Ulrike Middendorf

Just like the self, sensations and emotions expressed in literature are elusive issues. Necessarily separated from living reality and yet, in a sense, a mirror of it, linguistic coding of bodily feeling and emotional feeling became subject of avid interest among scholars of historical emotion research and the history of mentality in intra- and intercultural perspectives. This volume combines eleven essays with critical discussions concerning the bidirectional network of sense perception and emotion. Exploring the theme from different angles - psychological, medical, and literary - From Skin to Heart highlights the intimate interrelationship between bodily sensations, states of mind, and the emotions from pain, illness, and self-destruction to love-sickness and self-sacrifice in early Chinese poetry and ethics and late imperial lyrics and narrative. The partly descriptive, partly analytical essays are contributions of a new wave of Continental and American sinology that, inspired by cultural studies, discourse analysis, and rhetorical analysis, offers fresh views on body and psyche as locked into and emerging from Chinese primary sources. An appendix provides additional examples of the rich linguistic material referring to phenomena of sense perception and the affective sphere and their interdependence.

Perceptions of Emotions and Bodily Sensations in Traditional Chinese Culture

From Skin to Heart

A pionering inquiry on the role, perception and representation of emotional sphere in traditional Chinese culture provides a fascinating contribution on a key anthropological problem, in order to understand not only pre-modern private history, but also contemporary Chinese society. The importance of this work goes beyond Chinese studies.

An Interdisciplinary Textual Research on Ming and Qing Sources

Sentimental Education in Chinese History

Yasushi OKI

Mountain Songs is a collection of folk songs edited by the famous writer Feng Menglong (1574-1646). By this innovative work - mainly written in the Suzhou dialect - he aimed to revitalize poetry through the power of popular songs. This collection is very significant to the understanding of the characters of the mobile society of Jiangnan and the vitality of its intellectual world. The songs deal with the lives of common people: women, often prostitutes, boatmen, peasants, hunters, fishers and paddlers. Their spirit is far from the orthodox moral intents that Zhu Xi advocated for interpreting the Shijing, and their language is often vulgar and full of crude expressions or salacious double meanings and contains allusions to sexual and erotic behaviour.

Love Songs in Ming China

Shan'ge, the 'Mountain Songs'

Le manifatture tessili imperiali durante le dinastie Ming e Qing con particolare attenzione a quelle di Suzhou

Gábor Boros

The Culture of Love in China and Europe offers a cautiously comparative survey of the cults of love developed in the history of ideas and literary production in China and Europe between the 12th and early 19th century.

The Culture of Love in China and Europe

Although the preface says that the tales in this collection of supernatural stories should not be taken seriously and just aim to dispel boredom, Zibuyu is a work with different reading levels, which allows to uncover several deep trends, taboos and fantasies of late imperial intellectual circles. Disgust, surprise and laughter are constantly evoked, by continually attracting and repulsing the reader. Santangelo and Yan have introduced, translated and commented upon the collection.

Zibuyu, “What The Master Would Not Discuss”, according to Yuan Mei (1716 - 1798): A Collection of Supernatural Stories (2 vols)

Storia del pensiero cinese

How was the concept of 'personality' perceived in (late-imperial) China? Re-constructing the main features describing the individual, and firmly based on a variety of sources, this volume is a reflection on personality and its attributes in China.

Materials for an Anatomy of Personality in Late Imperial China

un esame di alcuni testi Ming e Qing

I desideri nella letteratura cinese

Dalle tecniche meditative più complesse alle pratiche sciamaniche popolariIl pensiero cinese, dai sistemi filosofici e morali dell'antichità alle elaborazioni religiose del Medioevo, dalle tecniche meditative più sofisticate alle pratiche sciamaniche popolari, costituisce un patrimonio estremamente ricco e originale nel complesso della storia del pensiero mondiale. Con il declino dell'ideologia marxista nella forma quasi religiosa maoista e in quella pragmatica di Deng Xiaoping stanno emergendo oggi in Cina molte correnti di pensiero represse negli ultimi decenni, alcune relative all'arte di governare, altre allo sviluppo della libertà interiore. Santangelo ci introduce con chiarezza e semplicità alla storia di questo pensiero e di questi sistemi interessanti per il lettore occidentale in quanto differiscono notevolmente dai presupposti della nostra tradizione.Paolo Santangeloprofessore ordinario di Storia della Cina presso l'Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli è autore, tra l'altro, di Confucio e le scuole confuciane. La via della saggezza, Newton Compton, 1986.

Paolo Santangelo

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